Another excellent laptop challenges the MacBook Pro and falls short

The MacBook Pro 16 remains undefeated as the best 16-inch laptop you can buy. From the incredible battery life to the impressive performance, the M3 Max MacBook Pro has become an unstoppable force.

Still, plenty of competitors have come along to potentially challenge it, and when I came across the updated HP Spectre x360 16, I wondered if it might make a worthy rival. As impressive as it is, though, it still doesn’t have what it takes to dethrone the MacBook Pro.

Specs and configurations

According to the HP configurator, the Spectre x360 16 starts at $1,190 ($410 off list at $1,600) for an Intel Core Ultra 155H, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, Intel Arc graphics, and a 16.0-inch WQXGA IPS display. The high-end configuration includes 32GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, a 16.0-inch OLED panel, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics for $1,920 (also $410 off on sale).

The MacBook Pro 16 is a much more expensive laptop, starting at $2,499 for an M3 Pro 12/28, 18GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 16.2-inch Mini-LED display. It costs a whopping $7,199 for an M3 Max 16/40, 128GB of RAM, and an 8TB SSD.

Design

The Spectre x360 16 is a 360-degree convertible 2-in-1, meaning the display swivels from a standard clamshell into tent, media, and (very large) tablet modes. That adds quite a bit of flexibility over the clamshell-only MacBook Pro 16. It also requires a larger bottom chin on the display to accommodate the hinge, with the MacBook sporting a slightly larger display and smaller bezels. They’re almost the same size in width and depth, while the Spectre is lighter, and the MacBook Pro 16 is thinner.

Both laptops are built from CNC-machined aluminum. The MacBook Pro 16 feels incredibly solid and well-built, and the Spectre x360 14 is also solidly made. You won’t choose either of these laptops based on build quality alone.

Aesthetically, the Spectre x360 16 has a smoothed-over appearance compared to its predecessor, with its Nightfall chassis sporting the same notches in the display and the rear chassis housing a Thunderbolt 4 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. It’s a very attractive laptop. The MacBook Pro 16 comes in either Silver or Space Black, with the same streamlined chassis as the rest of the MacBook lineup. It exudes the usual Apple elegance. It’s hard to say one laptop is more attractive than the other.

The MacBook enjoys the excellent Magic Keyboard, which has large keycaps, excellent key spacing, and light, snappy switches that aren’t the deepest but offer superior precision. HP’s Spectre keyboards are typically excellent, and the Spectre x360 16’s keyboard is light and precise and an improvement over the 14-inch model’s keyboard. The MacBook wins here, but barely. The Spectre has a large haptic touchpad that works as well as the 14-inch model and is better than most Windows laptops. The MacBook Pro 16 has a slightly smaller Force Touch touchpad that’s still better, thanks to its Force Click feature.

Connectivity is similar, with the MacBook having one more Thunderbolt 4 port and a full-size SD card reader. Unfortunately, HP dropped SD card support on the new model. Also, with its MagSafe 3 power connector, the MacBook has an additional available Thunderbolt 4 port. The Spectre does have cutting-edge Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless connectivity thanks to the Intel Meteor Lake chipset.

The Spectre x360 16 has a 9MP webcam capable of 2160p video, with hardware-assisted lowlight capabilities. It uses Meteor Lake’s Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which brings additional quality improvements. It also supports HP’s user presence-sensing technology that adopts a user’s presence to put the laptop to sleep, lock it, wake it back up, and log in via Windows 11 Hello facial recognition. The MacBook Pro 16 has a 1080p webcam and Apple’s usual quality features, and a TouchID fingerprint reader is embedded in the power button. The HP also has a fingerprint reader in the same location.

Performance

The Spectre x360 15 offers a 14th-gen Intel Meteor Lake chipset: the 28-watt Core Ultra 7 155H with 16 cores (six Performance, eight Efficient, and two Low-Power Efficient) and 22 threads. It’s mated with either integrated Intel Arc graphics or an entry-level Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. The MacBook Pro 16 offers either the Apple M3 Pro with 12 CPU cores and 18 GPU cores or M3 Max with 14 or 16 CPU cores and 30 or 40 GPU cores.

Simply put, the MacBook Pro 16 is in a different performance class entirely. While the highest-end M3 Max 16/40 results are posted here, the M3 Pro model would still be significantly faster than the Spectre. Even when equipped with the RTX 4050 discrete GPU, which we tested, the Spectre doesn’t come close to the MacBook’s class-leading score in the PugetBench Premiere Pro benchmark that runs in a live version of Premiere Pro.

Display and audio

You can choose from one of two touch- and pen-enabled displays when buying the Spectre x360 16. A WQXGA IPS panel runs at 120Hz for longer battery life, and a 2.8K OLED display for brighter and more accurate colors and deeper blacks. We test with the latter. Both panels support HP’s active pen for digital inking.

The MacBook Pro 16 offers a single display option, and it’s a good one. Its Liquid Retina XDR Mini-LED display is a higher resolution and is much brighter while still offering excellent colors and contrast. The MacBook has the best high dynamic range (HDR) performance on a laptop, pumping out up to 1,600 nits with HDR content. The Spectre x360 16’s OLED display offers wider and more accurate colors and the same inky blackness but doesn’t get nearly as bright in either HDR or standard dynamic range (SDR) content.

Both laptops have excellent display options and will meet the needs of various users. The MacBook’s display offers outstanding performance for creators and media users alike.

In terms of audio, the MacBook Pro 16 is also class-leading, with six speakers and force-canceling woofers that pump out significant volume, with clear mids and highs and tons of bass. It’s one of a select group of laptops that can be comfortably used without headphones for a variety of media types. The Spectre x360 16 has four speakers, including two front-firing woofers, and sounds very good — but nowhere close to the MacBook.

Portability

Both laptops are large and heavy, although reasonably so for 16-inch machines. You’ll feel both in your backpack, while the MacBook will be a thinner machine and the Spectre a lighter one.

But when it comes to battery life, the MacBook Pro 16 reigns supreme. It managed 19 hours in our web-browsing test and 26 hours in our video-looping test, the best showings we’ve seen on large, powerful laptops. The Spectre x360 16’s battery life is much more mundane, offering just 8.5 hours of web browsing and 14 hours of video looping. The MacBook will last multiple days, while the Spectre will need to be charged up soon after lunch.

The MacBook Pro 16 is a lot more expensive but so much better

Yes, the Spectre x360 16 is a well-built laptop with good performance and an excellent OLED display option. And it has a 2-in-1’s flexibility, with support for digital drawings and handwriting.

But the MacBook Pro 16 is one of the best-built laptops you can buy, with excellent performance, a beautiful display, and incredible battery life. If your budget is tight, then the Spectre will likely be a solid choice. But if you can afford it, the MacBook Pro 16 still remains the superior laptop.

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