HP's Spectre x360 15 refresh packs Intel's new CPU with AMD graphics

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

HP is among the first companies to take advantage of Intel's new CPUs with AMD Radeon graphics.

HP is kicking its CES 2018 off with a bang by announcing a refresh of its Spectre x360 15. But while it the refresh may appear to be pretty standard at first glance, the new Spectre x360 15 sets itself apart by being one of the first devices to take advantage of Intel's new Core processors with Radeon graphics on board.

The Spectre x360 15 can be equipped with Intel's eighth-generation Core i7 8705G processor with Radeon RX Vega M graphics. According to HP, this model offers up to 12 hours of battery life. If Radeon graphics aren't really your style, or you just want more battery life, HP is also offering the laptop with eighth-generation Core processors and NVIDIA GeForce MX 150 discrete graphics. This option will offer slightly longer estimated battery life of 13.5 hours, HP says. With either option, HP has included fast charging, so you can juice back up rather quickly.

Aside from the choice of processor and graphics, the Spectre x360 15 includes a 15.6-inch 4K display that can work in concert with the option HP Tilt Pen for inking. HP is mum on other hardware specs, but the current x360 15 includes options of up to 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage; we'd expect similar options with the new model. The laptop also includes Windows Hello support via the included IR camera and fingerprint reader.

According to HP, the new HP Spectre x360 15 is expected to go on sale at its website and at Best Buy on March 18, starting at a price of $1,369.99. For now, you can learn more at HP (opens in new tab).

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

10 Comments
  • I... Kind of want this.
  • I have the prior Spectre x360 with 8th gen Intel Core i7 and the nVidia MX 150. I would have thought moving to the AMD Vega would have actually resulted in better battery life, not worse. I wonder what the benefit is if not battery life -- price? performance? Two things I wish were different about the Spectre (sounds like these are unchanged in this version): Change to a 3:2 aspect ration instead of 16:9. 3:2 is much better, in my opinion. Better storage for the pen/stylus -- the current model has none. You just have to throw it in the bag and hope for the best. Lenovo, on the other hand, includes a slim stylus that goes into the system (and recharges automatically when "docked"). I'd gladly sacrifice a little pen diameter for the peace of mind of a port in the system. Surface Book's is at least held on by magnets, although I understand those aren't strong enough to hold while in the bag. At 4.2 lbs, it's also a little heavy, but tolerable and expected at 15" But for price (much lower than the Surface Book 2), access to 8th (quad core) processor (not in the Lenovo at the time), in a convertible form factor with 200+ dpi touch+ink screen, and amazing keyboard, the Spectre still won out for me overall.
  • The Vega GPU in this is faster than a 1050 Ti, so I guess more than twice as fast than your MX150.
  • If that's true I'm very impressed. All Vega cards are incredibly power hungry though.
  • Vega isn't power hungry though, it is normal that people think that because AMD to compete with Nvidea they overclocked and overvolted the Vega 56 and 64.
  • Bring on surface pro 6
  • Surface Pro won't have Intel CPU with Vega, those are still 65W combo at least. Hopefully SP6 will have Ryzen APU.
  • The Spectre runs a 15 watt processor, not a 65 watt...
  • Question: This Vega gpu = gtx 1060 ??
  • Sounds like a nice refresh, but the first thing I thought when I read the headline was how bummed HP must have been when "Spectre" was announced last week as the name of one of the attacks on Intel processors.