As we approach the holiday buying season, many of the world’s leading PC vendors are announcing their latest PCs based on Intel’s newest 11th Gen Core processors. I covered Intel’s latest 11th Gen Tigerlake processors and Evo platform and the benefits they bring to the market, including the new Evo experience program. With HP’s latest premium line of notebooks, the company is leveraging the latest in Intel technology with HP’s latest engineering innovations. These new Envy and Spectre notebooks reflect HP’s continued design language while also adding new capabilities thanks to Intel’s 11th Gen Tigerlake processors.

Spectre x360 14 – Productivity Pro

First and most prominently is the new Spectre x360 14, which is a 14” (13.5”) convertible notebook with a 360 hinge. This latest 14” version of the Spectre x360 features a unique 3:2 aspect ratio, which HP has not offered in the past and has the width of a 13” with the height of 15” notebook. This 14” display comes in an astonishing 3000 x 2000 resolution which results in not only more pixels horizontally but also vertically. Most notebook displays in this size would naturally ship in a 16:9 aspect ratio as 2560 x 1440 or 40% fewer pixels. The 3:2 aspect ratio also results in 20% more vertical viewing space, extremely valuable for productivity use cases like spreadsheets, webpages, documents, or code. This more significant screen results in a 90.33% screen to body ratio, which means that the sides of the display a nearly invisible with a small bezel at the bottom. The optional OLED display also comes with a 1 million to 1 contrast ratio and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and has built-in technology to reduce blue light emissions that cause eye strain.

While the display is a crucial differentiator for this notebook, it also comes with new Intel technologies from the 11th Gen Tigerlake processors, including new faster CPU and GPU cores, Thunderbolt 4, and 17-Hour Battery life with adaptive intelligence gaining Evo certification. HP is claiming performance improvements across the board, including 34% to CPU with Tigerlake and 79% on the GPU with Xe graphics. The Spectre x360 14 is also the world’s first laptop to use keyboard scissors made from natural, renewable material. The Spectre x360 14 will be available from HP.com, and Best Buy starting at $1199.99 and be available in October direct from HP and in November from Best Buy just in time for the holiday shopping season.

Spectre x360 Goes Intel Evo and 5G

The same great Spectre x360 13 that many know and already love is getting an update with Intel’s new 11th Gen Core processor utilizing the new Xe graphics. HP is claiming a performance increase of 35% while also claiming up to 16 ½ hours of battery life. The New Spectre x360 comes with up to a 4K OLED display along with improved Wi-FI connectivity upgrading to integrated Wi-Fi 6 thanks to the 11th Gen Tigerlake Intel Core processor. In addition to the Spectre x360 13 models getting improved Wi-Fi connectivity, there is a 5G version of the notebook, which is HP Consumer Notebook’s first 5G laptop. 

While this new version of the Spectre x360 is Intel Evo certified, the 5G version of this notebook is not Evo Certified. Since Evo certification takes time to achieve and real testing is done by Intel, we could see Evo certification come in 2021 when the 5G version of this notebook becomes available. The Qualcomm-powered 5G module for the Spectre x360 will be available on select SKUs, and HP will configure it at the factory for AT&T and T-Mobile networks in the US. The peak speeds of this modem are 4 Gbps over 5G and 1 Gbps over LTE. In addition to 4x faster speeds over 5G, HP is also claiming 2.8x better coverage, which comes from HP’s Dynamic Range Technology.  The new x360 13 with Evo certification will have the same availability and starting price as the 14 with the 5G version coming in early 2021 and with pricing coming closer to availability.

Envy 13 and Envy x360 13 Updates

HP gears the Envy line of notebooks towards satisfying the thin and light category of laptops. As with the other laptops in the HP line, the Envy 13 and Envy x360 13 are getting Intel’s latest 11th Gen Tigerlake processors with the new Xe graphics. That means the new Envy 13 and x360 13 both get a significant upgrade to CPU and GPU performance but also gain integrated Wi-Fi 6 and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. Both models of the Envy laptop have an 88% screen to body ratio, which is quite good for a thin and light notebook. The Envy 13 also comes in wood and metal options and supports HP QuickDrop while the Envy x360 13 has support for the HP MPP2.0 Tilt Pen and has a camera shutter, fingerprint reader and mute mic. The new Envy 13 will start at $899 and sell on HP.com in October while the new Envy x360 13 will begin at $949 at Best Buy in October.

Wrapping up…

The new HP lineup of Envy and Spectre notebooks got a significant refresh with help from Intel’s new 11th Gen Core Tigerlake processors with new Xe graphics. While many of these laptops did not necessarily change significantly in terms of style and overall design, some meaningful improvements are still deep inside. I believe that the Spectre x360 14 may be one of the most versatile productivity notebooks when it comes out thanks to its unique aspect ratio and high resolution. HP also creating a 5G version of the Spectre x360 13 is welcome as well because I believe that by the time it comes to market, people will realize that 5G networks are much more mature and worth the upgrade. I am excited to see how this Qualcomm-enabled solution will perform on a more mature 5G network like T-Mobile’s utilizing both 600 MHz for coverage and 2.5 GHz for performance. As always, new technological innovations are a welcome improvement and introducing new aspect ratios and connectivity, along with faster processors, is still a welcome improvement.

Note: Moor Insights & Strategy writers and editors may have contributed to this article.