The HP Spectre Fold is the Swiss army knife of computing devices. This foldable 3-in-1 can serve as a laptop, a tablet or a pseudo desktop. That kind of versatility is impressive and could put the best 2-in-1 laptops to shame. As useful as that sounds, HP’s computer commands a steep price.
The Spectre Fold is a 17-inch foldable tablet similar to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold. Like that device, the Spectre Fold acts as a laptop when you attach a 14-inch Bluetooth keyboard to its bottom screen. You can also position the keyboard to only cover half of the bottom screen — effectively giving you a screen and a half of real estate.
Thanks to the Spectre Fold’s kickstand, you can prop it on a table to use in desktop mode. Since the keyboard is Bluetooth, it doesn’t need to be attached to the Fold. This is also a feature the ThinkPad X1 Fold shares. However, Lenovo’s device is a tad smaller at 16.3 inches compared to the Spectre Fold’s 17 inches. Like the ThinkPad X1 Fold, the Spectre Fold has a pair of Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports.
Lastly, you can use the Spectre Fold as a Windows 11 tablet. I’ve yet to test the Spectre Fold myself, but at 17 inches, it should dwarf even the ginormous 16-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. At 17 inches, the Spectre Fold should act as a great canvas for digital artists.
Spec-wise, the Spectre Fold packs an Intel Core i7-1250U CPU, integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The 2.5K (1,920 x 2,560) 3:4 foldable OLED display is rated for 500 nits of brightness and can achieve 99.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Of course, we’ll need to get Spectre Fold into our testing lab to verify this ourselves.
Outlook
I’ll need to test the HP Spectre Fold to see if its multitude of functions work as well as advertised. I’m still not entirely sold on the idea of foldable tablets (or foldable devices in general), but I can appreciate the idea behind a product that can serve multiple purposes.
Of course, the proverbial elephant in the room is the Spectre Fold’s lofty $4,999 asking price. You could theoretically purchase a laptop and tablet separately and pay far less. The Spectre Fold’s specs also don’t justify its price, given how you could buy something like the Dell XPS 15 OLED — which has a discrete graphics card and a 13th gen Intel Core CPU — for $2,349.
If the HP Spectre Fold seems like something you’d need, and you can stomach its premium price, you can pre-order it today through Best Buy. and HP's website.
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