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HP Spectre x360 15-ch004ng

Specifications

HP Spectre x360 15-ch004ng
HP Spectre x360 15-ch004ng (Spectre X360 15 Series)
Processor
Intel Core i7-8705G 4 x 3.1 - 4.1 GHz (Intel Core i7)
Memory
16 GB 
, DDR4
Display
15.60 inch 16:9, 3840 x 2160 pixel 282 PPI, Capacitive, native pen support, IPS, glossy: yes
Storage
512 MB NAND Flash, 0.5 GB 
Connections
1 USB 3.0 / 3.1 Gen1, 2 Thunderbolt, 1 HDMI, Card Reader: SD, 1 Fingerprint Reader
Networking
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (a/b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/ac = Wi-Fi 5/), Bluetooth Yes
Size
height x width x depth (in mm): 19.4 x 359 x 250 ( = 0.76 x 14.13 x 9.84 in)
Battery
84 Wh Lithium-Ion, 6-cell
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
Camera
Webcam: 2.0MP
Additional features
Speakers: Stereo, Keyboard: Chiclet, Keyboard Light: yes, 24 Months Warranty
Weight
2.1 kg ( = 74.08 oz / 4.63 pounds) ( = 0 oz / 0 pounds)

 

Pricecompare

Average Score: 85% - good
Average of 2 scores (from 5 reviews)

Reviews for the HP Spectre x360 15-ch004ng

HP Spectre x360 15 review: A convertible laptop/tablet that's as powerful as it gets
Source: Digital Arts English Archive.org version
There’s two conclusions to be made here. The first is the HP Spectre x360 15 itself. The high-end laptop has been around for two years now, but it took Intel’s Kaby Lake-G to make it sing, delivering plenty of performance to go with the looks.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 05/18/2018
90% HP Spectre x360 15 review: With Kaby Lake-G, this laptop can do almost anything
Source: PC World English Archive.org version
HP's Spectre x360 15 sets a new performance bar for mainstream laptops, thanks to its Kaby Lake-G CPU. Fortified with Radeon RX Vega discrete graphics, it upends the stereotype that 360-degree convertible laptops can’t deliver top performance.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 05/17/2018
Rating: Total score: 90%
80% HP Spectre x360 (2018, 15-inch, Kaby Lake G) Review
Source: Laptop Mag English Archive.org version
The Kaby Lake G series HP Spectre x360 is an attractive, powerful and comfortable 2-in-1.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 05/15/2018
Rating: Total score: 80%
HP Spectre x360 15 will make your MacBook Pro friends jealous
Source: CNet English Archive.org version
Debuting at CES 2018, the 15.6-inch two-in-one shows the pen might be mightier than the Touch Bar.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 01/08/2018

Foreign Reviews

HP Spectre x360 15 Preview
Source: Tweakers Dutch NL→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Great built quality; nice display; powerful hardware; good ergonomy; fast fingerprint sensor. Negative: Relatively high price.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 01/15/2018

Comment

Model: HP uses the slogan “revolutionary power, extraordinarily thin” for the HP Spectre x360 series (2018), which includes 13-inch and 15-inch models. All models from 2018 feature an 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor. We will cover the HP Spectre x360 15-ch004ng with Intel Core i7-8705G and AMD Radeon RX Vega M 870 4 GB here, which is called HP Spectre x360 - 15t Touch Laptop in the US. HP also offers variants of the HP Spectre x360 15 (2018) with Intel Core i7-8550U and Nvidia GeForce MX150 (2 GB GDDR5 dedicated). In any case, the HP Spectre x360 15 models feature a 15.6-inch 4K IPS micro-edge BrightView touch screen with WLED backlight, Corning Gorilla Glass, and a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels.

Design and Connectivity

The Spectre x360 15-inch has matte metal finish with copper accents. It measures at 35.9 x 25 x 1.94 cm and weighs at 2.14 kg according to the manufacturer’s specification. Size and weight can vary depending on the configuration. www.digitaltrends.com thinks the x360 15 feels rather conventional in the day-to-day. According to www.theverge.com the metal unibody design is quite sturdy, but keyboard and palmrest flex under exerted pressure. Moreover, they complain that the bottom plate and rubber feet don’t keep the laptop perfectly level on a desk. www.pcworld.com argues that thanks to a stiff chassis, you can pick up the Spectre x360 15 one-handed, and you needn’t fear that you’ll bend it.

Thanks to its 360 degree hinge, the convertible can also be used as tablet. Since it is a large and heavy device, www.digitaltrends.com feels, “It’s not pleasant to hold”. www.theverge.com confirms that the device is far too heavy and unwieldy to use in tablet mode for any length of time.

The laptop can be connected to wireless networks via an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 9260 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2x2) module, which also supports Bluetooth 5. The interfaces include two Thunderbolt 3 ports (up to 40 Gbit/s), which supports DisplayPort 1.2, and HP Sleep and Charge, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 (HP Sleep and Charge), HDMI, a combined headphone/microphone jack, and an SD card reader.

For security, the Spectre x360 15 features a fingerprint reader and a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Moreover, facial recognition is supported. According to www.theverge.com, fingerprinting and facial recognition work well, but the latter is more convenient and faster.

Input Devices

In www.digitaltrends.com’s opinion, the Spectre x360 15-inch's entirely conventional, long-travel keyboard with numpad feels great. In contrast, Stefan Etienne from www.theverge.com complains, “The keys are shallow with some resistance (though not as shallow as the MacBook’s), too small even for my nimble fingers, and generally just not a great experience to type on for long periods.” www.pcworld.com criticizes the half-height cursor keys for moving up and down. According to www.laptopmag.com the HP Spectre x360's keyboard allows for comfortable, speedy typing thanks to 1.4 millimeters of key travel and 69 grams of actuation force.

www.digitaltrends.com evaluates, “[...] the Spectre’s touch surface felt finicky. It offered a poor sense of friction and occasionally failed to respond when expected.” www.theverge.com thinks the touchpad is oddly sized, being too wide on the sides and too short from the top and bottom.

In addition to keyboard and touchpad, the laptop can be controlled with the X360’s multi-touch panel. HP’s Digital Pen is included. It offers 1.024 levels of sensitivity and www.digitaltrends.com calls it “functional but unimpressive”. The stylus can not be attached to the laptop. Hence it is easy to loose.

Display

A resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels on a 15.6-inch screen gives a pixel density of 280 PPI. www.digitaltrends.com measured a contrast ratio came of 830:1, which is worse than the contrast ratio of their Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 test sample (1,460:1 contrast ratio, brighter, and lower black value). According to www.theverge.com the brightness is 340 cd/m², but the display lacks 100 percent Adobe RGB color coverage. For www.pcworld.com, who measured a slightly lower maximum of 319 cd/m² than www.theverge.com, the 4K screen could be a little brighter. According to www.laptopmag.com’s colorimeter , the Spectre x360 produces 119 percent of the sRGB spectrum. They say the screen produces crisp, bright and vivid images.

Hardware and Performance

The HP Spectre x360 15-ch004ng features a Core i7-8705G and an AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL graphics. The 45W mobile processor with a Turbo frequency of up to 4.2 GHz and 8 MB of cache memory features four cores and eight threads. According to www.digitaltrends.com the CPU performance is about on par with their Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 test sample with the same processor, while Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 is slower.

The discrete AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL is bundled with the Core i7-8705G in a single package. It is directly connected to the processor via Intel’s PCIe lanes, features 20 Compute Units and runs up to 1190 MHz boost frequency. 4 GB of low power dedicated HBM2 (High Bandwidth Memory Gen 2) VRAM ensure a memory bandwidth up to 205 GB/s. According to Intel’s benchmarks, the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL’s performance should be in between the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti. Therefore, this graphics card should be well suited for 1080p gaming. HP Spectre x360 15 variants with Nvidia MX150 offer lower graphics performance. According to www.digitaltrends.com Dell’s XPS 15 2-in-1 with the same processor and graphics card combination offers about the same graphics performance. However, the GPU performance is in no way high enough for 4K gaming. www.theverge.com recorded 60 fps in League of Legends on medium settings and 4K resolution, but more graphical intense games require Full HD resolution and lower details.

The Spectre x360 15-ch004ng comes with a 512 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. Other options are 256 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB NVMe M.2 SSDs. In www.laptopmag.com’s test the 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD in their test sample duplicated 4.97 GB of multimedia files in 18 seconds, for a rate of 282.7 MBps, which is higher than their 283 MBps premium-notebook average, but lower than most laptops’ in their comparison group.

Temperature and System Noise

www.digitaltrends.com measured a maximum temperature of 126 degrees Fahrenheit (~52 degrees Celsius) on the bottom rear of the chassis and recommends to keep the laptop off your lap when the fans start to kick up. www.laptopmag.com reports, “The Spectre x360 runs a little warm, but it's not too hot.”. They measured between 96 (~35.5 °C) and 99 (~37 °C) degrees Fahrenheit on the underside, 82 Fahrenheit (~28 °C) on the touchpad and 93 Fahrenheit (~34 °C) on the keyboard. laptops.pczubehortest.ga reports that the fan is quite audible.

Sound

The speakers are tuned by Bang & Olufsen. www.digitaltrends.com says that the speakers struggle with treble when the volume exceeds 90 percent. www.theverge.com thinks audio reproduction is composed of treble and a hollowness and the speakers can fill a small room, but don’t sound that great.

Battery Life

The HP Spectre x360 15-ch004ng is powered by a lithium-ion battery with 6 cells and a capacity of 84 Wh. The laptop lasted 6.5 hours in www.digitaltrends.com’s web browsing loop and barely more than three hours in their most demanding web benchmark loop. In www.laptopmag.com’s battery test (web browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits), this convertible lasted 5 hours and 27 minutes. This on-line magazine summarizes that while those scores are noticeably better than the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1’s, they fall behind what they expect from a modern laptop. www.theverge.com recommends to bring your charger if you expect to use the Spectre x360 for a plane flight or at a campus library. In contrast, www.pcworld.com thinks battery life is relatively good for the laptop’s power demands and configuration.

The battery is charged via a proprietary power-in and not one of the available USB-C ports.

Summary

Many on-line magazines like the X360’s excellent CPU performance and 1080p gaming capabilities, but complain about size and weight in tablet use, and battery life. For www.theverge.com the Spectre X360 15 lacks harmony when it comes to nailing the right balance for creative users and mobile warriors who want quad-core performance and 4K visuals in a portable package. www.digitaltrends.com recommends not to buy this machine since the 2-in-1-design is not that suitable for a big, chunky machine with short battery life.

As of 07-23-2018, the HP Spectre x360 15-ch004ng is offered by amazon.de for 1,975.77 Euro. In the US, HP currently sells the HP Spectre x360 - 15t Touch Laptop with equivalent configuration for 1720 Dollars.

The closest competitor is probably the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1. The Asus Flip 15 with Intel Core i7-8550U, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with 2 GB VRAM, 2 TB HDD, 256 GB SSD, and 4K display offers comparably hardware for a similar price. The most more expensive Microsoft Surface Book 2 (lower CPU performance, higher gaming, graphical performance) is more useful as tablet thanks to its detachable screen. If you want to save money you and can live with lower graphics performance you can also consider, for example, the much cheaper Lenovo’s Yoga 720 (7th generation CPU, integrated graphics chip).

Sources

www8.hp.com/de/de/products/laptops/product-detail.html
store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/laptops/spectre-x360-211501--1
ark.intel.com/products/130411/Intel-Core-i7-8705G-Processor-with-Radeon-RX-Vega-M-GL-graphics-8M-Cache-up-to-4_10-GHz
newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/01/8th-gen-radeon-rx-vega-m-product-overview.pdf
www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-reviews/hp-spectre-x360-15-inch-2018-review/
www.theverge.com/2018/6/11/17433898/hp-spectre-x360-15-laptop-review-specs-price
www.pcworld.com/article/3272965/laptop-computers/hp-spectre-x360-15-review-kaby-lake-g.html
www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/reviews/creative-hardware/hp-spectre-x360-15-review-convertible-laptop-tablet-thats-as-powerful-as-it-gets/
www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/hp-spectre-x360-15-inch-kaby-lake-g
www.cnet.com/products/hp-spectre-x360-15-2018/preview/
notebooks-und-mobiles.de/hp-spectre-x360-15-convertible
laptops.pczubehortest.ga/hp-spectre-x360-15-ch004ng-test-gutes-allzweckgeraet-kleinigkeiten-die-stoeren-aber-kein-problem-darstellen-sollten-absolute-empfehlung/

Press Review by Martina Osztovits

AMD Vega M GL / 870: Integrated graphics card in the slower Kaby Lake-G SoCs. Offers 20 CUs = 1280 shaders at 931 - 1011 MHz, 4 GB HBM2 graphics memory (on the same package as the GPU and CPU). The TDP is specified at 65 Watt.

Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.


Intel Core i7: The Intel Core i7 for laptops is based on the LG1156 Core i5/i7 CPU for desktops. The base clock speed of the CPUs is relatively low, but because of a huge Turbo mode, the cores can dynamically overclock to up to 3.2 GHz (920XM). Therefore, the CPU can be as fast as high clocked dual-core CPUs (using single threaded applications) but still offer the advantage of 4 cores. Because of the large TDP of 45 W / 55 W, the CPU is only intended for large laptops.  


i7-8705G: Quad-core notebook processor based on the Kaby Lake architecture running at 3.1 - 4.1 GHz. Integrates 4GB fast HBM2 graphics memory that may also be used as a CPU cache and including the high TDP of 65 Watts may lead to a higher CPU performance compared to the similar Core i7-7920HQ. Similar to the Core i7-8706G, but without vPro support. » Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.


15.60":

15-inch display variants are the standard and are used for more than half of all laptops.

The reason for the popularity of mid-sized displays is that this size is reasonably easy on the eyes, often allows high resolutions and thus offers rich details on the screen, yet does not consume too much power and the devices can still be reasonably compact - simply the standard compromise.

» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.


HP: Founded in 1939, the US company is a major server and printer manufacturer and one of the leading IT companies in the world. Until 2015, the company was called Hewlett-Packard Company. After a split, the computer division was renamed HP Inc.

In 2023, HP had an approximate market share of 22% of global PC sales, making it number 2 after Lenovo.


85%: This rating is slightly above average, there are somewhat more devices with worse ratings. However, clear purchase recommendations look different.


» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

 

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Current Prices
Stefan Hinum, 2018-03-18 (Update: 2018-03-18)