HP appears to have taken a leaf out of Lenovo’s playbook, with the release of a new HP Spectre Fold notebook featuring a 17-inch OLED display, which mimics the unique capabilities of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, the only problem is that the latest HP offering is going to set you back a staggering $8K in Australia.
Selling in the USA for US$5K it’s the most expensive foldable ever released and when compared to the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i EVO 13.3″ 2.8K 2-in-1 Laptop (1TB) [Intel i7] the only difference is the size of the 17″ inch 2.5K (1920 x 2560) resolution OLED touch display, which comes with a 3:4 aspect ratio, 400 nits’ standard brightness and 500 nits brightness in HDR.
Also thrown in for the price is Imax Enhanced certification.
HP Spectre Fold notebook featuring a 17-inch OLED display,
Lenovo Yoga Book 9i,
HP is claiming that they can justify the price because of its design which is remarkably similar the $4,299 Lenovo offering.
HP also claim it’s the world’s smallest and thinnest 17-inch foldable PC.
The new HP Spectre Fold folds down to a 12.3-inch notebook
It also includes a one-and-a-half screen expanded mode so that you can slide down the keyboard for an extended view.
It also has a dual screen extended mode for when you remove the Bluetooth keyboard.
As for the battery HP has designed it so that the weight is distributed evenly regardless of the orientation you use the device in.
And of course, it’s got artificial intelligence which HP claims enables several key features, including, walk away lock, wake-on approach, auto screen dimming, and privacy alerts.
Some of these features are similar to the cheaper Lenovo model which appears to be a smash hit.
Las week I was sitting in the British Airways Lounge at Heathrow using a Lenovo Yoga Book 9i on my way to IFA when several people approached me asking “What notebook is that” they all liked the idea of the vertical orientation.
One person, a mother wanted two of them “for her kids” claiming what a great idea as it saves a lot of desk space”.
The HP device has a built-in kickstand similar to the portable stand of the Lenovo offering.
You can snap windows to the bottom of the display in laptop mode and view multiple windows when you detach the keyboard (which charges while magnetically connected to the device).
As for hardware in the new HP offering it has the 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor while the Lenovo offering has the Intel Core i7 1355U 10 core processor (3.7- 5.0GHz) processor.
Also built in is Intel Iris Xe graphics, in addition to 16GB of memory and a 1TB SSD which is the same as the Lenovo Yoga Boo 9i.
As for battery life HP is claiming 12 hours of power in laptop mode and 11 hours in desktop mode.
Connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, while the foldable features a 5-megapixel camera, which includes a privacy switch.
Input includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports with a 40Gbps signalling rate, including support for USB Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.4.
HP Australia has not said when HP Spectre Foldable will be launched in Australia but at $8K this device has to have a lot more going for it to justify the price.
