APRIL 2019 PCWorld 65
HP’s Spectre x360 bundles an HP Pen
which inks well, though with noticeable
latency before the ink appears. It’s a standard
two-button pen; by default, one button is used
to select text or other objects, while the
bottom button erases. Unfortunately, erasing
with the nib never works all that well. The
Spectre also lacks a holster or slot to store the
pen, so good luck trying to keep
track of it. The included pen uses
a standard AAAA battery; HP
also offers an HP Tilt Pen (go.
pcworld.com/tilt) with a
rechargeable battery for $79.99.
A significant amount of
bloatware ships with the HP
Spectre x360 15. Several HP
apps, including the HP Audio
Control app and HP Command
Center, provide useful controls
to adjust performance and
other settings. HP ePrint tracks
your printing orders. HP
JumpStart offers tips and
tricks, and HP Pen Control
allows you to assign actions
to the pen buttons.
There’s also the usual
complement of Windows
bloatware: two Candy Crush
games, Fitbit Coach, and
more. A Dropbox promo
offers 25GB of space free
for a year, however, and a
year’s subscription to McAfee LiveSafe is
also included.
IMPROVED PERFORMANCE
AND BATTERY LIFE
HP positions the Spectre x360 (2019) as a
device for “creative enthusiasts,” such as
amateur or professional photographers or
HP includes a pen with the Spectre x360 15, but no place to store it.
Though you can adjust the thermal profiles, we couldn’t discover
any meaningful difference in, say, dialing up the performance.