Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

This discounted HP Spectre x360 laptop is a great Dell XPS 13 alternative

Add as a preferred source on Google
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Choosing a laptop is one of the hardest decisions you’ll make all year. Whatever you choose to buy is likely going to be your only laptop for a while, so you don’t want to end up stuck with something terrible. With brands like Dell, Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, and Apple all offering great options, it really comes down to what you’re looking for in a personal computer. If the only thing you’ll be using it for is taking notes and browsing the web, then a cheap laptop should do the trick. But if you’re looking for something more powerful, like the Dell XPS 13, you’ll probably need to invest $1,000 or more. Unless you take advantage of this end of year sale on the HP Spectre x360, of course.

The Dell XPS 13 may be the best laptop you can buy, according to our experts, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one worth looking at. The HP Spectre x360 13t comes fully loaded with an 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor, UHD graphics card, and Windows 10 already installed. With 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of SSD storage, it comes with all of the space you need — unless you’re downloading a ton of photos and videos. A battery life of up to 16 hours and 45 minutes, allows this HP Spectre laptop to handle a full day of work without needing to be plugged in.

Recommended Videos

This HP Spectre x360 laptop may not be able to fully compete with the Dell XPS in terms of overall performance, but as a 2-in-1 it comes with some unique advantages. It can quickly convert from a computer to a tablet just by flipping the screen. With full touchscreen capabilities, this feature makes the Spectre x360 ideal for work, play, and streaming videos. It even comes with a digital pen, allowing you to take notes, sketch ideas, or just make some digital doodles directly on your device.

The HP Spectre x360 is normally priced at $1,150, but with the sale going on right now, you can get it for just $900. The Dell XPS is priced at $950 right now as well, however, the sale only applies to HP laptops.

Buy Now

Looking for more cool stuff? We’ve found laptop deals, MacBook deals, iPad deals, and more.

Jacob Kienlen
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jacob Kienlen is a culture writer for The Manual and Amusement Muse and an SEO Strategist for Digital Trends. Born and raised…
What’s the Right Laptop for a Student on a $1,000 Budget?
The best college laptop isn't the one with the longest spec sheet. It's the one that fits your budget and the way you'll actually use it.
Dell XPS 14 Review: Sticker

This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Dell

Buying a laptop for college isn't a decision made in isolation. Tuition, textbooks, housing, meal plans, transportation, and course materials all compete for the same budget, leaving most families with one question before the semester begins: how much is enough to spend on a laptop without paying for features that may never get used?

Read more
Siri is about to hear everything you say, but Apple’s privacy approach has me cautiously on board
Apple's new Audio Intelligence features want to hear almost everything you say. A privacy document released alongside them explains why I am mostly okay with that.
Apple Watch Audio Intelligence features

Apple used its September 2026 launch event to enter a feature category it has mostly avoided until now: ambient listening. Siri Recap, Live Rewind, Music Recognition with Shazam, and Sound Recognition all landed on the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. All four depend on the watch microphone picking up sound around you far more often than any previous Apple product has.

Siri Recap listens for conversations throughout your day and turns them into short AI summaries you can check later. Live Rewind is smaller in scope but arguably more useful day-to-day. It transcribes the last 15 seconds of whatever was just said with a double-press of the crown. This is perfect for catching a name, a book title, or directions you missed the first time. Music Recognition uses Shazam to identify songs playing nearby without you lifting a finger, much like Now Playing on Google's Pixel devices. Sound Recognition is a useful accessibility feature that listens for sirens, doorbells, and alarms to alert users who have a hearing impairment.

Read more
Can You Turn a Mini PC Into a Local AI Agent?
Furniture, Table, Computer

This post is brought to you in paid partnership with MSI

Not every AI task needs the scale of the cloud. An employee searching company documents, a retail kiosk answering product questions, or a digital sign reacting to customer behavior all need fast responses, but they don't necessarily need to send every prompt to a remote data center. Running those workloads locally reduces latency, keeps sensitive information closer to where it's generated, and can lower the ongoing cost of AI deployments. As a result, many organizations are moving toward hybrid AI architectures that handle routine requests on-device while reserving cloud models for tasks that genuinely need more processing power.

Read more