HP Elite x2
An admirably meaty tabl et, but the keyboard doesn’t turn it into a great laptop
SCORE
PRICE £1,609 (£1,931 inc VAT) from store.hp.com
The Elite x2 is HP’s answer to the Microsoft Surface Pro – a Windows 10 tablet with a thin snap-on keyboard cover. It’s a fine concept, but HP’s execution is both expensive and bulky. The 13in model we tested weighs 838g in tablet mode, going up to 1.44kg once you attach the supplied keyboard. HP also offers a 12.3in version that’s slightly more mobile (not to mention cheaper), but if you want the full 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD, you will need to buy a big-screen model.
II n ff a ii r ne s s , tt hh e 1 3 ii n EE ll iitt e x 2 ii s almost as powerful as a regular laptop for everyday desktop workloads, with its Core i7-8565U CPU delivering a solid set of benchmark scores. It has some good business-friendly features too, such as a 1080p Windows Hello-compatible camera, a fingerprint reader at the rear, a bundled stylus and the option of HP’s clever Sure View technology, which lets you hit a button to instantly make the display unreadable to anyone not sitting directly in front of it.
The screen itself is another high point. The 3:2 panel boasts an immaculate pixel density of 277ppi, and features an ambient light sensor that can automatically adjust the brightness as needed, to a searing maximum of 467cd/m2. Colour accuraacy isn’t up to professional standaards – see an average Delta E of 2.79 – but everything looks vibrant, and thhe Bang & Olufsen speakers have more vvolume and body than the x2’s 14mmm frame would suggest.
Onne catch with the tablet-pluskeybooard design is that it limits your conneectivity options. The Elite x2 has fast WWi-Fi 6 plus a SIM slot for a mobile LTE coonnection, but physical ports extendd only to three USB-C sockets: if you wwant a full set of connectors, yyoouu’llll have to carry the included dock adapter around with you. There’s no room for a big internal battery either, so stamina takes a hit.
Nor are we much taken with the keyboard cover. The keys have a good amount of travel, but the action feels flat. The touchpad, meanwhile, is far too small and wholly the wrong shape for the screen.
Such grumbles might not matter to those intending to use the x2 mostly in tablet mode – but we suspect that’s a very small market. For most people seeking a convertible workstation, HP’s own Elite Dragonfly is a more practical and versatile choice.