When it comes to the best laptops, it's usually your typical clamshell designs that come up top. And while HP features such designs and delivers them with great success, the California-based company has gone all-out with its latest – the HP Spectre Foldable PC, which, as the name suggests is a tablet-meets-laptop that folds across its screen area.
Folding tech is increasing in popularity, from the latest folding phones, to folding tablets and laptops, which I've really enjoyed exploring at various tech showcases (CES 2023, IFA 2023) in recent months and years. But the Spectre Foldable PC looks to be on another level – and I want this $4,999 dream machine in my hands already (yes, that's a massive over-£4,000 equivalent here in the UK, making it pricier than many of the best gaming laptops)!
The HP Spectre Foldable PC is the thinnest and lightest of its kind – although given the sheer heft of the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, and the large scale of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2, it was all for HP to take advantage of other designs' shortcomings. That's still impressive, seeing as this is a 17-inch tablet-like OLED display is bigger than the already large Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra's 14.6-inch panel.
This is no pipe dream of a product either: the Spectre Foldable PC will go on sale in the USA, with pre-orders from BestBuy available from 14 September 2023. I'm not sure how many people will be laying down a cool $5K for a laptop-meets-tablet two-in-one device, mind, but for those of you who can afford to splash out, this is how you go big.
Well, HP calls it a "3-in-1", as the 17-inch panel also comes with a keyboard attachment, plus a kickstand, so you can use it as a 12.3-inch laptop by folding the screen, a 17-inch tablet standalone, or a 17-inch PC with the keyboard detached by sitting the panel up on its stand. There's also a stylus included for additional input included as part of the package.
Beneath this foldable exterior, the Spectre Foldable PC houses 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processors, 16GB RAM, and Intel's Iris Xe graphics solutions. Yes, there are more out-and-out powerful options on the market, but with the promise of 12 hours on a single charge, it's that balance of power, productivity and longevity that is all-important here. I'm sold anyway, so here's hoping the Spectre comes to wider markets in the future...
