HP has been trying to differentiate from its competitors in the laptop market for some time now. Certain features and design decisions could be considered not that new (or good at all), but results speak for themselves with the new HP Spectre x360. This year's 2 in 1 laptop features a new angular design that affects the borders of the laptop, but also two of its corners which are now chamfered. The effect is not only intriguing but has also a practical side: that chamfered corners have been used to put there the power button and a USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) connector.
Inside we can find the new Intel Whiskey Lake processors (Core i5-8265U and Core i7-8565U), up to 16 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of storage on a M.2 NVMe SSD. Those CPUs allow to get more performance than previous models, but they also help on the battery life side: HP claims the 13.3-inch model can get up to 22.5 hours, a quite optimistic promise that we are anxious to prove right. The 15.6-inch model has the option to get a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max Q and there is also a LTE enabled variant of this laptop, but the interesting part comes on the privacy and security features.
This laptop has a IR camera and also a fingerprint reader that will allow us to authenticate via facial recognition or our fingerprint, but more importantly, they have a "Privacy camera kill switch", a physical switch on one side of the laptop that effectively disables the camera and protects our privacy from those nasty RATs that can take control of the webcam without us noticing anything. Several makers (HP included) have started to include shutters to their webcams to avoid this problems, but the physical switch goes beyond that simple solutions.
The new HP Spectre x360 convertible laptops will be available on November in the United States. Prices start at $1,149 for the 13-inch model and $1,389 for the 15-inch.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
Inside we can find the new Intel Whiskey Lake processors (Core i5-8265U and Core i7-8565U), up to 16 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of storage on a M.2 NVMe SSD. Those CPUs allow to get more performance than previous models, but they also help on the battery life side: HP claims the 13.3-inch model can get up to 22.5 hours, a quite optimistic promise that we are anxious to prove right. The 15.6-inch model has the option to get a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max Q and there is also a LTE enabled variant of this laptop, but the interesting part comes on the privacy and security features.
This laptop has a IR camera and also a fingerprint reader that will allow us to authenticate via facial recognition or our fingerprint, but more importantly, they have a "Privacy camera kill switch", a physical switch on one side of the laptop that effectively disables the camera and protects our privacy from those nasty RATs that can take control of the webcam without us noticing anything. Several makers (HP included) have started to include shutters to their webcams to avoid this problems, but the physical switch goes beyond that simple solutions.
The new HP Spectre x360 convertible laptops will be available on November in the United States. Prices start at $1,149 for the 13-inch model and $1,389 for the 15-inch.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
