HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book review: the AMOLED screen is finally here!

This year's HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book is really different!

Beginning with the 2017 Black Gold Edition, the HP Spectre line has continued to break through its design while keeping it thin and light, and it's safe to say that each generation of the HP Spectre x360 has had disruptive changes. It's only in the last few days that we've gotten our hands on the latest HP Spectre x360 Transformer from HP, and the hands-on experience is truly amazing.

HP China's Jingdong flagship store

Purchase entrance

Yes, it's a Transformer. In its regular form it's a thin and light notebook, but if you fold it over it becomes a 13.3-inch tablet, and a tablet with an x86 architecture rather than an ARM architecture, which is a world of difference in performance.

Speaking of performance, let's take a quick look at the hardware configuration of the Poseidon Blue-colored HP Spectre x360 Transformer.

The HP Spectre x360 Transformer in my hand is equipped with an i7-1065G7 processor, has a 512GB SSD and 16G RAM, and uses a 4K resolution AMOLED Anti-Reflection anti-glare screen, which is effective in avoiding reflective interference even in the bright sunlight outdoors, and enjoying high-definition

From an efficiency standpoint, the built-in 10th Gen Core CPU processor does optimize the performance and energy consumption of this Transformer, but for the real audience of this Transformer, design, details, and performance are all indispensable.

Let's take a look at the exterior and details of the new HP Spectre x360 Transformer and see what makes it different.

Exterior design

The new HP Spectre x360 Transformer seems to want to play some new tricks in many aspects, especially in the appearance of a transformative upgrade, the machine is as light as 1.3kg, the body size of the previous generation has been reduced by 13%, the size of the closer to the size of a piece of A4 paper. Unlike in the past, when you go out, you have to carry a separate computer bag or carry a heavy shoulder bag, users can easily put the HP Spectre x360 Transformer in a stylish small bag, so that "just say go" is no longer a slogan.

The top and bottom bezels of the HP Spectre x360 Transformer are only 5.85mm and 11.09mm thick, and although the body is dramatically smaller, the screen-to-body ratio is an industry-leading 90%, which opens up a much larger field of view on the 13.3-inch screen. If you have certain requirements for the screen, you can also choose an optional 4K AMOLED 13.3-inch display Transformer Book with VESA True Black HDR 400 certification like the one I'm holding. It can achieve a high contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and ΔE<2 factory color calibration, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut can present accurate color reproduction and realistic color performance, so that the screen color is closer to the real thing, whether it is a daily brush drama, video editing or image processing, can bring the ultimate visual experience.

In order not to have an impact on the narrow bezel, it is designed with a small 2.2mm camera on the top, which complements the overall aesthetics.

Tent mode, convenient for writing shorthand during meetings

Standing mode, convenient for viewing when sharing presentations

As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest highlights of this notebook is the morphing, and 360° screen folding and morphing, which is available in both tent and standing forms in addition to our common laptop and tablet forms. When we are having a small meeting, we can use the stylus that comes with the HP Spectre x360 Transformer to choose a comfortable writing position according to each person's habits.

Left: USB and audio ports, and a power switch at the 45° diagonal cutout

Right: card reading slot, e-physical camera switch, and two Thunderbolt 3 ports

From a design standpoint, the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book can be said to be the best of the best, with its unique design of the power on button and one of the Thunderbolt 3 3 ports on the The left and right sides of the 45 ° beveled corners, and is equipped with audio, USB ports and card reading slots that are often used in the office.

Special mention here, the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book is equipped with two Thunderbolt 3 ports both support charging, compared to the traditional fixed power charging port in the past, with the Thunderbolt 3 instead of charging port is not only streamlined a power port, dual Thunderbolt 3 also reduces users to find a fixed power port charging cumbersome.

In addition, there is an electronic physical camera switch designed on the right side of the body. In today's world where personal privacy is becoming more and more important, this is undoubtedly a very thoughtful and humanized design. Users can physically turn off the camera with just a flick of the switch, avoiding hackers from hacking into the camera to snoop on privacy, which is both aesthetically pleasing and safe.

Press Fingerprint Recognition Module

Speaking of privacy, the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book is designed with a fingerprint unlock, so when we need to log in, we can do so with both fingerprint and face recognition for security purposes.

Fingerprint recognition: With the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Notebook's standard press-on fingerprint recognition sensor, you can log into the system with a single touch.

Face recognition: Sign in with Windows Hello using the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book's face recognition technology for a completely "hands-free" experience.

In use, I also saw the "BANG &OLUFSEN" characters, it is understood that the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book is also built-in two from the B&O two independent speakers, can give users a wonderful audio-visual experience.

Diamond cut shape

If you are careful, you will find that the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book is designed with CNC diamond cut process on the all-aluminum alloy body, and the rear of the body adopts a diamond cut shape, which can bring a better hand feeling when using or holding.

CNC Diamond Cut Craft

Finally, let's talk about heat dissipation, I did not disassemble this Transformer Book, but from the official understanding, in order to ensure the efficiency of heat dissipation, the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book keyboard surface increased the air inlet, expanding from 2.5mm to 2.8mm; D-side air inlet area is increased to 34%, with dual-fan triple heat pipe and graphite The D-side air intake area has been increased to 34%, with dual fans, three heat pipes, and graphite assisted cooling to ensure effective internal temperature control.

Performance

The opening paragraph briefly introduces the hardware specifications of the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Notebook, especially the 10th-generation Core - i7-1065G7 processor, which was just released by Intel this year.

Intel i7-1065G7 processor

Performance is not only better than the previous thin and light notebook commonly equipped with low-voltage "U", with the HP Command Center software, but also according to the user needs of the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Notebook's The HP Spectre x360 Transformer is also a great way to control the temperature of your computer.

For this test, I chose to compare the HP Command Center software's Performance mode with HP's Recommended mode.

The purpose of this test is to compare the performance of the two modes, and also to see what level of performance can be achieved when the performance mode is turned on, and how it can help the user.

HP R20 in Recommended Mode

Revisiting the processor side of things, the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book is powered by an Intel 10th Generation Core i7-1065G7, with a quad-core, eight-thread specification. The real-world Cinebench R20 tested at 1337cb multi-core and 454cb single-core using HP's recommended settings #FormatImgID_14#, while the test scores with Performance Mode turned on were 1704cb multi-core and 456cb single-core.

The R20 in Performance Mode

From the two tests, the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book multi/single-core pressure processor performance is very good, when the performance mode is turned on after the multi-core boost is very obvious, which shows that when we need to multitasking when turning on the performance mode processor, it will have a better performance of computing, not due to the lack of computing power to slow down the process.

The next step was to run a stress test, which resulted in a relatively low average core temperature of 61 degrees for the i7-1065G7 in the HP Recommended Mode after nearly 20 minutes of stress testing. It can also be seen that HP Command Center helps the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book to make a balance between performance and power consumption and temperature, and under the premise of ensuring that it can meet the daily use of the machine, as far as possible, to keep the machine in a long period of time at high load to maintain relatively low power consumption and temperature, to improve the user experience.

The i7-1065G7's core temperature gauge reached 97 degrees when the performance mode was turned on, which is a relatively high temperature, but the performance improvement is also quite obvious.

Left: Recommended Mode Right: Performance Mode

When comparing PCMark 10 scores and monitoring data between recommended and performance modes, we found that not only the scores increased, but also the monitoring curve was higher than the average for every office-related test. This means that you will be able to enjoy the same level of performance as on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android devices.

In terms of battery life, the HP Spectre x360 Transformer notebook scored 8 hours and 25 minutes in PCMark10 Modern Office battery life mode at a room temperature of 22°, in a better battery life mode, connected to Wi-Fi, and with a brightness of 150 cd/m2 at full load. In actual use if it is light office basically can meet a day and a half of regular working hours.

On the whole, the power consumption is mainly affected by the high quality 4K screen. And HP's official labeling, if the FHD low-power screen, the battery life test can be up to 22 hours.

Summary:

As a high-end compact home product, the overall design of the HP Spectre x360 Transformer is increasingly in line with today's users' requirements for product appearance and quality.

From the looks of it, the HP Spectre x360 Transformer Book has a very high face value, and the workmanship is quite excellent, with good portability, it is definitely one of the few fine products in the current home book.

In particular, its hardware is equipped with a touch-enabled AMOLED screen and updated with this year's Intel's latest i7-1065G7 10th-generation processor, which is y optimized in terms of energy consumption and performance.

Of course, 4K AMOLED Anti-Reflection anti-glare screen is optional, but the service HP has done a full coverage, because for many people in the workplace for the computer's late maintenance is equally important, so for this HP has launched a "333" warranty service, that is, 3 years free of charge! Spare parts support + 3 years free engineer labor service + 3 years free service + 1 year accidental damage insurance, enough to eliminate the user's worries.