How Did HP Fail This Hard? - HP Spectre x360 2019 Review #Helpful Post

you know I like my razor blade stealth

and all but I'm also a giant nerd and

always drooling over the next big thing

so I wouldn't mind upgrading it

and since razor wasn't able to scratch

that itch with their last blade stealth

I've been looking elsewhere for my

greener pastures now the surface laptop

- it's nice but I really want

Thunderbolt the MacBook Pro is Paige's

screenshot Oh

oh you're in trouble ya know Dell XPS 13

well you know what that one's close it's

definitely on my list of things to try

but HP I've been both hearing and even

experiencing really great things about

their x360 line for quite some time in

fact last time I looked at one two years

ago I called it the best two-in-one yet

but now that I have the 2019 versions of

the 13 and 15 inch spectre x360 s in my

hands it's clear to me that my search

isn't over yet because I wouldn't really

recommend buying either of these

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now the non-square corners of the new

x360 lineup might be a little bit

polarizing but for my part at least on

the 13-inch anyway I actually kind of

like it it's unique and I mean honestly

the look of this thing overall is

decidedly premium like it's it's almost

screaming for that first big bonus check

that a young professional takes home

from their first job out of school on

the right camper you'll find a

Thunderbolt 3 port with fast charging

nice so far so good

and on the left is the power button

where we actually encounter the first

problem at least with the 15 inch

version with the power cable plugged in

and pointing backwards you know where it

would normally go you actually can't

easily reach the power button like it's

not impossible and HP's rationale is

that it allows you easy access to the

power button in either laptop or tablet

mode but they also could have placed it

literally anywhere else along this edge

or oh I don't know this edge and it also

would have been accessible and avoided

the power cable issue fortunately what

helps make up for this is the decent i/o

on both models they managed to squeeze a

full-sized USB type-a onto the 13-inch

along with type-c Thunderbolt 3 micro SD

and a headphone jack and the 15 inch

even gets a full size HDMI port on top

of all of that and I mean just you know

what I actually love the style of these

things they managed to look really slim

and sleek while still having full sized

ports and being eye catching without

ending up being like tacky or gaudy

unfortunately while the look is very

premium the build quality is only good

like it's better than a typical and

nasai notebook but it's not on the same

level as the likes of Dell Microsoft or

Apple the aluminum chassis is rigid but

not stopped the aluminum chassis is

rigid but not

white is rigid as its carbon fiber and

magnesium counterparts and there's some

mild flex in the palm area and it's got

a screen that is wobblier than my weird

uncle on a Friday night

well any night performance-wise though

there's some good news

both of these laptops are standouts the

13-inch has a dual fan cooling design

that allows its quad-core processor to

hang with the likes of the XPS 13

putting light video editing or photo

editing easily within reach and for

those needing a bit more power stepping

up to the 15-inch looks like a great way

to go

rocking a 6 core core i7 8750 H and an

NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti the larger of the

spectres is able to hang with the XPS 15

for professional level performance or

even light gaming is what I would say if

this display here didn't have some of

the raunchiest pixel response times that

I've seen in the last five years like

seriously

I bet the camera could pick this up no

problem without even switching to

high-speed I'm talking 30 FPS mode just

moving the mouse pointer around on the

desktop makes it look like I've got

pointer trails enabled and that is on

top of the display having a little more

input lag than I'm used to

now neither of these things are really

noticeable on the 13-inch so that's well

I don't know I don't want to say good

because you don't really get any bonus

points for meeting basic expectations

but what is noticeable on both models

are the top and the bottom bezels

everywhere else in the industry

HP's competitors are moving either to

slim bezel 16 by 9 displays or taller

aspect ratios so that mobile users can

make the most out of the screen area HP

seems to have clearly missed the memo

here also very dated the 360 degree

hinge design this is a situation where

HP basically shot themselves in the foot

by creating maybe the best convertible

design ever with the Spector folio I was

really hoping that with this complete

redesign of the X 360 we would get that

hinge with a quad-core processor and

without the polarizing leather

but no it's just a regular convertible

laptop with a wobbly hinge and those

little feet that get in the way of the

left control and the right arrow key

back to the displays though response

times aside I do have some good things

to say here both of our models are

equipped with bright view displays that

feature HDR support along with excellent

color accuracy and contrast and I'm a

pretty big fan of their sure view

displays as well now these two units

don't have this function but basically

it's a toggleable privacy display which

is great if you want to keep your

information private in a public place

and as far as I know HP is the only one

that offers that function are they yeah

I'm not aware of anyone else you know

what just correct me in the comments if

I'm wrong anyway they also don't just

look good they feel good too with

excellent touch support along with a

really great drawing and writing

experience coming from the included pen

something that isn't bundled with

basically every other laptop on the

market but now we've come to the point

in this review where I need to address a

time in the past when I was wrong or

more accurately I was being facetious

I said that the pen holder on the

Spector folio was so bad that maybe they

just shouldn't include one at all well

no no it turns out that this having

literally no way to attach the pen to

your system at all is in fact worse

something is better than nothing

so okay HP you win sort of the webcam

falls considerably short of the surface

laptop but fortunately in this massive

forehead they were at least able to fit

Windows hello facial recognition which

saves HP from having to listen to me

complain about the location of this

fingerprint sensor why isn't it on the

power button oh wait I guess they didn't

get saved from it at all I did still

complain about it that's a shame

anyway you don't have to use it the

speaker grille placement above the

keyboard looks really nice and this

themselves are pretty good but while

that lost keyboards face at the top

isn't a problem for the 15 on the 13 it

means that anyone with big hands is

gonna end up resting uncomfortably on

this actually surprisingly sharp edge

what makes this more frustrating is that

otherwise this is quite a good keyboard

the keystrokes are long and quiet

and although the feel might not be quite

as crisp as the surface laptop I still

really appreciate what HP has done with

the switches with me being able to get

up to full speed very quickly what is

simply unacceptable though is the

trackpad and that's what actually

inspired the title of this video it's

the same unit on both models which means

that it's a pretty good size on that 13

inch and they both have very serious

palm rejection and acceleration issues

for some reason HP has opted to use

synaptics as touchpad drivers instead of

the windows precision ones and the

experience is just awful like here

what's this if I move slowly close to

the edge it's actually several

centimeters of movement before the

trackpad even registers my finger being

there it's so bad that when I first used

this machine I assumed it was broken and

that we would have to delay our review

so we could wait to swap it out for

another unit but then both of them

behaved in exactly the same way now as

it turns out this dead zone can be tuned

in the synaptic software but then you

get palm rejection issues because that's

how it does it and it also turns out

that other laptops do have a similar

dead zone like on the surface laptop it

turns out there is roughly a centimeter

on either side that isn't immediately

activated but the thing is that between

Alex and I we've been using the surface

laptop razor blade stealth many other

laptops for years and just like never

noticed it

whereas on these HP's it was apparent to

me

within about 30 seconds I was like

something is wrong oh it's like not

working because it's a full two and a

half centimeters on both sides so since

what the software is set to out of the

box does appear to be the better

solution compared to turning palm

rejection off at all the spectre x360

2019 ends up with the dubious honour of

tying the msi gs70 5 for worst trackpad

i've seen in years something that is

particularly unacceptable on a non

gaming device where you aren't expected

to regularly plug in a mouse speaking of

plugging in one area where the x360

13-inch really shines is in the battery

life department with its 60 watt hour

battery it delivers some truly

incredible time away from the wall after

a full 8 hour workday writing this

script with no plugging in the x3 6013

it still had 70% of its battery left

when it was time to head home

as for the 15-inch model well it's no

slouch either lasting through the

workday handily but it's 84 watt hour

battery can't quite compete with the 97

watt hour one in the Dell XPS 15 bottom

line time then overall neither the x360

13 or 15 inch did it for me on paper it

should be a pretty clear decision to

take this over something like a surface

laptop - it's got better battery life

better performance better connectivity

and better security features all for a

very similar price and it does feel like

HP has spent a lot of time working on

the details of this machine kind of like

there's a laptop design rubric created

by a consumer study that the engineers

have made sure that they get top marks

on the only problem is that when you

take a couple steps back from these

things and just use them the issues that

we've talked about especially the

trackpad are really hard to ignore all I

can hope for is that this is something

that HP can fix through software updates

and

redesign and funny funny yeah or that

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