The HP Spectre x360 13.3" Touchscreen/Pen model (13-AC010CA)

The HP Spectre x360 13.3" Touchscreen/Pen (13-AC010CA)

The Spectre x360 is the latest 13.3" product from HP that has a hinge that allows the screen to rotate a full 360 degrees, making it a great contender for your 2-in-1 portability pursuit. The major difference here is that it doesn't have a detachable keyboard, and just maybe that in tablet mode  grabbing at the keyboard on the backside makes it a little awkward to hold. Not a deal breaker though.

Unboxing Experience

Right from the get-go you know you're dealing with something serious. HP knows that the unboxing experience is just as important as the experience with the laptop itself, and they didn't skimp out.

One look at this box and you're jittering with excitement!

What Comes Inside The Box

You'll be glad to know that the HP Spectre x360 comes fully loaded.

Inside the box you get:

• HP Quick USB-C charger
• Leather like carrying case (custom, with pen holder!)
• HP Stylus Pen
• AAAA Battery for the stylus
• USB-C to full HDMI adapter
• HP Spectre x360 13.3" Laptop

If you think about it, the Spectre comes with so much more performance and accessories for the price you pay, especially when compared to a MacBook Pro or the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. More on performances down below.

Physical Appearances

The Spectre is a beautiful machine. Nice trimmed edges, sleek silver aluminum chassis, and it feels like a premium product.

The bezel on the laptop is a hit and miss for some people, but personally we feel it gives the laptop more of a distinguishing look from all the other laptops on the market right now. Sitting down at a coffee shop using it, you'll notice a lot of people do a double take on this laptop - just because it looks that unique!

It's extremely thin for a 13.3" and it's made with really high quality material, with an emphasis on that glass display.

Screen display offers up a Full HD IPS 1920 x 1080 display, which is the standard High-Definition dimensions and is more compatible with modern widescreen video playback. It's really bright, crisp looking, and the viewing angles are great on any side you look at it. It's also a touchscreen with a digitizer, which is an important component needed for the use of precision styluses!

Many other manufactures don't include a digitizer screen panel because of the high cost, leaving you only with a touchscreen and no pen option.

Hard Drive Performance

Hard drive performance is beyond amazing. Besides being a Solid State Drive (SSD) which consumes less power than a regular mechanical drive, just look at these impressive CrystalDiskMark benchmark results:

3118 MB/s READ and 1188 MB/s WRITE speeds???? WHAT!!!!

The SSD Hard drive on this laptop is high grade as you can tell with the results. Most SSD included in laptops today average about 500 Mb/s read and 300 Mb/s write speeds, which can cause performance bottle-necking when running certain applications or doing certain tasks. Not with the Spectre - it's BLAZING FAST.

Battery Performance

It's no wonder the HP Spectre is EnergyStar certified.

The battery life on this thing is a beast! On a single charge, we got a full day use out of it and then some. Document editing, YouTube, intensive internet browsing, note-taking, and currently writing this blog post, we're getting a solid 10 hours or more on it. This is not an exaggeration.

We are seriously blown away by the battery performance. Could it possibly be because that the fan rarely turns on because this laptop is always cool? or could it be because of the 3-cell 57.8Wh Lithium-ion polymer big battery?

Typing Performance

With a full sized keyboard and no annoying small sized shift keys or arrow keys that sits right by the page up/down buttons *cough Acer*, the typing experience is a home-run. Key travel feels good and the feedback you get with every stroke feels satisfying. The keys are something you can compare to the Apple MacBook Pro. Logically designed, the home / pg up / pg down / end keys are off to the right side, keeping accidental scrolls from happening.

It also includes silver backlighting that is toggled with an on/off, however not adjustable in staged levels.

Speaker Performance

The Bang & Olufsen speakers on this is ridiculous. How did they put in such high quality speakers into a thin ultra-portable like this?

Music coming out of the speakers sounds rich with a lot of room for bass. All thanks to FOUR built in speakers. Two coming from the top side of the keyboard, and two fire-down speakers below the laptop. Having four speakers ensure you get rich sounds in any mode you have the laptop in.

They've also included in the factory installed software "Bang & Olufsen Audio Control" where you can adjust the sound to your personal liking, or toggle through their pre-sets between Music/Movie/Voice.

Stylus Pen Performance

In tablet mode using the HP pen that's included, it feels great, however the lack of rubberized tip does make writing feel "glidier". That means it's not as close to a 1:1 pen to paper experience compared to the Surface Pro 4, but still really close.

The pen performance is great. Included with the device, it's writing performance is top notch due to it's pressure sensitivity and ease of use. Powered by a AAAA battery, it's an active stylus that can write with precision without any substantial lag.

Coupled with Microsoft OneNote, this laptop is geared towards a professional or student that is looking to go paperless and clutter free. With this feature, you'll get instant organization and productivity.

We did a lot of note taking on this device, quickly loving the fact that we can search for notes instead of rustling through stacks of paper. Believe it or not, the 13.3" screen actually felt like the right size to emulate writing on a legal sized paper pad.