A sneak peek at HP’s first 3-in-1 laptop with a flexible display: the Spectre Fold

recently there's been a new class of device that uses flexible screens or dual displays to really reimagine what a laptop can do now we've seen this before on devices like the Asus Zenbook 17 fold and more recently on Lenovo Yoga book 9i which we reviewed a couple weeks ago but now HP is joining the race with this the Specter fold and while it does share some similarities with asus's rival it does so in a way sleeker package now I get it some of you at home might be saying do we really need devices like this and look I get it but at the same time after checking this thing out it really feels like device makers are starting to get a good grasp on making flexible screen devices a really interesting alternative to your standard clamshell now before we unbox this thing it's really important to note that this is one of three pre-production samples that HP has sent out to the media that said I've been told that both the software and Hardware is very close to what you'll see on the final retail units so this should be a really good preview of what this thing is actually going to be like when it comes out sometime later in October [Music] what we have here is a 17 inch OLED display it's 2560 by 1920 resolution and it has Visa true black HDR 500 certification which is pretty nice to see on a flexible device now the other thing you'll probably noticed right away is how thin these bezels are compared to something like the Asus Zenbook 17 fold these are way sleeker and it just looks more like a modern tablet instead of something that's a bit clunky bit first gen now one Quirk that you'll notice is that the webcam which in this case is a 5 megapixel IR webcam situation that's positioned on the side so if you kind of hold it up and you're using it in a desktop mode it's going to be off to the right or the side instead of at the top like you might be accustomed to that said if you do flip it around like this into clamshell mode it'll be right at the top where you'd expect it to be now on the right here you'll see that there's a detachable keyboard so if we unfold unfold this pull it out looks pretty familiar although if you see down here there's a crease and that kind of hints to one of the Specter folds more interesting features that we'll get to in a little bit and then if we move remove this over on the left you'll notice that we have your standard USBC charging adapter and power cable and over here there's a really interesting dongle which is what you'll use to charge the keyboard but you probably won't use it very often and you'll find out why in a little bit and then if we go back over to the right under here we have a included stylus which is always really nice to see and there's even a spare nib really cool thanks to HP and over here there's a little included dock which is really appreciated on a system like this because even though it has two usb4 ports you're always wanting more and it's really nice to see something come with an included Dock and now that we've taken a look at the inside of the box and all the included accessories give me a minute to power this thing on connect the Wi-Fi connect the keyboard via Bluetooth and then we'll really see what this thing can do so now that we got this thing set up I gotta say it was really easy all I had to do to connect the keyboard was toggle the switch on on here and everything just seamlessly connected it was really that simple so aside from getting your through the normal Windows setup it was super super easy which is really nice to see and so as you can see in clamshell mode even though the screen is a little bit smaller than your typical Ultra portable at 12.5 inches it's still super Sleek super slim really easy to carry around of course this is not the only thing the Specter fold can do because HP is calling this thing its first three in one as evidenced by this little handy demo app that HP has on the screen so when you want to transform this thing you have a couple options if I remove the stylus and just slide the keyboard forward like this you get what HP calls the expanded mode in this you have a 14 inch display with what HP is calling it's 1.5 screen so you get a full screen on top and kind of a half-ish screen down here and then the keyboard slides down and this is where that crease comes in really handy because the TouchPad falls down and you get a really natural typing experience because of this little angled wrist rest of course this is only halfway and so we can go and remove this keyboard down here and this is what HP calls the extended mode in this you get your full 12.5 inch display up here another full display down here for whatever you want to do you can have you know messages or apps or email down there and you still have your big project up top and then you still get your traditional keyboard and touchpad down below there's one more trick that this thing can do so if I fold this thing open fully and pull out this really handy kickstand and back now we have what is essentially a really portable all-in-one PC you can push the keyboard up like that store the stocks wherever you want and there you have it and to me this is probably the most interesting use case because I was working last week remotely and even though I brought a 15 inch laptop I was starving for extra display real estate and if something like this was around I would have gladly taken it because it's not that much bigger but you do get just a little bit more display to work with and that's something that I'm always looking for now if we look at some of the finer details you'll notice that there's basically no crease at all so HP worked a lot on this hinge and there is a five millimeter radius hinge right here and if we kind of collapse this thing down again you'll see that the keyboard fits neatly inside when it's closed so you get a really cool self-contained package but one of my favorite things is that HP also included a couple charging coils uh down on the bottom lip of the laptop so that when you put the keyboard inside and you attach the pen which you know connects magnetically super nice both of them will charge wirelessly when it's sitting in your bag now that said if we remember there was that little uh charging accessory for the keyboard so if you need to recharge this thing in a pinch you can connect the dongle over here and then just you know plug it in up here here's one USB C Port up top and then there's another one actually all the way across on this side I feel like hp's designs worked on this to make sure that this cord was just long enough so you could do this so it keeps things actually looking pretty tidy some other really useful features that I like and appreciate is that you know you have your power button up here buttons for volume right here but you also get a physical shutter switch which is something you wouldn't expect on you know a laptops that's really leaning into the whole flexible screen thing and might not have a ton of space to include a feature like that now as for the body of the Specter fold HP is actually using mostly recycled magnesium up to 90 across the chassis now as you've probably guessed by now this thing isn't meant to be a performance Powerhouse but for basic productivity it should be more than enough you get a Intel Core i7 1250u CPU 16 gigs of RAM and a one terabyte m.2 SSD also for General usability because windows isn't exactly designed fully to support devices like this with flexible displays HP has worked with Microsoft to add a couple snapping options to Windows 11 so you can really take advantage of this flexible display now I know this all seems a bit far-fetched and it is but as someone who's always looking out for the next wave of devices that change how we can use the devices we own I think this is a really sleek and elegant solution to making that flexible display really work on a portable system now that said there is one really big sticking point this thing is going to start at five thousand dollars that's a lot of money for anything and especially when you compare to Rivals like the Asus Zenbook 17 fold that thing started at around 2 800 so we're looking at almost double the price that said when we compare this stuff to other previously announced systems like lenovo's X1 fold their 17-inch flexible laptop that they announced last year and still hasn't gone on sale you can kind of see why this thing commands an extremely high price the other side of that is I think HP knows that not a ton of people are going to buy this thing just because of that price that said HP has been very clear that part of the reason why the Specter fault exists at all is because they want to give consumers the average people a look at what can be done with today's Cutting Edge technology so maybe you'll be able to forgive that extremely high price tag you know just a little bit now if you don't want to spend five thousand dollars of your own money to be a guinea pig and test this thing out don't worry I get it but you know that's kind of what we're here for and I'm really excited to check this thing out especially after using lenovo's dual screen yoga book 9 I and asus's Zenbook 17 fold last year because I think this is probably the most engaging version of what a flexible laptop could be but as always for more from Engadget don't forget to comment like subscribe and stay tuned for more news reviews and videos coming soon [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Engadget

Views: 189,693

Keywords: engadget, technology, consumer tech, gadgets, science, gear, tech, handson, hp spectre, hp spectre fold, foldable laptop, foldable phones, laptop fold, new laptop, foldable hp laptop, HP, laptops, computer, Lenovo X1 Fold, ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold

Id: n18BSmmYV9U

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 14 2023