The HP Spectre Folio makes for a good alternative to the new Apple MacBook Air
The Spectre family has grown to include some of the most highly-rated convertible Ultrabooks in the market. The new Spectre Folio, however, is the latest experiment and a tangent from the Spectre convertibles that we're already familiar with. The "x360" hinges are gone in favor of a "flip" design and the chassis is a unique amalgamation of the classic unibody metal skeleton with high quality leather.
The new Amber Lake Core i7-8500Y CPU in the Spectre Folio sits comfortably in between the Pentium Gold 4415Y and i5-8250U in the Surface Go and Surface Pro 6, respectively, in terms of multi-thread performance. Various levels of throttling will inevitably change some smaller details, but users can generally expect the i7-8500Y to perform closer to the Pentium Gold 4415Y than the i5-8250U. Users who may find the Surface Go a bit too slow for their needs could see more value in the HP convertible. Meanwhile, users on the fence for a MacBook Air may find the HP design striking and its integrated eSIM 4G LTE capabilities useful.
Size is the biggest drawback for the Spectre Folio. Its leather exterior thickens the profile, enlarges the footprint, and increases the weight of the system to be bigger and heavier than even the regular Spectre x360 13. Price is also a major factor as the Spectre Folio retailers for $1200 or $1300 and up to be more expensive than the Surface alternatives. We're hopeful for a price cut in the near future since the convertible uses just a 5 W passively-cooled processor instead of the more powerful 15 W Kaby Lake-R or Whiskey Lake-U series.
| HP Spectre Folio 13t-ak000 AU Optronics AUO572D, IPS, 13.3", 1920x1080 | Microsoft Surface Go MHN-00003 Sharp SHP14A6, IPS, 10", 1800x1200 | Microsoft Surface Pro 6, Core i5, 128 GB LGPhilips LP123WQ112604, IPS, 12.3", 2736x1834 | Apple MacBook Air 2018 APPA039, IPS, 13.3", 2560x1600 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | ||||
| Display P3 Coverage | 66.2 | 66.5 | 65.5 | 67.8 |
| sRGB Coverage | 97.4 | 97.5 | 90.4 | 96.1 |
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 68.1 | 67.5 | 65.6 | 69.8 |
| Response Times | ||||
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 52 ? | 44 ? | 42 ? | 39.6 ? |
| Response Time Black / White * | 37.2 ? | 25.6 ? | 25 ? | 28 ? |
| PWM Frequency | 1020 ? | 20800 ? | 113600 ? | |
| Screen | ||||
| Brightness middle | 389.8 | 456 | 463 | 320 |
| Brightness | 396 | 426 | 450 | 315 |
| Brightness Distribution | 88 | 88 | 83 | 95 |
| Black Level * | 0.27 | 0.31 | 0.32 | 0.29 |
| Contrast | 1444 | 1471 | 1447 | 1103 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 2.72 | 1.3 | 3.76 | 1.2 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 5.49 | 3 | 7.35 | 3.2 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 1.25 | 1.1 | 2.68 | 0.5 |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 4.2 | 1.4 | 3.18 | 0.8 |
| Gamma | 2.1 105% | 2.24 98% | 2.53 87% | 2.2 100% |
| CCT | 7470 87% | 6687 97% | 6994 93% | 6548 99% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 62.2 | 62.3 | 59 | 62.1 |
| Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 98.2 | 96.8 | 90 | 96 |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) |
* ... smaller is better
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