This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
As an owner of a 2016 Spectre x360, I thought it was time to upgrade. I purchased the 14 inch Tiger Lake Spectre x360-14 on November 13, 2020. I have been very pleased with the 2020 model thus far.
Size: I found my 2016 Spectre to be an ideal size and weight compared to any prior laptop I had owned. This model raises the bar. With a 14 inch diagonally measured screen, the 2020 model laptop is actually slightly smaller than the 2016 model. Bigger screen, smaller overall size. How did they do that? It’s all in reducing the size of the screen bezels, that wasted space around the borders of the screen, which are very slim in the 2020 Spectre. I really wanted more screen space, but would not consider a 15 inch screen because of the size and weight. I didn’t think it could get any better than my 2016 Spectre, but it does.
Battery life: This is the weak point of the 2020 Spectre x360-14 for some people. The OLED screen extracts a big penalty on battery life over an IPS screen. I got about 5.5 hours with the screen on the entire time, web browsing, etc. At 19% remaining, Battery Saver kicked in and reduced screen brightness. It seemed like the processor slowed also as it was not as responsive, but still quite useable. The Spectre lasted another 40 minutes until at 7% remaining, a popup said to turn off or connect the power supply which I did. So a little under six hours of use with the screen on. Unless I’m on an airplane, I generally use a laptop with the power supply attached, so I don’t see this as huge limitation for me.
Keyboard: The keyboard is much better than the 2016 model. Keys are not as slippery, much better marked (can’t really read the symbols on the silver keys on the 2016). The 2020 model has larger markings, larger keys and a better feel overall. Keyboard illumination from back lit LEDs is superb. On 2016 Spectre, there is one mode of illumination that provides some backlight but it is quite uneven on the keyboard and stays on all the time when activated. On the 2020 Spectre, illumination is even, with two levels of brightness, and after about 8 seconds, it turns off if no keys are touched.
Touchpad: The 2020 Spectre’s touchpad is a huge improvement over 2016. This was a weak point of the 2016 model for me. The earlier touchpad was just “inaccurate” in that the slightest touches would move the cursor when unintended. Sensitivity adjustments never worked. With the 2020 model, the touchpad works like it should. I was surprised to find it uses an Elan driver as some reviews indicated it used Microsoft Precision drivers which appear to be the best.
Screen: The best feature of this laptop is the 3:2 screen ratio. You quickly realize how much more enjoyable and less tiring using this screen layout is compared to a 16:9. The only thing a 16:9 screen is good for is watching movies. If you use a laptop for anything else, you will appreciate this change to the original laptop screen format. It simply takes less eye and head movement and scrolling to acquire the same information on a 3:2 screen than on a 16:9 screen if viewing text and images. This alone is a reason to buy this computer. I think we will see this become the standard laptop screen format very soon.
The OLED display is quite good. I can see an improvement in resolution between this 3K version and my 2016 FHD IPS screen. Whites are truly white, not gray as on the 2016 model. Text is clearer. I have not played with the auto adjustment features yet. It’s currently turned off. The screen brightness can be set so high you can read a book from the light it produces, whereas the 2016 display brightness was typically set at almost 100% to produce a useable image indoors. Color rendition appears to be quite good, though even with HP Display Control app set at “Native – No optimization applied” I thought the color saturation was a bit too high for natural looking color. Other modes on Display Control produce even higher color saturation. There are a lot of options for adjusting the screen color and brightness. It will take some time to find the right one(s) for me. I have not noticed any of the grid lines that some users report. Overall, another major improvement over the 2016 model.
Speed: What can I say, it’s faster than my four year old Spectre, which I found adequate for word processing, web browsing, etc. But the 2020 Tiger Lake model is clearly more responsive. What counts for me is how it performs on the tasks I use it for. I don’t play computers games, and would not expect this laptop (without a dedicated GPU) to be adequate for hardcore gamers, but for my use, it is more than adequate. Just FYI, Best Buy’s Specification for this laptop reports that it uses 3200 MHz memory. This is incorrect. The installed memory is actually two Micron Technology 8 Gig RAM modules of 4267 MHz memory.
Heat: Yes, the laptop gets warm on your lap, but never uncomfortably so. I would say it’s the same as the 2016 Spectre, but obviously with a much faster processor, better display and all the other improvements. I never heard any fan noise.
Sound: I found the sound quality good, not great. Bear in mind if you are listening to things like YouTube, audio quality of the original media varies considerably. There’s a lot of bad audio on the internet, and no speakers can improve something that was poorly recorded. But for content that was properly recorded, I found the sound quite good, and volume levels adequate.
Signon: Windows Hello facial recognition works flawlessly and instantly. It took about a minute to set it up. I was not offered the option to store a fingerprint, probably because I had setup the Hello and PIN options, but I’ll probably teach it my fingerprint just in case.
Power supply: The 2020 Spectre comes with a 65 watt HP USB C Power Delivery charger, but fortunately the laptop can use any USB C charger that produces at least that minimum power. The 2016 Spectre would give you a pop up if you connected anything other than HP’s charger telling you it recommended you use the factory charger. That was a total annoyance, even though it would still charge with non-HP chargers. No silly warnings on the 2020 model. This allows me to use a dual port Aukey charger that charges both my phone and the Spectre at the same time with a single charger.
WiFi: Not much to say here other than the WiFi gave equal or slightly better performance compared to other WiFi devices on my home network. I tend to use wired gigabit Ethernet (with an Ethernet to USB C adapter that I purchased – not included with the Spectre) for the best speeds, but on both 802.11 AC and AX access points, the WiFi speeds were very close to what I measured on wired ethernet tests. I noticed that the Spectre detected an AX access point and gave a pop up when connected to that device alerting me that it had established an AX (WiFi 6) connection.
Webcam: I have not tested this. Other reviewers are critical of the picture quality in the sense that the 2020 Spectre’s webcam is no better than that on webcams from a few years ago. That’s probably true. It’s just a 720p webcam. If you want a better webcam, buy a better webcam and plug it into a USB port.
Overall impression: The 2020 Spectre x360-14 is a superb laptop. I rarely used the tablet mode on my 2016 model, but I still have not found a better laptop for my needs. It’s fast, lightweight, has an excellent screen and keyboard, more storage than most people will ever use and simply meets all my needs. Yes, there are cheaper laptops, but my four year old 2016 Spectre is still working quite well, and I expect to get at least another four years from the 2020 model. The 3:2 ratio screen really is reason enough to justify an upgrade. You simply have to spend about an hour with this format to realize how much better this screen ratio is compared to the 16:9 screen format that has been the only choice for many years. Over the years, I have used laptops by Dell, Lenovo and HP (including some designed for business customers). Some of the business models might be slightly more robust in terms of construction, but none had the same combination of features and performance that the 2020 Spectre x360-14 offers. Highly recommended.
Price match warning: A week after I purchased the laptop, Best Buy’s website showed a significant price reduction over what I had just paid. My phone call to Best Buy’s 800 number resulted in a polite: we can’t price match this item. I was unable to get any explanation why since I was well within the return period and the lower price was from Best Buy itself. I went to the local BB store where I had purchased the laptop. The helpful employee said when he tried to process a price match, the computer said it was ineligible because it was part of a bundle. I explained that it was not a bundle, but Best Buy had offered a slight discount on a Logitech mouse and a Microsoft 365 subscription if purchased at the same time as the laptop. (This same offer applies to almost all BB laptops.) So the $35 or so I saved by buying the accessories at the same time I purchased the laptop had made me ineligible for a refund of a couple of hundred dollars because Best Buy considered this a bundle purchase. Best Buy needs to fix this. I was ready to return the computer on the last day of the return period and purchase another one when it went on sale, but a very helpful assistant manager in the store was able to work it out to complete the price match. Until Best Buy fixes this, I would forego any accessories purchased on the same order as the laptop.
