Review: HP Spectre x2

beanhubbleday · December 17, 2016

Hey all,

I recently bought myself a HP Spectre X2 for £649. I bought myself the 256GB SSD model opposed to the 128GB model as the price difference wasn't much, I thought I'd treat myself as I've been looking for a nice, lightweight, versatile and not-too-expensive laptop/tablet alternative to the Surface family for a while.

Here's where I bought it from : http://store.hp.com/UKStore/merch/Product.aspx?id=P0T70EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB

So I logged into the HP website to find it was discounted by £150, well at least here in the UK it was. So orignally the price should've been £800 which for the product, I feel was very reasonable.

Okay, let's cut to it...

Pros:

- I ordered it off of HP directly as the offer was best there. -£150 off of the RRP I ordered it at around 10:00am on Friday the 16th and it arrived just before 4:00pm on Saturday 17th, so extremely fast shipping.

- The unboxing experience was amazing. All the packaging was clean and the product was well protected and all of the boxes etc.. were very appealing to the eye.

- The OS was easy to setup and the laptop setup was minimal, it came with some battery life - enough to do basic setup, the manuals were very thorough and I only had to read them so I could figure out the functions of the buttons on the stylus.

- I love the mechanism for releasing the kickstand, it is very smart looking.

- I love the detachable keyboard and was the reason I specifically looked for one without the keyboard so I can use it as a sole tablet every so often.

- The keyboard firmly attaches tot he base of the screen and then the bottom edge of the screen if pushed slightly upwards.

- The keyboard is well lit and the button presses are very soft. They keys are well spaced also.

- The general layout of the buttons etc.. is good and easy to grasp.

- The keyboard back material kind of feels like suede and is a nice touch, also offers (some) protection for the screen.

- The battery lasts for a long while on balanced and charges very quickly.

- The sound quality is amazing and the image is very good too on the screen.

Cons:

- USB Ports, there is two type C ports, one type c to normal USB adapter is included, however there are two type C ports, maybe they should include two adapters?

- The release mechanism button for the kickstand is hard to push down, I get it's probably over time going to get easier to do so but it feels like you're going to break it if you push too hard currently.

- I think a good feature would be a magnetic strip on the stylus and on the side of the Spectre so that they can stick to each other, like the surface does.

- The PC did bluescreen after I had completed the setup, it was nothing major. The display driver failed but I haven't had this repeated since.

Overall, it is a great product and I would recommend it to anybody looking for a small, light and compact laptop/tablet.

Drop me an email if you would like to know anymore details (jack@hubbleday.co.uk)

Thanks for reading, please leave feedback.

Should I do more of these?

Peace - JH

Edited December 17, 2016 by JackHubbleday
Adding more information :)

December 17, 2016

18 minutes ago, JackHubbleday said:

The keyboard is well lit and the button presses are very soft. They keys are well spaced also

Soft isn't that good of a thing IMO. I would die if I had to use one of those keyboards. Good to hear that you like it though!

ThinkWithPortals · December 17, 2016

4 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

that's a good thing? #MXBLUEMASTERRACE

MX Blue user reporting in! If it doesn't feel like I'm breaking little bits of glass every time I press down a key, I aint using it!

On topic: excellent review. Detailed, well-written and covers every aspect of the device.

beanhubbleday · December 18, 2016

9 hours ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

that's a good thing? #MXBLUEMASTERRACE

Yes, I love it

9 hours ago, lilbman said:

Soft isn't that good of a thing IMO. I would die if I had to use one of those keyboards. Good to hear that you like it though!

Thanks, each to their own I guess

9 hours ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

MX Blue user reporting in! If it doesn't feel like I'm breaking little bits of glass every time I press down a key, I aint using it!

On topic: excellent review. Detailed, well-written and covers every aspect of the device.

LOL, thanks for the feedback though dude