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HP's Spectre x360 13 Promises Up To 16 Hours of Battery Life in a Faster, Cooler Design (pcworld.com)

Posted by msmash on from the new-offering dept.

From a report: The HP Spectre x360 13 is already one of the most popular 360-degree convertible laptops, and it's about to get faster and cooler, thanks in part to Intel's latest 8th-generation Core CPUs. Announced Wednesday, the refreshed Spectre x360 13 also offers greatly improved thermals and other nice tweaks. The Spectre x360 13 will ship on October 29 with a starting price of $1,150, including a color-matched pen. Best Buy will begin taking pre-orders October 4. Multiple configurations will be available, but we're listing below the specs we were given for the higher-end model ae013dx: CPU: Intel 8th-generation Core i7-8550U, a quad-core CPU with a 1.8GHz base clock and turbo boost up to 4GHz. Core i5 CPUs will also be available. RAM: 16GB LPDDR3 SDRAM. Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD.

45 comments

  1. Which OS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Nice (awesome) hardware.
    I would rather prefer to buy it with a Libre operative system tought

    1. Re:Which OS? by tbuddy · · Score: 2

      Windows 10 with Windows Ink support. I wouldn't expect the pen to do much on Linux/BSD/etc due to odd drivers.

    2. Re:Which OS? by imrahilj · · Score: 2

      Does HP offer a windows-less version of most or any laptops? It's been a while since I shopped for a laptop, I seem to remember Dell offering no OS as an option.

    3. Re:Which OS? by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      You can probably run NetBSD on it. It will be like with some of the Apple Powerbooks, though, meaning you'll only be able to run NetBSD on it over a serial console because there's no graphics support. The serial port you can create by plugging in a USB adapter. Of course, the USB adapter won't be supported during installation, so you'll need to install the OS on the drive on some other machine, then move it to the HP machine (after changing the init script to go to the serial console, of course, of course....)

    4. Re:Which OS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dell offers pre-installed Linux. Strangely I just checked and the XPS13 which was the laptop they used to offer it on doesn't seem to be available in the states. You can find some info from blogs about project sputnik. There's also System76 if you are based in the US. With Dell the experience overall has been clear for me. They came and fixed hardare problems (with wrong firmware) which would never have been fixed if I had bought a laptop with Windows. Definitely recommend strongly getting a laptop with Linux pre-installed if you are doing serious work on a Linux based laptop.

    5. Re:Which OS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Strangely I just checked and the XPS13 which was the laptop they used to offer it on doesn't seem to be available in the states.

      Tell a lie, they seem to be avaliable on special offer.

    6. Re: Which OS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, several of HPâ(TM)s workstation class laptops support Linux out of the box. Many of their consumer models do as well but future support can very device to device.

    7. Re:Which OS? by imrahilj · · Score: 1

      This reminds me of some of my experiences installing Linux on EFI systems.

  2. Isn't saying... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Isn't saying "The HP Spectre x360 13 is already one of the most popular 360-degree convertible laptops" kinda like saying "The Tesla Model X is already one of the most popular vehicles with gull-wing doors"? I mean, 360-degree convertible laptops aren't exactly sweeping the market, just like I'd guess that the Model X's biggest competition in the gull-wing niche of the market is probably the 35 year-old Delorean DMC-12.

    If your device is actually popular, then say so. Don't attach caveats. But if you're saying you have one of the most popular devices among those with an unpopular feature, what you're really telling us is that you're willing to lie with statistics in an effort to make an unpopular device sound popular.

    1. Re:Isn't saying... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I mean, 360-degree convertible laptops aren't exactly sweeping the market

      That's not quite fair. Gullwing doors are very specialised and serve no real purpose. 360-degree convertible laptops on the other hand are just that, tablet convertibles. There are a surprisingly large number of them. Often you'll confuse them for a normal laptop.

      How many car companies are currently offering gullwing doors? Is it one or can you find another example?
      By comparison pretty much every laptop company offers 360-degree convertibles somewhere in their lineup.

      It would be better to compare it to actual convertible cars.

    2. Re:Isn't saying... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      How many car companies are currently offering gullwing doors? Is it one or can you find another example?

      Mercedes and Pagani both had models with gull-wing doors in the last few years. Not sure if they're still current, however, much the same as I'm not sure which, if any, of the other PC manufacturers are currently offering laptops that can flip around like this.

    3. Re:Isn't saying... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gullwing doors are very specialised and serve no real purpose.

      Gullwing doors allow a vehicle to be wider than usual and still have doors that can be opened in a normal-sized parking space when other vehicles are adjacent.

    4. Re:Isn't saying... by haruchai · · Score: 1

      Given that the Model X is the only production car ever made with double-hinged doors that can open both horizontally & vertically at the same time, it has NO competition and the doors are more properly referred to as "falconwing"

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    5. Re:Isn't saying... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      Given that the Model X is the only production car ever made with double-hinged doors that can open both horizontally & vertically at the same time, [...] the doors are more properly referred to as "falconwing"

      Ah, fair enough. I forgot that detail and now stand corrected. Thanks for the response!

  3. No thanks by DarkRookie · · Score: 0

    An HP system with Win 10. No thanks.

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
  4. With all the Bullshit HP pulls with their printers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With all the Bullshit HP pulls with their printers, I wouldn't touch one of their laptops or any of their technology.

  5. 1st week? 1st month? 1st Year? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How long can it keep its promise?

  6. What is the point of this article? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Any new tech here? What exactly is supposed to be interesting in this article?

  7. It is still a plain puny 60kw/H battery by fubarrr · · Score: 1

    I don't see how can they squeeze more hours out of the machine while not having a lower idle TDP cpu or a bigger battery.

  8. The 8th Gen Intel CPUs might be interesting by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Intel's turned the i3's into i5s and i5s into i7s. They've shifted the entire product line in response to Ryzen from AMD. For the first time in a decade we're going to see significantly more performance on the lower end. Now if nVidia could get their 1050 laptop chipset down in price you might start seeing sub-$600 gaming laptops. Plus the lower power draw means they might not burn out in a year.

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    1. Re:The 8th Gen Intel CPUs might be interesting by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Plus the lower power draw means they might not burn out in a year.

      A comment brought to you from 1999. Seriously, has a CPU been capable of burning itself out since the Athlon 800?

      It may burn out your battery, or burn a hole in your wallet if you leave it on all day and pay for electricity in Hawaii, but TPD doesn't have much correlation to reliability unless you're running your system seriously out of spec, like without a fan.

    2. Re:The 8th Gen Intel CPUs might be interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, has a CPU been capable of burning itself out since the Athlon 800?

      Yup! And they're likely to be AMD. That's not a coincidence.

  9. Oooooh by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 2

    "...with a starting price of $1,150, including a color-matched pen."

    Well if it comes with a color-matched pen, sign my skanky ass up! Hell, I'll take two!

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:Oooooh by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Hell, I'll take two!

      Careful, this is HP we're talking about. A replacement pen will cost an additional $1,149.

    2. Re:Oooooh by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      The pen will be $10. A bottle of ink will be $1,139.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  10. Re:Niggers aren't people by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    You're not helping.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  11. DDR3? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did we all time travel back to 2014?

    1. Re:DDR3? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can I also get a GTX750 with that?

  12. Imagine. by dicobalt · · Score: 1

    What if PC makers threw off the obsession with thin and fragile and made laptops as thick as old laptops with a nice big honking battery? You could set off on a trip and not need to recharge until you reach your destination. You could game for an entire flight. You could forget about hauling around external battery packs. You could stop worrying that the razor thin plastic is going to crack open. Nah, thin and light, gotta be trendy.

    1. Re:Imagine. by iTrawl · · Score: 1

      [...] laptops as thick as old laptops with a nice big honking battery

      Would a chunky Dell XPS fall into that category?

      You could set off on a trip and not need to recharge until you reach your destination. You could game for an entire flight. You could forget about hauling around external battery packs. You could stop worrying that the razor thin plastic is going to crack open. Nah, thin and light, gotta be trendy.

      I don't have a Dell XPS, but I've seen one once, and did a google on battery life just now and it seems to fit the bill, more or less - depends on how long your flight is, really.

      I'm mainly where a Dell XPS stands in regards to your wish, as a benchmark.

      --
      "Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
    2. Re:Imagine. by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      Because most people don't need anywhere near that amount of battery life. As long as it lasts the day, you can just plug it in as you sleep. Most people don't do more than a few hours on the battery in a day. Most people just cart them back and forth between home and work, and plug them in when actually using them. The main market for people who need extended battery life are students who often can't find a spot to plug in for every class. But they don't have much money to be spending on laptops with 48 hour battery life. A lot of schools do have places to plug in now as they realize that students can't afford a laptop that lasts all day.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    3. Re:Imagine. by iTrawl · · Score: 1

      Actually, scratch that. It looks like you can get a slim laptop with huge battery life (and probably performance too) these days. Dude... I've been living under a rock. Last time I googled for "long battery life laptop" they defined "long" as 4-6 hours.

      --
      "Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
    4. Re:Imagine. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You clearly have been living under a rock. Go see what a Dell XPS looks like these days.

  13. Spectre ? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

    It sounds like the evil criminal organization from some old comic book.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  14. These are actually nice computers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Used both the 13 and 15 inch models. They are well designed for Windows machines. Despite the already full blast level of snarky comments here you should check it out if you are shopping for a new machine.

    One issue I had is that even though UHD screens have been around for a while, Windows is still scaling everything and thus some programs don't look as great. It's not all Microsoft's fault, there are still plenty of HD screens around and not as many UHD yet. And software developers for Windows are notorious for never updating software or slowly adopting new standards.

  15. Nobody wants big and thick anymore ..... by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    You still had almost nothing but huge slabs as "gaming laptops" until VERY recently because they couldn't pack a high end graphics card in a small, thin notebook and still have decent cooling for it.

    But even there? People are buying systems like the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus now, because it fits a GTX1080 series GPU in there with 8GB of VRAM and still manages to look like a reasonably thin machine. (Bottom of the case actually opens up when you open the lid, to provide sufficient ventilation for the GPU -- but with the lid closed, looks like any other modern notebook in thickness.)

    The push for "thin and lightweight" isn't just because people are fixated on it being stylish. It's really much more pleasant to carry around a thinner, lighter computer. If you made a big, huge cellphone that looked like the old "bag phones", think how long you could go on a battery charge today? But yet, nobody wants that either.

    The gauntlet has been thrown down to PC makers, saying "Find a way to cram all of the latest technology into this thin, light form-factor!" And increasingly, they're doing it. It's all good.

  16. It's not the CPUs by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    it's the mobos. Specifically the traces between ram & CPU or (more often) video ram & GPU. On a laptop board they PCB is often thinner and the heating/cooling causes the traces to break over time.

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  17. optical disk drive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I still want a drive for CD/DVD. Are such things that archaic now?

    1. Re:optical disk drive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Normal" looking laptops never ceased being made and updated, they simply don't make the news like say an ATX tower from Dell etc. doesn't make the news.

      You won't have a super thin design but thick enough for the optical drive itself, RJ45, HDMI, USB-A, etc. (often including VGA actually!)
      Look for Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Acer, or same old "business laptops", or some Toshiba, or mid-range gaming laptops.

      I've had a look at Toshiba Portégé 13.3" Skylake laptops : expensive and matte 1366x768. It's a real luddite laptop, look at that thickness! or even the name from the 90s. But with a 15W CPU with integrated graphics, generous looking vent and height I guess it's reliable and cool running.

  18. That's a big upgrade from the 2 hours of the previ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    n/t

  19. Actually 8, finally? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    These "up to" claims all seem to be about double the usable levels, but if 16 means 8 hours of useful life then we might actually have a new, useful bit of tech. Being HP I would like to see Overnight Replacement on the warranty.

    --
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