The last time nosotros looked at one of HP's premium Spectre x360 convertible notebooks, we were blown away past its manner, powerful hardware and splendid keyboard. But that was just a 13-inch model — what if HP took all of that goodness and put it in a massive sixteen-inch laptop? That's basically what the company is offering with its new Spectre x360 sixteen. It's large. It's beautiful. And this time, it comes equipped with NVIDIA'southward new RTX 3050 GPU. If yous're looking for a notebook with a large screen that tin also handle a flake of gaming and creative work, the x360 xvi is a compelling option.

Gallery: HP Spectre x360 sixteen | 16 Photos

Strangely plenty, HP doesn't actually accept much competition when information technology comes to powerful, large-screened convertibles. Dell hasn't updated the XPS 15 2-in-ane in years, and LG'due south comparable Grams strive for lightness more than power. Information technology could be that other companies were scared away past having heavy notebooks with rotating screens — the 4.4-pound x360 16 is downright hefty compared to the iii-pound 13-inch model. But it's non too far off from the 4.iii-pound MacBook Pro 16. If y'all're looking for a big display, you lot've probably already relegated yourself to conveying around a heavy auto. (And at to the lowest degree information technology'due south lighter than the XPS 17, which clocks in at up to v.5 pounds!)

Spectre x360 16

Pros

  • Attractive and sturdy design
  • Excellent keyboard and touchpad
  • Gorgeous 16-inch screen with optional OLED
  • NVIDIA RTX 3050 adds more 3D power

Cons

  • Too large to use in tablet form for long
  • Bombardment functioning is average

Design wise, the Spectre x360 16 is more than glam than Dell's minimalist XPS line. Both companies went for sleek, all-metal cases, only HP's hardware features metallic accents along its edges (even the hinges get some bling). The Spectre line used to lean more than heavily into a bejeweled look, only at present HP is trying to tone things down while too delivering some fashion. Niggling things, like the case'south cutting off corners and the slightly softer edges, give the x360 16 an artisanal quality. Information technology doesn't look similar a cookie-cutter PC, and that's the point.

Like many 16-inch notebooks we've seen recently, the x360 replaces a 15-inch model. HP was able to fit a larger display into a similarly sized case by reducing bezel sizes and moving toward a taller xvi-past-10 attribute ratio. That results in a screen that'southward 22 millimeters taller, with eleven percent more vertical viewing surface area, according to HP. Our review unit featured a 4K+ OLED monitor that looked merely beautiful, no matter what I was looking at (though I'm a sucker for OLED's deep blackness levels and center-popping colors). There are also 3K+ LED screens available if y'all don't desire to pay a premium for OLED.

HP Spectre x360 16

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Unfortunately, the x360 doesn't support HDR and Dolby Vision like Dell's XPS line, or a fast 120Hz refresh rate like we saw on the Surface Laptop Studio. For some, not having those features may be a dealbreaker, peculiarly if you plan to scout a lot of HDR video, or if y'all're intrigued by the smoothness of having a high refresh rate display. But if you're upgrading from an older PC, the x360's screen volition still be a significant step up.

HP's convertible hinge makes it piece of cake to flip open the x360 16 one-handed. Rotating it around into a tent or tablet mode takes a bit more than effort, due to the sheer size of the system. Just similar every convertible PC, the tent formation is a nice manner to prop up the x360 if you're just lounging in bed. You can also flip the keyboard upside down to brand the display prop upwardly on its own, which could be helpful if you just need an boosted screen aslope a desktop. I didn't observe the x360's tablet fashion very useful, though; it's simply way too heavy to concord upwards for long, and it'southward simply awkward to use. But really, having a larger screen for productivity work and Netflix binging makes up for that.

HP Spectre x360 16

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Speaking of work, typing up this review on the x360 made me autumn in love with HP's full-sized keyboard even more than I did with the thirteen-inch model. It'southward wide enough for me to spread my fingers out comfortably, and at that place's a satisfying amount of travel to every key. Information technology'south like a concert piano just begging to be played. My only complaint is that it'southward a bit not-standard: there'southward a fingerprint sensor instead of a right Control key, besides equally an array of specialized office keys to figure out. On the plus side, the touchpad is now 39 percent larger, and it notwithstanding feels incredibly smooth and reliable.

Our review unit of measurement was the top-end $2,030 configuration: You get an Intel Cadre i7-11390H processor (in that location's no 12th-gen support however), 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA's RTX 3050 GPU and a 1TB NVMe SSD with 32GB of Intel Optane memory. The x360 had no problem with basic productivity tasks — not a surprise given its hardware — and I appreciated but how peppy it fabricated Windows 11 feel. Information technology opened apps up swiftly, and it didn't show any signs of slowdown every bit I piled on more and more browser tabs.

The simply disappointing matter was its disk speeds. According to the ATTO bench, it had average write speeds of around 2 GB/s, and read speeds that were significantly slower than almost notebooks we run into today. That's honestly surprising for an NVMe drive. When we asked HP about those issues, a representative noted that Optane drives can sometimes bear witness lower operation figures, particularly when you're testing large amounts of data. (We run the ATTO benchmark with a 4GB file setting.)

PCMark 10

Geekbench five

3DMark Night Raid

ATTO deejay speeds (height read/write)

HP Spectre x360 sixteen (Intel Core i7-11390H, NVIDIA RTX 3050)

four,785

1,518/4,200

sixteen,927

1.1 GB/s / two GB/s

Surface Laptop Studio (Intel Core i7-11350H, NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti)

5,397

ane,445/5,430

26,566

3.two GB/south / 3 GB/due south

Razer Blade 14 (AMD Ryzen ix 5900HX, NVIDIA RTX 3080)

6,551

one,443/7,226

35,812

three GB/s / 2GB/southward

Surface Laptop 4 15" (AMD Ryzen seven 4980U Surface Edition, Radeon)

four,620

one,048/6,551

xv,517

ane.9 GB/southward / 985 MB/s

When it comes to general system benchmarks, the x360 xvi scored similarly to concluding year'due south Surface Laptop iv 15 and ASUS'southward ZenBook Duo. I expected higher numbers, though, every bit it has a more than powerful GPU than either of those systems. That RTX 3050 is the lowest-end entry among NVIDIA's current offerings, simply information technology'south still better than what y'all'd become with Intel'south integrated Xe graphics. Information technology was likewise serviceable for basic 1080p gaming: I had no trouble playing a few rounds of Halo Infinite with medium graphics settings. The x360 16 is a solid choice if yous'd like to play a few titles once in a while, perhaps during a dull work trip when you don't want to lug around a heavier gaming notebook.

Large screens come up with huge energy demands, though, then I wasn't surprised when the x360 simply lasted 10 hours and 55 minutes during our battery test. HP claims it'll go for upwardly to 17 hours with mixed use performance, but it'due south unclear how they tested that. Our criterion relies on looping an Hard disk drive video, and so information technology'south not exactly stressful. I wouldn't expect a 16-inch notebook to easily reach the 15 hours of bombardment life we've seen on smaller machines, and the x360 yet offers enough juice to ability through a workday.

HP Spectre x360 16

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Being flexible in more than ways than ane is a major selling bespeak for convertibles. The x360 xvi is as at home while you're curled upwards in bed equally it is in a business meeting. The included stylus, which magnetically attaches to the side of the laptop, is also helpful for jotting down notes and unproblematic illustrations. And, given simply how of import video calls are these days, the x360 is as well well equipped with a 5-megapixel webcam and a few software features to beautify your face. It's certainly a step up from the 720p cameras we've seen over the terminal few years. For the privacy witting, you tin besides physically block the camera by hit a part key, as well equally disable the microphone.

Dissimilar many other style-focused notebooks, HP also includes a wealth of ports, including two USB-C connections, a USB Type-A port (in a corking driblet-downwardly slot), a full-sized HDMI socket and a microSD card slot. And aye, the headphone jack is still in that location too; HP isn't giving up on it like Dell has with the new XPS xiii Plus. While the x360 tin be charged over USB-C, information technology ships with an AC adapter that plugs in over a barrel connexion.

HP Spectre x360 16

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

As much equally I love our review model's OLED screen, the better x360 16 bargain is the LED-equipped $1,700 model with the same CPU, RAM and RTX 3050 GPU. It has a smaller 512GB SSD, just y'all can always upgrade that down the line. If yous're less concerned virtually gaming functioning, the entry-level $ane,500 model drops the RTX 3050 for Intel'southward Xe graphics.

As the only big-screen convertible game in town, HP could have hands phoned it in with the Spectre x360 16. Instead, it's given united states of america a powerful premium notebook that can do some gaming amongst a flurry of Zoom calls, and look adept while doing it.