HP Spectre x360 14 review - High-end convertible now with a larger 120-Hz OLED

HP continues to use a high-quality aluminum case for the Spectre x360 (either in gray or blue), but the design has changed fairly significantly. The whole convertible has become more angular. There are now less design elements than in the 2022er model, and it lacks the decorative strip around it, for example. The cut-off polished corners in the back are still there, but together with the HP logo, they are the only contrasted elements. This makes the new Spectre look less playful.

The quality of the case is extremely high, giving the Spectre a very high-quality look. The cool metal surfaces, which are also fairly resistant to fingerprints, also contribute to this. Although you can still see some fingerprints after a while, the surfaces can be cleaned easily. The convertible is also very robust. It definitely helps here that HP didn't try to build the thinnest device on the market. Everything feels robust and sturdy. The hinges also give a good impression, only allowing some minimal wobbling after moving the device. However, this also means that it is very difficult to lift the display lid using a single hand. Both the base unit and display lid are very robust. The included stylus can be attached magnetically to the right side of the case.

While the footprints of the 14-inch models are very similar, compared to the old Spectre x360 with the 13.5-inch display, the new model is slightly wider. The weight is 1.45 kg (~3.2 lb), and the 65-Watt charger adds another 310 grams (~11 oz).

HP has equipped the Spectre with the brand-new Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7 module (320 MHz, 2x2), which supports the most current WLAN standard and Bluetooth 5.4. While we currently still don't have a corresponding Wi-Fi 7 router to test the new standard, the WLAN performance using our Asus reference router was very good and stable.

The Spectre offers a 9-MP camera in the top display bezel. It also includes a shutter, which can be triggered via the F2 key. The webcam leaves a good impression particularly in terms of the image sharpness, and there are also some studio effects that can be used independently of the software (blurry effect, eye contact, tracking). In addition, HP also included the Enhanced Lighting application, which allows you to overlay various lights (ring, bar, etc.) on the image for an improved illumination.

There are some changes in the touchpad, and now HP uses a haptic version. This means that there are no mechanic elements anymore but there is a simulated feedback when clicking. The advantage of this is an even feedback in all places. The operation of the touchpad worked excellently during the test, and with an area of 13.8 x 8.7 cm (~5.4 x 3.4 in), there is also sufficient space for touch gestures.

In addition, the display also supports touch input, and its accuracy is very good. The box also includes the HP MPP 2.0 Tilt Pen active input pen, which can be attached to the right side of the case magnetically and charged via USB-C. It offers 4,096 pressure levels and comes with two replacement tips. The pen worked reliably during our test.

HP offers the new Spectre x360 14 exclusively with the new Meteor Lake processors from Intel. The working memory is soldered (16 or 32 GB RAM). Dedicated graphics cards are not available.

HP doesn't offer its own power settings, so only the regular power modes from Windows are available. The following benchmarks and measurements were performed with the "Best Performance" setting. 

The new Core Ultra 7 155H (6 P cores, 10 E cores, max. 22 threads) is the successor to the Core i7-13700H, which now replaces the old P series as well as the H series chips. According to Intel, it covers a TDP range between 28 and 115 watts, which is of course an enormous spectrum. In the case of the Spectre x360 14, the processor is allowed to consume a maximum of 64 watts for several seconds, before it quickly levels out at 24 watts. So basically, a U series processor would be more suitable here, but with only two Performance cores, that wouldn't really be competitive here. The performance is very mixed overall, and in the single-core performance, the old Core i7-1255U of the Spectre x360 13.5 has a slight advantage. In the multicore tests, the Core Ultra 7 benefits briefly from its high power limit, but the performance drops significantly after that, as you can also see in the Cinebench R15 loop. 

The Ryzen 7 7840U AMD Zen4 chip is also ahead in both the single-core and multicore tests, offering mainly a significantly more stable performance without extremely high power limits. This again shows that the Meteor Lake processors continue to use a lot of power to be competitive. At 24 watts, for example, the Ryzen 7 7840U is almost 26% faster than the Core Ultra 7 155H. In battery operation, the CPU performance of the Spectre remains constant. You can find additional CPU benchmarks here, and for additional AI benchmarks, you can take a look at our Meteor Lake analysis.

The subjective performance impression of the Spectre is very good, and all inputs are implemented very quickly. The benchmark results are basically also very good, with our test unit only producing slightly weaker results in the CrossMark test. But we didn't have any problems with the convertible at all during the test.