HP's new 17-inch foldable PC is the most versatile laptop I have ever seen, and it's available to preorder now

What you need to know

• HP's Spectre brand is reserved for the company's most high-end and unique Windows PCs.
• On Thursday, HP revealed the latest addition to the Spectre line: its ultra-premium 17-inch foldable PC.
• This massive tablet folds down the middle to become more compact, has a built-in kickstand and versatile accessories, and features a number of different postures.
• It's an impressive PC, but it's expensive — the HP Spectre Foldable PC is now available to preorder from Best Buy for $4,999.99 ahead of its limited release in October.

It's an exciting time for personal electronics, as companies race to innovate with new technologies and unique form factors. HP is one of the most prominent players in the Windows PC field, and its latest product is one guaranteed to draw more than a few eyes. Now introducing the latest addition to HP's ultra-premium Spectre line: the HP Spectre Foldable PC.

It seems like Lenovo is always grabbing headlines with its experimental devices and unique hardware, and the company has also been at the forefront of the nascent foldable PCs market. HP is joining the fray, though, and its first attempt at a foldable PC looks incredibly impressive... and surprisingly polished for a first-generation product. It's not without caveats, though, all of which are exasperated by the exorbitant (but expected) price tag.

To put it simply, the HP Spectre Foldable PC is a 17-inch tablet that happens to fold completely shut. With a built-in kickstand and a clever keyboard attachment, there are a lot of different ways to use this computer. Prop up the massive display and use the keyboard wirelessly for a true desktop-like experience. Use HP's first foldable PC as a too-large tablet with great touch and stylus support. Fold it and connect the keyboard, and you have a completely normal 12.3-inch Ultrabook. Slide the keyboard down via magnets... and your laptop suddenly has 1.5 displays and a lovely keyboard wrist rest. It's incredibly versatile, and you can see some of these postures in the images below (and how compact this PC when folded shut, with the keyboard safely ensconced within).

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HP's goal with the Spectre Foldable PC was to make an excellent Ultrabook with massively expanded versatility. You're still getting a high-quality touch display with a healthy max brightness, quad DTS:X Ultra speakers, a 5MP IR-equipped front-facing camera, mic mute and camera privacy switches, and the latest Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless standards. There's unfortunately no 5G support here, though, which would've made a lot of sense for this PC.

Design and build-wise, you're getting a magnesium alloy chassis with a matte, "Slate Blue" finish and an integrated kickstand on the rear. HP's efforts at environmental conscientiousness are on full display here, as well, with plenty of ocean-bound plastic and recycled metals and plastics used in the Spectre Foldable PC's construction. It's quite an attractive PC, and measures just 8.5mm when it's unfolded — an impressive slimness for any Windows PC. That doesn't mean you have a small battery, though, as the Spectre Foldable PC packs a massive 94.3Whr battery that HP claims will provide over 12 hours of battery life (tested by streaming Netflix).

What really seals the deal, though, are the accessories. The HP Spectre Foldable PC comes with a Bluetooth-connected keyboard and an active stylus in the box. The keyboard can be used in three different ways: when the Spectre Foldable PC is fully unfolded, the keyboard can be used wirelessly off an internal battery; when the PC is in its laptop posture, the keyboard connects to the bottom half with magnets, and also charges in this position without cables; finally, the keyboard can actually slide down the Spectre Foldable PC in this laptop posture to reveal half of the lower display, which can be used for enhanced multitasking. You also get a nice wrist rest.

The stylus is pretty typical for a Windows pen, but it does also connect magnetically to the Spectre Foldable PC and charges automatically.

Below, you can see some press images from HP that depict the HP Spectre Foldable PC in a variety of environments and being used in a variety of ways.

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The HP Spectre Foldable PC is premium, versatile, and special, which on its own is enough to entice plenty of people (I have to admit I fit in this category). It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though, as this unique form factor does come with some compromises, namely in price and performance. For the latter, the Spectre Foldable PC is limited to an Intel Core i7-1250U, a last-gen 10-core processor focused on efficiency above all else. It makes sense, and it's still a solid processor, but a 13th Gen Intel CPU would've been just a little better. That Core i7 is paired with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, and there are no configuration options — you get what you get.

For most people, though, the dealbreaker is going to be the price. The HP Spectre Foldable PC will retail for a whopping $5,000, an extreme price tag that's befitting of the more complicated, advanced engineering necessary to make a foldable PC like this happen. For a select few, though, it'll all be worth it just to be on the cutting edge and have one of the most versatile Windows PCs I have ever seen.

Does the HP Spectre Foldable PC have what it takes to join the best Windows laptops? It's hard to say until we get our hands on it, but foldable technology is still in the early stages of development; there are plenty of compromises, such as the concern for long-term durability and the large price tag. Windows 11 is still rough around the edges when it comes to supporting this form factor, too. Still, HP's effort looks like one of the most polished, complete foldable PC experiences we've seen so far, and is a much-needed addition to a tiny (but growing) market.

The HP Spectre Foldable PC is now available to preorder from Best Buy for $4,999.99. For now, the PC is limited to the US, but HP plans to expand to select countries in the future. It's also exclusive to Best Buy at the moment, but the Spectre Foldable PC will be available to purchase directly from HP when it releases sometime in October.