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MSI Summit B15 review: average business

This year, multiple companies primarily known for gaming laptops have been branching out into the portable business and productivity sector. It’s a crowded field already, but Razer made quite a splash with its excellent Razer Book 13, which has an elegant chassis, a 16:10 screen, and just a touch of its company’s signature RGB lighting.

In this review I’m looking at the Summit Series, which is MSI’s attempt to enter the same space. The series includes the Summit E line — which includes discrete GPU options and is priced to compete with top dogs like Dell’s XPS 15 — and the Summit B line, which starts at $999 and sits squarely in the midrange market.

I’m discussing the Summit B15 here — I looked at the Summit E15 last fall. The base B15 includes a Core i5-1135G7, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. I tested the more expensive configuration, which costs $1,249 and has a Core i7-1165G7 (one of Intel’s top 11th Gen processors), 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The system puts solid specs in a nice chassis, but there are a few misses that make it a bit expensive for what it offers.

The most appealing facets of the Summit-Series laptops are their look and build. They have a smooth black finish, an aluminum build, a classy backlit keyboard, and a lustrous new MSI logo on the lid and bottom bezel (no dragon to be found, a first for MSI). MSI claims the B15 has “military-grade durability,” and while that’s a difficult claim to test, there’s very little flex in the B15’s lid and keyboard. And at 3.53 pounds and 0.67 inches thick, it’s light for its size.

All in all, though, the B15 has a bit of a utilitarian look, especially compared to the E15. The latter has some small flourishes that add up to a classier vibe — there are gold accents around the touchpad and edges of the hinge, for example, where the B15 is straight black. One other thing about the B15’s chassis — it’s one of the worst fingerprint magnets I’ve ever seen. Touch the lid one time, and a visible smudge will remain. I used the sides of my fists to reposition the laptop while taking photos and still had to wipe it down between shots.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice-looking and nice-feeling chassis. But there’s nothing exciting about it, and you’ll be wiping it down a lot if you want to maintain a clean look.

Two USB-A and a microSD on the right.

The useful port selection is a highlight, given the thin chassis. It includes a USB-C (supporting Thunderbolt 4, power delivery, DP 1.4a, and USB 4.0), two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, one USB 3.2 Gen 1, one combination audio jack, one microSD reader, and one HDMI jack, in addition to the barrel-plug power port. You also get an RJ45 Ethernet dongle in the box, which is handy. I also appreciate having USB-A ports on both sides.

I also like the keyboard backlighting, which looks quite classy and wouldn’t be out of place in an office setting. The keys have a nice texture and 1.5mm of travel. Three nitpicks to note: First, the Fn key is half-sized, and I found it a pain to hit. Second, there was occasionally some internal rattle inside the deck, which was annoying. Third, the keys are more mushy than they are clicky, and they’re a bit shallower than the best keyboard keys around. Subjectively, I made more errors on this keyboard than I normally do.

Audio jack, HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, and power port on the left.

The display, similarly, is functional with caveats. It covers 98 percent of the sRGB gamut and 76 percent of AdobeRGB, and it maxes out at 258 nits. That’s an acceptable range of color coverage and is functional enough for office use, but it’s too dim to use easily in bright settings. I would expect more from a $1,249 laptop. Additionally, it uses a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is falling out of fashion among premium business laptops for a reason — it’s cramped for multitasking purposes.

The one component I really don’t like is the touchpad. It’s a bit small for a 15-inch laptop, and I sometimes hit the fingerprint sensor (built into the top-left corner) and the top plastic as I was scrolling. It also isn’t the smoothest I’ve ever used, and my fingers would skid across it a fair amount. Both the material and the click feel a bit plasticky compared to what you might find in a nicer model.

The Summit’s performance is good. I didn’t encounter any problems while running it through my usual office work. The integrated Iris Xe graphics aren’t suitable for serious gaming but can run lighter fare if that’s your thing. I could occasionally feel the system chugging under the keyboard while doing more intense tasks, but it never got too loud or too hot. You can swap to the “Silent” cooling profile in MSI’s control panel if fan noise is bothering you.

With that said, two disappointments came out of my testing period. First, the audio from the B15’s two speakers isn’t terrible and works just fine for video calls, but it delivers tinny percussion and practically no bass. I also heard occasional distortion at maximum volume, though I could eliminate it by bumping the sound down a notch. My test unit’s microphone also wasn’t working on Zoom calls, though it worked in other applications — I’ve asked MSI about this and will update this article if they figure it out.

Second disappointment: the battery life. Running the B15 as my daily driver at 200 nits of brightness, I only averaged five hours and 13 minutes. This isn’t entirely unexpected, as it only has a three-cell 52Wh battery — similar to what some 13-inch laptops come with at this point. On this 15-inch laptop, it’s not enough to power you through a full day if your workload is similar to mine (around a dozen Chrome tabs, Slack, occasional Zoom call, that sort of thing). One thing to note is that the B15 comes loaded with Norton, which I’ve seen be a serious battery drain in the past. I ran a battery trial before uninstalling that software and only got four and a half hours. After I nuked the bloatware, the B15 got closer to six.

All told, the Summit Series is a fine first step for MSI. In a market where business-focused laptops commonly cost multiple thousands of dollars, there’s absolutely an audience for something like the B15, which is light, attractive, and functional for just over the $1,000 mark. It looks and feels like a laptop you’d bring to a business meeting, and it has a top Intel processor with cooling that can handle it. Professionals on a budget could certainly do worse.

“Determined to succeed” is the Summit Series motto.

But given the unremarkable audio, battery life, and the other areas of the chassis, I still think that people who are willing to spend a bit more will benefit from doing so, especially folks who can live with less RAM and storage. A better screen, better speakers, and better battery life can make a big difference in the daily experience, and while the B15’s nice chassis, plentiful storage, and business-specific features are worth a premium for some folks, they won’t be everyone’s top priority.

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge

Hackers Exploit QNAP Vulnerabilities to Turn NAS Devices Into Crypto Miners

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Qihoo 360’s Network Security Research Lab said Friday that vulnerabilities in QNAP products have been exploited to turn NAS devices into cryptocurrency miners. Those devices were tampered with to hide their CPU usage, too, making it difficult for their owners to discover something was wrong if they checked their system’s diagnostics.

It seems like the efforts were pretty straightforward: Attackers reportedly exploited vulnerabilities in QNAP products to gain root access to them, installed mining software that was configured to use only half of the available CPU cores, and then covered their tracks by making CPU usage rates and temperatures appear normal.

The cryptocurrency mined by a single NAS isn’t worth the trouble of finding a vulnerability, exploiting it, and configuring it in this manner. The attackers probably had no intention of limiting their efforts to a single NAS, however. Schemes like this are all about achieving as much scale as possible as quickly as possible.

Put another way: It wouldn’t matter if each affected NAS only net the hackers $0.01 every day so long as they were able to infect a decent number of devices. They would also offset the costs of crypto mining—namely the upfront costs of buying a device and the ongoing cost of powering it—to their victims. All gain, no pain.

Note that while CPU mining of cryptocurrencies generally takes a back seat to GPU and ASIC mining, certain algorithms (specifically CryptoNightR used in Monero) can provide decent returns. Even an old Core i5-7600K 4-core CPU can do about $0.15-$0.20 per day (not counting electrical costs), while an i9-9900K can do nearly $0.50 per day. Infecting tens of thousands of NAS devices obviously gets into large sums of cryptocurrency very quickly, and Monero also happens to be a ‘privacy coin’ — meaning it’s not possible to track where coin transfers go.

The researchers didn’t offer many specifics, however, because they “speculate that there are still hundreds of thousands of online QNAP NAS devices with the vulnerability.” That’s a fraction of the nearly 4.3 million online devices they said they found using one of their security tools, but it’s still nothing to sneeze at.

That number might be lower if the researchers had followed the industry standard process of giving vendors 90 days to respond to vulnerability disclosures. Instead the researchers at 360 Netlab said they discovered the scheme on March 2 and disclosed it to QNAP on March 3. They published a blog post about it on March 5.

The researchers said they rushed to share their discovery with the public “due to the possible big impact” of the security flaws. We’ve reached out to QNAP to confirm the timeline established in 360 Netlab’s blog post as well as its potential impact and will update this post if the company responds.

For now, the researchers at 360 Netlab said the vulnerabilities it discovered were present in all of the QNAP NAS firmware released before August 2020. Ensuring a device has the most recent firmware should limit its exposure, and the researchers provided a list of IPs and URLs to block for additional security, too.

Intel’s 8-Core & 6-Core Tiger Lake-H Specifications Listed

(Image credit: Intel)

When Intel introduced its codenamed Tiger Lake-H processors earlier this year, it limited the announcement to quad-core CPUs aimed at a rather niche ‘ultraportable gaming’ segment and did not reveal any details about six-core and eight-core Tiger Lake-H CPUs it previously confirmed. These chips are still on track to be released in the coming months, and a PC maker recently disclosed the specifications of some of them.

DT Research sells rugged and specialized PCs for corporate, government, and healthcare clients. Such customers are willing to pay a premium for systems they need, but they also need time to ensure that the PCs comply with their requirements. Recently DT Research issued specifications of its upcoming LT375 Rugged Mobile Workstation and the publication was quickly discovered by @momomo_us/Twitter. The machine is set to be based on Intel’s Tiger Lake-H processor with six or eight cores that will be accompanied by a 17-inch 1000-nits display, up to Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 GPU, up to 64GB of RAM, and two SSDs (more details about the system below).

DT Research will offer its LT375 with the following three Tiger Lake-H processors:

Intel Core i5-11400H: 6-core, 2.20 GHz (4.50 GHz max turbo frequency)
Intel Core i7-11800H: 8-core, 1.90 GHz (4.60 GHz max turbo frequency)
Intel Core i9-11900H: 8-core, 2.10 GHz (4.90 GHz max turbo frequency)

(Image credit: DT Research)

The PC maker does not list the TDP of the CPUs, but a 17-inch desktop replacement notebook can certainly handle a 45W processor, so it is more than likely that all of these chips are rated for 45W.

What strikes the eye about the specifications of Intel’s Tiger Lake-H is their rather low frequencies when compared to Intel’s previous-generation Comet Lake-H CPUs aimed at the same market segment. We do know that there is Intel’s Core i9-11980HK coming to gaming PCs and this one has to be fast, but its younger brother Core i9-11900H (8C/16C, 2.10 GHz/4.90 GHz) looks rather pale when compared to the Core i9-10885H (8C/16C, 2.40 GHz/5.30 GHz), assuming that the specifications are accurate.

Intel’s Tiger Lake-H processors with up to eight Willow Cove cores have a number of advantages over its predecessors, including an all-new microarchitecture, a massive (up to) 24 MB LLC to maximize effective memory bandwidth as well as single-thread performance, a new memory controller, PCIe 4.0, and Thunderbolt 4 support. But only real tests will reveal whether these advantages are enough to beat its speedy predecessor.

Intel yet has to confirm the final specifications of its upcoming Tiger Lake-H CPUs with six and eight cores, so any preliminary and unofficial information about these chips should be taken with a grain of salt.

(Image credit: DT Research)

Rocket Lake-S Equipped Laptops Found in China

(Image credit: jd.com)

Even though Intel’s Rocket Lake-S processors haven’t officially been released, that hasn’t stopped a Chinese laptop manufacturer, Hasee, from updating its current laptop offerings with desktop-based Rocket Lake parts and releasing them into the wild.

This is the second time we’ve seen a company violate Intel’s official Rocket Lake launch date – the first was a German e-tailer that sold over a hundred Rocket Lake chips a few days ago.

The laptops in question are the Hasee TX8 and TX9. The TX8 is the cheaper machines with multiple CPU choices including the Core i5-10400, i5-11400, or the Core i7-11700. You also get to choose between an RTX 2060 or the newer RTX 3060.

The TX9 is the flagship of the lineup and features the same CPU options, but boosts the discrete graphics card up to either a vanilla RTX 2070 or an RTX 3070.

(Image credit: jd.com)

Theoretically, the biggest benefit of going with a desktop CPU in a notebook chassis is the higher clock speeds gained from the extra power the CPU can consume.

Hasee’s choice is especially interesting in that they chose mid-range parts like the Core i5-11400 and i7-11700 which feature a rather low 65W TDP. 65W is a wattage modern mobile CPUs are capable of hitting in thicker notebook chassis with the introduction of more aggressive Turbo Boosting algorithms and configurable TDPs.

The good news is if you want a Rocket Lake chip ahead of launch, you now have another way of getting it, as long as you’re prepared to pay international shipping fees.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus review: built for business

You could now line up five years’ worth of Surface Pro devices next to each other and it would be all but impossible to tell them apart. Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 7 Plus keeps the same familiar design, which is likely just to satisfy corporate customers who want to standardize their hardware for years at a time. That might be good news for business customers, but for the rest of us who want slimmer display bezels and a more modern design like the Surface Pro X, then the wait continues.

It’s no surprise then that Microsoft is limiting sales of the Surface Pro 7 Plus exclusively to businesses and schools. Consumers won’t be able to purchase this from a store, and it’s really for businesses and schools looking to upgrade older machines.

While I’ve bemoaned the current design of the Surface Pro for a couple of years now, there are some changes inside the Surface Pro 7 Plus that will appeal to many. Microsoft now offers built-in LTE on select models, and the SSD is now removable, much like the Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X. Intel’s latest processors also promise better performance and battery life. It’s nearly everything you’d want from a Surface tablet in 2021, but I still wish it looked like a Surface Pro X with an Intel chip inside.

The Surface Pro 7 Plus starts at $899.99, which is a $150 premium on the price of the Surface Pro 7. Thankfully, the base model is now the Intel Core i3 version, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Microsoft has dropped the 4GB of RAM option for the Plus model. I’ve been testing a Core i5 model with 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and built-in LTE connectivity, which is a steep $1,649.99 before you add a keyboard or stylus. The cheapest option for LTE is the $1,149.99 model with a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. Microsoft offers all 11 models in the classic silver option, but oddly the black version isn’t available with built-in LTE. You’ll also need a separate Surface Type Cover, and the business versions are priced at $159.99.

Overall, the hardware on the Surface Pro 7 Plus is almost identical to the Surface Pro 7. There’s the same 12.3-inch (2736 x 1824) touchscreen with its 3:2 aspect ratio, a single USB-C port, and the regular USB-A port. Microsoft still hasn’t made the switch to Thunderbolt 3 or 4 here, so you can’t hook this tablet up to an external GPU or use many of the Thunderbolt drives and docks available.

The real changes to the Surface Pro 7 Plus can be found inside. Microsoft has moved to Intel’s latest 11th Gen processors, and you can pick between Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 variants. I’ve been testing the Core i5 model, and it has remained cool even when using heavy apps like video or video-editing software. Like other Core i5 Pro 7 models, this has no internal fan, so it’s also silent while working.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7 has a familiar design.

These latest processors also include Intel’s Iris Xe graphics. While it’s not enough to turn this into a portable gaming laptop, it does help make the Surface Pro 7 Plus feel a lot snappier in a variety of tasks. Combined with improved SSD read and write speeds, lightweight photo and video editing is certainly faster than what I’m used to with the regular Surface Pro 7.

The biggest new hardware addition is built-in LTE, though. It’s the first time the Surface Pro lineup has included this for a few years, but unfortunately there’s no 5G support. Microsoft is using Qualcomm’s older Snapdragon X20 LTE modem inside the Surface Pro 7 Plus. There’s a dedicated SIM slot at the side of the device, which replaces where you’d normally find the microSD slot.

As England has been in a pandemic lockdown for months, I haven’t ventured outside enough to really push the LTE connectivity to its limits, but I didn’t find it impacted battery life too much in my limited tests. LTE connectivity is a great option to have on a device like the Surface Pro, especially for those who normally work remotely, visit clients, or just want something to replace really bad Wi-Fi connectivity.

The other significant hardware change on the Surface Pro 7 Plus is removable SSDs. This is really designed for commercial users to swap out faulty SSDs or to retain corporate data. The SSD is easily accessible from an access door at the rear of the Surface Pro 7 Plus, and a simple SIM tool will open it up. Microsoft’s reseller network has started selling SSD kits, with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB options, so there’s even the option to upgrade storage space here. It’s encouraging to see Microsoft make this so easy to do, which makes it far quicker for IT admins to get a machine up and running again.

All of these internal hardware changes also mean that Microsoft has managed to squeeze a bigger battery (46.5Wh to 50.4Wh) inside the Surface Pro 7 Plus. The company now promises 15 hours of battery life, compared to the 10.5 hours on the original Surface Pro 7. I haven’t noticed any drastic improvements in battery life during normal usage, though.

I typically got around seven to eight hours of battery life during my testing, which includes a mix of apps ranging from Chrome, Discord, and Netflix to Adobe Photoshop. If all you’re doing is watching videos, then you’ll probably see closer to Microsoft’s 15-hour promise, but realistically this is still just enough to get you through a regular day of work. I’m still hoping that one day a Surface Pro will reliably hit 10 hours, so I never have to worry about traveling without a charger.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7 Plus is only available to businesses and schools.

I’m still a big fan of the Surface Pro, despite the lack of design changes. Microsoft is clearly catering to a specific audience here, and the Surface Pro 7 Plus has been built for businesses. I hope that means we’ll soon see a consumer-focused Surface Pro that mixes everything that’s great about the Surface Pro X with the power and performance of Intel’s chips.

Built-in LTE and removable SSDs are great additions to the Surface Pro lineup, but we’ve still been waiting years for basics like Thunderbolt 3 support. And while LTE is a great option to have once again, it’s odd that Microsoft isn’t including more futureproof 5G connectivity. If you’re using an older Surface Pro and looking to upgrade, it might not look like a lot has changed over the years, but these subtle hardware changes do make a small difference.

Microsoft completely redesigned the inside of the Surface Pro this year to include this LTE support and removable SSDs. I’m just hoping a complete redesign on the outside is on the way. It’s still the 2-in-1 to beat, but the Surface Pro could offer so much more.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 review: premium in the right ways

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 is beautiful, bold, and totally functional.

Samsung’s flagship Chromebook is less expensive and better than before

I’ll spare you the suspense: the battery life is good.

It’s not incredible. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 is far from the longest-lasting Chromebook I’ve ever tested. But after last year’s Samsung Galaxy Chromebook couldn’t even make it five hours on a charge, my expectations were on the floor. I performed my first battery test on this year’s sequel in an optimistic but nervous state. Finally, several months after the Chromebook 2 was announced, I’m breathing a sigh of relief. To repeat: the battery life is not a disaster, folks. The battery life is fine.

That’s sort of the theme of this machine. There are a couple of standout features, and the rest of it is fine. And I’m very happy with that.

Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook, released almost a year ago, was a high-risk, high-reward play. There were a number of fantastic features, some of which (the OLED screen, the built-in S Pen, the 0.38-inch-thick chassis) were so fancy it was shocking to see them on a Chromebook. But two of its features were significant problems: the $999 price tag (putting the device in competition with the likes of the MacBook Air), and the battery life.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 (which isn’t so much a sequel to the Galaxy Chromebook as it is a more affordable alternative) lacks some of the Galaxy Chromebook’s most ambitious features. The stylus, the fingerprint sensor, and the OLED panel have all disappeared. But in their place are all-day battery life and a sub-$700 price tag. In doing so, it makes its case not as a groundbreaking Chromebook of the future, but as a device you might actually want to buy today.

With colors like these, who needs OLED?

From afar, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 looks fairly similar to the Galaxy Chromebook. That’s a compliment — the Galaxy Chromebook’s striking design was one of its biggest selling points. The Chromebook 2 comes in a bold “fiesta red” color, which is a cross between bright red and bright orange. You certainly don’t see Chromebooks of this hue every day, and it’ll turn heads if you’re sitting in public. (You can also buy this in “mercury gray” if you’re boring.)

Pick the thing up, and you’ll start to see where Samsung has cut some corners. It’s thicker and heavier than its predecessor, at 0.55 inches thick and 2.71 pounds, respectively. It’s still plenty light, though it’s a bit hefty to hold as a tablet for long periods. With square edges, it also has a blockier vibe, and the finish feels a bit plasticky and is quite a fingerprint magnet (though the prints are easy to wipe off if you have a cloth on hand).

None of these changes are massive knocks against the Galaxy Chromebook 2, though, especially at this price point. It still looks quite nice, and the aluminum chassis is sturdy. There’s little to no flex in the display or keyboard, and while I saw a bit of screen wobble while typing and using the touchscreen, it wasn’t too distracting. This is where the Chromebook 2 has an advantage over our current top pick, the Acer Chromebook Spin 713. That device is bulkier than Samsung’s, quite bland in its design, and has a bit more flex in its keyboard and screen.

The really big chassis downgrade Samsung has made is in the display. The Galaxy Chromebook has a 4K OLED panel that’s absolutely beautiful but, to be honest, not necessary for the majority of people. Instead, the Chromebook 2 is the first Chromebook ever to feature a QLED panel. QLED panels aren’t OLED, despite the name similarity; they’re LED-backlit LCD screens that use Samsung’s quantum-dot technology.

But OLED or not OLED, this is still one of the best displays I’ve ever seen on a Chromebook. It’s gorgeous. Colors were vibrant and accurate, with solid contrast and fine details. This machine is great to watch videos on. It is glossy and kicks back some glare but nothing that was too distracting. The other disappointment is that it’s 16:9 (1920 x 1080 resolution). The Chromebook Spin 713 also has a very nice panel at the roomier 3:2 aspect ratio. But on the whole, the Chromebook 2 looks great. Its speakers sound quite good as well, making for a solid entertainment device all around.

I’ll admit that the keyboard took some getting used to. It’s flatter than some of the best Chromebook keyboards I’ve used, including that of Google’s Pixelbook Go. But it does have a nice key texture with a click that’s satisfying but not too loud. I was enjoying it after a few days into my testing. In terms of ports, you get two USB-C ports (one on each side — bonus points for convenient charging!), a microSD slot, and a headphone jack. The one thing I’d wish for is a USB-A, but I know I’m fighting a losing battle there.

As I noted before, the Chromebook 2 is missing some of the snazzier features you’ll see on more expensive devices (including the Galaxy Chromebook). The most significant is that there’s no biometric authentication on this; it’s password-only, and I do miss the convenience of the fingerprint reader on its predecessor. (If you’re super anti-password, you could, technically, pair the Chromebook to an Android phone and unlock it with that phone’s biometrics.)

Another thing you don’t get is a bundled stylus. The Galaxy Chromebook shipped with a nice pen, which lived in a tiny garage in the chassis. The Chromebook 2 is compatible with USI pens, but you’ll have to store them separately. And there’s no camera on the keyboard deck, something a number of recent Chromebooks have included to allow for easy front-facing photos while in tablet mode.

But while those features are all nice bonuses, they likely won’t impact the average user’s experience too much. And at the $549 to $699 price points, I’m not enraged by their absence.

Pretty chassis with no stylus garage in sight.

You can buy the Galaxy Chromebook 2 with one of two processors: the starting $549.99 configuration includes an Intel Celeron 5205U with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and the $699.99 model (which I received) includes a Core i3-10110U, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.

In my first hands-on with this device, I was hesitant about the base configuration. Despite the appealing price, a Celeron with 4GB of RAM is quite an entry-level system, and I generally wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who needs their device to do school or office work. However, I now think there’s one compelling use case for the Celeron model: a Netflix machine. If you don’t plan on using the Galaxy Chromebook 2 as a primary driver but want to take advantage of the QLED screen for entertainment, you can probably get away with the $549 price. (Everyone else should probably spring for the Core i3.)

The Core i3 is a step down from the Core i5, the processor that powered the Galaxy Chromebook. But like an OLED screen, that processor is overkill for many Chrome OS tasks. As I used the Chromebook 2 to send emails, fiddle with spreadsheets, write in Google Docs, stream Spotify, and do other standard work, I didn’t notice any performance issues. I also never felt any heat in the keyboard, the touchpad, or the bottom of the deck. (The Galaxy Chromebook 2 has a fan, which some thin Chromebooks don’t.)

Battery life, as mentioned, is quite acceptable. I averaged 7 hours and 21 minutes of continuous work at 50 percent brightness, sometimes using a mix of Chrome and Android apps and sometimes sticking mostly to Chrome. The Chromebook 2 does take a bit of time to charge, though. It only juiced up to 54 percent in an hour.

Where the system lagged was in tasks that leverage the internal storage. The Galaxy Chromebook 2 has eMMC storage, which is considerably slower than the SSD you’ll find in most laptops. The process of getting a batch of around 100 photos from a camera into Adobe Lightroom just dragged. It took so long that, several times, I considered aborting the mission and hopping over to my MacBook. I ran AndroBench to confirm that the storage was the issue, and the results were… not great. To be clear, eMMC isn’t a huge knock against a Chromebook at this price, but it is a spec I’d stay away from if you’ll need to do anything with photos or other tasks that involve writing files to the drive.

Great for lighter loads, meh for more.

Finally, I think this is my first Chromebook testing period where I haven’t run into any big hiccups with Chrome OS. The operating system itself has been smooth for a while, but I’ve run into all kinds of issues with Android apps (one of the OS’s big selling points) in the past. No major problems here, though: nothing crashed, nothing bricked the device, nothing randomly changed size, nothing disappeared during tablet-mode transitions. That’s a welcome relief.

Your experience with Android apps on the Galaxy Chromebook 2 will vary widely based on the app. I generally used them to keep distractions like Twitter separate from my browser where I was working. Some popular services, such as Podcast Addict and 1Weather, don’t have great browser equivalents, so it’s handy to be able to load those apps through Chrome OS. But on net, I found that the apps I used for stuff every day — Slack, Messenger, Google Docs, Reddit, Twitter, Gmail — were either equivalent to or worse than their browser counterparts. The Android interfaces were generally slower to update and still had some kinks to work out. (You can’t click and drag to highlight in Docs, for example.) Slack also wouldn’t let me clear my status icon and occasionally sent me multiple pings for the same message. And Facebook Messenger occasionally refused to minimize, and also sent me huge dumps of notifications each morning from conversations I’d had on my phone the previous night. If you run into issues with Android apps, you can use the web app versions, which mostly work great.

In comparing the Chromebook 2 to the market, the most prominent competitor that comes to mind is Google’s Pixelbook Go. It offers similar benefits (an attractive design, decent battery life, a portable build) with similar caveats (no biometric authentication, no built-in stylus). But as of this writing, the $649 Pixelbook Go configuration comes with only 64GB of storage and an older Core m3 chip. So while there are reasons certain folks might prefer Google’s device (it has a better keyboard, it’s thinner and lighter), I think the $699 Galaxy Chromebook 2 is the better value among the two. For just $50 more, you get a better processor, more storage and RAM, a brilliant color, a convertible build, and a spectacular screen.

A $549 Chromebook that looks like a thousand bucks.

A more difficult comparison is the convertible Chromebook Spin 713. For $70 less, you can get that system with a Core i5, an NVMe SSD, a better port selection that includes USB-A and HDMI, and a 3:2 screen that’s also excellent. On the whole, Acer’s device still offers better value for the average person. That said, there’s a valid reason some people may want to splurge on the Galaxy: looks. The Spin 713, like a number of Chromebooks that are great on the inside, looks like something that you’d see on a middle school laptop cart. Pared-down as it is, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is still a Samsung device: it asks a premium for hardware that’s beautiful to look at and built to last.

Put the Galaxy Chromebook 2 next to the Galaxy Chromebook, and the former has clearly cut some corners. But it’s cut the right corners. In some ways, it’s the device I’d hoped the Galaxy Chromebook would be: beautiful, bold, and totally functional as well. It’s exchanged a bit of panache for a lot of simplicity. It’s, as I said in my hands-on, “a regular-ass Chromebook.” And I couldn’t be happier with it.

Intel 8-Core Tiger Lake-H CPUs Claw Their Way Into Lenovo’s Legion Laptops

11th Generation Tiger Lake CPU
(Image credit: Intel)

Intel’s 11th-Gen eight-core Tiger Lake-H 45W processors for mobile devices are expected to land in the first quarter, and, judging by the latest retailer listings (via momomo_us), the 10nm chips shouldn’t be far off.

Intel has launched several Tiger Lake chips that adhere to power limits under 35W. However, the chipmaker will have to roll out the 45W parts if it really wants to compete against AMD’s core-heavy Ryzen 5000 (Cezanne) processors. Like all Tiger Lake offerings, the 45W processors are based on Intel’s 10nm SuperFin (10SF) process node and wield Willow Cove cores and Xe LP graphics.

Besides the power limit increase, the 45W chips also bump Tiger Lake’s maximum core count of up to eight cores, while current Tiger Lake processors on the market max out at four cores. However, the Tiger Lake-H 45W processors will allow Intel to contend with AMD in mobile high-end gaming and workstation devices.

Intel 11th Generation Tiger Lake-H 45W Specifications

Processor	Cores / Threads	Base / Boost Clocks (GHz)
Ryzen 9 5900HX	8 / 16	3.3 / 4.6
Core i9-11980HK*	8 / 16	?
Ryzen 7 5800H	8 / 16	3.2 / 4.4
Core i7-11800H*	8 / 16	?
Ryzen 5 5600H	6 / 12	3.3 / 4.2
Core i5-11400H*	6 / 12	?

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

The four Tiger Lake-H processors from the Lenovo Legion listings cover only a few of the expected SKUs. Intel will likely flesh out the lineup with other configurations with slightly lower clock speeds to tend to different needs.

Barring any last-minute surprises, we expect the Core i9-11980HK to be the Tiger Lake-H flagship chip. In the same vein as its predecessors, the Core i9-11980HK should arrive with eight cores and 16 threads of processing power. The “K” suffix confirms that it will also have an unlocked multiplier for overclocking.

The Core i9-11980HK will go up against AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900HX, which has the same core configuration and allows for overclocking. AMD claims the Ryzen 9 5900X delivers up to 14% more single-threaded performance than the Core i9-10900HK in Cinebench R20m as well as 37% and 21% higher scores in Passmark PT10 and Fire Strike Physics, respectively. Assuming that AMD’s results are accurate, the Core i9-11980HK has a lot of catching up to do.

Intel 11th Generation Tiger Lake-H (Image credit: Provantage)

Meanwhile, the Core i7-11800H and Core i5-11400H should be equipped with eight cores and six cores, respectively. In the case of the Core i7-11800H, the operating clocks will be what separates it from the Core i9-11980HK or the rumored Core i9-11900H.

If we look at the Ryzen 5000 lineup, it’s clear that Intel cooked up the Core i7-11800H and Core i5-11400H to confront the Ryzen 7 5800H and Ryzen 5 5600H, respectively. AMD didn’t share any performance figures for the aforementioned SKUs, though.

Tiger Lake versus Ryzen 5000 will be an interesting fight for sure. Intel’s Willow Cove microarchitecture faces AMD’s Zen 3 microarchitecture, which has shown strong IPC uplifts over the previous microarchitecture. It’s not just a battle of microarchitectures but also a struggle between process nodes, too. While AMD has tapped TSMC’s proven 7nm process node, Intel’s bringing its 10nm SuperFin to the rumble.

U.S. Retailer Lists Rocket Lake CPUs, Core i9-11900K For $599

11th Generation Rocket Lake-S CPU
(Image credit: Intel)

Milwaukee PC (via Harukaze5719), a retailer that has been around since 1988, has shared the pricing for Intel’s 11th Generation Rocket Lake processors that will soon vie for a spot on our list of best CPUs for gaming. The company didn’t reveal the launch date but did affirm that the new 14nm chips are coming soon, meaning they’ll be new entries in our CPU Benchmark hierarchy soon.

The Core i9-11900K will be this generation’s flagship, and according to Milwaukee PC, the chip will retail for $599.99. For comparison, the Core i9-10900K debuted at $499.00, so we’re looking at 20.2% increase in price for its successor, despite losing two cores, but we do caution that these could be either placeholder or inflated listings. Besides, the Core i9-11900K does bring the new Cypress Cove cores along with Intel’s 12th Generation Xe LP graphics unit, so we should wait for in-depth performance testing before passing judgment. If you don’t fancy integrated graphics, the Core i9-11900KF will save you $20.

From a price-to-performance standpoint, the Core i7-11700K will likely be one of the fan favorites again. The Rocket Lake part shares the same core configuration as the Core i9-11900K, albeit slower clock speeds. Apparently, the Core i7-11700K carries a $484.99 price tag, representing a 26.3% rise in pricing compared to the previous Core i7-10700K. At least from what we’ve seen so far from benchmark leaks, the Core i7-11700K paints itself as the new Core i9-10900K.

Intel 11th Generation Rocket Lake-S Pricing

Processor	Pricing (Excl. VAT)	Cores / Threads	Base Clock (GHz)	L3 Cache (MB)	Part Number
Core i9-11900K	$599.99	8 / 16	3.5	16	BX8070811900K
Core i9-11900KF	$579.99	8 / 16	3.5	16	BX8070811900KF
Core i9-11900	$509.99	8 / 16	2.5	16	BX8070811900
Core i9-11900F	$479.99	8 / 16	2.5	16	BX8070811900F
Core i7-11700K	$484.99	8 / 16	3.6	16	BX8070811700K
Core i7-11700KF	$454.99	8 / 16	3.6	16	BX8070811700KF
Core i7-11700	$389.99	8 / 16	2.5	16	BX8070811700
Core i7-11700F	$359.99	8 / 16	2.5	16	BX8070811700F
Core i5-11600K	$309.99	6 / 12	3.9	12	BX8070811600K
Core i5-11600KF	$279.99	6 / 12	3.9	12	BX8070811600KF
Core i5-11600	$264.99	6 / 12	2.8	12	BX8070811600
Core i5-11500	$234.99	6 / 12	2.7	12	BX8070811500
Core i5-11400	$214.99	6 / 12	2.6	12	BX8070811400
Core i5-11400F	$179.99	6 / 12	2.6	12	BX8070811400F

Customers with tight budgets will be happy to know that the Core i5-11600K will only set them back $309.99. Out of the three major K-series parts, the Core i5-11600K accounts for the least price increase. The Core i5-11600K only costs 14% more than the widely popular Core i5-10600K. At launch, we crowned the Core i5-10600K as the ultimate mainstream gaming chip, but that was back before AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series landed. We’re excited to see whether the torch will pass to the Core i5-11600K.

Once again, gamers who plan to pair the Core i5-11600K could opt to grab the Core i5-11600KF. The iGPU-less variant easily nets them $30 in savings that can be put to good use in other components.

Intel 11th Generation Rocket Lake-S Pricing (Image credit: Milwaukee PC)

Intel has committed will launch Rocket Lake next month, and thanks to an MSI representative, we’ve narrowed the timeframe down to late March. The processors are backward compatible with the current 400-series motherboards through a simple firmware upgrade. However, motherboard manufacturers have already revealed their new 500-series offerings that are designed to extract every bit of performance out of Rocket Lake.

Rocket Lake is in all likelihood the last wave of Intel processors to grace the LGA1200 platform. Many consider it a band-aid to fend off AMD’s Ryzen 5000 (codename Vermeer) army until Alder Lake is ready. Although Intel maintains the notion that the hybrid desktop chips belong to the “performance” segment, it remains to be seen whether there is any truth in the chipmaker’s claims.

Our Verdict

The HP Spectre x360 14 is a beautifully constructed 2-in-1 laptop with a vibrant 3:2 OLED touch screen to showcase your work. It has an excellent keyboard and a variety of ports for all of your accessories. Those who prioritize battery life may want to consider a non-OLED configuration, however.

For

Sleek, attractive design
Vivid 3:2 display shows more of your work
Clicky, responsive keyboard
Thunderbolt 4 and USB Type-A ports

Against

OLED model doesn’t last all day
Difficult to upgrade SSD

There’s no need to beat around the bush: the HP Spectre x360 14 ($1,219.99 to start; $1,699.99 as tested) is one of the best ultrabooks we’ve tested in the last several months. It’s exquisitely designed with a 13.5-inch, 3:2 display that showcases more of your work, whether it be words, numbers, or code.

You’ll pay a premium price for it, but it sure feels premium, with a sleek chassis, clicky keyboard and both USB Type-C and Type-A ports, as well as a microSD card reader.

The model we reviewed had an impressive

OLED

screen with a 3,000 x 2,000 resolution. It looks great, but if you want all-day battery life, you may consider alternative configurations.

Design of the HP Spectre x360 14

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HP makes a handsome laptop. The Spectre x360 doesn’t make a ton of changes to what has largely become a tried and true design. It’s an aluminum notebook with solid construction. Ours came in “nightfall black” with copper accents, which I think is a bit showy for my tastes these days, but you can also get in “Poseidon blue” or my likely choice, “natural silver.”

The back two edges near the 360-degree hinge are chopped off, one of which makes room for a Thunderbolt 4 port. It’s a divisive choice, but it’s grown on me. That placement lets you flip from a laptop into a tablet while it’s charging and barely move the cable at all.

When you unfold the laptop for the first time, you’ll notice the big difference with this Spectre: a 13.5-inch, 3:2 display that feels incredibly luxurious compared to the 16:9 screen on the smaller

Spectre x360 13

that we recently reviewed. There’s minimal bezel around it, putting the focus on your work. It also creates a slightly longer profile for the whole device.

Unlike many 2-in-1s, the power button is on the keyboard, rather than the side of the device. As a person using it primarily as a laptop, I prefer this choice, though tablet-heavy users might be annoyed. There’s also a fingerprint reader next to the arrow keys, this, combined with the IR camera, allows for security options beyond a password whether in tablet or laptop mode, which I appreciate. The speaker grilles above the function keys make for a nice accent.

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There aren’t a ton of ports on the Spectre x360 14, but there’s enough for most people’s everyday use. Most of the action is on the right side, where you’ll find two Thunderbolt 4 ports (one on the right corner), a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a microSD card. On the right, there is one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port. The rest of that side of the notebook is magnetized to fit the included HP Tilt Pen.

At 2.95 pounds with an 11.75 x 8.67 x 0.67-inch footprint, the Spectre is fairly compact. The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 9310 is 2.9 pounds and 11.69 x 8.15 x 0.56 inches — a bit smaller — but also has a 13.4-inch screen in a 16:10 aspect ratio. The MacBook Pro is a 3 pound clamshell and measures 11.95 x 8.36 x 0.61 inches, and the Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 is 2.7 pounds and 12 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches.

HP Spectre x360 14 Specifications

CPU	Intel Core i7-1165G7
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Memory	16GB LPDDR4-3733
Storage	1TB PCIe NVMe SSD with 32GB Intel Optane
Display	13.5-inch, 3000 x 2000 OLED touchscreen
Networking	Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX 201 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5
Ports	2x Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, Headphone/microphone jack, microSD card reader
Camera	720p IR
Battery	66 WHr
Power Adapter	65 W
Operating System	Windows 10 Home
Other	HP Rechargeable MPP2.0 Tilt Pen
Dimensions(WxDxH)	11.75 x 8.67 x 0.67 inches / 298.45 x 220.22 x 17.02 mm
Weight	2.95 pounds / 1.34 kg
Price (as configured)	$1,699.99

Productivity Performance on the HP Spectre x360 14

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Our HP Spectre x360 14 review unit came with an Intel Core i7-1165G7, 16GB of LPDDR4 RAM and a 1TB PCIe

NVMe SSD

with 32GB of Intel Optane memory. In my use, it could handle plenty of browser tabs and streaming video without an issue.

On the Geekbench 5 overall performance benchmark, the Spectre earned a single-core score of 1,462 and a multi-core score of 4,904. The ZenBook Flip S was in a similar range. The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 had a higher score in multi-core performance (5,639). The MacBook Pro, too, had a higher multi-core score when emulated through Rosetta 2 to run the same version of the test (5,925).

The Spectre transferred 25GB of files at a rate of 533.61 MBps, faster than the XPS 13 2-in-1, but slower than the ZenBook Flip S (979.37 MBps).

In our Handbrake test, which transcodes a 4K video to 1080p, the Spectre x360 14 finished the task in 18 minutes and 5 seconds. While this was four minutes faster than the ZenBook, the XPS 13 2-in-1 was speedier and the MacBook Pro led the whole pack, even while emulating x86 instructions.

To stress the Spectre, we ran it through 20 runs of Cinebench R23. It was fairly consistent in the low 4,000’s, though there were some peaks up to around 4,300. The CPU ran at an average of 2.61 GHz and an average temperature of 74.07 degrees Celsius (165.33 degrees Fahrenheit).

Display on the HP Spectre x360 14

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The 13.5-inch touchscreen on the Spectre x360 has a 3:2 aspect ratio, making it taller than it is wide. It’s an opulent amount of space, especially for doing work. You’ll see more text, code, spreadsheet cells or whatever else you’re working on because the screen is taller. It’s a big improvement over 16:9 displays, and makes for a more natural shape as a tablet, as it’s similar in shape to a piece of paper.

Our main review configuration was an OLED model with a 3,000 x 2,000 resolution. It looked incredible, with deep blacks and vibrant colors, as has been the case on most OLED monitors we’ve seen to date. Of course, most videos are still 16:9, so when I watched the trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong, it was letterboxed on the top and bottom. The beginning of the trailer features the titular ape on a barge during a sunset, and its blue and orange hues were beautiful as jets flew overhead.

The OLED screen covers 139.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut (the non-OLED, 1920 x 1280 screen covered 74.6%). The next best was the ZenBook Flip S, also with an OLED display, at 113.1%. The MacBook Pro measured 78.3% and the XPS 13 2-in-1 covered 70%.

The Spectre’s display measured an average of 339 nits on our light meter. This never seemed like an issue in regular use, though the ZenBook, XPS 13 2-in-1 and MacBook Pro all got far brighter.

Keyboard, Touchpad and Stylus on the HP Spectre x360 14

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The keyboard on the Spectre takes up as much room as possible, moving from edge to edge of the

chassis

. This gave HP room to include a full keyboard, including an extra column for home, page up, page down and end keys. The tilde key is a little squeezed, but not enough for me to be inconvenienced.

The keys are clicky (they even have a bit of a clicky sound!), and I really enjoyed typing on them. On the 10fastfingers typing test, I reached 105 words per minute with my usual 2% error rate.

There’s a fingerprint reader built into the keyboard on the right side, next to the arrow keys. On the function row, there’s a key to kill the camera. The F1 key is sort of wasted, though, in that it is programmed exclusively to open the browser and search for “how to get help in

Windows 10

.”

HP has equipped the Spectre x360 with a 4.5 x 2.8-inch touchpad. It’s slightly smaller than the MacBook Pro (5.1 x 32 inches), but is still plenty spacious. With Windows 10 precision drivers, it responded immediately to every gesture.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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 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.

HP claims it lasts 30 hours on a charge. When you slide up the top of the stylus, a USB-C port is revealed, which is a neat addition. A ring light on the very top tells you its charging status.

Audio on the HP Spectre x360 14

HP’s collaboration with Bang & Olufsen has produced winning laptop audio for a while now, and the Spectre x360 14 is no exception.

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

Unfortunately, HP has made upgrades and repairs to the Spectre x360 14 more difficult for the average person than they need to be.

There are two visible Torx screws on the underside of the laptop, but underneath the rear rubber foot, there are four more Phillips head screws. The feet are applied with adhesive and could rip when you remove them. HP makes extras available to authorized repair shops.

If you did get into the laptop, per

the maintenance manual

, you would find that while the RAM is soldered down, the SSD, WI-Fi module and battery are user replaceable.

Battery Life on the HP Spectre x360 14

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Like most laptops with OLED screens, the Spectre x360 14’s battery life isn’t exceptional. It will last you most of the day, but you’ll want to bring the braided USB Type-C charger with you.

On our test, which continuously has laptops browse the web, run OpenGL tests and stream video over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the Spectre ran for 7 hours and 14 minutes. A non-OLED version with a 1920 x 1280 screen ran for 12:11, should you value battery life over image quality.

The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 lasted 10:52, while the ZenBook Flip S (also with OLED) ran for 8:11. The MacBook Pro with Apple’s M1 processor lasted the longest at a whopping 16:32.

Heat on the HP Spectre x360 14

We took skin temperature measurements on the 14-inch Spectre x360 while running our Cinebench R23 stress test.

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The center of the keyboard measured 34.8 degrees Celsius (94.64 degrees Fahrenheit), while the touchpad was a cooler 29.4 degrees Celsius (84.92 degrees Fahrenheit).

The hottest point on the bottom was 47.1 degrees Celsius (116.78 degrees Fahrenheit).

Webcam on the HP Spectre x360 14

It’s a shame this beautiful, high-resolution screen wasn’t paired with a beautiful, high-resolution

webcam

. Like most laptop cameras, the Spectre x360’s is still stuck at

720p

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.

On the bright side, it works with Windows Hello for facial login. While there’s also a fingerprint reader on the keyboard, this is better for logging in when it’s a tablet.

Software and Warranty on the HP Spectre x360 14

While the Spectre x360 is undoubtedly a premium device, it has the kind of bloat you would expect from some budget machines.

HP has a lot of its own software. I wish it would combine more of these disparate programs into the main app, HP Command Center, which lets you make performance adjustments based on temperature and sound and also lets you decide which software gets network priority.

There are separate pieces of software for choosing among different display modes, switching between headphone and speakers, changing HP telemetry settings and adjusting the buttons on the stylus. There’s also HP Quick Drop to move files between your phone and the laptop.

On top of all that, there is MyHP, which gives you your serial number and is otherwise filled in with some fairly vapid tips for using your PC. HP has also added LastPass, ExpressVPN, Netflix, trials of Adobe software and a promotion with Dropbox for new users to get 25GB of free space. There’s also a suite of McAfee software, including McAfee LiveSafe, Personal Security and File Lock.

Amazon Alexa is also preinstalled, which may be divisive. It sure is more useful than Cortana. Either way, it’s not actively listening. Instead, you have to sign in to your Amazon account.

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 sells the Spectre x360 14 with a 1-year warranty.

HP Spectre x360 14 Configurations

We tested the Spectre x360 14 with an Intel Core i7-1165G7, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD with 32GB of Intel Optane memory, a 3000 x 2000 OLED display. It comes in black and costs $1,699.99 at Best Buy as of this writing.

HP sells other configurations on its own website, starting at $1,219.99 with an Intel Core i5-1135G7, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD with16GB of Intel Optane memory and a 1920 x 1280 touchscreen. Changing to black or blue adds $10 to the price, and for more money, you can go up to 2TB of storage (up to an extra $320).

Bottom Line

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The HP Spectre x360 14 is the best 2-in-1 laptop you can get right now. The 3:2 display highlights your work in laptop mode and is more natural than 16:9 or 16:10 screens in tablet mode. It offers solid performance, has a variety of ports, includes a stylus and has an excellent keyboard.

If battery life is your priority, the OLED screen won’t do you any favors, but the 1920 x 1280 model might be more your speed. The

MacBook Pro with M1

, a clamshell alternative, is top of the class in endurance. If you prefer a smaller footprint, the

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 9310

is still very good, though it has fewer ports and a 16:10 screen rather than 3:2.

But the Spectre x360 14 largely has it all, making this one easy to recommend if you’re willing to pay a premium price.

Intel 11th Generation Tiger Lake-H 45W Specifications

Intel 11th Generation Rocket Lake-S Pricing

Our Verdict

For

Against

Design of the HP Spectre x360 14

HP Spectre x360 14 Specifications

Productivity Performance on the HP Spectre x360 14

Display on the HP Spectre x360 14

Keyboard, Touchpad and Stylus on the HP Spectre x360 14

Audio on the HP Spectre x360 14

Upgrading the HP Spectre x360 14

Battery Life on the HP Spectre x360 14

Heat on the HP Spectre x360 14

Webcam on the HP Spectre x360 14

Software and Warranty on the HP Spectre x360 14

HP Spectre x360 14 Configurations

Bottom Line

Our Verdict

For

Against

Design of the HP Spectre x360 13-inch

HP Spectre x360 13-inch Specifications

Productivity Performance HP Spectre x360 13-inch

Display on the HP Spectre x360 13-inch Specifications

Keyboard and Touchpad on the HP Spectre x360 13-inch

Audio on the HP Spectre x360 13-inch

Upgradeability of the HP Spectre x360 13-inch

Battery Life on the HP Spectre x360 13-inch

Heat on the HP Spectre x360 13-inch

Webcam on the HP Spectre x360 13-inch

Software and Warranty on the HP Spectre x360 13-inch

HP Spectre x360 13-inch Configurations

Bottom Line