HP’s 13.5-inch Spectre x360 has a little bit one thing for nearly everybody. An ultralight construct places it a fascinating class of convertibles with a frosted end and flashy accents. A 3:2 display stands taller than most and consists of an OLED choice that is vivid but pure wanting. There are additionally intelligent design selections, like a chamfered edge with a charging port, light-up quantity/mic mute/digital camera shutter keys, plus respectable port choice.

The Spectre x360 13.5-inch will get an A+ in seems and scores excessive (however not completely) in design particulars. But it has some room to develop in terms of productiveness, particularly when put next towards different extremely succesful ultralights in its worth vary.

For those that insist on squeezing each ounce of efficiency out of a sub-1-inch-thick convertible, there are stronger rivals. But for the remainder, the 2022 Spectre is close to the highest of its class.

Winning design

HP’s Spectre lineup continues to characteristic among the most tasty ultralights round, even when they’re mildly much less hanging this 12 months. The Nightfall Black coloration of my assessment unit consists of accents so pale that they give the impression of being extra silver than the “brass” that HP describes. A skinny, reflective, silver strip runs across the lid and deck, making a layered impact when viewing the shut PC from a facet. Oddly, you possibly can even see a touch of the keyboard when viewing the closed laptop computer from the left or proper facet, so I’m a little bit extra involved about mud getting contained in the PC when closed than I’d sometimes be.

Visually, the hinges pop a bit lower than final 12 months’s mannequin, which included contrasting colours throughout your entire backbone and hinges. But, extra importantly, this 12 months’s hinge retains the display reliably in place irrespective of how far I bend the lid again.

Plus, the aluminum lid was more durable to bend and felt denser than that of most different ultralight laptops I’ve examined these days.

That paired properly with an equally strong deck; nonetheless, the deck’s sloped edges sometimes made my wrists slide after I typed. This could have led me to extra steadily stumble upon the touchpad when typing, inflicting abrupt, distracting interferences in my workflow.