HP Spectre x360 14 Nightfall Black (from The Verge)

Getting a few things straight at the start: it took me 63 days from order date to receive this laptop and hence I don’t mind flexing it a bit. I had it custom made from the HP US website, which of course built it for me in China and shipped it to Mississippi and was then packed by a friend and shipped all over to Glasgow, UK. At London, I faced a customs issue and the delivery got delayed by a couple of weeks till I paid the tax due. Even after going through all the hassle, and almost having a nervous breakdown panicking over tales of lost packages, I have to say — I am an extremely happy man. There is a good chance I might be biased towards this machine, but who are we kidding you are not here for a balanced review, you are only here to read my take on it 😉.

Let’s get the details out of the way first.

Price

The laptop is priced bizarrely in different countries. In the Indian HP store which has one available configuration, it costs ₹1,74,999, whereas in the UK and US stores, it is priced more reasonably with the base model starting from 1199 in pounds and dollars respectively. The US store as usual, was the cheapest and had the widest array of choices, hence my decision to purchase from there. The model I bought cost me $1641 and an extra $135 in shipping and customs charges (this was after all the student discounts and HP deals). If you feel this is expensive, the comparable M1 MacBook Pro costs $1699 and doesn’t even have a touchscreen or a 360° hinge. And the icing on the cake: I got a Rechargeable stylus, a Spectre Mouse worth $79, and a 1-year Microsoft 365 Personal subscription all for free.

Specifications

Unlike a smartphone, a laptop is only as good as its specifications are. I’ll let the numbers speak here: