HP Spectre x360 15 (Kaby Lake-R) review: A solid 4K 2-in-1 overshadowed by its beefier sibling - mcgrewplacre77

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Wholesome, stalwart construction
Spacious keyboard with dedicated numeric keypad
Pregnant battery life
Separate GeForce MX150 graphics

Cons

Comparatively thick and heavy
Middling 8th-contemporaries performance
Thoroughly outperformed by its Kaby Lake-G sibling

Our Verdict

The 2-in-1 HP Spectre x360 15 gets a receive 8th-generation performance demote, a 4K video display, a commodious keyboard and awing battery life, bushed a sturdy if somewhat hefty and pricey software packag. That said, we can't facilitate but roam an envious eye toward the Kaby Lake-G version of the Spectre, which beatniks this Kaby Lake-R mannequin in just about every department, whol for just $120 more.

Aimed square at "prosumer" graphics users who need creative horsepower happening the road, the HP Spectre x360 15 gets a receive 8th-genesis performance dislodge, a 4K display, a roomy keyboard and awful battery life, all in a sturdy, if somewhat hefty and pricey package. That said, we can't help but plaster cast an envious eye toward the Kaby Lake-G variation of the Spectre, which beatniks this Kaby Lake-R model in just about every section, all for only $120 more.

Price & specifications

We tested the higher-end of the ii Kaby Lake-R versions of the Horsepower Phantom x360 15, which boasts an 8th-generation, quad-core Intel Pith i7-8550U processor (Kaby Lake-R), a 15.6-inch 4K UHD touchscreen, a 512GB solid drive, 16GB of DDR4 Random memory, and a separate Nvidia MX150 art core. It's available for $1,600 from HP, but we found information technology on Amazon for $1,495 at presstime. You sack skin down the price track by a couple of hundred bucks by opting for the lower-end model with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

On the strange goal of the spectrum is a $1,720 version (reviewed here) that marks one of the first laptops with Intel's Kaby Lake-G processor, complete with eye-popping Radeon RX M graphics. As we'll soon regard, the Kaby Lake-G smell of the Spectre x360 15 boasts desirable performance gains across the board ended its Kaby Lake-R sibling, at the toll of some battery life, a couple extra ounces, and about $120.

Design

At about 0.77 inches thick and tipping the scales at a hefty 4.5 pounds, this new HP Spectre x360 15 is slightly thicker and heavier than its predecessor, although it's about 2.5 ounces lighter than its Kaby Lake-G counterpart. Sky in the AC adapter, and you'll be carting more or less a five-pound, six-ounce package.

Hefty though it is, the H.P. Spectre x360 15's silken aluminum chassis feels hardy and well built, complete with chiseled edges in back and unanimous, fuzz-tinged hinges. This being a transmutable-expressive style laptop, the Spectre's 15-inch, Corning Glass-protected display swivels a full 360 degrees, allowing you to tilt the screen back and sit it keyboard-down in kiosk manner, encamp it in a 'V' shape, or flip the display all the way back for tab use.

Display

The HP Shade x360 15's oversized, relatively glistening 4K reveal marks one of the laptop computer's high points. Measuring 319 nits (or calendas), the Spectre's screen looks sharp and brilliant, well above our minimal standard for comfortable indoor reading. Then again, the presentation pales a trifle compared to the 500 nit-plus screens we've seen on other 4K laptops.

Screening angles happening the Apparition x360 15's IPS display panel were fantabulous, with the screen barely dimming even when viewed from distant angles. The display itself is protected by Corning Gorilla gorilla Ice 4, fashioning it hempen to scar but also prone to glare.

I had nary upset tapping and swiping the Specte's touch-enabled display, and the homophonic goes for scribbling doodles with the enclosed AAAA-battery-powered H.P. Digital Pen. For an extra $89, you can trade up for an HP Tilt Pen, which lets you suck in from an angle for greater sketching and shading preciseness.

Keyboard and trackpad

The HP Spectre x360 15's keyboard feels enjoyably snappy and clicky, with impressive move back on the flat, chiclet-style keys and good deal of way, making for easy discovery. That's no small effort, given that this latest version of the Phantom x360 15 squeezes in a 10-Key numeric keypad. Luckily, the Apparition 15's keyboard manages to spirit roomy despite the additional keys.

The keyboard boasts hotkeys for such typical functions as silver screen brightness, mass and media playback controls, aeroplane mode, and help—non bad, although a settings hotkey would have been nice, too. I was also a tad disappointed aside the keyboard backlighting toggle, which lacks varying degrees of brightness.

Because of the dedicated numeric computer keyboard on the right side of the keyboard, HP shifted the Spectre's smallish trackpad to the left, leaving it centered beneath the main keys. We've seen this variety of offset trackpad placement in front on laptops with consecrate numeric keypads, and it feels perfectly natural here.

Speakers, webcam & security

The HP Spectre 15 x360 comes with top-liberation speakers courtesy of Bang & Olufsen, which look great in theory only sound high-pitched in practice. Enabling the "Bang & Olufsen Experience" setting cranks up the volume to impressively loud levels, but fails to add any warmth or bass. Then-thus full laptop computer speakers aren't anything new, of course of instruction, but I was expecting much given the Bang & Olufsen branding.

The Spectre's 1080p HD webcam is embedded in the top bezel of the screen. It produces operational, if somewhat noisy images, finely for Skype but non for a good deal else. A lot better is the accompanying IR camera, which I used throughout my examination for unlocking my Windows profile via Windows Hullo.

Besides the IR camera, the Spectre also comes with a fingerprint reader that sits on the right edge of the laptop, handy for unlocking the laptop computer when it's tented or sitting keyboard-down.

Ports

The HP Spectre x360 serves up a mixture of ports, start on the left with a single USB 3.1 Type A port, a barrel-shaped port for a standard AC charger, a combo audio jack and an SD card reader. The Wraith's power button sits between the charging port and a three-edge air give vent.

On the true pull, you get a one-person Thunderclap 3 port wine (which you can use to charge the Spectre, if you wish), a criterion USB 3.1 Type C port, and a full HDMI port. Also on the right side: a loudness rocker and the aforesaid fingermark reader.

hp spectre x360 15 kaby lake r right ports — The HP Spectre x360 15 (Kaby Lake-R)'s right side includes a loudness rocker, a fingermark reader, a USB 3.1 Case C port, a Bolt 3 left, and a full HDMI port.

While we'atomic number 75 fans of Thunderbolt 3 and we're pleased that HP didn't skimp over on the SD card reader, a second gear Thunderbolt 3 port would have been nice—and indeed, you'll get one if you opt for the pricier Kaby Lake-G version of the Spectre 15. We also wouldn't experience apt a second USB 3.1 Typecast A port connected the other side of the laptop.

Next: Construe what the benchmarks about the Kaby Lake-R version vs. Kaby Lake-G.

Performance

While this 8th-genesis Kaby Lake-R version of the HP Spectre x360 15 unsurprisingly outdoes the carrying out of its predecessor, its benchmark results look up a tad lackluster compared to its 8th-gen competitors, and (mostly) information technology's trounced by the Kaby Lake-G version. That same, the Kaby Lake-R Spectre x360 15 does have its moments, particularly when it comes to battery life.

PCMark 8 Work Traditional

The PCMark 8 benchmark tests how a laptop handles regular computing chores, everything from web browsing and online shopping to video conferencing and tinkering with spreadsheets. In our go through, the latest crop of quad-core Kaby Lake-R laptops have breezed through PCMark 8 without breaking a perspiration.

hp spectre x360 15 kbr pcmark 8 work conventional — The HP Spectre x360 15's PCMark 8 score is beautiful swell, but we were hoping for better.

Every bit expected, the quad-core HP Spectre x360 15 easily surpassed our low-water mark of 2,000, but we were a bit disappointed that information technology couldn't crack a PCMark 8 score of 3,000 or finer, specially bestowed the Spectre's Pith i7-8550U Central processor.

To exist fair, you don't take a blazingly fast processor to run Federal agency smoothly; indeed, symmetric dual-core laptops can snag high PCMark 8 scores. It's also of the essence to take benchmark scores in context, American Samoa we'll see momently with the Spectre's not-so-shabby single-train of thought Cinebench result. Silent, information technology appears the Kaby Lake-R flavor of the Spectre 15 prefers to stroll kind of than sprint when it's non doing anything too intense.

HandBrake

Public speaking of cold, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba's move on to our HandBrake benchmark, which measures a laptop's performance as information technology encodes a large video file. Because this prove can start to 90 minutes or more, Handbrake gives us a good idea how a laptop handles the pressure—and the heat—of a crushing CPU load over a relatively pole-handled period of time.

The HP Phantasma x360 15's result, while decent, brings up the rear in a plurality of fellow musculus quadriceps femoris-core 8th-generation systems, and falls well tooshie the speedier Kaby Lake-G role model of the Fantasm x360 15. That aforementioned, this yr's quad-Congress of Racial Equality Spectre x360 15 surely blows away the HandBrake score of its dual-effect predecessor.

It's worth noting that while other competing laptops right away gun their engines and spin up their cooling fans at the start out of the HandBrake test, the Spectre x360 15 keeps its cool, with its clock speed hovering at a relatively mellow 2.25GHz and its fans quiet until about five proceedings into the try.

Cinebench

Incoming up is a another CPU-modifier essa, this time involving rendering a 3D image within the span of about five proceedings or so. While HandBrake tells America how a laptop deals with lengthy Processor loads, Cinebench is more some short bursts of stress.

Formerly again, the Kaby Lake Refresh variation of the HP Ghost x360 15 comes in a little shy of expectations, notching a multi-thread score of 534 when we'd prefer to see something more in the 600 range. While this new musculus quadriceps femoris-core Spectre x360 15 easily outpaces its dual-nitty-gritty 7th-generation predecessor, it struggles to keep abreast with its 8th-gen contender, while its Kaby Lake-G sib (again) beats it handily.

Connected a reasonably brighter note, the Apparition x360 15's single-thread Cinebench grade of 167 is pretty jelled, to a lesser degree 10 points shy of its Kaby Lake-G brethren and somewhat higher than other past 8th-generation laptops we've tested. That bodes well for the Spectre's performance when exploitation everyday single-threaded applications, and it stands somewhat in direct contrast to the Spectre's thus-so PCMark 8 score.

3DMark 8 Sky Diver

The HP Spectre x360 15 and its separate Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics core finally gets to gleam in our 3DMark Sky Diver benchmark, sailing knightly competing laptops that depend solely on joint graphics. Unsurprisingly, the Kaby Lake-G version of the Spectre 15 sprinted past the Kaby Lake-R model thanks to its more than powerful Radeon RX M graphics marrow.

hp spectre x360 15 kbr 3dmark skydiver overall — The Kaby Lake-R interpretation of the HP Spectre x360 15 snags a solid Toss Diver score thanks to its discrete GeForce MX150 graphics essence.

While the Kaby Lake-R Spectre x360 15's Toss Diver score looks impressive compared to those of umpteen of its 8th-generation counterparts (equivalent the other than peppy Lenovo Yoga 920), keep in listen that you're not going to wring stellar gambling performance out of the laptop's GeForce MX150 graphics core. When I played the graphically modest Fortnite at spiritualist settings, for example, frame rates regularly sank below 60 frames per second.

Then once more, no one's claiming that the Kaby Lake-R-powered Phantasma x360 15 is a play simple machine. Its users are more likely to fire raised Adobe Photoshop and Premiere rather than Field 1 or Grand larceny Auto V.

Battery life

The one area in which the Kaby Lake-R HP Spectre x360 15 manages to margin out its beefier Kaby Lake-G sibling is shelling life. In our battery drainage test (in which we loop a 4K video, with screen luminance set to about 250 nits and the intensity dialed halfway leading), the KBL-R Spectre 15 managed nearly 11 hours of electric battery animation, versus a little more than 9.5 hours of battery for the KBL-G version.

Indeed, the HP Spectre x360 15's assault and battery life-time bests all the systems in our comparison—peradventure non too unexpected, tending the Spectre's roomy (and heavy) 82-watt-hour assault and battery.

Conclusion

Laptop shoppers eyeing the 8th-generation HP Spectre x360 15 must face a leathery choice: a Kaby Lake-R 4K convertible laptop computer with pretty good performance and excellent battery lifetime, or a slenderly heavier and pricier Kaby Lake-G version with unpleasant performance and marginally worse battery life. If you're on a choky budget and you put on't want bone-rattling rush along, the Kaby Lake-R Spectre 15 makes for a homogenous 4K exchangeable. Just if you've got an extra $120 to burning and you don't intellect making modest sacrifices in weight and battery life, the beefier Kaby Lake-G model looks like the better value.

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Ben has been writing about engineering and consumer electronics for more 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he covers smart speakers, soundbars, and other smart and home-theater devices.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/401993/hp-spectre-x360-15-kaby-lake-r-review.html

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