The spectre 15 i7-9710 is the latest laptop from HP’s premium Spectre line. Its quirky physical design will likely divide opinions, but it does have a stunning 4K OLED display, and good sound from its Bang & Olufsen speakers. However, it also has some issues on the performance front and can run hot, cranking up its fans and reducing its processing power to avoid heat-related shutdowns.
As a 2-in-1, it can be used in laptop or tablet mode, with the screen rotating 360 degrees around the keyboard. It can also be propped up in tent mode for streaming videos.
This Spectre model is a premium machine, and its pricing reflects that. Its black livery with copper brushed metal highlights makes it look a bit like the Asus ZenBook Z UX393, which I recently reviewed, but with more chunky, less delicate features. Its outer edges are angled rather than flat, and the two inside corners have a diamond-shaped pattern of indentations for ports and connectors.
There’s a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port in the angled top right corner, with another on the curved left edge, as well as a 3.5mm headset jack and a power input on either side. The laptop is thin and light at 4.1 lbs, but it’s not as slim or lightweight as premium powerhouse portables from Dell and MSI. This is largely due to the fact that it includes a full-size hard drive for storage, which adds weight.