HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) 2-in-1 laptop review: Class act

HP is highlighting its revamped Spectre x360 as a flagbearer for its first wave of AI PCs, but that might be the least interesting thing about it. This feels less like the start of a new era in portable PCs and more like a timely reminder of why HP writ large has had the staying power it has.

Even if the HP Spectre x360 doesn't miss the boat when it comes to leveraging the latest in Intel processors, those specs aren't the drawcard so much as the premium design is. It might have learned a few new tricks, but the core pitch for the Spectre x360 remains intact. It's a quality product that's worth the premium price.

In Australia, pricing for the HP Spectre x360 14 starts at $3699.

If you're looking to get thrifty with it and lock in the best bargain Australia's retailers offer when it comes to the HP Spectre x360 14, check out the table below.

Before you make a decision, be sure to read our recommendation for the specs.

The HP Spectre x360 14 doesn't really stray too far from the expectations that come with the brand involved. There are no gimmicks here, but aren't any big innovations either. What you see is very much what you get with this particular 2-in-1 PC.

The HP Spectre x360 is built around a 14-inch OLED touchscreen with a 2.8K resolution, 100% DCI-P3 color and a 120Hz refresh rate. In line with other premium devices, you're looking at razer thin bezels that cut down on unusable pixels and add up to an impressive 89.06% screen-to-body ratio.

Just as much attention to detail has gone into how the HP Spectre x360 sounds as how it looks. There's a DTS:X Ultra quad-speaker setup here that offers a vibrant and detailed soundscape for music and video content that doesn't feel like the kind of compromise that a device with this flexible a form-factor would usually entail.

The HP Spectre x360's symmetrical and hexagonal shape doesn't deviate too far from how you'd want a typical laptop to look and feel but still manages to carve out something of an identity for itself. While the design writ large is relatively thin, there's a definite heft that comes with the aluminum chassis involved. Where other brands are all about the curves, this one embraces the appeal of a sharp angles amid the texture of a sandblasted finish. 

The array of ports on the HP Spectre x360 14 echoes this idea of finding flavor in the familiar. The back corners of the unit house a headphone jack and a USB-C port. There's a second one of the latter located on the right hand side, while a more traditional USB-A port can be found on the left.

The HP Spectre x360 14's relatively uniform design is broken up by a pair of hinges. These allow the screen to bend backward on itself up to as much as 360-degrees. That flexibility isn't the fad it once was but nor is it as cleanly executed here as it is elsewhere.

The 2-in-1 form-factor here feels like its been thought out in concert with the raw practicality of the material design. There's a satisfying click to the mechanism completing its circuit and as far as hinges go, I can't think of many laptops out there that offered the same level of rigidity and stability as the one found here. The HP Spectre x360 14 feels less like a machine that's been designed as a showpiece but rather one that's built to handle the physical stress that comes with being folded on a whim.

In line with other modern premium laptops, the HP Spectre x360 14 boasts a larger trackpad and a keyboard with a decent of press to it. These are welcome, even if they aren't all that special or unique.

Under the hood, the HP Spectre x360 is armed with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of PCIe SSD storage. The model we reviewed had half that amount of on-board storage but was otherwise a match for the specs listed above.

If you're not up to date on where things sit with Intel, the Core Ultra processors (also known as Meteor Lake) were launched back in December 2023. Compared to the previous generation, these CPUs offer better power efficiency, more savvy multi-threading, a discrete Arc GPU on selected models and support for new connectivity standards like WiFi 7 and DisplayPort 2.1.

They've since been supplanted in part by the Lunar Lake processors announced ahead of this year's Computex, but what's here is still fairly impressive for what it is.  When it comes to gaming, an Intel Core Ultra 7 should offer a two-fold improvement over an equivalent 13th Gen Intel Core i7 chip but still fall far short of what a discrete GPU could do.

In terms of how we'd rate it, the HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 sits somewhere in the middleof the the Enthusiast category so long as you're sticking with the Core i7 model. It's more than capable enough for everyday tasks and power users who can do most of their workflow within a web browser, but the absence of advanced cooling tech or a dedicated GPU means that it won't suit situations where those inclusions are more necessary than nice-to-have.

The story told by the benchmarking scores that the HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 produced as we ran it through our usual gauntlet of texts was a surprising one. Despite having less memory to work with and an identical processor, it significantly outpaced Lenovo's Yoga Pro 7i when it came to Geekbench. Unfortunately, the absence of a discrete GPU did hold it back from making that a double act when it came to Novabench and Cinebench.

That qualifier is hardly unique when it comes to the style of laptop that the HP Spectre x360 is (and the type of PC that HP is known for writ large), but it's definitely something those looking to throw down the cash that the company are asking for will want to keep in mind. High performance isn't exactly what you're paying for here so much as the robust design and consistency when it comes to everyday usage.

If you're the kind of consumer this is best kitted out for, you're probably paying a lot more than you could get away with. That's not to say you're going to be all that disappointed with what the HP Spectre X360 can do. However, you might have a few qualms when it comes to the amount of bloatware and pre-installed apps that the laptop ships with.

It's a similar story when it comes to battery life.  It took just 10 hours and 50 minutes of video streaming to run the battery in the HP Spectre x360 14 down from 100% to zero. That's a pretty strong result that rivals the kind of long battery life that Microsoft is touting as a reason to buy into its new vision for ARM-based PCs like the Surface Laptop Copilot Plus.

The HP Spectre x360 14 is a gorgeous showpiece of a laptop that gets the most out of where modern mobile chipsets is at in 2024. It doesn't push boundaries when it comes performance or design, but it's very well put together take on a familiar formula. So long as you're willing to pay the premium for the built quality and brand involved, you'll probably come away pretty happy with it.

Like most HP devices, the Spectre x360 14 is a great showcase of what a premium PC can look like and just as good a reminder that there are no shortcuts when it comes to delivering on that promise.