The HP Spectre x360 14 is a meaningful upgrade to an already excellent convertible 2-in-1. With Intel Meteor Lake and AI, it represents a new class of laptop.
The HP Spectre x360 has for many years maintained a top spot for me as one of the best laptops. But over time, the design hasn’t changed all that much, with multiple years of small CPU bumps. All that’s changed with the new Spectre x360 14, though.
I was able to conduct an early review of the laptop, which made its debut at CES 2024. Sporting a slightly larger display, a smoother aesthetic, and a new haptic feedback touchpad, there’s nothing here but improvements. Everything considered, HP’s Spectre x360 14 is going to be hard to beat in 2024.Specs and configurations
Pricing is still being finalized, but as of the writing of this review, the Spectre x360 14’s starting price is $1,650. Presumably, that’s for the entry-level configuration of an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. My review configuration with a Core Ultra 7 155H, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD is $1,970, which would be a very reasonable price for a heavily upgraded machine.
These prices are subject to change when the laptop starts rolling out, but unless they drop considerably, the Spectre x360 14 is solidly in premium laptop territory.Design and ports
From a distance, the Spectre x360 14 looks a lot like its predecessor. Up close, though, it’s a different story. The notched display corners remain, with one housing a Thunderbolt 4 port and the other a 3.5mm audio jack, retaining the Spectre’s most iconic — and convenient — design element.
But the chassis edges have been smoothed out and now carry the same color as the rest of the chassis, specifically Nightfall black, Slate blue, or Sahara silver. Those changes create a more minimalist aesthetic that I find even more attractive than the previous generation. You won’t mistake the Spectre x360 14 for a MacBook Pro, but I think it looks just as good. The Spectre also looks great with the display open, with thin speaker grills flanking a spacious, off-color keyboard with large lettering and a large haptic touchpad that takes up the available space on the palm rest.
The Spectre x360 14 also retains the line’s usual excellent build quality, with no bending, flexing, or twisting in the CNC-machined lid and chassis. The hinge isn’t quite as smooth as Apple’s or the dual-clutch version Dell uses on its XPS laptops, but then the Spectre x360 14 is a convertible 2-in-1 and requires a different mechanism to support the full 360-degree rotation.
Speaking of that, the bottom display bezel is larger to accommodate a 2-in-1’s flexibility, giving the Spectre a slightly less modern appearance.
Interestingly, despite boasting a display that’s half an inch larger, the new model is only slightly wider than the previous model. It’s equally deep and thin, and it weighs just a few ounces more. That makes it just as portable while offering significantly more screen real estate. The MacBook Pro 14 is around the same width and depth, but it’s thinner and heavier. That makes the MacBook Pro feel denser in hand.
Connectivity is OK for a 14-inch laptop, with a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports and a single USB-A port to go with a 3.5mm audio jack. Some 14-inch laptops, like the MacBook Pro 14, also include an HDMI port, and the new Spectre drops the microSD card reader that was in the previous model. That’s disappointing. Wireless connectivity, though, is an improvement thanks to the laptop’s Meteor Lake chipset, with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 to go with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.Keyboard and touchpad
The Spectre x360 14’s keyboard has large keycaps and plenty of key spacing, and the switches are light and clicky. They feel less snappy than past versions, though, so I wasn’t quite as enamored with them. Apple’s Magic Keyboard remains the best, and I’d rank Dell’s XPS keyboard ahead of this one as well. It’s still a very good keyboard, just not as good as I remember.
In a move that’s just starting to gain momentum industrywide, HP has finally included a haptic touchpad on the Spectre. I’ve used a few haptic touchpads on other Windows laptops, and none have been as good as Apple’s Force Touch version. They’ve been less responsive with their fabricated clicks, and some have had issues holding onto clicks too long, causing an unnatural feel and inadvertent screen interactions.
The Spectre x360 14’s implementation, though, is almost as good as Apple’s. It’s larger than the touchpad on the MacBook Pro 14, surprisingly, and it feels just as natural. In this regard, the Spectre is the first Windows laptop that rivals Apple. The only thing missing from HP’s touchpad is Apple’s Force Click feature, which adds a convenient means to quickly access additional functionality.
Of course, the Spectre x360 14 is a convertible 2-in-1, so it also has a touch display with active pen support.
