HP Spectre x360

For comparison, I've got the QHD/i7/512GB SSD model as well and got about 6 hours the first time I've run on the battery. I did immediately uninstall McAfee which appears to be a real CPU hog, and brightness is at about 70%. I'm using Chrome with about a dozen tabs open and a number of extensions running + spotify + One Note. I'm also using a power profile which clips the CPU utilisation to 95% - this seems to eliminate most of the fan noise - and I can quickly switch profile if I need more power.

Also, for anyone interested in using a stylus - I tried the Dell active stylus I'd bought for my XPS 11 (before they withdrew the functionality after marketing it - grr!) and it appears to work fine - which is a nice bonus.

Overall I've very pleased with the machine and the QHD display seems excellent compared to the XPS 11.

 

Α new review from Lisa of mobiletechreview. Very good feedback about the trackpad, luckily.

 

It looks like the Razer Synapse program is causing your computer to run a higher resolution timer, which means that your computer is doing 30% more all the time, which is going to consume extra battery. You could try closing it or terminating RzSynapse.exe to see what impact that has.

You might want to see what is causing Explorer.exe to run as much as it is (causing CPU wakeups), did you uninstall McAfee? You can use Process Monitor to diagnose what is causing Explorer.exe, but it is complicated to use (after capturing for a while you need to a Stack Summary, then drill down to see the root cause).

Enabling ASPM will save around 2W or so (or it did with my HP 2560p), but its complicated to do (i.e., I had to install a Linux Grub bootloader to enable ASPM before booting to Windows).

 

How well does the stylus work?

 

Hi Eddie12390,
I am going to suggest that you do contact HP Technical support 800 474 6836
so that it can be confirmed why you are not getting better battery life.

Cheers,

Cheron

 

Moobieltechreview just released a video with a demo of HP Spectre X360 Pen

 

thoses with the fhd model what are your temp in idle? to see if the laptop run warm
thanks

 

I'm really considering this laptop, it's exactly the type of product I've been waiting for (maybe I would have preferred a 14" screen), but my main concern honestly is that it's an HP product
Like many others, my experience with HP wasn't the best... Their products have this discerning habit of becoming really problematic after a few months of use... Heat, noise, and most of all, software and drivers problems, often after an upgrade to a newer OS version.

I've never tried a Business product, so I wonder if this laptop is among the premium or business-quality products they produce.

Also, Windows 10 will be released soon, and who knows how the laptop will perform after the upgrade, and whether the partnership between HP and Microsoft will continue after Windows 10. Basically, this is released as a Windows 8.1 laptop.

What do you think guys? Are my concerns reasonable or we're talking about a more "premium" product with a brighter future in terms of reliability, durability, and future software and drivers compatibility ???

 

According to HWMonitor:

(Disregard my post before the edit, if you saw it)

 

I ordered my machine March 4th and it finally arrived last night, March 20th. The HP tracking system is pure nonsense. It displays the number of days to customize the system, so it counted from 3 down to 0. Once it hit 0, it started counting back up to 6, or something like that. It shipped from China on Monday, March 16th, but it took 5 full days to arrive in the US even though I paid $20 extra for 2 day shipping. I don't blame HP for that: its FedEx's fault. However, oddly enough HP never notified me once that the machine was completed and shipped. It was FedEx that sent me a text message, probably because I have a FedEx account with my phone number registered for packages. HP needs to fix their tracking system. I bought a HP Envy 14 3 years ago and I don't remember this problem at all. I did call HP early on and they told me to ignore the tracking system.

Anyway, I like my machine so far. Its a i7/512 gig drive/1080P. I charged it up last night. Been using it since the morning on battery power alone. I ran down the battery halfway in 5 hours. It reports to have another 5 hours left. I was web browsing, installing a ton of software, downloading video podcasts etc. No games. Running RDIO in background.

There are a few minor annoying things. The function button to turn on the back light is always on and its crazy bright at night. I touch type so I don't need back light, but that one key is like a beacon to alert the UFO mother ship. Also, its soooo slim that its impossible to open the lid one handed. You actually need to jamb your finger or finger nail in to separate the lid from the body.

 

I'm thinking duct tape.

 

Yeah, I got my machine yesterday and I am running it down for the first time. I am using the HP recommended power plan and ran down the power to 50% in 5 hours so I expect 10 hours of battery life. My machine is a 1080P display.

 

That's a good question, KamaL. I think only time will tell whether HP has turned a new leaf with this model. Best Buy has only a two-week return window unless one spends over 1500 dollars, then it's 30 days. Microsoft Store, if one is nearby, and if the model is in stock, has 30 days, and I think one can pay extra for 2 yr Microsoft warranty. Sadly Sony Vaio is gone as is Samsung in Europe.

 

That's what I think too...
Let's hope no reliability or compatibility issues arise in the next few months.

 

Do you have core I5 or I7? Thanks


Envoyé de mon iPad en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Nices temps for core i7

 

According to his previous post it's an i7

 

Folks are finding the keyboard to be good, so I went to a different Best Buy, and I found the screen and keyboard to be better on the display model in that store. So, I bought one, and mine is like the display model in the second store. The touchpad and screen are much much better than the first-year Yoga 13 I have. The Yoga screen is really yellow with bland colors, and the touchpad gets stuck pressed in. I'm pretty happy with the Spectre. Spent a few hours configuring away the windows 8 stuff, and I'm liking it.

 

Thanks, So the core I7/1080 have Nice idle temp and great battery Life )


Envoyé de mon iPad en utilisant Tapatalk

 

I think the first feedback for the device is pretty good, no bad surprises so far (as I had seen in the xps 13 forum, for example) It's kinda funny that my only issue so far before buying seems to be the always on backlight key. I mean, it s just stupid that they did such a thing. Ok, I think I will get used to it but I really can't see what the engineer had in his mind there. At least there should be an option.

 

Personally, I've had build issues with almost all of the manufacturers (Dell, Acer, HP, Lenovo. Fujitsu). That said however, I've had a much more positive experience with the more rugged business models (Latitudes and Elitebooks). My current computer is an HP Elitebook 2560p that I've had for 4 years now and zero hardware or reliability issues (HP was a little slow on driver updates, but they eventually got there). That said, I've been very disappointed in the screen, where, like most business models, it is bright, but has low resolution, poor contrast and poor sRGB colorspace. With the Spectre x360, the physical build quality is quite good. I've read that the Elitebook team designed the Spectre and HP is selling this computer as the "HP Spectre Pro x360 G1 Convertible" business model in Europe and Asia. Both of these points have reassured me on the build quality and eventual driver updates - I have an i7 QHD on order. Only time will tell how this particular model does. One thing I'm concerned with is the geared hinge - this is a new design and could have durability issues.

 

madmook: 34-36 C on i7 CPU with the fans off? That would be really awesome passive cooling system. I tried to run Haswell Zenbook (i3 4010U) in a passive mode, it is also all-aluminium and the temperatures were around 50-60 degrees idle and 65-75 degrees while surfing the web. I have had the fans in "forced-off" modified state using Notebook fan control SW tool. Normally the fans in Zenbook kick in when reaching aroudn 45 C and they spin 3300RPM.
I keep waiting for many years for a 13" notebook that could run passively while doing office stuff. It seems this HP could have better cooling system than Dell XPS.

 

That's idling temp. Under light web usage (I use Firefox) it'll usually be 38-43C. And I have finally caught the fan spin up, it seems to try to stay off as much as possible, and I also set the cooling profile for passive when on battery. The fan makes low noise. When I have the time I'm gonna run a game and see what temps and fan noise are like plugged in and stressing both cpu and gpu.

 

Great thanks! There is usually some threshold when the fans kick in to different speeds and also threshold when they lower down the speed or turn off completely (the thresholds are set firmly in ACPI BIOS).
i.e. Asus laptops usually kick in at 45 and turn off at 40 C. Therefore they usually run very cool (unnecessary cool) but still have the fan running unless you operate in the walk-in fridge If the HP can keep around 36 C while idling and around 43 C light web usage, that is at least 15 degrees cooler than the UX32LA Haswell Zenbook with Core i3!

 

Just got this laptop. At first I thought i would hate the silver keys with white back lighting. I think the rationale is because the keys are silver the need for the light is almost zill except when the screen is dark (like a dark game or movie). So you tend to leave it off much more often. Hence it needs to be lit when you actually need it (so you can find it). I am thinking the idea was to save power by having the back light on the keyboard off more of the time than an other laptops....

 

A question to the owners:

I read in a youtube comment "that in a very quiet room, with the system's fan not running, and with the computer doing low- to moderate-intensity tasks, there was a slight coil noise. (Commencing a more CPU-intense task, even just rapid webpage scrolling, made the noise disappear.)"

And mobiletechreview answered:
"I have heard, just a few times, when it's plugged into power a sort of tick-tick-tick sound that's sort of like coil whine but different and shorter in duration. I have no idea what it is, but I believe it's something all x360s do"

What about it? Have you noticed anything like that? Is it annoying?

 

I noticed that in my first impressions post:

So there's definitely a noise but it's a non-issue for me as I don't hear it unless I lean up within like 6 inches of the machine. Believe me, I would make a bigger stink about it if it were a serious issue, like the Core 2 Duo's high-pitched whine in my old Lenovo T400 which was very annoying.

Also, finally found my way into the BIOS. It is indeed the F10 key like other HP laptops. Just gotta mash on it as soon as you press the power button. By default, the setting is set to zero delay to allow for pressing the BIOS access button.

 

So the noise is there all the time and not only when charging?

 

My March 4th FHD custom build arrived yesterday, initial impression is that it is a very pretty machine. The screen is great and unlike in the mobiletechreview I find the default color to be warm, makes my Surface Pro 2 look cool in comparison. The keyboard is very good and even though I don't like the aesthetic of such an oversized touchpad it works well once you adjust the settings. I will now have to put it through it's paces but definitely a quality build and looking like a good replacement for my first generation X1 Carbon Touch.

 

Yes, it is constant when the laptop is on.

Got mine from Best Buy, the FHD screen, and mine has a warm tint too. Which is what I prefer anyways, so lucky me.

 

I see. Can any other owner give feedback about that? it seems to be a non-issue, but i would like to be 100% sure that, say, in a perfectly quiet library while studying i won't hear any sound. Madmook says he has to lean up very close to hear it, but I don't know if it will be different for someone esle. Thank you

 

I prefer warm as well, so I'm also happy with the default color profile. As far as noise I haven't heard any, so far the x360 has been as quiet as my Surface Pro 2. The fans did rev up once and very loudly when it downloaded and installed all my metro apps from the Store but that was the only time so far.

 

I need to put my ear on the keyboard to hear anything.

 

I was hoping the pen would be a bit better but maybe I am too accustomed to having a digitizer because of my SP2. I am not expecting to be able to write and draw like I can on my SP2 but I was hoping to use the pen as a mouse when the x360 is in tablet mode. It kind of works but doing a double click is very difficult as it appears that the pen needs to click and not just tap against the screen, unless I am missing something.

 

Do you mean that in very quiet environment or in a normal office? Many people dont have troubles even with some louder fans as they only use it in the office during the workday (I dont mind it either when there is some normal noise around me but I do notice it very much in the evenings in a quiet room).

 

I haven't heard much sound from mine at all, going on almost 3 full weeks of use as well. Color seems great on mine but I readjusted some setting to what I prefer. All of my colleagues at work think it is a fantastic machine, even the guy who just got his new Dell XPS 13. The Mac guys here said if they were PC Guys then this would be the laptop they would like to have.

 

Yes, it seems a great machine and i hope no big issues occur so i will buy it pretty soon. Thank you.

 

I did some work in PhotoShop last night and the fan kicked off. I didn't find it loud or annoying as the pitch is low. More like "oh the fan finally turned on" instead of "what's that noise". Even in a room with little to no noise I personally wouldn't find it distracting.

 

Which digitizer are you using? The HP Active Pen?

You could try other pens from Synaptics, like the one made for Dell. Check this: . Even though he is using an Envy X2, the experience could be similar in the Spectre.

 

I have the HP Active since I was able to walk into a BB and pick one up. It would be okay if I could program the buttons, like make one double click. If so, it would work great for how I would wish to use it. Only have access to the Windows pen settings, so can only enable or disable the buttons.

 

since you have the HP pen could you share your experience in OneNote? is the notetaking process easy? can you print letters without losing strokes or do you have to do cursive? this is the deciding factor for me for this laptop, i'm so used to the wacom pen tech in my galaxy note 10.1, i'm hesitant to move to another tech, especially from synaptics...

 

I'm using the Dell stylus and it works well in OneNote - no problems printing letters.

 

The HP Active Pen works just fine in OneNote, but I do have to adapt to the button(s) being so accessible. I am use to the Bamboo Stylus where you have to make a concentrated effort to hit the button on the pen. Currently with the HP Active I keep hitting erase as I'm writing.

 

I've had my i7 QHD 512.GB for a day now and am quite happy with the laptop overall. I bought a Dell active pen A03 (the silver one) and it seems to work fine. I did some quick benchmarks, then loaded Windows 10.

Factory Windows 8.1 benchmarks (idle values are utilizing HP recommended powerplan and keyboard backlight off)

• Battery capacity = 54.990 Wh
• QHD display is 100% sRGB and 79% AdobeRGB
• AsSSD 512GB SSD speeds = 513MB/s read, 402MB/s write
• Idle temp = 32.4 degC
• Idle discharge rates: 3.125W, 3.776W, 5.33W (min, med and high brightness)
• Keyboard backlight incurs about 1.8W when enabled
  
• Full load temp = 84 degC (before end of turbo boost)
• Full load discharge rate: 24.191W

So, idle battery life calculates around 17.5hrs (14.5hrs medium brightness). Main takeaway here is that the QHD is not a huge battery hog, where as enabling the keyboard backlighting will cost you significantly.

I reformatted the drive to free up the 15GB recovery partition and loaded Windows 10 preview. The first version, 9926, had issues with the orientation sensor, but I've since updated to 10041, which has fixed the issue. Other than that, Windows 10 works great on the Spectre, providing a much better user experience than Windows 8.1 IMHO.

 

Can you please add more details about the advantages in the user experience after upgrading to Windows 10, especially in terms of touch gestures, and most of all, if the upscaling handling in QHD displays is better than previous versions ??

 

Is anyone prepared to pop the bottom off and look inside?

I am looking at replacing my TP Yoga 12. One of the things I will want to do it upgrade the RAM to 16GB, and the HD to 1 TB.

So has anyone opened one up? I have been told by HP that there are 2 user-accessible RAM sockets available but I haven't seen anything like that in photos. I would also like to know what type of SSD it has.

 

Saw in mobiletechreview's x360 and XPS13 comparison that the latest Dell Active Stylus was better than the HP Active, so just placed an order.

 

Great to hear that with regards to Windows 10!
Did you note any problems with drivers on the new Windows 10 build? Did you have to install any drivers manually?

 

I'd be curious to know as well, I saw the spec sheet on HP's website that mentioned the 2 spots as well and found it to be interesting. I was hoping that iFixit would do a teardown.

 

Great, please post your opinion afterwards.