HP Spectre x360 14: Our Favorite 2024 Laptop for Light Users

The new and improved HP Spectre x360 14 for 2024 may be the best Windows laptop we've ever used. In fact, it's so good that we couldn't help but compare it to MacBook Pro 14, our winner of the best laptop for the last 2 years. But even though it is a great laptop, it's not perfect. Let's talk about what makes this laptop top-tier while also highlighting all the little annoyances you need to know before buying one. Then, we'll tell you how it stacks up versus the competition and what you should probably pay for it.

The Spectre 14 is HP's premium consumer laptop. It's a 2-in-1 device, which means it can be converted into a tablet. This year's model is also a redesign, moving from a 13.5-inch, 3x2 aspect ratio display to a larger 14-inch display with a standard 16x10 aspect ratio. So, technically, you don't see quite as much information going down the page, but the increased screen size makes up for that.

Pros

The 2024 Spectre 14 includes Intel's new Core Ultra Meteor Lake processor. Before this, Spectres used Intel's low-powered U series processors. This made them thin and light with acceptable heat and fan noise. However, they sacrificed when it came to performance. Their performance was only good enough for light use, such as browsing the web and working on Microsoft Office documents.

This year's model gives you substantially more performance, stacking up against Intel's 13th gen H series processor found in much larger, more powerful gaming laptops in 2023. Like in prior years, the 2024 model doesn't get overly warm to the touch or have annoying fan noise.

It's not only CPU performance that's a lot better. The ARC-integrated graphics in this new processor are much better than in prior years. We played League of Legends on it, and it delivered extremely high frame rates at max settings on the screen's native high resolution. It won't give you decent frame rates in modern AAA titles, but it's good enough to enjoy some older titles and dabble in light video editing.

Let's talk more about heat and fan noise, which are other strong points of this laptop. In light use, like web browsing, the laptop was virtually silent and didn't get very warm to the touch. While playing League of Legends, we measured a max of 39 degrees Celsius on the keyboard deck and palm rest after 1 hour of gameplay. That is a phenomenal result. When the fans are on, they run at a consistently low volume and aren't high-pitched. It's not overly disturbing; any background noise will block it out.

The laptop can sustain an additional 10 watts of power in High-Performance mode. However, its initial burst power draw is actually around the same as in the default Balanced mode. That's why this laptop performs almost identically on both modes for short-running tasks like the Geekbench benchmark. For most performance users, things like a quick code compile can be done in Balanced Mode, giving you the same performance. It also gives you the additional benefits of a cooler-feeling laptop with less fan noise.

Another positive aspect of this laptop is that its Core Ultra processor has hardware acceleration for basic AI tasks. As long as your software has been updated to use it, you'll find functions like using the background blur effect while on a video call will generate less fan noise and heat than on a laptop without this capability.

Overall, when it comes to heat and fan noise, the 2024 HP Spectre 14 is one of the best Windows laptops. But make no mistake, this laptop is still not a MacBook. MacBooks are still cooler to the touch for identical tasks and have almost no fan noise.

Battery performance is also a strong point of this laptop. There is no drop in the laptop's performance when using battery power. We dimmed the screen to 200 nits of brightness and ran a Netflix video on repeat over Wi-Fi for 4 hours. At the end of the test, we recorded 71% remaining. This is an absolutely fantastic result. It's only beaten by the MacBook Pro 14, but the MacBook is a bit heavier with a larger battery. Overall, if you use the HP Spectre for light use, like taking notes during class or watching a movie on a plane, you'll appreciate its battery life. If you want to run the laptop for performance tasks when on battery, which we don't recommend as it tends to quickly degrade your battery, it performs within the realm we were expecting. This laptop had 62% remaining after completing a 30-minute Cinebench test.

The redesigned chassis is substantially well-built, and the color of our model looks modern and contemporary. The hinges are tight, and although the lid isn't as strong as a MacBook's, it's strong enough. In addition, prior Spectres included a laptop sleeve, but the 2024 model does not.

The Spectre's keyboard is a delight to use. This laptop has always been known for comfortable keyboards, and this year's model is no exception. The keys have a satisfying click that is rare on thin and light laptops, and the material used on them has a soft, rubbery texture that feels great under your fingertips. The keyboard layout has also been improved. There are no special keys on the right side of the keyboard that, in the prior model, resulted in mispressing keys. Instead, we have a standard layout. If you need the page up, down, home, and end keys, they are now secondary functions of the arrow keys.

The keyboard backlight is top-notch. On the silver model, you can see the key characters in all lighting conditions. Silver HP laptops have been notorious for having light-colored keys with a light-colored backlight, making the keys impossible to discern in certain lighting conditions. The silver Spectre now has a darker-colored keyboard for contrast.

Like all Spectre 14s, this laptop has a touch screen and can be converted into a tablet. In fact, it recognized the change in operating mode from laptop to tablet faster than any other 2-in-1 we've ever tested. Others tend to lag when converting. In fact, it was so seamless that we kept double-checking whether it had switched modes at all.

The laptop comes with an active pen that you can charge via the USB-C power adapter. The pen has over 4,000 pressure levels, supports tilt functionality, and has various replaceable tips. When not in use, it can attach via magnets to the side of the laptop. We found the touch functionality incredibly responsive, both with and without the pen.

The new Spectre 14 also has a fingerprint reader in the power button and Windows Hello facial recognition. The webcam is good enough. The colors look decent, and the webcam is a high-resolution 1440. If you press the laptop's camera privacy button, a physical cover is automatically moved across the front of the camera.

When it comes to ports, you get all the ports you really need on such a laptop. You have 2 USB-C ports that are both Thunderbolt 4 and are used for charging the laptop. These ports also support the new Display Port 2.1 standard. It also has one fast 10GB USB-A port and a headphone-mic combo jack. If you need more ports, the laptop comes with 2 dongles that give you HDMI and additional USB-A ports.

The speakers on the 2024 Spectre 14 are amongst the best of any 14-inch laptop we've ever used. They are incredibly loud and surprisingly clear, even at high volumes. However, they are still second to the MacBook Pro 14's best-in-industry speakers. Compared to the MacBook, they don't have as much bass, and their sound stage isn't as immersive.

The laptop has replaceable storage and the new Wi-Fi 7. Unfortunately, memory is soldered, but you can get it with 32GB, and unlike some manufacturers, HP is reasonable with its pricing for this upgrade.

Cons

Now that we've discussed what makes this a top-tier laptop let's address a few things that bothered us. Firstly, the trackpad's palm rejection isn't great. The trackpad, as a whole, is actually excellent. It's super accurate and feels very natural to use. In fact, we noticed no difference when using a MacBook's trackpad and switching over to the Spectre 14. That is a massive win for HP. However, the palm rejection is pretty bad. While typing on this laptop, the cursor would randomly jump. This may not be a huge deal, but it is an issue. You may need to type with your wrists raised to avoid touching the trackpad. This is something that HP can likely improve with a driver or software update.

Next, the lid is surprisingly hard to open. There is nothing for your finger to catch on, so your finger ends up sliding over the area where you would typically pull the lid open. We had to use our nails to pry it open.

When it comes to weight, while we wouldn't call this laptop heavy, at around 3.2 pounds, it's far from the lightest premium 14-inch laptop out there. For example, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon only weighs 2.4 pounds. The weight is especially noticeable when using this laptop as a 2-in-1.

Another slight annoyance is that while the fingerprint reader works, you have to press it at a certain angle due to the raised edges around the power button.

The OLED display, although very pretty, could be better. On the positive, it is high-resolution, has a fast refresh rate, and is wide-gamut, making content on the screen a joy to look at. That said, we feel it isn't as bright as it should be for a laptop that costs this much. We measured 372 nits of brightness, which is below the advertised 400. A MacBook Pro 14 has around 600 nits. This resulted in some instances when we saw reflections on the panel because the brightness was not strong enough to combat them. We also saw less content on screen than we would have liked to because brightness significantly affects how much content you can comfortably see on-screen without squinting.

Most 2024 14-inch laptops with OLED displays seem to use the same panel. These OLED displays seem to use PWM flickering to control their brightness. And, if you stare at white content on the screen from about 12 inches or less away, you will notice a grainy texture. However, if you look at the screen from about 18 inches away, like we tend to do, you probably won't see it. In comparison, the MacBook Pro 14, with its Mini-LED screen, doesn't have any of these issues.

Conclusion

The HP Spectre x360 14 for 2024 is one of the best laptops we've ever tested. It is a fantastic choice for light users and students, and with the new processor and reasonably priced upgrade to 32GB of memory, software developers will also love this laptop. You can buy the model with 16GB of memory and 1TB of storage for around $1,600 at the time of review. For $200 more, you can get it with 32GB of memory and 2TB of storage. This is a very reasonable deal. The MacBook Pro 14 with the M3 Pro chip, which we've been comparing it to, actually costs $3,200 with those specs. We still feel the MacBook is a better laptop overall because it has better graphics capabilities, less heat and fan noise, and none of the issues we mentioned with the Spectre. But at the end of the day, it's not $1,400 better. Plus, if you buy the MacBook Pro 14, you miss out on this laptop's excellent 2-in-1 capability.

Now, if you're comparing the Spectre to the cheaper Asus Zenbook 14 for 2024, the Spectre is better. It has 2-in-1 capability and a better keyboard, and overall, it is a more premium device.

This laptop is already an excellent buy at its current MSRP, particularly for the model with 32GB of memory and 2TB of storage. However, HP laptops often go on sale for very significant amounts. We've regularly seen Spectres on sale for $200 to $400 off. Our website is the best place to find up-to-date deals, and if this laptop is on sale, it moves from an excellent buy to a phenomenal one.