Hewlett-Packard has pulled back the curtains on what the company is calling its most premium and versatile PC yet. The HP Spectre x360 offers four usage modes for work, rest and play flexibility, its 13.3-inch screen is available at up to 2,560 x 1,440 pixel resolution and the 56 watt-hour battery is claimed good for up to 12.5 hours on a single charge.
The Windows 8.1 Spectre x360 features a 13.3-in WLED IPS touchscreen display panel in Full or Quad HD, depending on model selected, with a 1080p webcam module at the top. QHD models include something called Panel Self Refresh, which essentially only refreshes onscreen pixels when needed and holds static images on the display to save power.
It sports new 360 degree hinges that allow the new Spectre to be used like a traditional laptop or like a chunky tablet, with the touch display up top and the full-sized backlit keyboard below (in a similar way to HP's own 11.6-inch Pavilion x360 or Lenovo's Yoga model).
At 15.9 mm (0.6-in) thick, it's not quite as svelte as Samsung's impressive-looking Ativ Book 9, but is thinner than a 13-inch MacBook Air. Though it's heavier than both at 3.26 lb (1.48 kg).
Inside the milled aluminum chassis, HP is offering 5th gen Intel Core i5 and i7 processor options with integrated Intel HD graphics supported by up to 8 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of mSATA SSD storage. There's Bluetooth 4.0 and dual band 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless connectivity, with the latter being joined by a specially-tuned wireless driver that's been developed to improve performance on noisy networks.
In addition to three USB 3.0 ports, the new Spectre comes with HDMI and DisplayPort monitor or TV connections, though users can choose to take advantage of the built-in WiDi technology to wirelessly stream content to compatible devices.
The Spectre x360 is available direct from HP now, prices start at US$899.99.
An official first look at the new Spectre x360 is provided in the video below.
Source: HP
