Computer Shopper - UK (2019-10)

ISSUE 380|COMPUTERSHOPPER|OCTOBER 2019

SPECIFICATIONS

Windowsoverall

Multitasking

Batterylife

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

Seepage90forperformancedetails

PROCESSORDual-core1.5GHzIntelCorei7-8500Y•RAM8GB•

DIMENSIONS320x234x15mm•WEIGHT1.5kg•SCREENSIZE

13.3in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,920x1,080•GRAPHICS

ADAPTORIntelUHDGraphics•TOTALSTORAGE256GBSSD•

OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows10Home•WARRANTYOne

yearRTB•DETAILSwww.hp.com•PARTCODE13-ak0001na

34

10

10h38m

Peak brightness is decent as well at 341cd/m^2.
That’s not exactly class-leading, but it means
you can use the Spectre Folio in brightly lit
environments without struggling to see what’s
on the screen. The panel’s coating, which uses
Gorilla Glass, is rather reflective,soifyou have a
bright light source behind you, expect to see that
and other reflections on the screen.
Calibrated forsRGB, the displaydoes agood
job of covering that particular colour gamut:
95.3% coverage,tobeexact. An average delta-E
of 1.67 is fine formost day-to-dayactivities, such
as web browsing and watching YouTube,but
photoeditors might want to look elsewhere.

ROUGH EDGES
Our only quarrel with the displayisthat the bezels
surrounding the panel are quitechunky, and go
against the trend of slim bezels in ultraportables.
The logic of big bezels could make sense if
theyprovided somewhere to grip when using the
Spectre Folio as atablet, but it already has the
leather edges forthat, so the bezels take up
potential screen space fornogood reason. This
has the effect of making the screen seem smaller
than it is, especially compared to the InfinityEdge
13.3in displayonthe Dell XPS 13 (Shopper376),
which seems larger thanks to its smaller bezels.
Otherwise,the Spectre Folio’s displayisvery
good, and it’s also nice and responsive to touch
and stylus inputs.
Under the metal and leather of the Spectre
Folio hides an Intel Core i7-8500U. This is
designed more forenergy-efficiency than
computepower,with it consuming amere 5W at
peak power draw,but it still has some strength
behind it, with abase clock running from 1.5GHz
up to 4.2GHz at full Turbo Boost capacity.
The processor is matched with 8GB of
dual-channel LPDDR3 RAM, the minimum we’d
recommend to keep Windows 10 running
smoothly.Inour 4K benchmarks, the Spectre
Folio achieved an overall score of 34. That score is
beaten by the likes of the MicrosoftSurface Pro 6
(Shopper372) and HP’s own Spectre x360 13
(Shopper377), which is unsurprising given their
higher-power processors. The only recent notable
2-in-1 the Folio outpaces is the Surface Go
(Shopper371), which is much cheaper.
To be fair,all everydaytasks –browsing, word
processing, moving files around and so on –
work smoothly on the Spectre Folio.Sure,you’re
not going to be doing any video rendering or

complex photoediting on it, but then that’s not

really the Spectre Folio’s raison d’être.

Neither is anything that involves serious GPU

power,asthe Spectre Folio makes exclusive use

of Intel’s integrated UHD 615 graphics. You

therefore won’t be able to run any but the most

basic of games, with even older,less intensive

AAA titles such as Dirt Showdown out of reach.

Where the Spectre Folio does shine is in its

storage specs. Its 256GB of storage comes in the

form of aspeedy NVMe M.2 drive.That delivers

sequential file read speeds of 1,621MB/s and a

writespeed of 818MB/s, meaning you won’t be

leftwaiting around forfiles to load; handy if

you’re working on things while on the go.

Battery lifeisalso impressive,with the Spectre

Folio managing 10h 38m of continuous video

playback. That’s better than average even fora

lightweight ultraportable,and showcases how a

low-powered processor can be put to good use.In

real-world use with the screen brightness ramped

up,the Spectre Folio will make it through aday’s

worth of use before it needs extra juice.

BACKUP PLAN

Taken at face value,the Spectre Folio is an odd

device.For its price,itdoesn’t offer much in the

wayofperformance when compared to rival

2-in-1 and ultraportable laptops.

The likes of the Surface Pro 6are therefore

much better suited to be your everyday

companion, but given the power-sipping

processor,its design and mobile connectivity,

the Spectre Folio feels more like apremium

secondary machine to go alongside amore

powerful laptop or desktop.Inthis role,it’s

not half bad, if still very costly.

RolandMoore-Colyer