I'm waiting for the reviews to come in before making any decisions, but it looks like quite a nice machine.
I'm waiting for the reviews to come in before making any decisions, but it looks like quite a nice machine.
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With that said, I purchased that laptop you're talking about. A brief overview:
1. Terrible screen: something like 60% sRGB coverage (maybe worse), and it shows with dithering and banding artifacts. Its also noticeably dimmer than other laptops.
2. Horrible HP Store -- I bought the laptop during Black-Friday, and HP shipped me a bricked laptop. Then they wouldn't replace the laptop because I got a "custom" SSD drive or some bullS!@#!@ excuse. My choices were to repurchase at a "non-sales" price, or get a refund. I opted for the refund and had to wait until the next sale to get a decent price. I suggest you buy from a reputable retailer who has a decent return policy, just in case the computer is broken or some other issue comes up. You do NOT want to be dealing with HP's online store customer service.
3. Minor default driver issues -- Fullscreen Youtube has occasional glitches and I've had the screen shutoff at least once randomly. Based on other owners: this seems to go away once you reinstall Windows and do some of HP's legwork for them. You should expect to reinstall Windows anyway because of the large number of bloatware (McAffee, Candy Crush, etc. etc.) that comes with the laptop.
4. AMD Driver Issues -- There's no Raven Ridge version of the latest "AMD Adrenaline" driver set. AMD's driver rollout for this laptop seems to be slow. I figure that as Raven Ridge APUs become more widespread, AMD's driver situation will improve.
5. Defaults to a Hard Drive -- Why HP? Just... why? But it has an M.2 slot, so its super easy for me to just stick a Samsung 960 Evo in there and fix that issue.
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Aside from the poor quality screen (which stands out), its a good laptop overall. I think I'll be fine with it. Its got a numpad, the "360" 2-in-1 form factor definitely works, and the Stylus support is great.
The laptop is also fully expandable, with an M.2 slot, SATA slot, and easily accessible DDR4 DIMMs: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05819570
So you can upgrade the laptop to your hearts content. You are going to be stuck with a dim, dithered, banding screen however. Its sufficient for office applications but holy crap the color irregularities are quite obvious. So this laptop's screen definitely can't be used for any serious art (which is a shame, since the Stylus support is so good).
Its definitely a $700ish laptop, with all of the issues that is typical in the $700 price range. (ie: Poor Screens are seriously common at this price range). You'll get very good price/performance and reasonable gaming on the go, since you get 4c / 8threads, a decent iGPU (its not as good as the MX150, but it can play the newest Doom at 720p and Rocket League at 57FPS / 720p).
I guess... the x360 as purchased isn't a very good laptop. But its actually very easy to turn it into a good laptop (aside from the screen). Reload Windows, fix up the drivers a bit, stick an M.2 SSD in there and its actually great.