Spectre X360 is a convertible laptop from HP. You can use it as a conventional. On other occasion, you can also turn it into a tablet thanks to the 360-degree hinge. Spectre X360 has a beautiful design and superb engine with the 8th generation of Intel Core i7 processor.

Surface Pro 4, on the other and, is a 2-in-1 laptop that can be an ideal option for a professional or business men who have a high mobility. Natively, Surface 4 is a tablet device, but you can turn into a laptop with a physical keyboard for a more comfortable typing. Although come with a little different concept, both Spectre X360 and Surface Pro 4 are comparable enough. For a business use, the specifications offered by those two devices are high enough.

HP’s Spectre X360 is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor while Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 is powered by Intel Core i5 processor (7th generation). The table below shows the full specifications of HP Spectre X360 and Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

Specs

In terms of specs, Spectre X360 is a bit better than Surface Pro 4. It has a higher processor, more spacious storage capacity and bigger default RAM size.

However, it doesn’t mean that you can conclude that Spectre X360 is better than Surface Pro 4. It all will depends on how you will use your laptop. For a business need, the specs offered by Surface Pro 4 are more than enough. But, there are many other aspects you need to notice before making a decision. So, read on.

Design

Be it Spectre X360 or Surface Pro 4 have a nice enough design. They come with a modern design and look fancy. HP Spectre X360 combines silver accent with black. It has a flexible yet strong hinge to allow you turning your laptop into a tablet mode by swiveling your screen until 360 degree.

Surface Pro 4, on the other hand, comes with black as the base color. You can combine its base color with the color you like since Surface Pro 4 offers with several options of Type Cover colors. By the way, the package of Surface Pro 4 doesn’t include keyboard (Type Cover) so if you want to turn your tablet into a traditional laptop you have to buy the keyboard (Type Cover) separately. A bit hassle, but that is the concept of Surface Pro 4.

• HP Spectre X360

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As mentioned earlier, HP Spectre X360 combines silver and black on design. The result is not so bad. HP Spectre X360 looks pretty nice and modern. The body of this convertible laptop itself is made of aluminum material. HP has made some changes to the design of Spectre X360. The earlier model has a curved design while the new version is a pair of hard-angled pieces when the laptop is closed.

HP Spectre X360 is a convertible laptop. To turn it into a tablet you can simply swivel the screen. And since this laptop is also projected to be a tablet device other than conventional laptop, fingerprint reader and button power are located on its edges. Spectre X360 has more ports than Surface Pro 4. As a result, its overall body is a bit thicker than Surface Pro 4. HP Spectre X360 is not a detachable laptop so it has no kickstand to prop the screen when you use as conventional laptop.

• Surface Pro 4

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Surface Pro 4 has a smaller body than Spectre X360. If you are going to use your device on the tablet mode more often then I think Surface Pro 4 is a better suited option. The reason is because this device is primarily designed as a tablet. Just like other Surface devices, Surface Pro 4 also has a modern, fancy design. Surface Pro has a solid magnesium body. It has a friction-hinge kickstand to help prop the screen when you use it in a laptop mode. There is a handy holder on the edge of this device body to hold the stylus.

One thing you need to know if you start interested to buy this Surface Pro. All accessories, including keyboard (Type Cover) and stylus, are sold separately. So, don’t expect you can turn it into a laptop with a physical keyboard if you just buy the tablet device. Surface Pro 4 has a thin vent that runs part of the way around the edge to help cool the system. If you have Type Cover installed and want to turn your device into a tablet mode, the Type Cover flips around and lies flat against the back. Since Surface Pro 4 is primarily designed as a tablet device, it comes with fewer ports.

Performance

There is a fundamental difference between Spectre X360 and Surface Pro 4 in terms of specs. As you can see on the specs table above, Spectre X360 is powered by the 8th generation of Intel Core i7 processor while Surface Pro 4 is has a lower processor by adopting Intel Core i5 processor (7th generation).

By default, Spectre X360 also has a bigger RAM than Surface Pro 4. Both devices use SSD as the storage medium. This helps them to run faster compared to laptops with HDD, especially on the booting process.

• Spectre X360

Spectre X360 comes with a 16GB of RAM and is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor. No wonder if the performance of this 2-in-1 laptop is pretty fast. For a business laptop, the specs offered by this laptop are arguably superb. As usuall, Google Chrome is the best app to test a laptop performance since it consumes plenty enough memory. You can use Spectre X360 to open multiple tabs at once to open the Giphy, Slack, TweetDeck, Google Docs and a 1080p YouTube video and you will keep be able to switch between tabs smoothly without lag.

The performance of the graphic engine of Spectre X360 is also not so bad. It is capable of running the Dirt 3 racer at 56 frames per second. Furthermore, this laptop also performed well enough on 3DMark’s Ice Storm Unlimited graphics test, with a solid score of 79,528, which exceeds the 58,980 category average.

• Surface Pro 4

It’s true that Surface Pro 4 has lower specs than Spectre X360. Still, for a business laptop the specs of Surface Pro are superb enough. So, expecting more on performance is reasonable enough. The performance of Surface Pro 4 is not embarrassing. Try to open about 20 tabs at once on Chrome and you will find your Surface keep running smoothly and you can also be able to switch between tabs and windows smoothly without lag. On the LibreOffice test, this 2-in-a laptop was able of matching 20,000 names and addresses in just 4 minutes and 11 seconds. Just for your information, it was a minute faster than the HP Spectre X360 (5:04)

What about the performance of the graphic?

Surface Pro 4 scored 843 3DMark’s Fire Strike graphics test. When used to run World of Warcraft at 1920×1080 at auto settings, it managed a definitely playable 47 fps. As a comparison, Macbook Air managed a respectable 33 fps at the same settings, but at a lower resolution of 1400×900.

Software

Other than Windows 10 as the operating system, both Spectre X360 and Surface Pro 4 don’t offer much preinstalled software. Spectre X360 offers Support Assistant to allow you to download drivers and contact HP. Another handy preinstalled software offered by Spectre X360 is Recovery Manager to manage backups and creates recovery disks.

Same as Spectre X360, Surface Pro 4 also doesn’t offer too much preinstalled software. By default, it has no antivirus software at all. The only preinstalled software you potentially find useful enough are Microsoft Edge Cortana.

Price comparison

Both Spectre X360 and Surface Pro 4 can be categorized as high end laptops. Although they are not aimed at gamers, the specs offered by those two are high enough. No wonder if their prices are also expensive enough.

Depends on the package you choose. If you choose a Surface Pro 4 with Type Cover and Stylus, you have to spend more money than you need to buy a Spectre X360 unit. But, if you buy the device only, you can get Surface Pro 4 with a cheaper price than Spectre X360.

Conclusion

The very first thing you need to know before picking your option is that both Spectre X360 and Surface actually have a bit different concept. Natively, Spectre X360 is a laptop while Surface Pro 4 is tablet. So, this will depends on how you will use your device. If you will primarily use your device on the tablet mode than Surface Pro 4 is a better choice.

Conversely, if you plan to use your device primarily on the laptop mode than Spectre X360 is a better choice. Both devices come with a high enough specs so performance is not a big problem. Especially if you use your device for handling basic computing tasks like editing document and browsing the web.