New HP Spectre X360 15t laptop arrived

[jdandy]

It took nine days for my new HP Spectre X360 15t laptop to arrive. I've been like a kid waiting on Santa to come down the chimney. I could have received the laptop sooner if I had ordered a preconfigured model, but I wanted the 1 TB SSD and Intel's newest 8th Gen core i7 Kaby Lake processor (45 watts) with the onboard Radeon RX Vega M graphics processor with 4 GB of dedicated video RAM. In addition I added Microsoft Office Home and Business software, plus Adobe Premier Elements and Adobe Photoshop Elements preinstalled.

The wait was worth it. This is a beautiful precision built laptop computer. Fit and finish remind me of a premium watch. Besides being drop dead gorgeous opened or closed, it is solidly constructed and feels firm when picked up, not to mention it is light to carry compared to my older Sony Vaio laptop. I watched several videos where some reviewers mentioned fan noise, but even with the Spectre's two fans the noise level is not objectionable, nor is it as loud as the Vaio. Most of the time the fans are running so slow you cannot hear them.

The Spectre's 4K 15.6" touch screen is fabulous. The increased color depth and gradient levels are immediately noticeable and astonishing. The screen and those densely packed 4K pixels are protected under Gorilla Glass.The touch screen supports pen based computing and comes with an HP pen. I may even try my hand at some digital graphics art. Of course the entire reason the Spectre is called the X360 is because the screen rotates a full 360 degrees. This allows the laptop to be used as a touch screen presentation machine standing in a tent fashion, or as a tablet computer, albeit a big one.

The keyboard delivers just the right amount of tactile feedback with minimal travel. It is easy to type on this keyboard, and also includes a full numeric keypad. The back lighting is activated with a dedicated function key so you don't have to be in near darkness for it to become active. The choice of back lighting being on or off is user controlled. There 's also an Airplane Mode function key for those times you are required to turn off Bluetooth and WiFi radios.

The touchpad has the latest finger gesturing controls built in, single finger pointer control, two finger scrolling, pinch to zoom and a number of other three fingers and rotation control functions. The touchpad is glass with a micro texture that allows your fingers to effortlessly glide over its slick surface. The lower left and right bottom corners offer left and right click functions. I am gradually coming up to speed on the additional touchpad features.

Connectivity is abundant with a full size SD card slot, one USB type 3 and 2 USB type C/Thunderbolt connectors, a full sized HDMI connector, and a combination headphone or headset jack. I am also pleased that HP returned to a barrel connector for power and charging the battery. It is far more robust and secure than trying to charge the computer from a USB type C connector. HP also supplied a 150 watt power supply with this model laptop that supports fast charging.

Once unboxed I got right into setting up the Spectre laptop. I did a fair amount of advanced preparation during my wait for delivery. I used a 1 TB external hard drive to transfer all pictures, documents, and download files from my desktop computer. That made it relatively easy to transfer those files via USB to the new laptop. Setting up Windows is always a chore. Lots of hoops to be jumped through and settings to be adjusted in the Setup menu. The Spectre X360 15t uses Windows 10 security features in a number of ways. Windows Hello uses two infrared cameras to identify your face for unlocking the computer. There is also a finger print reader on the right side, and also password security. I set up all three. The face recognition has work flawlessly. I open the laptop, the infrared cameras rapidly flash a few times and I am immediately unlocked on my home screen. The finger print scanner works well, too.

Once I began the setup process of downloading files and programs I ended up at my desk all night. I went from 4:00 PM Thursday to 8:00 AM Friday (this morning) nonstop. About 3 of those hours were spent scouring and deleting unwanted photos. Thousands of photos take time to go through. I save way too many photos. I am going to attempt to control that better going forward. I managed to get 90% of the setup completed before I finally ran out of steam. All programs are running perfectly, including 3 separate browsers bookmarked and functioning correctly, and four email accounts synced and responding properly. An external USB DVD spinner helped to load several programs. It came in handy since the Spectre does not have a disc spinner. The external DVD spinner connects via USB 3.0 so loading software went relatively quick.

Now that I have had nearly 24 hours of continuous interfacing with the new HP Spectre X360 15t I can safely say it is a premium level laptop computer that is loaded with leading edge technology that works. It is fast, the graphics are phenomenal, the four speakers tuned by B&O sound clean and can play loud enough, but certainly not high-end audio. The thin all aluminum case with copper colored sides, hinges, and edge trim is classic and alluring at the same time. I think this Spectre laptop computer will provide long, enjoyable, and enduring service. It was time for a new and improved laptop. I am confident I made the right choice for my needs.

[Masterlu]

Dan... Congrats! I may very well follow your lead and get one for myself too.

Thanks for your always detailed review!

[The Lost Bears]

That is a really nice laptop computer I also have an HP, though mine was just off the rack from Microcenter. The HP build quality is excellent! HP also makes a very nice sleeve for their laptops. Great protection if you carry it around at all. I picked one up for my 15.6 and it fits like a glove.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by The Lost Bears

That is a really nice laptop computer I also have an HP, though mine was just off the rack from Microcenter. The HP build quality is excellent! HP also makes a very nice sleeve for their laptops. Great protection if you carry it around at all. I picked one up for my 15.6 and it fits like a glove.

The Lost Bears.......Yes, my Spectre laptop came with a very nice padded carrying pouch. It even has a small sleeve sewn in under the closing flap to store the HP pen with the laptop. The gorgeous finish on the aluminum case with the copper tone sides and edges is too nice to allow this laptop to bounce around inside a briefcase. The case is a nice inclusion from HP.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Dan... Congrats! I may very well follow your lead and get one for myself too.

Thanks for your always detailed review!

Ivan.......I am positive this laptop would please you. It is solid as a rock yet appears delicate with its close tolerance build quality. I'm still playing with mine. Just finished down loading JRiver Media Center 24 and a fresh copy of the Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 driver. I am sitting here listening to Tidal with my Sennheiser HD800 headphone from the new laptop. Of course the laptop and DAC are connected with a Wireworld Platinum USB cable. Sounds excellent.

If you're interested in the identical model I ordered it is HP Item # 4VW40AV. That gets you into the powerful Intel i7-8705GPro + Radeon RX Vega M Graphics processor with 4GB dedicate RAM. This build included a 1 TB PCIe M.2 SSD. You can upgrade the SSD to 2 TB for an additional $400. I decided 1 TB on laptop is plenty for my purposes. This build also includes 16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2X8 GB) that can be upgraded to 32 GB (2X16 GB) user installed. Again, 16 GB of fast RAM is more than satisfactory for me. The preinstalled software MS Office Home & Business, and the Adobe software added to the bottom line. I can't grip at the price. With Free Shipping this laptop came to $1859.97 plus 7% FL sales tax for a grand total of $1990.17. Not bad at all for a premium level laptop. I couldn't be happier. I deleted the 30 day free trial of McAfee Internet Security. I prefer Norton 360. My five pack license let me immediately download Norton 360 onto the new laptop, one of the first things I did after the OS was set up.

Here is a copy of my order:



HP Spectre x360 - 15t Touch Laptop

Product number: 4VW40AV


•HP Pen (dark ash silver)
•No DVD or CD Drive
•$50 off Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 + Adobe Premiere Elements 15
•6-cell, 84 Wh Lithium-ion Battery
•Intel® Core™ i7-8705G (3.1 GHz, up to 4.1 GHz, 8MB cache, 4 cores) + Radeon™ RX Vega M Graphics (4GB dedicated memory)
•HP TrueVision FHD IR Camera with Dual array digital microphone (dark ash silver)(for i7-8705G)
•15.6" diagonal 4K IPS micro-edge BrightView WLED-backlit touch screen with Corning® Gorilla® Glass (3840 x 2160)
•16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2x8GB)
•1 TB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
•Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with integrated numeric keypad (Dark Ash Silver)
•Intel® 802.11b/g/n/ac (2x2) Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® 4.2 Combo
•Windows 10 Home 64
•Security Software Trial
•Microsoft® Office 2016 Home and Business - Save $50 instantly

Processing
Estimated ship: November 23, 2018

1 $1,859.97

Summary of savings
• Instant discounts:
• $320.00 Total Discounts

Subtotal: $1,859.97
Shipping & handling: Free
FL Tax: $130.20

Total: $1,990.17

[Masterlu]

Great! thanks for sharing all the details.

[mchydro]

Congrats Dan! That's a screaming fast machine! Use it in good health.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Great! thanks for sharing all the details.

[Formerly YB-2]

My newer HP laptop is similar, though all black. Its predecessor HP laptop is 14" rather than 15" and keeps on chugglin' (ala Creedance). I actually prefer the older keyboard as it does not have the useless-to-me number keys to the right, which puts ones hands off-center when typing. Something I've gotten used to, unless I go back to the older laptop to help my wife (who inherited it). The old laptop is 7yr+ old and only failure was needing a battery replacement a couple of years ago. Hope all our new HPs prove as reliable. B/U on USB drives every couple of months 'just in case'.

[jdandy]

Glenn.......I have owned HP desktop computers for years without a single issue. This is my first HP laptop. It is good to know you have gotten reliable service from your HP laptops. I expect this new Spectre X360 will provide the same for me. After four days of using it nearly 12 hours a day I am quite pleased with the performance and the astonishing clarity of the 15.6" 4K screen. I really like the face recognition feature to unlock the computer. It is quick and has not failed to identify me every time. I am very pleased with this new laptop computer.