HP Spectre Fold Hands On: One Gorgeous Looking And Expensive Foldable

The HP Spectre Fold isn’t a groundbreaking product, by any measure of the description. I’ve seen and played with modern foldable from as far back as the ASUS ZenBook 17 Fold OLED last year, of which it is clear this foldable has drawn inspiration from. After all, you know what they say about imitation.

Copycat or not, there is an undeniable attraction to the Spectre Fold, and with good reason. Firstly, it’s thin. Well, it feels thinner than any other foldable I’ve played with, and that includes the Yoga Book 9i that my colleague recently reviewed earlier this year.

And instead of a glossy finish around the back, HP gave the Spectre Fold something akin to a matte finish texture. This allows for a grippier and more secure handling of the laptop, especially if you’re moving around. On that note, it’s also pretty light at 1.35kg, but that’s excluding the detachable keyboard that comes with the foldable.

Let’s talk about the internal specifications of the Spectre Fold. On paper, HP lists the device running on an Intel EVO Core i7-1250U, 16GB RAM, and 1TB of internal storage. If nothing else, the internal hardware feels bog standard for devices such as this.

On the exterior, the Spectre Fold sports a full-sized 17-inch OLED display that HP also claims to be Imax Enhanced. It’s a claim that holds water: no matter the angle I view it from, everything from the panel looks sharp, clear, and without too much of a glare, whatever the source of light is. And that’s with the foldable operating in desktop or tablet mode.

In laptop mode, the Spectre Fold transforms into two 12.3-inch displays, both of which can operate independently or a single unit, or the top half of the display panel can act as typical laptop display, while the bottom half of the display plays house to the proprietary wireless keyboard that, by the way, HP says can provide seven hours of use with just 10 minutes of fast-charging. Again, it’s a typical design that you’ll see with all-screen foldable laptops.

That isn’t to say that the Spectre Fold is flawless. the forehead of the machine leans a little towards the thick side, and it’s a little bit of an odd design where the webcam module actually sticks out of the design. By that, I don’t mean that it protrudes but its island is quite glaring from the rest of the laptop’s design.

Beyond that, you get a couple of USB-C port which I am guessing are Thunderbolt 4 compliant and if need be, can serve as expansion slots for more I/Os. There’s also a shutter switch next to the power button that covers up the HP True Vision 5MP webcam, for if you want some privacy while watching videos or using the Spectre Fold in your everyday actions. As for the battery life, my time with the foldable was brief and as such, I wasn’t able to get an accurate reading but the brand did tell me that, on paper, the internal battery coupled with the EVO CPU should provide anywhere between 10 and 12 hours of use from a single charge.