A new member is joining our favorite fleet of 2-in-1 laptops. HP unveiled today the Spectre x360 14, a 13.5-inch laptop powered by Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake processors. It will live alongside an updated Spectre x360 13 and the Spectre x360 15, two of the best 2-in-1 laptops on the market. This 13.5-inch model differs from those in several ways, bringing to the Spectre line a suite of modern features.
Among those is a 3:2 aspect ratio display surrounded by minimal bezels for a screen-to-body ratio of 90%. By reducing the bezels, HP was able to fit a 13.5-inch display in a footprint that's not much larger than other 13-inch laptops on the market today. Best of all, the Spectre x360 14 takes design cues from the stunning 13-inch and 15-inch models, flaunting diamond-cut edges and chamfered corners. Combine good looks in a compact chassis with an optional OLED display and 11th Gen Intel Core CPUs, and the Spectre x360 14 could be the 2-in-1 laptop to beat.
- Best 2-in-1 laptops in 2020
- Best college laptops in 2020: Best laptops for students
- Best HP Laptops in 2020
Spectre x360 14 price and release date
HP will launch the Spectre x360 14 and Spectre x360 13 in October on HP.com, both at a starting price of $1,199. They will be available at Best Buy in November.
Spectre x360 14 design
HP's Spectre laptops are some of the most attractive laptops in the industry. The Spectre x360 14 retains the best qualities of its relatives with gem-cut edges and chamfered corners on a slim and sleek aluminum chassis.
HP will offer the Spectre x360 14 in Nightfall Black with Copper Luxe accents, Poseidon Blue with Pale Brass accents and natural silver.
This 14-inch model has slightly different dimensions than its peers due to the 3:2 aspect ratio display. Regardless, the minimal bezels, which result in a 90% screen-to-body ratio, make this one of the most compact 14-inch laptops on the market, at 11.8 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches and 3 pounds.
The keyboard is also worth mentioning as it features privacy, security and multimedia hotkeys on the top row so you can quickly mute yourself during a conference call.
Spectre x360 14 ports
HP does a good job of outfitting its laptops with a mix of modern and legacy ports. On the Spectre x360 14, you get two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB Type-A input, a microSD card slot and a headphone/mic jack.
Spectre x360 14 display
HP offers the Spectre x360 14 with up to a 13.5-inch, 3000 x 2000-pixel OLED touchscreen display with 400 nits of peak brightness.
I'm eager to see this 13.5-inch display in person for a number of reasons. For one, it's OLED, so colors should burst to life and contrast against inky black tones. Also, the 3000 x 2000-pixel resolution should make everything look sharp. And finally, HP is including software called Auto Color, which dynamically adjusts the display to have the optimal color space based on the application you're using. For example, the screen will switch to DCI-P3 when you're watching a movie and revert back to sRGB when you're browsing the web.
What's also unique about this screen is the 3:2 aspect ratio, meaning it's taller and more narrow than a standard 16:9 display. Laptops are trending toward this ratio and Microsoft has been using it with its Surface devices for several years. While it's not ideal for watching movies or shows, a 3:2 aspect ratio will show more content during most other tasks, like writing documents or browsing the web.
Spectre x360 14 specs
An Intel Evo-certified laptop, the Spectre x360 14 can be equipped with up to an Intel 11th Gen Core i7-1165G7 CPU, a four-core, eight-thread chip with a max turbo of 4.1Ghz.
We expect a minor performance jump over 10th Gen CPUs and a more significant improvement to graphics thanks to Iris Xe. Intel claims Iris Xe graphics can play Borderlands 3, Far Cry New Dawn, Hitman 2 and other AAA titles at 1080p.
Competing ultraportable laptops support up to 32GB of RAM but the Spectre x360 14 maxes out at 16GB. For storage, you get up to a 1TB Intel PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD with 32GB of Intel Optane memory.
Spectre x360 14 battery life
Despite the high-res OLED display, HP claims the Spectre x360 14 lasted for 12 hours and 15 minutes in a video playback test and 10 hours and 30 minutes with mixed usage. Twelve hours would be great but we'd even be happy with the latter result on our own battery test given the power-hungry panel.
A feature that could enable this sort of endurance is Focus Mode, which dims background tasks you aren't using while keeping the foreground bright.
Outlook
This could be the one. The Spectre x360 14 takes everything we love about the 13-inch model, which is already our favorite 2-in-1 laptop, and adds the latest trendy features, including an OLED display with a 3:2 aspect ratio. It combines good looks with the latest 11th Gen Intel Tiger Lake CPUs and a handful of intriguing software tools.
We'll get a better idea of how the Spectre x360 14 stacks up against the competition when we get in a review unit. Until then, you might want to hold off on buying a new laptop because this could be the ultraportable to get holiday season.
