Just one day after Microsoft took the covers off its Surface Pro 4, HP has shown off its own convertible, the Spectre X2 (in no way related to the James Bond movie). The new 12in tablet-cum-laptop is the company’s thinnest and lightest to date at 8mm when in tablet mode and 13.15mm thick when attached to its keyboard. As a tablet, it weighs 840g, increasing to 1.22kg when used as a laptop.
Much like the Surface Pro, the Spectre X2 has a built-in kickstand that extends out of the back of the tablet. The U-shaped kickstand allows you to recline the display all the way back to 150 degrees, which is decently versatile based on your use scenario. The display has a 1,920x1,080 resolution.
Powering the Spectre X2 is Intel’s 6th generation Core m processors aided by its fanless design. You can configure up to a 256GB SSD for storage, so you shouldn’t be short on space for your applications and media. Expect either 4GB or 8GB of RAM depending on your configuration.
HP is promising around 10 hours of battery life in tablet mode, but hasn’t released any figures on the Spectre X2’s stamina as a laptop aside from there being a 42-watt hour battery built into the attachable keyboard. The kickstand design has allowed for a bigger battery to be fitted, however, so hopefully this means decent battery life.
The X2’s touch panel is optically bonded to the display, meaning the pixels are closer to the surface of the display and increasing brightness. Panel Self Refresh technology allows portions of the PC to power down when nothing on the screen is moving, which should help with longevity. Again, I won’t know what this means in reality until I get my hands on one for review.
HP is making a big point about its keyboard, which has 1.5mm travel and full-size keys. Hopefully, this translates to a comfortable typing experience. The bottom of the keyboard is made from woven fabric while the top is finished in aluminium. There are two USB Type-C connections, both of which can be used for charging or connecting to an external display. Handily, HP has thrown in a USB Type C to older USB 3 Type A adaptor in the box, so you’ll still be able to connect older peripherals and flash drives.
An HP Active Pen is also included and a 4G modem is built in. You even get 250MB of data each month for free, although you’ll likely need a more substantial allowance if you do want to do any mobile browsing aside from checking the occasional email.
Expect the Spectre X2 to be available in the UK sometime in October and starting at £849, which is roughly around what we expect the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 to be but with the notable bonus that the keyboard is included. The higher-end Surface Pro 4 options are better specified, however, with Skylake-based Core i5 and i7 processor options, as well as a higher-resolution screen across the board.
HP Envy Curved All-in-one and other announcements
Aside from the Spectre X2, HP has been busy with plenty of other device announcements and refreshes. Perhaps the most interesting of its launches is a 34in all-in-one with a curved screen. HP claims it's the first 34in AIO with a curved screen, although Samsung beat the firm to the punch earlier this year with a curved 27in AIO. Specs wise, the 34in Envy is at the absolute top of the range, although exact components will vary by retailer and region.
Expect 6th-gen Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and dedicated graphics from Nvidia in the form of the GeForce GTX 960A. We've not seen an Nvidia graphics card with the 'A' suffix before, but we can presume it fits somewhere between the standard desktop GTX 960 and the GTX 960M you'll find in laptops. This should make it a decent chip for gaming, although whether it will manage to power games at the screen's full 2880x1620 "WQHD+" resolution remains to be seen. That gives it a 21:9 aspect ratio, putting it into the ultra-wide category.
8GB or 16GB of RAM will be provided, with 128GB SSD and a hard disk with up to 2TB of capacity. It'll also have an Intel RealSense camera, which can be used to make (sometimes) accurate scans of real-world objects and can also be used to log in with facial recognition via Windows Hello. The price? A cool £2,000 for the 34in model, although smaller 23.8in and 27in devices will also be available from £1200 and £1600.
