HP Spectre Folio Review: A Luxurious Leather-Clad Beauty
However, every notebook has different brightness ranges, so it’s critical to rely on a light meter, instead of a Windows brightness setting percentage, in order to level the playing field on brightness output. The HP Spectre Folio required less than 50-percent brightness to achieve 115 lux.


The thing is knock-out, gorgeous, soft to touch and has amazing scent. OK, that sounded a little creepy but it's true. The HP team put together a notebook that we enjoyed the smell of, which is not something that typically comes to mind when discussing notebooks. HP succeeded in delivering excitement in the ultra-portable laptop form factor by going old school. Sure, there’s a machined aluminum chassis hiding beneath the cow hide, but its leather cover is a game-changer and just looks fantastic.
The Spectre Folio's sexy form is also backed by functional hardware and a balanced system configuration. Its 8th-Generation Intel Core Y-series processor isn’t going to win any benchmark competitions, but it delivers snappy performance with excellent battery life. This is the perfect travel companion to compliment a full-size desktop, or if you want something for casual content creation, productivity tasks or content consumption.
While our as-tested price of $1758 may be hard to digest for some, the Folio's retail configurations are easier on the wallet. Ditch the integrated LTE and half the RAM and the price drops down to $1399 for a retail configuration that Best Buy sells. It occasionally goes on sale for $1249 as well, which makes it even more tempting.
The new HP Spectre Folio is a well-balanced ultralight convertible laptop that checks off all the right boxes. Any notebook that combines superb battery life, respectable performance, beautiful looks, luxurious feel and makes you want to take a second whiff, is worthy of our Editor’s Choice award. HP hit a home run with the Spectre Folio and its easily one of the best premium 2-in-1 we’ve tested to date.

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