HP AMA and Spectre Laptop Giveaway

[brandonhp]

What is the latest and greatest on battery?
There is ALWAYS a tradeoff between performance and battery runtime.

Anything new coming down the pipe, in either better battery tech, or lower power consumption components?

This is always one of the biggest challenges - how do we deliver more battery life without trading off performance? We know that battery life matters to all of our customers. We've made huge strides over the past couple of years. In 2015, the first generation of the Spectre x360 delivered up to 10hrs of battery life with a 5th generation Intel Core processor. This year, we're delivering up to 16hrs 45min with the 8th generation processors - which delivers quite a bit more performance - not to mention a number of new features.

As for new battery technologies - we are tracking what's evolving in the industry but can't comment on anything new coming to market soon. But til then, we'll continue making ongoing improvements in battery life through power optimizations and squeezing as much battery as possible into each device.

And I have to note... all battery life claims based on MobileMark14 measurements taken within HP

 

[USAFRet]

16 hrs. Impressive.

 

[brandonhp]

Is HP trying to make even thinner laptop? How is the ventilation going to work out? Better CPU/GPU functionality will produce more heat and within that tiny space, any new technology involved?

Many of our products keep getting thinner and lighter despite more performance and new features. That said, we're choiceful - if performance is key for the use cases (gaming, content creation, etc), we won't make it thinner for the sake of thin. An example of that is the Spectre x360 15". The second generation launched earlier this year was slightly thicker than the first generation. Why? Because the feedback we heard was people wanted discrete graphics in that device.

So back to the ones that do get thinner. This week we announced both the Spectre 13 and Spectre x360 - both super thin and really optimized for performance per millimeter (among other things like quality and design). Thermal engineering on those devices includes not just fans, but also the materials we use, the component layout inside the device, and other power optimizations. For example, on the Spectre 13 we use a mix of aluminum and carbon fiber to better dissipate the heat. We use heat pipes and fans to move the heat out of the device as efficiently as possible. And this year we added a thermal sensor to help regulate and control air flow.

 

[8350rocks]

With the advent of 4K video games, which features should someone look for in a laptop in order to get the best 4K gaming experience.

Good question. A high performance graphics card is really important to drive all of those pixels. I recommend something on the order of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 with an Intel Core i7 processor. And for that, I'd steer you toward one of our newest (shipping soon!) OMEN X laptops which comes with the i7 processor, GTX 1080 graphics, and a 4k option.

When will we see something like that with ALL AMD/ATI tech?

 

[brandonhp]

The new spectre is compatible with omen acelerator box?
(I want to play games on a external monitor with that pretty slim laptop when i am at home)

It sure is. Both the new Spectre 13 laptop and the Spectre x360 have Thunderbolt 3.0 ports that could be used to connect to the OMEN Accelerator. Travel light by day, and game at home by night. It's awesome.

 

[ayoon012]

I've always wondered after seeing 2-in-1 laptops "Why not dual screen inside and out?"
If I rotate a hinge 360 degree, my hand will hold the laptop by keyboard/touchpad which makes uncomfortable sense of feel
Could back of internal monitor be covered with another monitor with seamless glass coating like a tablet? (rubber gasket could be added on the edge for grip and drop protection (like most smartphone cases).

This would obviously increase production cost (2 screens and more power draw), but bring benefit of having front and back
monitor for presenting screen to the person in front (mirror both displays) and dual purpose (app running on one screen, Win32 program running on the other screen for collaboration (pen input from client, keyboard mouse from the user)

 

[reigichibi]

I'm curious how the Spectre lineup compares with the Surface lineup. How does the Spectre stand out from the Surface?

Also wondering how it compares to the Dell XPS 13 lineup and the Lenovo Flex series, in addition to the Surface series @jdjohannides asked about. Looking for something portable for college, preferably with GPUs/CPUs that can handle light workloads. Open to other options as well if anyone has suggestions

 

[iloveegypt]

Hi, I'm curious if the Spectre Laptop has a tendency to overheat? Does it get warm after prolonged use?

 

[hox.baby]

How long can this laptop last without charging and is it more likely have higher temperatures when on load because of the thin design?

 

[The Paladin]

Will the laptop in the future be even thinner than the achieved thinnest you have now ?

 

[brandonhp]

What do you believe is the most exciting feature that has yet to make it into Laptops?

Tough one. It's actually quite impressive to think about all the things we've integrated into laptops recently - touch, biometrics, inking, 4K panels, virtual reality, built in privacy screens, great audio, LTE ... the list goes on. You even see laptops leading some technologies before mainstream cell phones (e.g., facial recognition on the iPhone). It's hard to fathom what's next.

What would you be the most excited about if you heard it's now available on laptops?

 

[brandonhp]

would this laptop be suitable for a gaming fan ?

So we have two NEW laptops that we just announced - the Spectre 13 laptop and the Spectre x360 13" convertible. The baseline requirement for most gamers is powerful graphics, and neither of these devices have discrete graphics. So standalone, I think they'd miss the mark for a heavy gamer.

That said, either could be a great gaming device if you pair it with the HP OMEN Accelerator . This delivers powerful external graphics to either one of these devices. What I find beautiful about this solution is that you get the benefit of the thin, light, long battery life, and beautiful device to carry around with you all day. Then when you get home, you plug it into the OMEN Accelerator and BAM - you're in gaming mode.

Just to note, you'd need to buy a separate graphics card to put in the OMEN Accelerator. It either comes as an option through HP.com or you can get it on your own and get as much power as you want.

 

[ShafeDogg]

What kind of specs is this laptop capable of having? Is it built for gaming and expandability as well as being lightweight and portable?

 

[brandonhp]

I work in software development and web development including illustration and animation. I have found that very few computers do both well. Will this laptop handle both well? If not. which will it preform better? Will it handle the other adequately?

It depends how heavy of an illustrator/animator you are. If you've found many other laptops lacking, you'll probably have similar struggles with either one of these new Spectre devices. Why? Because they were not really optimized for that use case. Rather, they were optimized for design, quality, and overall performance for more general use cases.

The good news is that we have other products in our portfolio that are more tuned for your needs. Let me geek out for a minute. When it comes to any type video rendering (either gaming, animations, etc), you typically want to have a powerful graphics card to help offload the work done from the CPU. There are generally two different types of graphics cards you can choose from. Since many games are built on DirectX, some discrete graphics (such as NVIDIA GTX) are optimized for DirectX. However, many professional creative suites are built on OpenGL. For these applications, you'll find better performance on graphics cards like NVIDIA's Quadro graphics.

So for you as an illustrator/animator, I'd steer you toward HP's Z mobile workstations which are really tuned for these types of workloads and have the headroom to add a Quadro graphics card. The Zbook Studio provides a nice balance of heavy performance and thin design, but you could go even more performance with the Zbook 15 or 17 depending on your preference. Whichever you choose, make sure you add the discrete graphics to get the maximum performance.

 

[brandonhp]

I'd like to know more about the specs. Will it have an SSD drive and is it upgradeable. Also, Battery life and longevity info please

So we have two products - Spectre 13 laptop and Spectre x360 convertible. Both have SSDs, but due to how thin they are they aren't really upgradeable. A few of the specs are below, but I recommend checking out the website for each to learn more about each.

Spectre 13
- 10.4mm thin and only 2.45lbs
- 8th generation Intel Core I processor
- Up to 16GB memory
- Up to 1TB SSD
- FHD or 4K display
- Up to 11.6hrs battery life (FHD screen based on MobileMark14 benchmark)
- IR camera for Windows Hello login

Spectre x360
- Convertible 360 degree hinge
- 13.6mm thin and only 2.76lbs
- 8th generation Intel Core I processor
- Up to 1TB SSD
- Up to 16GB memory
- FHD or 4K display
- Up to 16.75hrs battery life (FHD screen based on MobileMark14 benchmark)
- IR camera, Fingerprint reader, and optional integrated privacy screen

 

[brandonhp]

Do you foresee the RGB craze making its way into laptops and notebooks as well?

RGB craze. Do you mean the customizable lights/backlit keyboards that you can do on a lot of gaming devices? Bad news for you - it's already made it's way to laptops! For example, the OMEN X notebook we recently announced has customizable RGB lights. It's really kind of cool, but I don't think this will ever make its way across every laptop. Many customers don't find any value in it, so we won't force it on people who don't want it.

 

[USAFRet]

Do you foresee the RGB craze making its way into laptops and notebooks as well?

RGB craze. Do you mean the customizable lights/backlit keyboards that you can do on a lot of gaming devices? Bad news for you - it's already made it's way to laptops! For example, the OMEN X notebook we recently announced has customizable RGB lights. It's really kind of cool, but I don't think this will ever make its way across every laptop. Many customers don't find any value in it, so we won't force it on people who don't want it.

For me personally, that would be on the DO NOT BUY list. No matter what the specs or price.

 

[brandonhp]

Thank you for this opportunity. I have an HP laptop with an i3 processor and 6 GB of RAM that I was given 2 or 3 years ago, when Windows 10 was brand new. It works well for most things but is a bit underpowered for gaming (not looking a gift horse in the mouth, though, if I hadn't been given this computer by a friend, I'd be without a computer at all.) I am wondering well how does the HP Spectre x360 handle games? (I love to play Skyrim and Neverwinter) What kind of graphics processor is in it, and how much memory? How fast is the processor compared to the i3 in my computer?

A new laptop - what a nice gift! I'm jealous of your friends.

We've definitely upped the performance in our newest devices. The Spectre x360 has the latest 8th generation Intel Core i5 or i7 quad-core processor, up to 16GB memory, and up to 1TB SSD. That's a lot of performance - and the i5 or i7 would definitely be an upgrade from your current i3. In fact, Intel has shown that the current 8th gen processor has 30% more performance than the 7th gen. And I would guess you might be even a generation behind that if you received it 2-3yrs ago.

In terms of graphics, we have integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 in this new 13" model, but no option for discrete graphics . That might limit how many graphics intensive games you can play. You have a few options though if you're ready for an upgrade.

First, you could get one of these amazing Spectre x360 devices, and if you decide it's not meeting your needs you can get the OMEN Accelerator which will add external discrete graphics when you want to game.

If that's outside your comfort zone, you could opt for the Spectre x360 15" which in addition to a bigger screen would get you discrete graphics.

Finally, you could check out our OMEN laptops. These machines will give you all the gaming performance you'd ever need.

Let me know what you think!

 

[brandonhp]

Do you foresee the RGB craze making its way into laptops and notebooks as well?

RGB craze. Do you mean the customizable lights/backlit keyboards that you can do on a lot of gaming devices? Bad news for you - it's already made it's way to laptops! For example, the OMEN X notebook we recently announced has customizable RGB lights. It's really kind of cool, but I don't think this will ever make its way across every laptop. Many customers don't find any value in it, so we won't force it on people who don't want it.

For me personally, that would be on the DO NOT BUY list. No matter what the specs or price.

The good news is - if you did buy one of those devices and you didn't want the lights - it's super simple to disable them. Our OMEN devices include HP OMEN Command Center, which let you control your gaming experience including the lighting effects.

And by the way - no RGB lights on the Spectre line or any of our mainstream devices. Just the highly customizable OMEN gaming devices.

 

[brandonhp]

Will the HP spectre x360's USB-C port support external GPU enclosures so that I can add a GPU and play games?if so will the Intel i7 8th gen processor be a bottleneck?

The short answer - yes (supported), and no (not a bottleneck).

Both Spectre x360 USB Type-C ports support Thunderbolt 3.0 which is required to pair with the HP OMEN Accelerator (our external graphics enclosure). So game away!

The processor is definitely not a bottleneck. I've gamed with this config and it's great!