HP SPECTRE X360 13T-AW200 CT0

Design

HP Spectre laptops are some of the most striking, and perhaps contentious, slim-and-light models we review all year. In the HP Spectre x360 13t-aw200 CT0 Flexible dual hinges allow you to convert it from a laptop into a tablet. They are stiff enough to prevent the screen from wobbling when you tap on the glass, yet flipping the panel around to transition into tent or tablet mode doesn’t require much force. It strikes the right balance between sturdy and practical.  A “Diamond-cut” on the rear corners much like on other Spectre laptops, the Power button is located in the left corner. It is not a combination fingerprint/power button, Because of the tapered front, there is a huge gap between the base and lid when flipped into a tablet. Speaking of practicality, there is a fingerprint sensor on the deck just below the arrow keys. If that is too much effort, an IR camera lets you log in to the system via facial recognition. With both features at your fingerprint, you can afford to forget your password.

Display

The HP Spectre x360 13t-aw200 CT0 “With 72 per cent Adobe RGB colour accuracy, the display is good, and colours are more balanced The 13.3-inch, 1080p IPS OLED touchscreen is a good one if you don’t mind the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio. It gets bright enough to use outside on a sunny day and the colours are punchy. Getting back to the aspect ratio, many premium laptops released in the past year use 16:10 or 3:2 ratios to allow for more vertical screen real estate. Which method is best comes down to personal preference, but tall and narrow is certainly trending. The touchscreen was very responsive. The picture quality is good, but we think it could have been better. When displaying an all-white image, there is some graininess, likely due to the overlying glass touchscreen layer.

Performance

The HP Spectre x360 13t-aw200 CT0 is Equipped with an Intel Core i7-1165G7, along with a hefty 16GB of RAM. The HP Spectre x360 is a great little performer, with Windows 10 feeling fast and responsive. Multi-tasking, with numerous apps open at once, alongside plenty of Edge tabs too, didn’t really serve to slow down the HP Spectre. the HP Spectre x360 13t-aw200 CTO has enough muscle to run demanding workloads without getting stuck. The biggest upgrade on the HP Spectre x360 over the previous model is its components and performance, with the laptop being a showcase for Intel’s latest EVO mobile processors.

Keyboard

The HP Spectre x360 13t-aw200 CT0 is at heart a pretty straightforward laptop. It’s a good job, then, that HP has the basics aced. For one, it has a very good keyboard. There’s plenty of key travel, zero flex to the keyboard plate, and meaty-but-quiet feedback when you press the keys. This is not necessarily what you’d expect from a style-driven portable laptop in 2021. But HP has not forgotten this element is pretty important for those who actually work eight hours a day in front of the thing. The touchpad is trimmed down more substantially to fit the Spectre x360 13’s shape but is still very good. It has a smooth textured glass surface and a confident clicker that isn’t affected by pressure placed around the pad itself.

Touchpad

The touchpad on the HP Spectre x360 13t-aw200 CT0 is just what we expect from a premium product. It’s spacious, responsive and clicky. Like Apple, HP decided to outfit its notebook with a larger trackpad, the Spectre’s laptop is bigger in width and not in height. It was a very smooth, satisfying trackpad with adequate clicking that wouldn’t annoy you any time you use it in a quiet room.

Audio

With luxury audio brand Bang & Olufsen quad speakers doing the tuning. They sound fine, with a decent punch. The Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers delivered clear audio with minimal distortion even at high volumes.

Battery

The HP Spectre x360 13t-aw200 CT0 has a 60Wh battery – the same size this series has used for a few generations now. It’s a mid-size battery that lasts very well considering the laptop uses an Intel CPU.

Verdict

The HP Spectre x360 13t-aw200 CT0 is a laptop focused on quality. Its build is exceptional. You get the cool and hard feel of aluminium, very low-flex panels and a non-wobbly convertible display hinge. Its keyboard is far better than the thin, clicky designs used in plenty of slim laptops. And while the weight isn’t dramatically low, this laptop’s footprint is among the smallest in its class.