Tested: HP Specter x360 2-in-1 | Warning, heavyweight

If we forget its abnormally high weight, the HP Specter x360 stands out as one of the most complete two-in-one laptops, at an attractive price.

Karim Benessaieh
The Press

WE love

As its interminable name suggests, the HP Specter x360 2-in-1 14-ef0008ca laptop is a two-in-one device, a tablet capable of transforming into a complete computer with keyboard. The concept is known, Samsung, Acer, Microsoft and Dell have notably exploited it. Completely folded, it becomes a Windows tablet with touchscreen compatible with the included stylus. Inverted V, it offers support for its 13.5-inch screen for viewing videos. But forget the videoconferences in this configuration, its front camera of 5 MP then being at the bottom of the screen.

What strikes from the outset when comparing the HP Specter x360 to its competitors is the generosity of the specifications for a substantially equivalent price. Here, for the model we tested at $1799.99, we have an Intel Core i5 processor of 12^e generation, with a 1TB SSD hard drive and 16GB of RAM.

The hard disk reaches a maximum speed never obtained in our tests with the Flashbench software, that is to say 3609 MB/s in writing and 3800 MB/s in reading. To give a point of comparison, our reigning champion so far was the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360, which achieved speeds of 2485MB/s and 1705MB/s.

As for the capacities of its 10-core processor, they perform honorable in our Geekbench 5 benchmark tests, in the good average without being dominant.

Its Iris Xe graphics card is not capable, without great surprise, of running large video games or demanding video editing. For everyday work, managing photos and videos, on the other hand, it offers sufficient power, without cuts.

On the connectivity side, there is a USB-A port and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. There is also a microSD card reader and a combined headphone-microphone socket.

Battery life of 66 Wh is well above average, with video player capacity easily reaching 20 hours. It’s more than enough to last a whole day’s work, with a quick charge function that gives it back 50% of its juice in 45 minutes.

For unlocking, we have facial recognition, too rare in laptops that are not from Microsoft, and a fingerprint reader located at the bottom of the keyboard.

The 1920 x 1280 screen doesn’t have the hallmark sparkle of OLED screens, but it looks good, with 400 nits of brightness and very discreet bezels. Let’s mention here one of HP’s thoughtful little additions: you can place a luminous circle in the center of the screen, in the color of your choice, which will illuminate your face during a videoconference.

Finally, the hull is made of polymer with the appearance of aluminum, which gives a beautiful look to this machine.

We love less

Duly weighed, the HP Specter x360 is 1.4 kg, 400 g more than its competitor from Samsung. Too heavy for regular use as a tablet.

As we emphasize each time for this concept, the usefulness of a Windows tablet, an operating system less suited to this use than Android and iPadOS, does not seem convincing to us.

When you have quadraphonic Bang & Olufsen speakers, you expect to be impressed. However, our HP Specter x360 sounds worse than a MacBook Air, and is no match for our monitor’s external speakers.

One buys ?

The key here is being willing to pay a few hundred dollars more for a touchscreen with stylus, built into a laptop that converts into a tablet. If this use is part of your needs, as you walk around with your laptop, the HP Specter x360 2-in-1 14-ef0008ca has respectable technical specifications that make it a good buy.

No need to go in this direction if you are only looking for a computer at home or on your desk, there are models that are much less expensive and just as well equipped.