HP launch new range of Tiger Lake notebooks... including Spectre x360 14 3:2 OLED screen!

Richdog

Richdog

Richdog

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HP have just launched their new Spectre and Envy lineup and for me the highlight from a specs perspective is really the Spectre x360 14, which is not only the perfect size but also has a new 3:2 "3k2k" OLED screen which seems to be the first on a notebook (at least to my knowledge). The cramped 16:9 OLED 4k display was pretty much the only criticism of the previous model so nice to see that this is addressed.

It's such a shame that Intel weren't in a position to launch an 8-core Tiger Lake CPU this year and I doubt that in 2021 we will see AMD CPU's in any high-end ultrabook lineup from the big boys like HP, Dell etc so if you want this kind of spec list with a 3:2 OLED then it looks like Intel would be your only choice... for now. ;)

I predict that the release of the open standard USB4, which is basically what Thunderbolt 4 is, along with Zen3 mobile, will mark the start of an era of high-end AMD ultrabooks.

Links:

https://www.windowscentral.com/hp-envy-13-hp-envy-x360-13

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/2/...nvy-intel-tiger-lake-price-specs-release-date

https://www.pcmag.com/news/hp-unveils-spectre-x360-14-a-laptop-convertible-with-intels-tiger-lake

https://videocardz.com/press-releas...-x360-14-and-13-laptops-with-intel-tiger-lake
 
Well guys, I have now had a Spectre x360 14 for a few days and am really liking it so far. HP had a 30% sale on so I paid £920 for OLED, i7-1165, 16GB and 512GB SSD in Poseidon Blue colour. Bargain imo for such a well crafted device, although it didn't come with a pen so I am going to try and wrangle one out of HP.

I have done a reformat of W10 to remove the bloatware and fix some niggles and it seems to be running smooth. The Intel Tiger Lake i7-1165 is fine for a device like this and it will handle pretty anything I need from a portable device including some photo editing while travelling, so I am not fussed about it being a quad core and it's nice to have the option for using Thunderbolt 4.

The 13.5" screen is just to die for... a 3:2 3200x2000 60hz OLED with all of the benefits that brings. Reading web pages and viewing any media content is a joy... I am now such an OLED convert! There is some PWM flicker but it's not too crazy and I don't plan to work on this thing anyway, mostly just browsing and media stuff. I love the 3:2 format it's so much better than 16:9.

The touchpad is super smooth and the keyboard is a joy to type on, one of the best I have ever used on a notebook; the tactile feedback is just perfect. I do have one niggle where the up arrow key doesn't always register a press so if that annoys me enough I will get it fixed, but so far that is all I can find that is mechanically wrong with the device.

Speakers are surprisingly good... obviously nothing too special in a notebook this size, but they are loud enough and pretty damn clear with very reasonable definition. I was expecting worse.

Battery life is not stellar, 3-8 hours depending on usage I guess, but I knew that when I was buying it and I'm rarely far from an outlet. Compared to my previous house laptop it's still about 2-3x better which is fine for me for lasting a day of on and off browsing. I still have to figure out how best to optimize it for my uses.

So in summary, it seems like a great device so far and I will even try some light gaming to see how it handles it. :)
 
thewanted said:
£920 is an insanely good price! The HP UK store only sells the blue model with your spec and a 1TB NVME for £1750 :eek:

Are you still loving it? I thought I wanted a Surface Laptop 4 until I found out that it doesn't have any Thunderbolt 4 ports. Since I want a 3:2 screen, this leaves only the Spectre X360 14 to choose from.
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Hi man thanks you are right, it was a really good price! Yeah I do still really really like it. I also got HP to give me a discount on the MPP 2.0 pen and it seems to work well.

The battery life is a bit mediocre at around 6 or 7 hours of browsing, so if you want all day working away from a socket then this is not for you. However the OLED screen is BEAUTIFUL and my notebook is always at home so the battery life is fine for me and lasts 2-3 days between charges. There is also a 1080 OLED screen now. I have a screensaver kicking in after a couple of mins so burn-in shouldn't be too much of a risk.

With the i7-1165 and 16GB RAM it's very snappy and I need nothing more from a house and media notebook. Windows Hello and fingerprint reader provide lots of security options. Webcam is ok. Oh and did I mention the screen is gorgeous? :)
 
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thewanted said:
Thanks for the feedback! I watched this review earlier and the guy says it won't output 4K @ 60Hz to an external display because it uses an old DisplayPort version which means it's out of the running now :(

It's a real shame that every laptop seems to have a serious flaw. Meh.
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It can output 4k60hz, read this thread
Spectre 14 users, apparently the 14 can't output 4K 60Hz, only 4K 30Hz through USB-C. Can it also not output 1440p 144Hz? Considering Just Josh has had this issue for a while, it's making me doubt if I should get it or not entirely based on this doubt : spectrex360 (reddit.com)
 
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