Literally, you open the lid and Folio logs you in. Fingerprint login is not supported, but that’s OK with me as my chapped skin rarely works with fingerprint sensors on any device and face login is so much quicker and convenient. If you don’t want to use your face to log in, you can always use a password or even a PIN to do that. The Folio uses a dual-sensor solution, and it is very fast. I’d love to see the airplane mode key swapped out with a Windows 10 “Focus assist” button as I’d use that a lot more.Īs I have come to love over the past few years with Windows devices, the Spectre Folio has Windows Hello face login support. I appreciated having quick keys that I actually use like brightness up/down, volume mute/down/up with full page up/down and good directional key placement. The full-size, two-level backlit keyboard and premium, Synaptics glass trackpad worked great. The lighted power button is on the keyboard deck, a nice change from many 2-in-1s that have it on the side, which is prone to “hot-bagging,” where the device turns on and heats up in your bag or backpack. It gives you all the benefits of carrying around a portable monitor but with practically none of the drawbacks, while also addressing nearly every shortcoming from previous bendy attempts by Lenovo and ASUS.Full-sized, backlit keyboard with Synaptics glass touchpad Patrick Moorhead And when you need to pack up and go, it tucks away neatly in a bag. It’s a sleek machine that fits in tight spaces but also expands when you have more room to work. Wrap-upĪ lot of people remain skeptical about gadgets with flexible displays (for good reason, I might add), but the $5,000 Spectre Fold is the best example yet of what this tech can offer. With its 17-inch panel fully unfolded, battery life dropped by two hours to 8:31. On PCMark10’s Open Office rundown test, it lasted 10 hours and 29 minutes, which is just 10 minutes shorter than the ASUS Zenbook S13’s time of 10:39. But the Spectre Fold defies those expectations with longevity that’s on par with more-traditional ultraportables. Typically on gadgets like this that are basically glorified concept devices, battery life is an afterthought. Just don’t expect to do any sort of serious gaming or video editing. Regardless, for general productivity, this thing is speedy enough. This isn’t very impressive for a system this pricey, though HP says it chose that chip to ensure it would fit inside the Spectre Fold’s super thin chassis (just 0.33 inches unfolded). There’s only a single configuration that features an Intel Core i7-1250U chip along with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. The Spectre Fold’s processor is the one part of its spec sheet that doesn’t feel quite as sophisticated. And when you combine that with a sensor that’s located on the left bezel of its display, it can be difficult to frame yourself properly while keeping the laptop centered. When set up as an all-in-one, the webcam is in portrait mode instead of landscape. The one awkward thing about the Spectre Fold is that, while it has a sharp 5-megapixel webcam with support for Windows Hello, the orientation of the camera itself can be an issue depending on what mode the laptop is in. (I still haven’t decided if the Spectre Fold is more like Perceptor or closer to a bot like Reflector, though.) For me, someone who grew up watching Transformers, there’s something magical about a portable all-in-one that you can pack up and easily toss in a bag. So, depending on your needs, you get the perfect-sized display for your content or working space. But at a moment’s notice, you can pull its keyboard down to create what HP calls Expanded mode (which gives you the equivalent of one and a half screens) or prop the system up on its kickstand to use its full 17-inch panel. This means that in laptop mode, the Spectre Fold looks almost like any other small ultraportable, with what is effectively a 12.5-inch screen. More importantly, it has thin bezels and only the faintest hint of a crease. The centerpiece of the Spectre Fold is its 17-inch, 2,560 x 1,920 OLED panel from LG, which features plenty of brightness (400 nits for SDR content or up to 500 nits with HDR) and an impressive color gamut (99.5 percent of DCI-P3). The issue is that at $5,000, this thing will blow up pretty much anyone’s budget. The Spectre Fold represents a true leap when it comes to next-gen hybrid design to the point where you might even want to buy one. Despite having the same processor as last year’s ASUS Zenbook 17 OLED, HP’s take on a flexible-screen laptop is thinner, lighter and more polished than anything that’s come before it. That’s exactly what HP has done with the Spectre Fold. It’s rare, but now and then a company will go out on a limb and create a truly cutting-edge device, even if its books take a hit.
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