Hewlett-Packard is kicking off the year 2024 with the Spectre x360 14" and 16" and the Omen Transcend 14" laptops. All of these are powered by Intel's latest Meteor Lake processors, so AI is a major feature in every model. However, it won't be Windows Copilot doing all the work, as HP believes cloud-based AI is not the best solution for privacy or power efficiency.

Starting with the Spectre x360 laptop, these are HP's all-around general-purpose PCs for home, school, and office work. There are two sizes to choose from: 14" and 16". The former will be equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or Ultra 7 155H, while the larger laptops will come with more powerful CPUs only.

This means that both have eight E-cores, but with four or six P-cores. Boost clocks are 4.5 GHz and 4.8 GHz, respectively, and both have a base power consumption of 28 W and a maximum power consumption reaching 115 W.

In the 14-inch model, the Meteor Lake CPU handles all graphics, while the larger model is equipped with a GeForce RTX 4050 for additional gaming performance. That said, the Core Ultra's integrated graphics chip is no slouch for 1080p gameplay, and HP is eager to point out that gaming on the new Spectre x360 laptop will be far better than in previous years.

The biggest selling point, however, is the AI, and HP has employed it pretty much everywhere on this laptop. For example, the webcam output is constantly adjusted to improve overall quality, especially in low-light situations. But AI also does things like monitor whether someone is looking over your shoulder and start the PC without your touch.

We've played with similar technology built on the Tobii eye tracking technology in the latest Lenovo Legion 9i, and while the laptop itself is very, very good, we weren't We weren't that crazy about it.

CPU performance is also aided by AI, with clock speeds, fans, and power levels all monitored and controlled based on what the laptop is doing. HP has packed additional sensors (heat, speed, acceleration, etc.) into the system to provide the data needed for AI models. packed into the system.

However, while most other vendors use Windows Copilot for additional AI tasks, such as summarizing memos and other generative tasks, HP uses other tools, namely SuperPower and Otter AI.

The reason is that these run locally and all machine learning processing is done on Intel Core Ultra CPUs and GeForce RTX GPUs. HP cites better privacy and power efficiency as deciding factors in doing this, but some business transactions are also I should imagine there are some business deals in the mix.

Of course, this does not mean that Windows Copilot is disabled. This means that HP is not relying on cloud solutions for its machine learning routines, but rather leveraging the NPU (Neural Processing Unit) in the Core Ultra CPUs to do AI work.

AI shenanigans aside, at least Intel's new CPUs have proven quite useful for entry-level gaming, as the integrated GPU is more than capable of handling 1080p games, albeit at low quality settings. Previous Spectre series laptops were never advertised as being ideal for gaming, but that is no longer the case.

But all this new technology doesn't come cheap: the 14-inch model starts at $1,499.99, while the 16-inch costs $100 more. The base configuration includes 16GB of LPDDR5x-7467 RAM and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. This is quite a lot of money, so let's hope all the excellent AI is worth it.

So far, HP has only announced one new Omen Transcend gaming laptop with Meteor Lake, and it looks pretty good. With a total weight of 1637 grams (3.6 pounds) and a full aluminum body that is only 12 mm (0.47 inches) thick, portability is clearly the most important feature.

There are two CPUs to choose from: the Core Ultra 7 155H and the range-topping Ultra 9 185H, both with the same number of cores: six performance, eight efficiency, two low power efficiency, for a total of 22 threads. The latter has a boost clock of 5.1 GHz and a base power consumption limit of 45W.

Also, for graphics you can choose one of three GeForce RTX chips: RTX 4050, 4060, or 4070. However, it is not clear what power limitations these GPUs have, so they could be really good, or they could be quite disappointing. Given the size of the chassis, it is likely that they are capped in the middle or lower end of the power range, and if so, we would want at least a 4060 model.

That said, this new model boasts a funky cooling system, and Omen Transcend claims it to be the coolest 14-inch gaming laptop on the market. Getting the keyboard hot is not something I particularly like when using a laptop for gaming, so if this feature works as claimed, I'll be happy as Larry.

The new Omen Transcend gets the same AI treatment as the Spectre x360 model, but to make it more like a gaming laptop, it has an RGB keyboard without grids (more light emits from the keys) and a HyperX Cloud III wireless headset and a built-in 2.4GHz dongle for instant pairing with the HyperX Cloud III wireless headset.

HP has also announced a 16-inch Omen Transcend, which uses the higher-power, upcoming Core i7 14700HX or i9 14900HX, generally the same as the previous generation Raptor Lake chips. The rest of the key specifications (GPU, RAM, storage) are the same, though.

As for pricing, the new Omen Transcend 14 starts at $1499.99, which is a good price for a Core Ultra 7 155H and RTX 4050 combination, especially when the base configuration includes 16GB of LPDDR5x-7467 RAM and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. seems a bit high considering the fact that it is equipped with.

If the gaming performance is as good, portable, and cool as claimed, HP could be a bit of a winner, but given the abundance of other gaming laptops to be presented at the CES event, competitors will have a lot to say about that.

We'll get the Spectre x360 and Omen Transcend with RTX 4060 by the end of the year and see how they stack up against gaming laptops like the Gigabyte G5 The Gigabyte G5 has long been a favorite of ours, but the RTX 4060 properly, but its design and CPU are a bit dated.

HP's base Spectre laptops have not been well received when it comes to gaming, but perhaps these new models will be the ticket to change that.

_____________________________________ PC Gamer's CES 2024 coverage is courtesy of Asus Republic of Gamers.