It’s a convertible laptop made of leather. Well, not quite. There is glass and plastic in the appropriate places, but the exterior is genuine high quality leather, similar to what you’d find in auto upholstery or a wallet. When it’s folded, it looks like the kind of leather portfolio that business people sometimes carry their papers in.
It’s not just a leather case. The leather is permanently attached over the magnesium frame that gives the laptop the strength it needs. And speaking of strong, it’s also an excellent laptop with, according to HP, 21 hours of battery life. It’s built around Intel’s dual-core 8th-generation Intel Core Y-series chipset, which is optimized for long battery life over performance.
However, when using typical business applications — web surfing, word processing, etc., it’s more than fast enough. I wouldn’t pick this device if I were doing a lot of video editing or designing spacecraft, but it’s probably more than adequate for most people. Personally, I’m happy to trade off unnecessarily fast performance for necessary long battery life.
Pen is standard, LTE is optional
A pen comes in the box for drawing and marking up documents. It has an optional built-in LTE wireless modem. The unit I’m testing came with an AT&T SIM card and I’m getting 77 Mbps download speed and 10 Mbps upload. Internet speed will, of course, depend on network connections. The LTE version is $100 more and you’ll have to pay for LTE service.
Folding tricks
In the spirit of HP’s other Spectre and EliteBook laptops, this one folds into tablet mode, but it doesn’t have that 360 degree fold like other HP convertible laptops (along with the Lenovo Yoga and Microsoft Surface Book). Instead, it folds down into a flat tablet mode and the screen pulls out so that it’s kind of like a tent but not bent over as is the case when using other convertibles in tent mode. What I like about it in this mode is that it can sit flat on an airline tray.
Full-size keyboard
One of the first things I do when I unpack a new laptop is to measure the distance between the left side of the A key and the right side of the ” key and I’m pleased to report that this is really full-sized at 8 inches, the same distance as on the desktop keyboards. That’s more than I can say for other so-called full-sized keyboards. I like HP’s new 13-inch EliteBook X360 1030 G3, but the distance between those keys on the home row is about an 8th of an inch less. It’s not much of a difference, but slightly annoying for picky touch typists like me, though I did get used to it.
Like many Windows 10 laptops, the Folio has a touch-screen, a feature I’ve come to love, even though I don’t use it often. It’s one of the reasons that I’ve moved away from my once-loved MacBook Air to Windows laptops.
Feel of leather
The leather doesn’t just make the Folio look good, it also makes it feel good. I like resting my palms on the leather palm wrest and the machine feels cooler in my lap and luxurious in my hands. It’s not for everyone. A lot of people (to be honest myself included) are just fine with aluminum laptops.
Heavier and more expensive than Spectre X360
This laptop is being marketed to style conscious millennials, which I’m not. So personally, if I had to choose between this Folio and HP’s more traditional Spectre X360, I would pick the regular Spectre for three reasons. First, at 3.3 pounds the Folio is about half pound heavier than the 13-inch Spectre. Second, I like how the Spectre X360 folds all the way back and into a true tent mode. It can be in virtually any position. The folio does have a lot of positions so it’s OK, but the extra flexibility of the Spectre X360 (and the Lenovo Yoga), for me at least, is a plus.
Like several other HP laptops, the Folio is equipped with Bang & Olufsen audio. No small speakers will blow the roof off, but the sound is quite good, certainly good enough when watching movies in a hotel room.
Finally, the Folio has a premium price to match is premium leather, priced from $1,399 for the non-LTE version with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB solid state storage. Another $100 buys you the same configuration with LTE. It costs $1,608 for a model with 16 GB of memory and LTE.
At launch there is a FHD (Full High Definition) Gorilla Glass 4 touchscreen at 400 nits brightness. A 4K version, which will have lower battery life, will be released later. Personally, I am fine with FHD. I’ve reviewed both FHD and 4K machines and, while I can tell the difference when they’re next to each other, with a 13-inch screen, I don’t really appreciate the difference when they’re not side-by-side.
Summary
The HP Spectre Folio is a good choice if:
- You love the look and feel of leather and appreciate luxury
- You’re looking to make an impression and have a laptop with great battery life and adequate but not stellar performance
- You’re willing to pay a little more and carry around a little heavier device, than similar HP laptops
For a far more detailed review, see Patrick Moorhead’s post, HP Spectre Folio: One Of The Most Unique Devices I’ve Ever Reviewed.
