HP returns to OLED displays for Spectre X360 15

By Abdul Wahab ⏐ 7 years ago ⏐

3 min read

HP is planning to release a revised version of its current Spectre x360 15 convertible laptop with a stunning 15.6 inch OLED display this year. The company announced this ahead of CES 2019.

Laptops with OLED displays were first launched, three years back in 2016, which caught everyone’s attention due to their never-seen-before stunning displays. Lenovo and HP were the first companies to feature OLED displays in a laptop, but the successful display technology never took off due to its premium pricing. However, HP is returning back with an OLED display and this time on a 15-inch laptop.

The design and specification will mostly be the same as the current HP Spectre X360 15, however, the display is where things will get interesting. The optional Spectre X360 15 with OLED panel will come with HDR support, while equipped with the same flagship internals as the current Spectre model.

8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor
16GB of RAM
512GB PCIe SSD storage

It goes without saying that the display will be the key hardware component and the major factor which will differentiate this laptop from its competitors. By using the OLED instead of the traditional IPS panel, HP’s OLED display will offer very bright and accurate colors (covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color space), a very high contrast ratio (100,000:1), wide horizontal viewing angles, deep blacks, fast response time and most of all a better user experience. However, the OLED panel does have its downsides such as off-axis color shifting, ghosting, burn-in, and that dreaded “dead pixel line” (if the device is dropped).

HP did not specify the resolution of the upcoming OLED display so it remains to be seen whether HP has somehow managed to include an Ultra-HD (3840×2160) panel) or the traditional QHD (2560×1440) one. HP also didn’t mention the price of this model but considering how an OLED display drastically increases the price of the smartphone, it’s safe to say that this model will cost a lot since a 15-inch OLED panel is bound to cost a fortune.

Another thing to note is that the current HP Spectre model gives for up to 16 hours of battery life, and as it is commonly known OLED display drain a lot of battery life. So it remains to be seen how will HP adjust the battery of this new model of Spectre x360 15 since a laptop with an average battery will not be appreciated by the consumer. The shipping of this model is expected to start around March 2019.