It seems like laptops with 3:2 screen ratios are officially a trend. The HP Spectre x360 14 is the company’s first Spectre two-in-one with a taller display than the 16:9 widescreen displays you’re probably used to seeing. Acer has already released a laptop and a two-in-one with 3:2 displays and, Thursday Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Go with the same screen ratio, which it has used on past Surface models too. While widescreens are nice for entertainment, the 3:2 ratio is roughly the same as a standard A4 sheet of paper and has about 20% more vertical viewing space than a 16:9 display.
The Spectre x360 14 has a 13.5-inch touchscreen with a 3,000×2,000-pixel resolution LCD, and HP will have an OLED option as well. The display supports MPP 2.0 pens so you can write and draw on it. And it also has a new Auto Color display control that will automatically change the color space depending on what’s on the screen, e.g. DCI-P3 when watching a movie or Adobe RGB when editing photos or printing, HP says.
The premium two-in-one has other smart features that it worked on with Intel’s help as part of the chipmaker’s Evo platform. Those include things like intelligent noise cancellation so you can be better heard on video calls; automatically adjusting performance based on the software you’re using and the laptop’s placement; and battery management, including in-bag detection to prevent overheating.
The Evo platform means the Spectre x360 14 runs on the latest 11th-gen Intel Core processors (Tiger Lake) with discrete-level integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics. Other features include Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, up to 17 hours of battery life, Thunderbolt 4 and a new “all-in-one” keyboard that incorporates the power button, a privacy shutter button for the camera, a mic mute button and a fingerprint reader.
The HP Spectre x360 14 (center) has the height of the 15.6-inch Spectre x360 (right) and the width of the 13.3-inch.
HP
The HP Spectre x360 14 is expected to be available in October from HP starting at $1,199. It will also be available in November from Best Buy in-store and online. That price converts to around £930 or AU$1,670. HP is also bringing Tiger Lake chips to the 13.3-inch Spectre x360 in October, too, with the same starting price, and a 5G version of the tiny two-in-one is expected early next year.
If you’d like something slightly more affordable, the latest Envy x360 13 two-in-one and Envy 13 laptop are also being updated with Intel’s 11th-gen processors starting at $949 and $899, respectively.
