Another tie for the Chromebook x360 14c and the Spin 713, with the Lenovo claiming the bronze medal. These aren't the fastest Chromebooks we've ever tested, but they're solid contenders. The Pavilion x360 is actively cooled, but the single fan is hard to hear even when running flat out. The warmest the external casing got was 35°C, directly above the exhaust port on the left side of the unit.

A rechargeable stylus is included with the laptop, the "HP Rechargeable MPP2.0 Tilt Pen." (MPP is short for Microsoft Pen Protocol.) It's round with one flat edge that connects to the left side of the laptop with magnets. That flat side also has two customizable buttons The review unit we were sent in for review features an Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor. This is a quad-core unit that can achieve boost speeds of up to 4.70GHz, which marks a decent leap over the Intel Core i7-1065G7 (the previous generation CPU) included in last year’s model. Even better, the HP killswitch is a physical shutter over the camera rather than a software webcam deactivation, since in the latter case, malicious actors can reactivated your webcam remotely with a little bit of malware. Software killswitches are really only good enough to let you easily shut off your camera when you need to step away from the meeting, but that's about it.

Aside from the screen, you'll find a 720p webcam sitting at the top of the display with two dual-array microphones for video chatting. measures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. We run two different 3DMark subtests, Sky Diver and Fire Strike. Both are DirectX 11 benchmarks, but Sky Diver is more suited to laptops and midrange PCs, while Fire Strike is more demanding and lets high-end PCs and gaming rigs strut their stuff. The Intel Iris Xe graphics employed by the Spectre x360 14 reached a respectable 4,229 in the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, topping the XPS 13 2-in-1 (3,847) and Galaxy Book Flex 15 (2,215) but falling just short of the Yoga 9i (5,014) and the category average (4,488). Taxing the Spectre x360 14 with a heavy workload can cause the bottom panel to get warm, but not troublingly hot. This gaming simulation defeated the laptops just as 3DMark did and just as real games would. Again, these machines aren't intended for gamers. You might eke out some decent play with the Radeons at 720p and low settings, but even that is a stretch for anything beyond casual games. Battery Rundown Test

Of course, there's also some bloatware that’s included in most Windows 10 installs, like Hulu, Roblox and Hidden City: Hidden Object Adventure. HP’s MSRP is subject to discount. HP’s MSRP price is shown as either a stand-alone price or as a strike-through price with a discounted or promotional price also listed. Discounted or promotional pricing is indicated by the presence of an additional higher MSRP strike-through price

We also ran the intensive PCMark 10 battery life test on the laptop, which replicates day-to-day use such as web browsing and video calling. Here, the Spectre x360 managed almost 13 hours – again, a very impressive achievement and a big leap over the previous model’s four-hour result (on PCMark 8). If you're looking to edit video on the go, know that our Spectre x360 14 review unit performed decently in our Handbrake video editing test, converting a 4K video to 1080p in just over 17 minutes. That's better than the 18 minutes it took our Dell XPS 13 review unit to complete the same task, but far slower than the 7:44 it took the MacBook Air to get it done. HP Spectre x360 14 review: Battery life The Spectre has an incredibly unique 3:2 display aspect, something only found on Microsoft Surface devices, and increasingly hard to find Huawei laptops. It is much taller than 16:9, which is what ships with the Spectre x360 13. HP made the right choice here. With skinny bezels on all four sides, this aspect works at 13.5-inches. It also makes using the Spectre as a tablet or for inking much more enjoyable. With so little colour, the Delta E variation against the sRGB profile was expectedly poor at 4.75, well above the 3 at which the generally dull and washed-out colours are visible even to the untrained eye. That all makes the Pavilion x360 14 unsuitable for colour-critical work. The Pavilion was just a whisker short of the 4,000 points that we consider excellent in PCMark 10. It joined the other SSD-based convertibles in breezing through PCMark 8's storage subtest, cementing its status as a solid productivity partner.

HP System Event Utility: Lets you program special function keys or shortcuts, like turning the wireless on or off, and adjusting the screen brightness. We estimate Windows 11 support will end in October 2031. However, this laptop may be compatible with a future version of Windows that gets support beyond this date If you don't need a 2-in-1 design, the new Razer Book 13 is an excellent choice, as is Dell's regular XPS 13. The hottest point on the bottom was 47.1 degrees Celsius (116.78 degrees Fahrenheit). Webcam on the HP Spectre x360 14Finishing in fourth place, the Chromebook x360 14a called it quits just before the seven-hour mark, a disappointing result especially given the low-res screen. The Dell Chromebook 11 earned top marks, fitting for a kid-friendly Chromebook that will likely spend a long time away from an outlet. These things get loud — too loud, even. As I listened to Spotify, I turned the volume down as Fall Out Boy's "Bob Dylan" stormed through my apartment. The drums, vocals and guitars were clear. Bass was a bit quiet. I tried changing that manually in the Bang & Olufsen control center, but to a little effect. There are presets in that app, but I found most of them to be overkill. Upgrading the HP Spectre x360 14 To test a laptop's battery, we run a 720p video of the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel with display brightness at 50%, audio volume at 100%, and Wi-Fi turned off until the system taps out. If the computer doesn't have enough storage to hold the video file, we play it from an external solid-state drive. Game Pass Ultimate: Subscription continues automatically at regular monthly price unless cancelled. Xbox Cloud Gaming: requires supported controller (sold separately); streaming limitations apply, server availability and wait times may vary. Subject to xbox.com/subscriptionterms. Follow instructions on your new Galaxy Book to activate Game Pass Ultimate. An image I took at my well-lit desk was color accurate, catching my navy shirt, blue eyes and the mixed shades of brown in my hair and blue. But overall, the picture was grainy, and light coming in from some nearby windows was blown out.

The Spectre's palm rejection worked pretty well, and the stylus worked well with both tilting and shading in supported applications. In Paint 3D, using the crayon tool required extra pressure for a deep hue, just like the real thing. I do wish, like some of Microsoft's styluses, that HP would add an eraser to the end. The most obvious competitor to the Spectre x360 14 is Dell's XPS 13 2-in-1, which has also been refreshed with the same Intel 11th Gen hardware. There’s no doubt about the inherent versatility of the design, though, especially if you want to use a stylus for sketching or note-taking. Even a rather heavy tablet is a lot easier to work on than the screen of a conventional laptop with a keyboard that keeps getting in the way. Design and Keyboard The Pavilion and Spin 3 trailed here, too, though they'll only keep you waiting an extra few seconds per Photoshop filter or editing operation. Occasional image touch-ups will be fine. The Ryzen 4000-series-based laptops once again set the pace. Graphics Tests Our model of the HP Chromebook x360 14 has a dual-core Intel Celeron N4500, integrated Intel UHD Graphics, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of eMMC storage. You can get it with the quad-core Intel Pentium Silver N6000, and you can also upgrade the RAM to 8GB, both of which will provide a better multitasking experience. There are also larger 64GB and 128GB eMMC storage options. While the higher-end options may be too much for casual users who use Chrome OS for the lightweight experience, the extra performance overhead might be useful when running demanding Linux apps. Additionally, you can upgrade the screen to a sharper 1080p IPS panel, which we expect will have significantly better viewing angles than the TN display.The HP Pavilion x360 14 is well well-balanced compact 2-in-1 that should serve well anyone wanting a small general-purpose laptop that can also be used as a Windows tablet.It’s very well made and uses an up-to-date Intel Core i7 processor.