HP Spectre x2 review: The quality of the Surface Pro, hundreds of dollars less
HP Spectre x2 review: All the quality of the Surface Pro, hundreds of dollars less

    
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      Microsoft has defined a market. Now the other PC OEMs are getting in on the action.
    

    

    
            
              
            
          

    
  



  

  
      
    
    
                      
                      
          
It took Microsoft three attempts to come up with a Surface concept that had broad appeal. With the combination of screen size, resolution, system flexibility, and performance, the Surface Pro 3 became a PC that worked for a lot of people. As a tablet, it was thinner and lighter and better to use handheld than any laptop, but its kickstand and magnetic keyboard meant that it offered much of the productivity that laptops boast.
Now that Microsoft has found a formula that works and demonstrated that it has some user appeal, we've seen a proliferation of similar devices from other manufacturers. The Spectre x2 is HP's consumer-oriented iteration of the concept: a 12-inch tablet with an integrated kickstand, a magnetically attached keyboard, an x86 processor, and a full desktop operating system.
Nailing the basics



Specs at a glance: HP Spectre x2



Base
Best
As reviewed


Screen
1920×1280 12.0" (192 PPI), 10-point capacitive WLED-backlist IPS touchscreen


OS
Windows 10 Home


CPU
Intel 6th generation Core m3
Intel 6th generation Core m7
Intel 6th generation Core m7


RAM
4GB
8GB
8GB


GPU
Intel HD Graphics 515


SSD
128GB
512GB
256GB


Networking
802.11ac/a/b/g/n with 2x2 MIMO antennas, Bluetooth 4.0


Ports
2 USB Type-C, microSD


Cameras
Rear: 8MP autofocus, plus 1920×1080 stereoscopic
Front: 5MP


Size
11.81×8.23×0.31" (tablet only)
11.81×8.23×0.52" (tablet with keyboard)


Weight
1.84lb (tablet only)
2.68lb (tablet with keyboard)


Battery
42Wh


Warranty
1 year


Price
$799
$1,399
$1,149


Other features
45W charger, TPM 2.0, integrated LTE, keyboard



For me, the most important parts of just about any computer are the parts you have to touch and look at; the keyboard, the touchpad, and the screen. These things have to be done right before I ever care about what's on the inside of the system, because if I hate using a computer, I don't really care about its speed.
Like the Surface Pro 4, the Spectre x2 is not great for using on your lap. This is contentious, I know. Some people, presumably with much longer legs than my own, think it's fine. For me, the kickstand design doesn't provide enough stability and rigidity to support comfortable on-lap usage. This is a desk/table-bound design, not a full laptop replacement.
But when used on a desk or table, the Spectre x2 is very good. The backlit metal keyboard feels very sturdy, the key travel is excellent (1.5mm, according to HP), and the layout is pretty sensible. This is a good keyboard. Like the Surface Pro 3 and 4, the keyboard has a magnetic strip that gives it a slight angle for more comfortable typing.

          
                      
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
This is a keyboard that anyone would be happy with, one that puts many laptops, much less tablets, to shame.
The touchpad is also pretty decent. Its shape is a little unusual; as we've seen on some other HP machines, it's very wide without being tremendously tall. I found it tracked accurately and had a nice smooth surface. It supports the Precision Touchpad spec, too, so it provides the full range of Windows 10 touchpad gestures.
The screen is a decently bright and crisp 1920×1280 3:2 WLED-backlit affair. There are higher resolutions available from competing systems, but I didn't feel that I was missing out on much here. Viewing angles are good, the backlight seems even, and the brightness was sufficient for most viewing conditions.
But it is a touchscreen, and everything worked in that regard. More unusually, it has Wacom pen support. HP sells (though does not supply in the box) a pen for use with the Spectre x2 that supports 2048 pressure levels. The pen is an active design, using a AAAA battery that HP says will last for about 700 hours. I can't speak to the finer points of this feature based on my mediocre attempts at doodling, but tracking seemed accurate, with little discernible gap between the pen point and cursor and good precision even at low speeds. Palm rejection was also reliable.

    
              
                
              
                This is a really good keyboard.
                              
            
                  
          
    
    
      This is a really good keyboard.

          
  
        
            

All in all, the Spectre x2 gets these essential elements right. I don't want to tempt fate, but I suspect that this is becoming a trend across the industry. While I'm sure that things are less good at the very bottom of the market, I think it's now safe to say that there are good input and output devices across a wide range of the portable PC market. This wasn't the case even two or three years ago, but today, whatever form factor you choose, whether it be the traditional laptop, the 360 degree hinge laptop (the Lenovo Yoga and its competitors), the hinged convertible (such as the Surface Book), or the magnetic detachable (such as the Surface Pro 4 or the Spectre x2), you can find multiple competing options with keyboards, touchpads, and screens that aren't just tolerable—they're actually good. On the one hand it's disappointing that this is a notable landmark for the PC industry, but on the other, it's pleasing that a corner of some kind has been turned.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          

    
              
                
              
                HP Spectre x2.
                              
            
                  
          
    
    
      HP Spectre x2.

          
  
        
            

I think that the Spectre x2 also looks pretty good. The buttons feel high-quality, the detailing around the speaker grilles looks nice, and the soft covering of the keyboard is pleasing to the touch. Again, this isn't something that I felt was necessarily the case four or five years ago; shoddily built, flimsy systems that flexed and wobbled as you used them were commonplace, even on machines commanding premium prices. There's none of that with the Spectre.
Core M continues to confuse
With these basics more than satisfactory, it's time to talk about everything else. Unlike Microsoft, which only uses the Core m3 in the cheapest Surface Pro 4, HP has committed across the full Spectre x2 range to using Intel's Core M Skylake processors with 4 or 8GB of RAM.
The first Core M processors, from the Broadwell processor generation, didn't impress us. They gave up a lot of performance, performed inconsistently from system to system, and didn't seem to win much in the way of battery life in return. The Skylake Core M parts have had wider adoption, finding their way into a much larger range of systems. It's also become clearer how and why manufacturers are using them.
The Skylake Core M parts seem to be better balanced than their predecessors. In extended workloads, their low power rating limits their performance; the processor can sustain a speed of around 1.2GHz (depending on the exact model). But for short bursts, such as the initial hit you take from loading a new webpage or starting a new app, the processor can ramp up to 3.1GHz, making it every bit as quick as any other Skylake processor.
But if you think this low-power processor is going to mean better battery life, well, that's a little more complicated. We ran two battery life tests. One cycles through webpages every fifteen seconds, intended to be representative of a browsing session where you load a page and then read it for a while before moving on. The other is a heavier burden; it runs a WebGL animation continuously.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          


These tests have different performance profiles. The first has a burst of activity every fifteen seconds but allows the processor to idle in the gaps. The second keeps both processor and GPU continuously operating. In the first test, the x2's performance wasn't too impressive. Both the x2 and the Surface Pro 4 have 42Wh batteries, but the Surface Pro 4 (with a Core i5) could manage 491 minutes in this test. The x2 with its Core m7 only hit 430 minutes. The lower power processor lost. But perhaps that's not terribly surprising: in this benchmark, both processors idle most of the time, and they both idle at closer to zero watts.
In the second test, however, the situation was different. The x2 managed 260 minutes, compared to Surface Pro 4's 217. In this sustained workload, the Surface Pro 4's processor can run at a sustained higher speed, drawing more power. The x2, in contrast, slashes its clock speed to keep inside its low power envelope. This means that the x2 doesn't go as fast and animate as smoothly as the Surface, but it extends its battery life.
Accordingly, it's not really appropriate to think of Core M as the low power, long life option. Rather, the low power rating means it makes a different trade-off under sustained workloads. It's slower, but it lasts longer.
The low power processor isn't any cheaper, either, than the higher-powered parts. The Core m7-6Y75 in our review Spectre costs $393 from Intel. The Core i7-6600U in the high-end Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book is also $393.
It doesn't appear to translate into a lighter laptop, either. The Spectre x2 is surprisingly heavy. OK, it's still not heavy heavy, but at 1.84lbs for the tablet unit alone, it weighs more than any of Microsoft's latest generation of tablets.
So what's the point of the Core M part? Simple: it obviates the need for a fan. The Spectre x2 is fanless, ensuring silent operation with no moving parts. That feature should let systems be a little slimmer, lighter, and more reliable.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
Overall, the Spectre x2 feels perfectly snappy and pleasant to use. I wouldn't get one for gaming or software development or running a ton of virtual machines because I don't think the Core M is really up to it. But for general Office-type tasks, Web browsing, and e-mail, the device is a decent option.

Refined ideas

    
              
                
              
                This is a neat kickstand.
                              
            
                  
          
    
    
      This is a neat kickstand.

          
  
        
            

While the Surface Pro 3 arguably defined this category, HP's machine is no mere copycat. The Spectre x2's kickstand in particular is a smart improvement on Microsoft's concept. Rather than a solid sheet of metal, the x2 uses a U-shaped metal hoop that folds out from the back and holds the screen in just about any position from laid flat to upright. The use of a hoop rather than a flat piece means that the x2 can be thinner. The Surface family of devices essentially have a double thickness of metal on the back: the back panel itself and then the kickstand covering it. The x2 doesn't need this.
Its kickstand doesn't appear to give anything up in terms of rigidity or effectiveness. The hinge is satisfyingly stiff and it holds the screen securely at a wide range of angles.The stiffness reinforces the machine's overall feeling of quality. As with Microsoft's design, I do find myself wondering how good it's going to feel one, two, or three years down the line, but right now it is very pleasing.
This is a sleek design and I almost like it a lot; it represents a meaningful, if incremental, improvement on Microsoft's design. Almost, because HP has made the kickstand latched. When it's closed, you can only open it by sliding a little button on the side of the machine. This makes the kickstand more awkward to use; you can't just grab it and open it, you have to make the detour via the button first. I think HP has probably realized that this is slightly awkward, as the Elite x2, a design similar to the Spectre x2 but aimed at the business market, ditches the button.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
The removal of the fan and the smarter kickstand should mean that the Spectre is slimmer than Microsoft's hardware. It is, but not by much: 0.31 inches thick compared to 0.33. While the Surface Pro 4 manages to fit a full-size USB Type-A port, the Spectre x2 has Type-C ports, one on each side, either of which can be used for charging. It ships in the box with a Type-C to Type-A converter.
Built for the future, not the present

I had mixed feelings about the use of Type-A on the Surface Pro 4, and I have similarly mixed feelings about the use of Type-C in the Spectre x2. Type-C is the future—there's no doubt about that. The small size is convenient (though the thicker, more expensive, frequently out-of-spec cables are currently an annoyance), the lack of directionality makes it easier to use, and the port itself is much more flexible.
The problem is that right now, Type-C still isn't tremendously useful. Virtually every USB device that you attach to the machine will have to use that dongle. For example, in my line of work I regularly receive USB memory sticks containing press releases, photographs, and similar information about products being launched. These sticks are invariably cheap, disposable things with capacities somewhere between 2 and 4GB, and I think it's going to be a long time before they are consistently replaced with Type-C parts, especially as most people still don't have many or any Type-C ports. All this makes Type-C something of an annoyance; it's one more piece of equipment to remember to throw into my laptop bag, one more thing to lose, one more cable to stop working at the worst possible moment.
As such, I wish HP had split the difference and offered at least one traditional Type-A port instead of the dongle. The company told me that the device's thickness forced the use of Type-C, but since the Surface Pro 4 was only a hair thicker—and since the Elite x2 managed to include a Type-A port despite being one hundredth of an inch thinner—I'm not convinced by this.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
I don't really envy the hardware companies. This USB transition is going to be awkward for a few years. Type-A USB along with HDMI and/or DisplayPort ports are all better in the short term, while Type-C USB with support for charging, DisplayPort alternate mode, and even Thunderbolt 3 are all better in the long term. For now, I think that the best bet is to offer a mix of old and new unless physical constraints truly preclude offering the old ports.
In the Spectre x2, I don't believe that's the case. A Type-A port could have been included. Still, at least HP includes the conversion cable, which not every manufacturer does.
No Hello here
Another decision that I'm feeling decidedly mixed on is the cameras. They are serviceable given my low expectations of tablet cameras in general, but I just don't feel comfortable using them to frame and take photos. HP has chosen to equip the Spectre x2 with Intel's RealSense 3D camera. Intel has two variants of this camera: one designed for short viewing distances for use in front-facing cameras for biometric facial recognition authentication and one designed for long viewing distances for use in rear-facing cameras for 3D photography and similar.
HP has gone for the latter variant. As such, while the Spectre x2 can be used for taking 3D pictures, or to do "trick shot" type stuff where a photo's focus is adjusted in post production, it can't be used for Windows Hello-style authentication.

    
              
                
              
                The RealSense 3D camera.
                              
            
                  
          
    
    
      The RealSense 3D camera.

          
  
        
            

On the one hand, I know that 3D photography has interesting applications, especially as 3D modeling and printing are becoming popular activities. I don't for a moment doubt that some people will do fun and exciting things with this camera, especially as more applications using the RealSense SDK become available. This is a field that HP is actively engaging in, too; its Sprout PC is finding all sorts of applications both within education and industry that leverage its combination of 3D vision and projection.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
But Windows Hello is fabulous and will prove its worth every time you sit down at your computer to unlock it. If forced to pick one or the other, I'd go for Hello and the front-facing camera every time.
Frustratingly, the otherwise great keyboard doesn't include any kind of a fingerprint scanner option, either. HP does have such a thing for the Elite x2, again because of its more corporate positioning, but I truly think that Hello-capable hardware, whether facial or fingerprint, is highly desirable for home and professional users alike.
HP includes an integrated LTE modem. This worked effortlessly with the Verizon SIM that HP included in my review system. With Microsoft's new easy-access no-contract cellular data scheme I wonder if this sort of thing might start to become more common. It's not something I'd need every day, but when I need it—in a hotel with crap Wi-Fi, for example—it can be a lifesaver.
If I have any serious complaint about the Spectre x2, it's not with the hardware but rather with the software. It includes a bundled version of some McAfee security tool ("LiveSafe") that was unpleasantly intrusive, popping up alerts even during normal operations. I strongly believe that systems are better off using the built-in Windows security features and nothing more, because the Windows features are much less likely to annoyingly and spuriously interfere with normal operations.
Whenever I use a review system, I try to stick to a usage pattern and software loadout as close to default as I can, to better get a feel for what the machine will be like for regular buyers, but I had to remove this McAfee stuff.
Surface Pro quality and capability for 20 percent off
The HP Spectre x2 is not the lightest machine in its class, nor the fastest machine in its class, nor the longest lasting machine in its class. But it is well-built, and it includes a great keyboard. It looks smart, too.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    

        
        
          
          
And then there's the small matter of the price. The Spectre x2 starts at $799. That gets you a Core m3, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, the LTE modem, and, critically, the keyboard. A Surface Pro 4 for $899 has more screen resolution, the same processor, RAM, and storage, no LTE, and no keyboard. Adding the keyboard takes you to $1,029.
The Surface Pro 4 does include a pen, whereas for HP it's a $50 extra (if you want it). But from where I'm sitting, that looks like about a $230 price difference for machines that are otherwise very comparable.
At the top end, the situation for the Spectre x2 is perhaps a little less compelling, or at least a little less clear. $1,399 gets you a Core m7, 8GB RAM, and a 512GB disk, along with LTE and the keyboard. While this is cheaper than a Surface Pro 4 with a Core i5, 8GB RAM, 512GB disk, no LTE, and no keyboard—that costs $1,699—the performance differential between the systems may be substantial, depending on your workload, making a like-for-like comparison harder to do. For some, the x2 may still be a bargain; for others, it would simply be paying less to get a less capable machine.
Put together, we have a machine with all the quality and flexibility of a Surface Pro 4, but quite a bit cheaper. If you really need the performance of the full strength processors (and the fan that comes along with the ride) you'll have to look elsewhere, but if you don't, the Spectre x2 will serve you very well indeed.
The Good

Great keyboard
Keen price
Elegant kickstand
Solid build
Twin USB Type-C ports

The Bad

Core M may allow ditching the fan, but it's not winning us much battery life in return
It's a little heavier than its more expensive competition
Its battery life is a little worse than its more expensive competition
No Windows Hello support
A USB Type-A port in addition to the Type-C would have been nice

The Ugly

Making the user experience worse by bundling extra software continues to be the PC industry's worst habit



          
                  

                  
          


  






  
    
    
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