HP has released what it describes as its "most premium and versatile PC" yet - the ultra-thin, convertible Spectre x360. Aside from the unquantifiable hyperbole, HP is promising the laptop will deliver up to 12.5 hours of battery life, potentially making it one of the longest lasting ultraportables on the market.
The Spectre x360 certainly has a premium spec. The 13.3in touchscreen comes in either Quad HD or Full HD resolutions, and folds right back around the laptop, so that it can be used as a tablet, in "tent mode", with the keyboard used as stand for the display, or as a conventional laptop. HP says the Spectre x360 has a new "geared hinge" design to ensure the screen stays exactly where the user intended when they're prodding at the display.
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The battery life figure is achieved by not only packing a 56-watt hour battery into the chassis, but thanks to a couple of innovations with the screen. The touch panel has been optically bonded to the display to increase brightness, reducing the need to crank up the backlight in bright conditions. HP says the display also takes advantage of Panel Self Refresh (PSR), which " holds images on the screen to allow portions of the PC to power down when nothing on-screen is moving".
We'll wait until we have a Spectre x360 in the labs before determining whether these have any real benefit or whether the laptop meets HP's lofty battery life claims, but if the company's figures are accurate, it will have a narrow battery life advantage over the 13in MacBook Air .
On the inside, the Spectre x360 can be specified with the latest generation (Broadwell) of Core i5 or Core i7 processors, up to 8GB of RAM and SSDs ranging in size from 128GB to 512GB. The laptop has three USB 3 ports, both full-size HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, and it also supports Intel's little-loved Wi-Di for beaming content to compatible televisions.
The laptop will go on sale in the US immediately, with prices ranging from $899 to $1,400 (£583 to £908). There's no word yet on UK availability or prices.
