OLED HP Spectre x360 15" Gem Cut Review

[@mobiletechreview]

Note that using a colorimeter to calibrate the OLED display will give you much more accurate colors. A colorimeter is a hardware device that connects via USB, that typically sells for $150. Spyder5 and X-Rite are the two most common. Eyeballing the calibration is very hard to do with OLED wide gamut displays, so you really need the hardware. I have a video about display calibration here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z53MdKOZrrx1h80 .

[@joubinsaedi]

Hello Tom, You make excellent videos and additionally I have a quick question for you. If you were going to buy a new computer what would you recommend getting? Either a new LED screen but while using a blue light filter on low brightness, which I'm currently doing with my older XPS, or a new OLED screen? From what I've read the problem with OLED is when you reduce the brightness the flickering rate creates eye strain. Ultimately I'm interested in optimizing eye health and I don't know which way to go for my next purchase. If you have any advice or input that would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[@Rebelliousivan]

Just Bought this and glad i saw your comment that i could calibrate, i was a little worried and upset since i had opened the box and im starting photography 😭 will you say this be ok once calibrated

[@zhenxaxingzhing12]

Mobiletechreview is my favorite youtube channel, because of the following reason: Perfect camera angle, Very high resolution, up to four K, Lisa always focus on the main components of the ( computer) laptop as well as mobile devices, The review as well as product presentation areVERY PROFESSIONAL. After watching this HP which has the best OLED screen, I decided to buy this HP with beautiful OLED screen. Thank you Lisa for this great video, and keep up the good work.

[@ClinttheGreat]

You forgot the always awesome and unique t-shirts.

[@Michael_Lak]

However I always find it disturbing when the author never answers questions from the comments.

[@cessnac13]

I've been waiting for this laptop to come out since it was announced back in January. It was supposed to be released back in April and I've been checking everyday since. You give great reviews, I follow all of your videos, thanks for doing a great job! I understand why they're limiting the CPU power and that is enough to make me look elsewhere. Thanks Lisa!

[@spillagevillage4030]

Same. I just caved and went with the 1050 ti model

[@AA-flyguy]

I value your experience in your reviews they are second to none!!!

[@chriskelly7592]

When you said HP cut back on the saturation of red, is red still more saturated than the LCD IPS Spectre x360 15.6" "Gem Cut?" Also, as of earlier today, HP's store lets you customize this OLED version at a lower price than Best Buy. I upgraded to Windows 10 Pro and went from 256GB to 512GB for the SSD. The whole thing including tax and shipping only came to $1402.28. I just hope they didn't cut back on the saturation of red to the point it's similar to the LCD IPS version.

[@ancientsnox5093]

How did you do it, with the specs you stated, it came out at $1689.99 before tax you sure it's the OLED version you're talking about?

[@numadtheocracy8933]

I always love your review Keep it up

[@abehaile2659]

Just the info I needed! Thank you so much Lisa. You’re always so helpful at steering consumers in the right direction for their needs

[@ChadSlampiece]

Couldn't they have made the bezels a bit bigger? I can still see some of the screen.

[@LazyPCRehab]

You have to be the best tech review channel on KZbin. So pleased that I found your channel, better late than never. Typing this on my Surface Pro 6, which I bought after watching your review and am super happy with the device. Again, love the channel, keep it up.

[@ricardonogueira6473]

Returned mine today, it had that screen door effect problem.

[@jsharp9735]

What is the screen door effect ?

[@7Write4This9Heart7]

Yeah, what's that?

[@kevinportillo1971]

Does this laptop make too much noise when the fan kicks in at fullspeed?

[@deargodwhyme]

Is Lisa’s shirt on backwards? 🤔 I feel like the closing tag should be on the back.

[@lightfighter540]

I'm okay with it. First thing I noticed, but then I listened to what she was saying and it didn't matter . ;)

[@philipperostin]

Depending on your plugs, the corner usb c can be very difficult to work properly, Same goes for the other one, bad contact and disconnections

[@dijabreu]

Please Lisa, make a video about the Asus zenbook pro duo!

[@dijabreu]

@Shank Adams Actually is quite useful for those qho want a second screen on the go.

[@ubuu7]

Lisa please create a video about the new zenbook so this model looking guy keeps posting.

[@dijabreu]

@@ubuu7 Who's the model looking guy?

[@jamesw2831]

I wonder why they won't use 1080p OLED. 1080p OLED gets bright and vibrant and would be great on battery. Hopefully, 1080p OLED will become a thing

[@andyH_England]

James W No chance, OLED is really for Creators, not for Enterprise. Creators will need 4K to enable a pure experience for their customers. People forget OLED never really took off because of their poor battery life as well as burn in. They have become en vogue due to the success of smart phones and with PC sales on the slide OEMs are always looking for an edge. OLED for Pro users is a good move but for college, most businesses and surfers it is overkill. The teen demographic will buy the OLED as they are the generation of Samsung AMOLED phones but in reality a good IPS screen is the best bet till QLED or M-LED come mainstream.

[@jamesw2831]

@@andyH_England actually, as stated in the video, OLED is too saturated and the Delta E was REALLY off which is why I can't wait for better investment in LCD panels. Even after calibration, it was still kind of bad. So I am not sure if video and photo professionals will like it for their professional work. Hobbyists, maybe. Given this, I think it depends. For my limited workflows, I prefer color accuracy, not vibrancy. And there's plenty of laptops that do it better. My argument is that 1080p OLED would be better probably for the reasons I listed such as battery and likely, better color accuracy

[@sflxn]

Lisa, please review the new Gigabyte Aero 15 with Pantone calibrated OLED and the X1 Extreme with the same calibrated OLED. I want the OLED, but the oversaturated colors will not work for me.

[@andrewmorris3479]

Yes! The new Aero 15 OLED at $1899 with a i7-9750H and 1660 Ti and X-Rite Pantone calibrated OLED is what I want!

[@AveryGram]

Do you think more oled laptops will push "dark mode" to be the new standard?

[@squatch545]

OLED is a dead technology. There's a reason almost no company is using it.

[@mobiletechreview]

Yes, I'm sure most manufacturers will ship with a dark theme as the default.

[@unlokia]

@@squatch545 People talk themselves into "needing" it "just because", and there's NO sense or logic into it. Consumers are schmucks, hence we need people such as Lisa to be SINCERE with us. Why does anyone "NEED" OLED? It's the same horse shit as "needing" NFC or "needing" wireless charging - NO. YOU. DON'T. GROW UP.

[@mgmayank18]

I liked the no nonsense style of your video!

[@thenubianspeaks4329]

They have an Oled one with 1650 graphics since this review I guess, It is on ebay

[@zayn2476]

I use a 60W USB C charger with my Spectre x360 2019. I found the standard charger makes it unusable as it gets way too hot just browsing the web let alone doing high end stuff. This gives the perfect balance of speed and usability, sure charging time increases but at least I can use it and not damage the internals.

[@STarFishUltra]

wait for next gen CPUs

[@karaygeoushearts]

Lisa, can you review the new Asus Zenbook Pro Duo? I love the dual screen set because for video editing because you can have the footage on the main screen & the timeline on the other. It also has a RTX 2060. My biggest concern is battery life. The Asus has a 71w battery, which seems pretty small for two screens, an i9 processor & such a beefy GPU. I'd love a review from a content creator for real world use. I'm so disappointed that the new Dell XPS 15 Oled isn't touchscreen. Points toward the 2nd generation Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme!

[@mr1bienvenu1]

Not enough ports, NEXT !

[@ItsMeHarry]

Would love to see a review of the new envy line, particularly as I believe one or both of the 13/15 inch models also has an OLED panel now and it is very affordable for the components included.

[@pochen4092]

ItsMeHarry same smaller bezels look better as well

[@DanielBull]

It looks like the ultimate 15" laptops (for those of us interested in OLED) have to be this, the XPS15 and the soon to be X1 Carbon Extreme. Gonna be a tough decision!

[@Vsor]

This one has a numpad tho.

[@DanielBull]

Yeah I think its the only one that does.

[@Vsor]

@@DanielBull I bought an xps thinking I would get used to not having a numpad. I was wrong... The worst part is they have space, the tiny keyboard looks so dumb.

[@DanielBull]

@@Vsor its a bit of a love it or hate it thing. I know some people that don't like them as they offset the keyboard and others like you that love them. If you liked the Lenovo X1 Carbon Extreme but wanted a number pad the T series machines are almost identical and have one. Not sure if they will come with OLED though, I think we find out in July.

[@iamdmc]

OLED at 7:10 great reviews as usual thanks

[@ThomazMartinez]

So even if you calibrate the screen using that Spyder will the colors still be off?

[@Rebelliousivan]

What i want to know 😬

[@rolan2dr]

Interesting Daniel Rubino from Windows central said in his review he got 500+ nits of brightness and it was very color accurate.

[@kingssquaremunich]

@MobileTechReview: Lisa, did you experience a slight grey layer on the AMOLED? It looks like a raster, a very fine one that probably is used for pen input recognition. It is a grey-ish and grainy looking texture. I found this on my 4K AMOLED-Spectre and in a much more drastic form also on a 4K AMOLED-Envy. I've been using an older 13.3 inch OLED Spectre (less PPI) and this one had absolutely clear whites- and probably no extra pen input layer.

[@timkebienda1809]

Waiting for your x290 review. What’s taking you so long ?

[@3212seis]

Has HP fixed the fans on any new Spectre? I have the original 360 8Gen Spectre and the fan is so annoying when plugged and working in Indesign... sometimes even drawing in ArtRage. Year and half of updates and It still drives me nuts! 😞😟 I need a decent fan-less laptop (or minimum, very quiet)

[@typingcat]

Wish it didn't have the number pad... Number pad shifts the keys to the left, which makes it awkward. Also, non Precision Touch pad is a nail to the coffin.

[@YeetusMingus]

Just install the precision drivers

[@Vsor]

I love numpads and I hate how every laptop lost them because some people dislike slightly off center touchpads (use it for a month, you'll forget it is off center). The number row sucks an I need to type a lot of numbers.

[@giiieeexd]

Will you review the RedmiBook 14?

[@aleckfedorkiw4005]

Can you explain why vendors only support refresh rates at 60 hz and they downgrade all peripherals like USB 3 hubs and thunderbolt 3 work at 60 hz. Even Crts have refresh rates at 72 hz. Then you have extreme hardware at refresh rates of 120 to 140 hz.

[@AndrewRojas408]

Is the ram upgradeable?

[@karaygeoushearts]

Excellent review, Lisa. Do you think oversaturation will be the case across the board? For the new XPS 15, 2nd gen X1 Extreme, Asus Zenbook Pro Duo? Because they're all made by Samsung?

[@andrewmorris3479]

Check out the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED. It’ll have X-Rite Pantone color calibration.

[@busterspark4410]

When do the new MSI lappys come out???

[@rikens]

When is the release?

[@r5xscn]

I think you also need to check the 3.5mm audio. I have the Vega version and the audio is trash with a headphone. It is so noisy with the white noise even with low volume. Additionally, this problem seems to plague other Spectre models too. Totally not acceptable for a 1k laptop IMO. Thankfully, Apple (yeah that's right it is Apple) has 10 bucks USB C 3.5 mm DAC. Buyer beware. HP, fix your stuff.

[@ShawnSoth]

Lisa have you had a chance to review the GOME U7 phone.

[@aaronconyers209]

When will the lenovo yoga book c930 be reviewed

[@jsharp9735]

Wait, optane ? is that a hybrid drive ? Is the ram up gradable ?

[@contorta960]

Intel Optane is a variety or RAM. Yes you can buy your own Optane, it's a little expensive I believe, but maybe not now

[@chiverslandsurveyor]

I always say "Hey! Lisa!" right before you say "This is Lisa..."

[@yoho403]

what are your temperatures like at stock? think my spectre is over heating

[@pablowasserman]

if it had an SD card reader would be perfect

[@ninjakickfight3207]

The oled with maxed out specs is $1709.99 and the non oled with maxed out specs is $1689.99, but you are getting a much better cpu and graphics. I don't think the trade off is worth it and I personally would stick with the non oled. It's still a 4k screen and will look fantastic. I'm sure later this year and certainly next year they will come out with an oled with the 6 core cpu and high end graphics. The 1050ti is a 2 1/2 year old gpu. HP Spectre15 inch x360 dream specs: 6 core 16 GB DDR 4 3200 Oled 4k HDR10+ 1tb m.2 PCI 4.0 2060 6gb mobile graphics 4k webcam Ports: HDMI 2.0, audio, 2 - type c thunderbolt, 2 - usb 3.2, microsd wifi 6 better battery life

[@vj-nikkolax8008]

I don't speak English well.... What is better dell or Hp?

[@shawnprice1709]

I am in the market for a new laptop since my stupid Asus Zenbook hinge broke and to fix it is over $300 (plus my SSD died on me). Was looking at this but not sure anymore (the only reason I liked it is for the OLED display but with what you said Lisa and to spend extra to properly calibrate it, no thanks as while I can’t get this in Canada [yet] even when I can I am almost positive it will be over $3000). I am now looking at Dell XPS (13 and the soon to come to Canada XPS 15 OLED). My biggest grip with Dell is they mostly sell on there site and I am old school in that I want to be able to go to a brick and mortar store to see and use it before I buy one. I will wait for your review to decide which to buy. I am also looking at whatever 2019 consumer laptop you recommend (I won’t game on it as I have a PS4 for that and I have to be able to open it up/upgrade it if needed). Can’t wait for more reviews to figure out which one I will buy. Sorry for my long comment. Keep up the great reviews.

[@theredgiraffe]

Who is this girl? What a brilliant reviewer!!!

[@saintkamus14]

I don't understand why manufacturers keep turning one of OLED's biggest strength into a weakness... Is it really that hard to include proper color profiles? If they included an sRGB, DCI-P3, Adobe RGB and REC.2020 profiles we could have our cake and eat it too. There's no reason a display with superior color reproduction capabilities should look inaccurate.

[@unlokia]

OLED is it's *own* weakness. LCD is a tried and tested product, DECADES old.

[@andrewmorris3479]

unlokia Haha the most color accurate mobile displays are Samsung Display AMOLED’s. Just take a look at DisplayMate and AnandTech’s testing on the iPhone Xs.

[@saintkamus14]

@@andrewmorris3479 I'm aware that in phones, this has not been an issue for a while. And even then, only Apple enables the profiles by default. This has not been the case with any of these laptops so far.

[@saintkamus14]

@@unlokia it's decades old, and it was never as good as the technology it replaced. And now, it's also not as good as the technology trying to replace it. LCDs are the cockroaches of display technologies.

[@andrewmorris3479]

Kamus That’s because both of these laptop manufacturers are lazy and didn’t do factory calibration. The Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED will have great color accuracy.

[@seoulrydr]

you mentioned the oled is not accurate? can it be calibrated? The only reason I'm interested in OLED is for photography editing. Thanks!

[@chriskelly7592]

For some reason, I guess it was as part of the Memorial Day week sale, the base price was significantly lower. I actually had to cancel the order for my customizable and get a prebuilt one because due to higher demand than HP anticipated, they kept delaying when it would ship again and again. So I got the prebuilt one with the OLED display online at the HP store, which is significantly less expensive than getting the one from Best Buy with the same specs. I only had it for two days before I posted this comment. It came preinstalled with Windows 10 1809 Home Edition and some bloatware. It has been a challenge doing a clean install of my copy of Windows 10 Pro 1903. But now that I got past that, I'm finally able to rip a lineup of DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K/UHD Blu-rays onto it and will start watching some movies on it early next week.

[@lostshadow2012]

thanks for the great video as usual.. how this one stacks against DELL XPS 15 9570 InfinityEdge with almost the same specs sheet help me chose please.

[@amigatommy7]

Big & heavy but worth it. Expect mine to last for years.

[@fadelaladraj3175]

Thanks for the effort you deployed in the video, you are prisinting will, is shows that you have perfect skills knowledge, keep up and don't hide to long

[@CedricMialaret]

A very strange reason. I'd like to see proof that OLED's energy consumption at same average luminosity is so much higher than IPS. Also the dark mode users should get more battery on OLED than on IPS.

[@我-b2t]

Would the ips 4k version of this laptop be good for content creation like illustration?

[@elenchus]

if you're talking about Illustrator specifically (as opposed to illustration generally), probably not. Illustrator is very GPU dependent for extremely basic functionality like scrolling. I'd get the 1050 Ti or new 1650 for that. This CAN do Illustrator, but it'll probably be choppy.

[@Jonathan-pz6ws]

Good for college?

[@bdub2622]

2 out of the 4 speakers no longer work. When I plugged in my headphones, the top front left and right speakers quit working. The lower left and right work just fine. I have gone through every trouble shoot possible with no luck (ie. update driver, uninstall/reinstall, ect.) Can you help?

[@LazyPCRehab]

Try booting to a live USB of Linux Mint or Cloud ready and try playing a KZbin video on the browser. If they still don't work on a live USB environment, then it is almost certainly a hardware problem.

[@sparker1901]

I love this device except 15 inches for a laptop seems so very large, living in the ipad ultrabook times of the universe. I guess I find these as more of a laptop top replacement thanks a bunch lisa we luv ya

[@Vsor]

Cool info on oled displays. For now on can you do your videos against a mat-black background? ; )

[@Wemmarus]

NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti Max-Q version Way ai !!! rtx 2080ti

[@Kwietus]

Why don’t you review ASUS laptops? I enjoy your reviews and would love to get your opinion on the VivoBook S530!

[@chriskelly7592]

In the world of portable technology, it is almost impossible to be able to obtain picture quality, high-TDP-rated CPUs and GPUs working under full loads, and battery life all at once, especially since airplane passengers are not allowed by law to pack batteries rated over 100 Watts per hour as a matter of helping to maintain flight safety. It's not entirely the manufacturors' falt that we don't have laptops with ultra-high capacity batteries and near-desktop performance internals. When purchasing a laptop, compromise and/or sacrifice is key. This configuration of the late 2018 Spectre x360 15.6" "Gem Cut" laptop is not for gamers or professional video editors and producers. However, there is lots more to the world of computing besides gaming and video editing and production. This configuration is a decent approach for portable theatre quality entertainment. While its battery might not last quite as long as the i7-8565U/MX150 configuration with an IPS LCD panel, wouldn't this still have longer battery life than the i7-8750H/GTX 1050TI/LCD/IPS configuration? Since I plan on taking advantage of OLED's higher color saturation than LCD IPS, my concern is what Lisa stated about HP cutting back on the saturation of reds. Are reds still more saturated than this laptop's LCD IPS panel?

[@alexmichael7997]

Can you trust OLED ? Color grading , burning etc

[@unlokia]

Yes, you can definitely trust a very immature technology to burn, history has shown that.

[@Sean.Q]

Not very interesting.. 16:9, mx150, not much here except OLED

[@7Write4This9Heart7]

And since that usually drains the battery like crazy... :/

[@daniel05061000]

@@7Write4This9Heart7 Only in white aplications. Oled Will be good in dark themes.

[@rainerrain9689]

Your T-Shirt is on backwards.

[@JamesWest_III]

Oh.... My Glob!

[@shaitoledano5867]

I feel like this whole laptop is meh. I mean, it's clearly good, but it's expensive as hell. The biggest hit for sure is the trackpad.

[@unpreeable]

OLED burn-in sucks, it happened to me on samsung phones, now its gonna happen on the iphone x's i really prefer LCD as they don't burn in overtime

[@kkp4297]

garbage oversaturation with radioactive colors. laptop makers should ship with accurate color calibration.

[@isbestlizard]

So what.. it'll charge from a 90W usb pd charger.. but HP don't include one? And instead cheap out with a barrel pin charger? Wtf is up with that?

[@ngregoirenc]

It charges faster with the barrel pin

[@isbestlizard]

@@ngregoirenc hmm that's actually a reasonable reason why :D

[@mich6425]

Thank you teaching us about OLED, never was a fan of it.

[@furieux6742]

I think the dell better natural colour, and more brigntness than oled hp. Oled only better on darkness :)

[@fsundstrom1]

Thank you for your inspiring review as always. It seems as an updated version of this computer will be released soon named 15-df1012no. It includes much better specs like 9th gen Intel® Core™ i7-9750, NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Graphics and also Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX 200. I hope they will also be able to make an update to MS Precision Touchpad driver. www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c06410309.pdf

[@askhowiknow5527]

Dark ash silver... Ashes are white, and this is purple, not silver...

[@shubhkumar2199]

Hey! Can anyone suggest me a good Active pen for drawing on my Acer spin 5? Thanks

[@7Write4This9Heart7]

You could maybe try the Wacom Bamboo Ink? That's compatible with a lot of pen-enabled comps, but not sure about that one specifically.

[@7Write4This9Heart7]

Never really understood the point of OLED, really, especially when it kills the battery faster and there's (however 'slim') a chance of burn in. lol. To each his own, I guess! Awesome review, as always, Lisa!

[@britishagent]

That’s a small mic 😬

[@HiFiInsider]

It looks dated already. The design is not timeless to me.

[@Top_Dawg360]

Oh my GLOB!

[@PokeRetroFan]

Cool tshirt

[@vimalramachandran]

Those top & bottom bezels are too fat for 2019.

[@neuralvibes]

Downgrade the CPU and GPU in order to upgrade to an OLED screen with bad color accuracy only for the "Wow" factor? No thanks - and that's not even touching the burn-in and screen longevity fears... Additionally, I'm starting to really dislike the "gem cut" look with the cut corners so I think I'll pass on the HP Spectre x360 altogether and instead wait for the upcoming Razer Blade Studio Edition - if it's released where live, that is (if not, I guess I might have to settle for the HP Spectre x360 anyway).

[@andrewmorris3479]

Check out the new Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED for $100 more.

[@DreQueary]

Not sure I get making laptops to look like "luxury" items. After the honeymoon phase, this thing is gonna look gross.

[@unlokia]

It looks gross NOW! ROFL!

[@ukaszlisowski6155]

Spectre is unfortunate name nowadays...

[@UmarAbid]

This why i won't buy this if you cant open it up easy........................

[@7Write4This9Heart7]

Agreed! If I can't upgrade/fix anything easily? I don't want it!

[@rolan2dr]

I hope dell calibrates it better than HP.

[@rainerrain9689]

This reviewer said color gamut was very good and that he measured nits at 571 , yes he said 571 nits. Both of you reviewed same model with completely different reviews . I was going to buy this model ,now I've been thrown for a loop and don't know what's what. It starts right where he said it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYGTmWenjdedpLs

[@karlp8484]

Gem cut's just a style gimmick, and I'm actually not sure I even like it. Downgrade computer power just to have a fancier screen? Nah. Especially if it's less reliable and has colour accuracy issues.

[@JackiePrime]

HP always looks good but feels cheap when you handle it

[@colouredIncognito]

Gti1050Ti. 'super powerfull'...

[@imho4990]

What a crap. No calibration.

[@Top_Dawg360]

uWu *uWu* u W u *u W u* *oWo*

[@unlokia]

Is this Liberace's laptop? WOW... -_- More crass landfill fodder. When will these companies wake up and understand - this is a MACHINE to DO A JOB, not a fashion accessory. What makes it MORE laughable, is that they have absolutely NO idea about good taste, and what looks even _vaguely_ pleasant. Just give us a ThinkPad and leave the "Champagne lifestyle" horse shit to the "stye" magazines (who have EQUALLY little idea about good taste)

[@eiffe]

lol 16:9

[@NSAwatchesME]

Cpu is a potato

[@iamdmc]

gem cut... so you can cut your hands and generally hate your laptop wtf were they thinking?

[@StarNumbers]

Are you identifying with HP excuses?