 You know, I like my Razer Blade Stealth and all, but I'm also a giant nerd and always drooling over the next big thing, so I wouldn't mind upgrading it. And since Razer wasn't able to scratch that itch with their last Blade Stealth, I've been looking elsewhere for my greener pastures. Now the Surface Laptop 2, it's nice, but I really want Thunderbolt. The MacBook Pro. Take a screenshot. Oh. Oh, you're in trouble. Yeah, no. Dell XPS 13, well, you know what? That one's close. It's definitely on my list of things to try. But HP. I've been both hearing and even experiencing really great things about their X360 line for quite some time. In fact, last time I looked at one two years ago, I called it the best two-in-one yet. But now that I have the 2019 versions of the 13 and 15-inch Spectre X360s in my hands, it's clear to me that my search isn't over yet because I wouldn't really recommend buying either of these. Something I would recommend buying though is our sponsor, Private Internet Access. Looking for an affordable and reliable VPN? Well, PIA encrypts your internet traffic and uses a safe, protected IP. Check it out today at the link in the video description. Now, the non-square corners of the new X360 lineup might be a little bit polarizing, but for my part, at least on the 13 inch anyway, I actually kind of like it. It's unique. And I mean, honestly, the look of this thing overall is decidedly premium. Like it's almost screaming for that first big bonus check that I've ever seen. And I'm gonna be talking about it in the next video. Looking for that first big bonus check that a young professional takes home from their first job out of school. On the right camfer, you'll find a Thunderbolt 3 port with fast charging. Nice, so far so good. And on the left is the power button where we actually encounter the first problem, at least with the 15 inch version. With the power cable plugged in and pointing backwards, where it would normally go, you actually can't easily reach the power button. Like it's not impossible. And HP's rationale is that it allows you easy access to the power button in either laptop or tablet mode, but they also could have placed it literally anywhere else along this edge, or, oh, I don't know, this edge. And it also would have been accessible and avoided the power cable issue. Fortunately, what helps make up for this is the decent IO on both models. They managed to squeeze a full-sized USB type A onto the 13 inch, along with type C, Thunderbolt 3, micro SD, and a headphone jack. And the 15 inch even gets a full-size HDMI port on top of all of that. And I mean, just, you know what? I actually love the style of these things. They managed to look really slim and sleek while still having full-sized ports and being eye-catching without ending up being like tacky or gaudy. Unfortunately, while the look is very premium, the build quality is only good. Like it's better than a typical MSI notebook, but it's not on the same level as the likes of Dell, Microsoft, or Apple. The aluminum chassis is rigid, but not... Stop. The aluminum chassis is rigid, but not quite as rigid as its carbon fiber and magnesium counterparts. And there's some mild flex in the palm area, and it's got a screen that is wobblier than my weird uncle on a Friday night. Or, well, any night. Performance-wise though, there's some good news. Both of these laptops are standouts. The 13 inch has a dual fan cooling design that allows its quad-core processor to hang with the likes of the XPS 13, putting light video editing or photo editing easily within reach. And for those needing a bit more power, stepping up to the 15 inch looks like a great way to go. Rocking a six-core Core i7-8750H and an NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti, the larger of the Specters is able to hang with the XPS 15 for professional level performance or even light gaming. Is what I would say if this display here didn't have some of the raunchiest pixel response times that I've seen in the last five years. Like, seriously, I bet the camera could pick this up no problem without even switching to high speed. I'm talking 30 FPS mode. Just moving the mouse pointer around on the desktop makes it look like I've got pointer trails enabled. And that is on top of the display having a little more input lag than I'm used to. Now, neither of these things are really noticeable on the 13 inch, so that's, well, I don't know. I don't wanna say good because you don't really get any bonus points for meeting basic expectations. But what is noticeable on both models are the top and the bottom bezels. Everywhere else in the industry, HP's competitors are moving either to slim bezel 16 by nine displays or taller aspect ratios so that mobile users can make the most out of the screen area. HP seems to have clearly missed the memo here. Also very dated, the 360 degree hinge design. This is a situation where HP basically shot themselves in the foot by creating maybe the best convertible design ever with the Spectre Folio. I was really hoping that with this complete redesign of the X360, we would get that hinge with a quad core processor and without the polarizing leather finish. But no, it's just a regular convertible laptop with a wobbly hinge and those little feet that get in the way of the left control and the right arrow key. Back to the displays though. Response times aside, I do have some good things to say here. Both of our models are equipped with bright view displays that feature HDR support along with excellent color accuracy and contrast. And I'm a pretty big fan of their SureView displays as well. Now these two units don't have this function, but basically it's a toggleable privacy display, which is great if you wanna keep your information private in a public place. And as far as I know, HP is the only one that offers that function. Are they? I'm not aware of anyone else. You know what? Just correct me in the comments if I'm wrong. Anyway, they also don't just look good, they feel good too with excellent touch support along with a really great drawing and writing experience coming from the included pen. Something that isn't bundled with basically every other laptop on the market. But now we've come to the point in this review where I need to address a time in the past when I was wrong. Or more accurately, I was being facetious. I said that the pen holder on the Spectre Folio was so bad that maybe they just shouldn't include one at all. Well, no, no, it turns out that this, having literally no way to attach the pen to your system at all is in fact worse. Something is better than nothing. So okay HP, you win. Sort of. The webcam falls considerably short of the Surface laptop, but fortunately in this massive forehead, they were at least able to fit Windows Hello facial recognition, which saves HP from having to listen to me complain about the location of this fingerprint sensor. Why isn't it on the power button? Oh wait, I guess they didn't get saved from it at all. I did still complain about it. That's a shame. Anyway, you don't have to use it. The speaker grill placement above the keyboard looks really nice and the speakers themselves are pretty good. But while that lost keyboard space at the top isn't a problem for the 15, on the 13, it means that anyone with big hands is gonna end up resting uncomfortably on this actually surprisingly sharp edge. What makes this more frustrating is that otherwise, this is quite a good keyboard. The keystrokes are long and quiet. And although the feel might not be quite as crisp as the Surface laptop, I still really appreciate what HP has done with the switches with me being able to get up to full speed very quickly. What is simply unacceptable though is the track pad. And that's what actually inspired the title of this video. It's the same unit on both models, which means that it's a pretty good size on that 13 inch and they both have very serious palm rejection and acceleration issues. For some reason, HP has opted to use Synaptics as touch pad drivers instead of the Windows Precision ones. And the experience is just awful. Like here, watch this. If I move slowly close to the edge, it's actually several centimeters of movement before the track pad even registers my finger being there. It's so bad that when I first used this machine, I assumed it was broken and that we would have to delay our review so we could wait to swap it out for another unit. But then both of them behaved in exactly the same way. Now, as it turns out, this dead zone can be tuned in the Synaptic software, but then you get palm rejection issues because that's how it does it. And it also turns out that other laptops do have a similar dead zone. Like on the Surface laptop, it turns out there is roughly a centimeter on either side that isn't immediately activated. But the thing is that between Alex and I, we've been using the Surface laptop, Razer Blade Stealth, many other laptops for years and just like never noticed it. Whereas on these HPs, it was apparent to me within about 30 seconds, I was like, something is wrong. Oh, it's like not working because it's a full two and a half centimeters on both sides. So since what the software is said to out of the box does appear to be the better solution compared to turning palm rejection off at all, the Spectre X360 2019 ends up with the dubious honor of tying the MSI GS75 for worst track pad I've seen in years. Something that is particularly unacceptable on a non-gaming device where you aren't expected to regularly plug in a mouse. Speaking of plugging in, one area where the X360 13 inch really shines is in the battery life department. With its 60 watt hour battery, it delivers some truly incredible time away from the wall. After a full eight hour workday writing this script with no plugging in, the X360 13 inch still had 70% of its battery left when it was time to head home. As for the 15 inch model, well, it's no slouch either, lasting through the workday handily, but its 84 watt hour battery can't quite compete with the 97 watt hour one in the Dell XPS 15. Bottom line time then, overall, neither the X360 13 or 15 inch did it for me. On paper, it should be a pretty clear decision to take this over something like a Surface laptop too. It's got better battery life, better performance, better connectivity and better security features, all for a very similar price. And it does feel like HP has spent a lot of time working on the details of this machine. Kind of like there's a laptop design rubric created by a consumer study that the engineers have made sure that they get top marks on. The only problem is that when you take a couple steps back from these things and just use them, the issues that we've talked about, especially the track pad are really hard to ignore. All I can hope for is that this is something that HP can fix through software updates and... Redesign in 2020? Yeah, or that. Speaking of 2020, you won't have to wait until 2020 to go to LTX 2019 featuring DreamHack. It's July 27th and 28th in the year 2019. It's 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days, and it's gonna be at the Vancouver Convention Center in, believe it or not, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The focus of this event is on bringing the community together to offer a hands-on experience with PC hardware and gaming. We're gonna have workshops, activities, competitions, giveaways, all kinds of great stuff. So whatever you're here for, whether you wanna learn how to build a PC, de-lit a CPU, learn how to disassemble a GPU, get some anger out by throwing and smashing PC cases, or just if you just wanna watch some of our main stage panels. What are we talking about? Why did I invite you here? Then there's gonna be something for you. We're gonna have VR experiences, there's gonna be gaming. Plus, as a reminder, we are partnering with DreamHack to offer a 500-seat PC BYOC LAN center and 100 PCs of free play area that's already set up with machines, as well as an Indie Zone. So go check it out at LTXExpo.com and get your tickets now. They are not going to be getting cheaper. In fact, they will be getting more expensive. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description. Also down there is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one, and our community forum, which you should totally join.