APC_Australia_Issue_442_June_2017

$2,899 | WWW.HP.COM/AU
HP Spectre x360
(13-w032tu)
A well-made high-end convertible.
$3,299 | WWW.LENOVO.COM/AU
Lenovo
Yoga 910 (13IKB)
Super expensive but with the goods
in nearly every department.
If there’s one unit that
can challenge the
Lenovo Yoga 910 (right)
for the title, it’s the HP
Spectre x360. Like the Yoga
910 and Dell XPS 13, it’s a
premium product, and it’s
priced like it, but it’s also
very well put together.
The one area that it falls
down is the screen. You can’t
get better than a Full HD
screen on the Spectre, and
while the Spectre’s screen
is nice, with good colour
and the right amount of
reflectivity, it can’t match
the Yoga or XPS 13.
That said, the Spectre also
lacks some of the flaws of
the Lenovo. Most notably,
it contains a set of latestgeneration
Thunderbolt
ports that let you connect to
a display while charging
from it. There is no SD card
reader, however.
The model we looked at
uses a high-end (for a
convertible) Kaby Lake
processor and it shows in
the test results, with the
Spectre rivalling the best of
the competition. What’s
more, its battery life hit
around six hours under
load, which is a very good
result.
The backlit keyboard
and wide touchpad with
multitouch are roomy and
relatively well designed,
although the keys felt a
little too squishy for our
liking (but your mileage
may vary). We have no
complaints about the
strength of the hinge, and
the quality of the audio that
comes out of the HP Spectre
is especially notable. It’s
louder and clearer than the
rest of the competition.
Given that it’s limited to a
Full HD, we can’t quite sing
the praises of the Spectre
— at least compared to the
Yoga — but it’s a well made
and powerful convertible,
if a little bland.
Verdict
Great battery, power and design,
but suffers from a limited screen
and it’s rather expensive.
If you’re looking for a
convertible with the
best of everything
— and money is no
object — then the Lenovo
Yoga 910 is the nuts.
It’s beautifully designed,
specced out to the max
and as close to the dream
convertible as we’ve seen.
It has about the fastest
processor you can find in
a convertible, the Core
i7-7500U, and that showed
in the benchmarks. And lest
you think that driving so
powerful a processor is
going to drain the battery
life too fast, don’t worry:
Lenovo also put a huge
78Wh battery in there,
which actually kept the
laptop running longer than
most of the competition.
And then there’s the
screen. It’s a full 4K UHD
packed into 13.9-inches.
It’s absolutely gorgeous,
with near perfect colour
and excellent brightness.
Like the screen of the Dell
XPS-13 (opposite), it pushes
right to the edge of the case,
with minimal bezel (which
does, unfortunately, mean
that the webcam sits below
the screen). The speakers
are good as well. The overall
design is lovely, and the
watchband hinge is just
right. The keyboard and
touchpad are also top notch,
with well-regulated travel
and sensitivity, and there’s a
fingerprint reader built in
for corporate users. Its one
real flaw is the lack of HDMI
and DisplayPort, which may
be a deal breaker for some.
It also has no SD card reader.
You’d probably expect the
Yoga 910 to cost the bomb,
and you’d be right. We
should note, however, you
can save $500 by dropping
back to a 512GB SSD, and
more by going for a Full HD
screen instead... but then
you wouldn’t be getting
everything the Yoga 910
can offer.
Verdict
With a fast processor, great
battery and gorgeous screen,
this is a winner.
www.apcmag.com 45