HP STAR WARS SPECIAL EDITION LAPTOP HANDS ON: A CLOSER LOOK

Last week, HP unveiled its new range of Windows laptops, powered by Windows 10 and the latest sixth-generation Skylake processors from Intel. While the headline-grabbing entry is the sexy, Surface-like Spectre x2 tablet, HP also showcased the Star Wars Special Edition Notebook. While it’s not exactly a powerful gaming laptop, it is a surprisingly well-designed notebook that’s sure to interest Star Wars fans.

Available in Malaysia since mid-November, the HP Star Wars Special Edition Notebook is a mid-range laptop with unique Star Wars-inspired design that makes it a collector’s item. It’s powered by an Intel Core i5-6200U processor with an NVIDIA GeForce 940M GPU, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 1TB hard drive, and has a 15.6-inch Full HD display. There’s also space for an optical disc drive.

What’s worth noting also is that HP also made sure the Star Wars experience does not just start from the laptop, but in the packaging itself. Everything appears thoughtfully considered, from the black-and-red retail box featuring Darth Vader and the words “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side”, to the grey polystyrene safety foams moulded to look like a Twin Ion Engine fighter. Inside, you’ll also find a box for the power brick, again emblazoned with Darth Vader.

The entire exterior is draped in a “battle-worn distressed design with ‘Galactic Empire’ written in the unique Star Wars Aurebesh font,” while the touchpad design is inspired from the X-wing targeting computer while it flies down the trench on the Death Star. It is clear that HP paid a lot of attention to detail with its design choices here.

Inside, users will also find a Star Wars Command Centre, which contains thousands of images, as well as comics, e-books, and select Star Wars movie trailers – most of the content here have never been released, including behind the scenes content from the movie sets, making it even more valuable for the die hard aficionado.

Alongside the laptop, HP is completing the Star Wars experience by offering a wireless mouse and a laptop sleeve, both with matching Star Wars design. The wireless mouse, featuring (surprise!) Darth Vader, retails for RM95, while the sleeve will be sold at RM70.

At RM3,999, the HP Star Wars Special Edition Notebook is priced higher than other laptops with similar specs – it just about passes the minimum requirements to actually run Star Wars Battlefront with 8GB of RAM and a mid-range GPU. But like the MSI limited edition Heroes of the Storm gaming laptops, the laptop is designed for the Star Wars fanatic; this isn’t some freebie you get with a box of cereal. The design is also “evergreen”, in the sense that it makes no reference to the upcoming “The Force Awakens” movie which premieres later this month.

HP SPECTRE X360 REVIEW – A SOLID, WELL-DESIGNED BUT PRICEY PRODUCTIVITY MACHINE

As a premium end laptop line, HP’s Spectre series has always upheld a certain level of classy aesthetics and design. The current HP Spectre x360 upholds the premium design promise, but for the first time also introduces an increasingly common folding hinge option with a touch display, offering users a new way to interact with the device. 

SPECIFICATIONS

Our review unit comes with a fifth-generation Intel Core i5 processor with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 13.3-inch Full HD display is touch-enabled, letting users flip the display and use it in four different modes: Laptop, Tablet, Stand and Tent – just like other laptops with a folding hinge design.

Unlike other laptops of this sort, the Spectre x360 is really light at just 1.44kg – and there’s an extra wide touch pad and three USB 3.0 ports.

DESIGN

The Spectre x360’s silver steel design is reminiscent of previous models, including a tapered edges. One would not be wrong to say that it is almost inspired by the handsome looks of the MacBook Air. HP maintains a distinguished industrial design on the Spectre series, which can be regarded as one of the better designed and more premium-feeling Windows machines you can find today.

HP chose a simple double hinge design to allow the Spectre x360 its necessary flexibility. It gets the job done, and the hinge is much stronger and inspires a whole lot more confidence than older HP Spectre models. In fact, this a massive improvement as far as construction goes.

However, when used in tablet mode, I suspect HP’s design team may have thought it was still designing a regular clamshell laptop. It looks great when the laptop is used in a more traditional way, either closed or with the keyboard facing up. It doesn’t look as good with the laptop folded over in tablet mode. The two halves don’t fold flush against one another, leaving a gap at the end because of the tapered ends. It doesn’t affect how the tablet is used, but it looks quite unsightly.

USER EXPERIENCE

I had the privilege of traveling with the Spectre x360; a situation that put its abilities as a mobile working platform to the test. An emphasis has to be put on the “working” bit of the experience, considering that HP intended this machine for productivity and not much else. The hardware doesn’t quite allow for gaming, given the fact that it only has an integrated Intel GPU.

We should begin with the good points, where the Spectre x360 improves on its predecessors. The addition of a touch display and a 360-degree hinge offers a new way of using a Windows laptop, and allows HP to compete with other manufacturers already offering this option. Lenovo was on to something when it invented the Yoga devices, and it is no accident that every other manufacturer is integrating the design into their respective notebooks.

The 360-degree hinge allows the Spectre x360 to rest in the most comfortable position for the user. This is highly important because the keyboard can be uncomfortable to use at times. It is not entirely the keyboard’s fault for this, despite the key presses being unusually shallow even for a laptop. Rather, it is a problem with the lower edge of the chassis that is not rounded off. The edge digs into the wrists while typing, making it unpleasant to use for long periods, one of the occasions where ergonomics makes way for aesthetics. Being able to angle the display helps alleviate the problem somewhat.

That being said, the folding feature is not as useful as the designers want it to be. The common problem is that people who buy laptops are looking for just that. The size of the Spectre x360 is a bit bigger than what is comfortable in a tablet, meaning that the device will likely remain as a laptop for most of the time. It’s not that the Spectre x360 is bad as a tablet, but rather that the mode is unlikely to see much use – not to mention navigating Windows with a touch display isn’t really the most efficient thing to do. I personally only flipped it over just to see what it would look like. However, the versatility means that it can still fill the gap of a tablet when it needs to, such as using it in cramped spaces in Stand mode.

HP’s usual speaker technology doesn’t quite work with the Spectre x360. Like most laptops, it relies on the acoustic properties of tables to help amplify the audio. This works fine for times when there is a table and it is kept in laptop mode. It doesn’t quite work with the machine folded over. It could be that the curved edges on the top half diffuses the sound instead of redirected it back at the user. Either way, this results in audio that is barely audible from more than a metre away – nothing more than enough for just the user.

PERFORMANCE

On the whole, the Spectre x360 does what it sets out to do. It works well for filing news stories on the go, which I speculate also means that it will be fine for people who need to edit documents and look at spreadsheets while out of the office. Otherwise, the HP Spectre x360 is not going to win any prizes for performance. Its 8GB RAM and 128GB storage are bog standard for laptops these days, and for its price especially, 128GB is rather tiny.

Gaming is limited to extremely low demand games, which excludes most of the triple A titles. This isn’t really a problem, since the tiny 13-inch display is not optimal for gaming anyway.

That being said, games like Minecraft, FTL: Faster Than Light, Hearthstone, and most other indie titles will run just fine on the Broadwell processor. It’s not great, but there is some entertainment value to the Spectre x360. Then again, some gamers get a lot of mileage out of just playing Minecraft.

BATTERY LIFE

Battery life is where the Spectre x360 excels. We ran our usual test of looping a 1080p video at 50-percent brightness until the machine goes into standby mode – and we would like to point out that this is not an enjoyable experience when the number of hours runs into double digits.

Our test showed a run time of some 11 and a half hours before the Spectre x360 gave up. In normal usage, the laptop easily breezes through a working day (though things get a little worrying closer to 6pm). The Spectre x360 offers plenty of power for long working days, especially for times when there is a lack of opportunity to recharge. In other words, this is great for road warriors… or marathon Hearthstone sessions while stealing WiFi in Starbucks.

COMPETITION

As a premium productivity Ultrabook with a touch display and 360-degree hinge, the HP Spectre x360 actually does not have plenty of competition. While there are many convertible and hybrid laptops, few are in the same niche as the HP laptop.

One such device is the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga. Targeting the same niche market (though at a noticeably higher price range), the ThinkPad Yoga is another premium offering for road warriors and business users. Lenovo practically invented the folding hinge design, and knows how to make it work. In terms of hardware, the two devices are similar enough that users will not notice the difference. However, I will have to admit that Lenovo tends to have the advantage in terms of comfort. The Lenovo’s trademark chiclet style keyboard gives it a slight edge over the Spectre x360, not to mention the ThinkPad’s industrial-grade protection for its hardware. With a price of around RM5,000 (retail prices vary), the Spectre suddenly appears affordable.

At the other end of the spectrum, there’s Dell’s Inspiron 7000 series. Designed as an entry-level hybrid laptop, what the Dell lacks in terms of aesthetics it makes up for in pricing. As is the case with laptops, the hardware is more or less similar, with the Inspiron sporting a newer Skylake processor but just a physical hard drive for RM3,699. The Inspiron is virtually the Spectre x360’s direct competitor, even if it is slightly thicker and heavier.

Conclusion

The HP Spectre x360 fills a specific niche, and does it well. While it does not have the benefit of the newer Skylake processor (though it’s likely HP will be fixing this in the near future), the Broadwell architecture is more than adequate for the purpose of whoever picks up this laptop.

This is a purely subjective matter, but for what it’s worth there are many machines that can achieve the same performance for less. That said, HP’s design acumen is something rarely seen on Windows machines, which might explain the slightly higher price point.

As far as value goes, you can do much worse than the Spectre x360. It is a great improvement over previous versions of the Spectre line, and that is a good thing. As far as convertibles go, I actually grew like the folding hinge feature. It is not terribly useful, but it is a nice trick and offers options when I need it. For purely work purposes, I would be hard pressed to recommend this laptop, as the price is a little higher than I would feel comfortable paying. Perhaps others might think otherwise.

Intel, Microsoft, HP, Dell and Lenovo Unite for Big PC Advertising Push

Intel and Microsoft are teaming with three leading PC makers on a new ad campaign designed to make potential computer buyers more aware of all the things a modern PC can do.

The campaign, with the slogan “PC Does What?” is set to be announced Thursday at a Webcast featuring the companies’ top marketing executives, according to sources familiar with the companies’ plans. It will feature TV, print and online advertisements, sources said.

The fact that Intel, Microsoft, HP, Dell and Lenovo all want to see more PCs sold is hardly news. But that they have gotten together on a unified campaign is a first.

Historically, much of the PC industry’s advertising has been subsidized by Intel and Microsoft, whose profit margins are far larger than those who make PCs. But typically they work individually with each PC maker rather than as a group.

As for the campaign, it will run in the U.S. and China and is designed to let people know that the latest PCs do a lot more than the machine they likely have at home and at work. Intel noted when it launched its newest chip family that there are 500 million PCs out there that are five years old or older.

The effort comes as PC sales continue to decline as consumers put their money into other devices, including smartphones, TVs and tablets. PC sales are forecast to shrink by more than 8 percent and not stabilize until 2017, according to the latest forecast from IDC.

Intel and Microsoft are providing the bulk of the funds for this effort, but Dell, Lenovo and HP are also kicking in ad dollars.

Sources declined to say just how much is being spent, but one described it as a “sizable” campaign, commensurate with promoting a $300 billion per year industry.

The effort has also come together rather quickly over the last couple months, the sources said.

Representatives for the companies were not immediately available for comment.

H-P and SanDisk partner on new memory chips to counter Intel-Micron alliance

Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ, +0.41%  and SanDisk Corp. SNDK, -2.73%  are collaborating on a new breed of memory chips, the latest entry in a widening race to improve a basic building block of computers and other devices.

The companies, which are announcing the partnership Thursday, predicted that their forthcoming chips will be 1,000 times faster than flash memory, which is commonplace in smartphones and rapidly moving into corporate data centers. The new chips also will be able to replace the widely used chips known as DRAMs at much lower cost, the partners said.

H-P, the big computer supplier, and SanDisk, which makes memory chips, join a gaggle of companies that aim to upend the $78.5 billion market for digital memory with new, higher-performance technologies. The goals they described mirror some of those laid out in late July by chip makers Intel Corp. INTC, -1.17%  and Micron Technology Inc. MU, -2.99% which announced a new memory technology they call 3D Xpoint.

Computers hold data for short periods in relatively costly technologies, such as DRAM chips and SRAM circuitry built into microprocessor chips, that transfer data quickly but lose it when power is turned off. For longer-term storage, disk drives and flash memory chips are slower but much less expensive per byte stored. Designers and chip companies dream of a single fast, affordable technology that combines the best of both, boosting computer performance by eliminating time spent shuttling data between short- and long-term storage.

“We are trying to collapse all of that and try to dramatically simplify the world,” said Martin Fink, an H-P executive vice president and chief technology officer.

HP's Omen Pro is a slim laptop meant for serious work

Tempted by HP's svelte Omen gaming laptop, but need even more horsepower? Say hello to the Omen Pro. It shares the same aluminum 0.78-inch, 4.68-pound frame as its gaming sibling, but it packs in faster Core i7 processors and an NVIDIA Quadro K1100M graphics card. It also shares the original Omen's unibody aluminum case and 15.6-inch 1080p touchscreen, and it sits right alongside HP's ZBook workstations, except it balances style and hardware prowess. The Omen Pro is available today, but at $2,199, it's clearly targeted at the graphics-hungry professionals actually making games, and not just people looking for their latest Far Cry fix.

When it comes to storage, you've got a choice between HP's 256GB or 512GB Z Turbo PCIe solid-state drives. Its RAM capacity tops out at 16GB, so if you need even more memory, you'd have to forgo style for one of HP's ZBooks. And of course, the Omen Pro runs Windows 7 Professional -- because anyone buying a machine like this wouldn't stand for Windows 8 anyway.