I recently had the chance to spend some time with the HP Spectre X2 and believe it is an excellent alternative to the Microsoft Surface Pro, with one major caveat.
At first glance, the HP Spectre X2 could easily be mistaken for a Surface Pro. The two devices are almost the same size (the Spectre X2 is slightly wider and taller at 11.93 x 8.23 x 0.52 in) and the Spectre X2 is a bit heavier as well at about 2.63lb. But their styling is somewhat similar and both devices have keyboards that attach in a similar manner and fold over to protect their screens. The HP Spectre X2 also has a highly adjustable kickstand akin to the Surface Pro, but HP’s is a hollowed out “U” shape, which was done to make room for a higher capacity battery.
Closer inspection, however, proves the HP Spectre X2 is no Surface. HP puts its own unique stamp on the product thanks to some attractive (and functional) glass and chrome accents, a nice brushed finish on the bulk of the body – which is machined from a single piece of aluminum – and different internal hardware, among other things. The HP Spectre X2 line is powered by Intel’s low-power Core m series of processors. The Core m is based on the Skylake microarchitecture, like the 6th Gen Core i family of processors, but the Core m is designed to operate in much lower power envelopes, and as such, can be passively cooled. The HP Spectre X2 model I looked at featured a Core m7-6Y75 (base frequency of 1.2Hz, max Turbo frequency of 3.1 GHz) with HD 515 graphics, 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and a 256GB solid state drive. Other features include 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Verizon LTE cellular network connectivity, front and rear cameras – including an 8MP 3D Intel RealSense world-facing camera – Bang & Olufsen tuned speakers, a built-in microSD card reader, and dual USB 3 Type C ports, both of which can be used to charge the device. I should also mention that the included detachable backlit keyboard features a metal plate and is nearly indistinguishable from HP’s full notebook keyboards. Side by side with a Microsoft Type cover, the HP Spectre X2’s keyboard seems significantly nicer. And it’s included with the device too.
The screen on the HP Spectre X2 doesn’t have as high a resolution as Microsoft’s latest Surface Pros, but it is more than adequate in my opinion, and it looks great overall. The HP Spectre X2 is packing a 12” WUXGA+ screen with a resolution of 1920x1280. Brightness and color reproduction are very good, as are its viewing angles, thanks to the use of an LED backlit IPS (in plane switching) panel. Touch response on the screen is also excellent. And it supports HP’s active stylus too, but I didn’t have a stylus on hand to test.
Overall, the performance of the HP Spectre X2 is top not for standard, day-to-day computing workloads and browsing, and it’s great for office-type applications too. That one caveat I mentioned in the intro has to do with the Core m’s performance with more taxing workloads. Because the chip is designed for a more constrained power envelope, it can’t maintain max turbo frequencies for very long periods, and will throttle downward. This isn’t a big deal at all for short, bursty workloads like browsing the web. But for complex rendering or something else that will whack all cores with a sustained load, the Core m isn’t quite as fast as a full Core i-processor. I have a slew of benchmarks in my full review, completely with battery life numbers as well, if you’d like a more detailed performance profile.
Ultimately though, for the vast majority of users, the HP Spectre X2 is a more affordable alternative to the Microsoft Surface Pro that is worth a look if you’re in the market for a hybrid convertible device of this type.
