Skip to main content

HP Spectre and Envy laptops to launch with AMOLED screens in April

HP Spectre x360 15 review
Luke Larsen/Digital Trends

HP’s next generation of Spectre x360 and Envy laptops will come with the option of 15-inch AMOLED screens when they launch in April. The two devices will have wide viewing angles and full support for HDR, with a dynamic contrast ratio that can reach 100,000:1 when required.

Recommended Videos

The 15-inch HP Spectre x360 with AMOLED display made its debut at CES 2019 in January and we absolutely loved it. Its screen has a native resolution of 4K and it goes up to 500-nits brightness, which is more than we’d likely use day to day, but provides plenty of headroom for the HDR to look good, and look good it does. Although some of the benefits will be lost on a screen of this size, there are few technologies out there that could improve such a display, unless you’re not a high-end gamer. That should make the laptop perfect for media viewing on the go.

The internal hardware was strong too, with a combination of an Intel Core i7 Whiskey Lake processor, 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GTX MX150 graphics chip. We’d have liked to have seen a dedicated GTX GPU in there — as you will get with non-AMOLED version — but the configuration is more than enough for most, including entry-level gaming. It’s certainly enough to give the Dell XPS 15 a run for its money.

The new Spectre x360 15 is set to hit retail on April 19, according to Anandtech, though we aren’t sure how much for at this time.

The AMOLED Envy x360 15 will launch around the same time in Europe, although we’re told that the U.S. launch will take place at a different time. How different is anyone’s guess. Its specifications, too, remain mostly under wraps. It seems likely that it will be based around the same display as the Spectre, with the same high-contrast ratio and wide-viewing angles. It will also support HDR for popping colors and deep blacks and whites.

Some have expressed concern over screen burn-in with AMOLED technology on laptops and whether technologies utilized on OLED TVs, like pixel shift, could be utilized again to help prevent it. This is a phenomenon that has been well documented, however, so it seems likely that HP will have some mitigation solutions in place when these laptops launch next month.

If you encounter burn-in with your screen, on your laptop or any other device, check out our guide to fixing the problem.

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…
HP might have the fastest AI laptop to date — and I tried it
HP EliteBook X G1a front angled view showing display and keyboard.

HP is in the process of redoing its product lines, with the OmniBook lineup taking over all of its consumer machines including budget, midrange, premium, and gaming laptops. The EliteBook remains as its business laptop line, and the new EliteBook X G1a is the latest machine that leverages AMD's Ryzen AI series of chipsets in the "Next Gen AI PC" initiative.

The EliteBook X G1a introduces several new features aimed at those tasks that businesspeople want the most, and I received a preproduction unit to take a look at. I can't provide benchmarks or test some of the more advanced features that aren't available yet. But the EliteBook X G1a is a tantalizing vision.
Design

Read more
HP’s new 2-in-1 laptop packs a 3K OLED touchscreen
A woman sits at a desk, using the new HP EliteBook X.

HP just unveiled three new laptops during its yearly HP Imagine event, and if you use your laptop for work, there's plenty to be interested in. The most eye-catching offering of the trio is the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip, which is a 2-in-1 laptop with a 3K OLED touchscreen. There are two more laptops for professionals, and HP ticks the box for Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD enthusiasts, as the three laptops come with different CPUs.

Let's start with the OmniBook Ultra Flip. This is a 14-inch convertible laptop that comes equipped with Intel's latest Lunar Lake processors, offering up to the Core 9 Ultra 288V with eight cores and eight threads and a maximum clock speed of 5.1GHz. The lowest variant sports the Ultra 5 226V, which also has eight cores and eight threads, but it only boosts up to 4.5GHz. All variants come with integrated Intel Arc graphics, and while the top two chips get the 16GB version, the less premium offerings come with the 8GB version.

Read more
The 5 best laptops with numberpads
Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED top down view showing keyboard, touchpad, and pen.

Numberpads, also called numeric keypads, have become far less common in recent years, even on 15-inch laptops and larger. They're best for users who enter a lot of data as well as for some gamers who like the isolated and easily accessible number keys, but their downside is that they take away room on the keyboard from the standard keys and they can result in an off-center touchpad.

You can buy external numberpads, which is fine for when you're at a desk. But if you're often on the go and work in spreadsheets and other number-heavy applications, then you'll want one built in. Here are some of the best laptops with numberpads you can buy today.
Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16

Read more