HP Spectre Folio review: Get your hands on this luxury leather laptop

The problem with laptops in general is that even the high-end premium ones all tend to look and feel the same after a while. It's clear when a laptop is trying to be a MacBook Pro or an XPS 13. In a world of copycat  laptops , almost all of which seem to want to be just like something else, the new leather-covered HP Spectre Folio at the very least offers a different approach to design. 

8.1

HP Spectre Folio

$1,400 at Amazon

The Good

An excellent, premium-looking design with a leather outer shell over a metal frame. Good stylus response and excellent battery life.

The Bad

The rotating hinge design is too fiddly for its own good and the dual-core processor is a letdown for this price range. The stylus has nowhere to live, except in an awkward leather loop hanging from the side.

The Bottom Line

HP's inventive two-in-one hybrid is fun to use and show off, but its ambitious hinge design can get in the way at times.

No, it's not Corinthian leather, but it's still pretty nice. And I'd be the first to admit I'm having fun using it, despite a few design and usability frustrations. 

The leather cover is not just bolted on top of a standard laptop body. Instead, a magnesium frame is paired with a leather outer shell that covers just about everything except for the keyboard and screen. HP says that cuts down on weight and thickness, although this still feels hefty for a 13-inch laptop, at 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg).

We rarely see them now, but this isn't the first leather-shelled laptop I've tested. About 10 years ago, it was briefly in vogue, like this Asus U6S I reviewed back in 2008. But this example makes the leather more a part of the overall design, rather than just gluing it onto the back of a standard laptop body.

It's called the Folio because, when closed, it looks like a leather folio. So much so, that when I took it for a test drive to the new coffee shop on the corner, I just tucked it under my arm and went, no bag.

Flipping the script

That part of the design is certainly clever, but other parts feel a bit too clever. The hybrid hinge, which folds the 13-inch screen into different modes, is complicated, with the entire screen flipping out from the middle of the rear panel.

The screen can swoop down in front of the keyboard, creating a kind of kiosk. That's great for video playback, but it only hits one angle, and it may not a particularly useful one unless you're slightly above the laptop, looking down.

It also forms a tablet, and using the included stylus in that mode is very nice, especially with the leather outer shell under your hands. But the stylus has nowhere to go, except a protruding leather loop -- I find those always get in the way and get snagged on things. A compromise might have been a stylus that slides into a hidden compartment on the body, but that requires one of those tiny styluses, usually about as thick as a coffee stirrer, so there's no perfect answer.

If you're comparing this to the new MacBook Air, they both use dual-core Intel Y series processors, which means they're not especially speedy, but still fine for everyday use. For these prices -- the Folio starts at $1,299 while the new Air starts at $1,199 -- you're not wrong to want something faster. 

This test configuration has a Core i7 Y-series CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a 4G LTE antenna. The closest configuration on HP's US website right now is $1,500, but cuts the RAM to 8GB. A very close MacBook Air 16GB/256GB config with a higher screen resolution -- but swapping the Y-series Core i7 for a Y-series Core i5 and dropping the LTE antenna -- is $1,599. A 12-inch MacBook with the same 16GB/256GB/Core i7Y config is $1,749. HP says a version of the Spectre Folio with a 4K display is coming later this year. 

The single Spectre Folio configuration on HP's UK website is £1,499. In Australia, it starts at AU$2,799.

HP Spectre Folio (pictures)

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Longer, but not faster 

The dual-core CPU means it lags behind many other current premium laptops in terms of raw performance. In fact, the performance in our tests hewed very close to the new MacBook Air. But, as in the case of the new Air, I don't think that's a fatal flaw. For most of what you're likely to be doing on your laptop -- working on office docs, drawing with the stylus, web surfing or streaming videos, you're unlikely to notice the difference between this and a quad-core PC like the Surface Laptop 2. 

Battery life on par with those and most other current laptops in this class, hitting 10 hours, 45 minutes on our streaming video battery drain test, just a few minutes apart from the new MacBook Air or Surface Laptop 2. 

That solid battery life score puts a thumb on the scale for me, leaving me feeling mostly positive about the Folio. And I'm not entirely surprised. HP's done a great job of making big, bold statement pieces in the last few years, mostly from this high-end Spectre line. (I'm also very fond of the clamshell Spectre, which is another design win, thanks to a very slim body and excellent color choices.) The new Folio isn't perfect, but it certainly stands out.