HP's Spectre x360 13 is one of our favorite laptops. It takes the best parts of a good convertible—a light build and well-designed frame—and combines them with the necessities of a laptop—good battery life, strong performance, and a solid selection of ports. Now HP hopes to build on the success of the 13-inch Spectre x360 by expanding it. Literally.

The new, $1,279 15-inch Spectre x360 banks on consumers embracing a large two-in-one laptop. While the 13-inch size is typical for devices that flip from laptop to tablet to tents and more, 15-inch versions are not so common. Most 15-inch laptops are traditional L-shaped computers that place a keyboard in front of you while sitting on your lap, but they often take advantage of the extra space to improve performance with dedicated GPUs and quad-core processors. HP took as many of the strengths of the 13-inch Spectre x360 as it could and crammed them into the 15-inch model. But even those can't change the fact that a 15-inch convertible is something you'll need to get used to.

Look and feel

Specs at a glance: HP Spectre x360 15 (as reviewed) Screen 15.6-inch 3840×2160 (282 PPI) IPS OS Windows 10 Home, 64 bit CPU Intel Core i7-7500U RAM 16GB DDR4 SDRAM HDD 256GB SSD PCIe GPU Nvidia GeForce 940MX Networking 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 Ports Two USB Type-C ports (one Thunderbolt 3-capable), HDMI port, USB 3.0, SD card reader Size 14.0 x 9.88 x 0.7 inches Weight 4.42 pounds Battery 6-cell 79Whr Warranty 1 year Starting price $1,279 Price as reviewed $1,499 Other perks included active pen, Windows Hello IR camera

HP's larger convertible combines the flair of its Spectre 13 laptop with the general design of its 13-inch Spectre x360. The x360's aluminum chassis is accented by carefully-placed strips of faded bronze in places like its hinges and the minuscule rim encasing the trackpad. Unlike its 13-inch counterpart, this convertible has the Bang and Olufsen speaker grills on either side of the keyboard, instead of cramming them in the space between the keys and the hinges. The keyboard deck has enough space for your hands to rest and move while you type.

That space comes from the area needed to accommodate the user-friendly, 15-inch 3840×2160 (282 PPI) display. HP made a point to explain that it shrunk the side bezels to 4.85mm. That's down from the 13-inch Spectre x360's 5.45mm and smaller than the 5.2mm bezels on the Dell XPS 13. Due to its larger design, that's really the only thing HP could shrink: to account for the display and the additional battery in the 15-inch Spectre x360, the device measures 14.0 x 9.88 x 0.7 inches (about .3 inches thicker than the 13-inch model) and weighs 4.42 pounds.

While the increases are understandable, the weight is what you'll notice the most. Lifting the Spectre x360 15 feels like you're lifting a laptop made before the "lighter is better" trend took off. You'll certainly find regular and gaming laptops that are heftier, but lifting and contorting such a heavy device feels problematic. I had to get used to flipping the lid back 180 degrees on a larger device than I'm used to, and there were plenty of times I nearly dropped the convertible because my movements were too fast for its heftiness. The x360 is like trying to lift a 50-pound weight with the same speed and confidence you need to lift a 20-pound weight—you immediately notice it's not the same thing, and you need to adjust how you treat it.

While the Spectre x360 15 doesn't support a fingerprint sensor, it does have an IR webcam that's compatible with Windows Hello. You may not be able to use your fingerprint to unlock the device, but at least the machine can recognize your face and discretely wake the laptop. Unlike Dell's XPS 13, the Spectre x360 15 has its webcam at the top of the display panel. This ensures that your buddies and coworkers will see your face when you video chat with them, rather than your chest or the interior of your nostrils. The left side of the convertible houses a USB 3.0 port, a headphone jack, and the power button, while the right side holds two USB Type-C ports (one of which is Thunderbolt 3-ready) and an HDMI port. HP includes a number of adapters in the box (USB C to Ethernet, VGA, and regular USB). You should have everything you need to create a full work setup just by using the tools provided.

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Keyboard, trackpad, and active pen

I love nearly everything about the Spectre x360 15's keyboard. The keys are a hair smaller than those on my MacBook Air, but they're neither too small nor too big, and they allow me to type at my normal pace. Like the 13-inch mode, this convertible has an extra row of keys on the far-right side that let me access home/page up/page down/end features without Fn-key combinations. While these are useful, one feature got on my nerves. The Home key sits next to the Backspace key, and I often hit it instead of deleting misspellings I was trying to fix. In WordPress or a text document, hitting the Home key brought my cursor to the front of the line I was typing. Many times, my corrections ended up misspelling words at the beginnings of my sentences instead of where I intended them to go.

The trackpad is super wide, measuring 5.5 x 2.74 inches, or about half the length of the key area. Its glass surface lets your finger move smoothly across its surface area, and it's pleasant to use. Sadly, it's not a Microsoft Precision Touchpad, which means it won't automatically support new Windows 10 trackpad gestures as they're added in future releases. While its wideness is useful in theory, I still found myself mostly using the middle portion of the trackpad rather than taking advantage of its full width.

The included N-Trig active pen will be useful for artists and note-takers alike. The pen is Windows Ink compatible, and it lets you write quick Sticky-Notes and draw sketches on a whim using Microsoft's software. But a suit of third-party apps are pen-ready as well. An active digitizer underneath the display and the tip on the active pen both support the standard 2,048 degrees of pressure sensitivity. It feels OK to use, but its performance is far from exceptional—after using the stylus on the Samsung Chromebook Pro, I wasn't used to the extra second or two of latency with this pen. It also needs a AAAA battery for power, so you'll need to worry about keeping a spare battery around. I wish HP had found a place in or on the Spectre x360 15 to house the pen—it's neither magnetic nor does it have an attachable holster or elastic band to keep it from getting lost.

The pen does have another convenient feature, though. It has two customizable buttons near the tip that lay flush with the surface of the pen. Using HP's Pen Control desktop app, you can change the function of each button to be nearly anything you want. By default, the top button right-clicks on the screen, while the bottom turns the pen's input into an eraser. Each button has over 20 options, ranging from the simple Undo function to switching between apps, launching the task manager, and disabling the pen completely.

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Listing image by Valentina Palladino