HP Pavilion X360 11t (11t-k100 / 2015) Affordable 2-in-1 Mini-Laptop

The HP Pavilion X360 11t (11t-k100 / 2015 edition) brings several important improvements over its last year’s precursor. It retains the same 360-degree hinge for ultimate convertibility and an affordable starting price of around $350. But, HP has replaced the old Intel Bay Trail processors with the latest Braswell chips, additionally started offering the device with a better Intel Core M series CPU, upgraded to Windows 10 Home from 8.1, and added IPS wide viewing angle display technology. (NOTE: HP on the official product pages clearly states the device has IPS display. However, the model we saw at the IFA show and models reviewed by several YouTube users still rely on the TN panels with significantly narrower viewing angles. Our advice is to double check with your seller whether the model you’re planning to buy has IPS, since display quality gap between TN and IPS is huge.) Since the Pavilion X360 11t is a budget-device, no Full HD display resolution choice is available. HP sticks with the basic 1366-by-768-pixel 720p resolution.

With these specs, the laptop competes directly against the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 3147 (with IPS), Lenovo Flex 3 11, Acer Aspire R 11, and Toshiba Radius 11 L15.

The standard edition x360 11t 2015 comes with either the lowest-end Intel Celeron N3050 dual-core processor or somewhat faster Intel Pentium N3700. Both can handle the daily computing chores of the average user, but the Pentium option provides visibly smoother operation at an extra cost of $50. The default 4GB system memory option is a well-balanced one considering the basic CPUs, but if you want extra multitasking headroom you can opt for 8GB instead. In the storage department, offered is only the classic 500GB 5,400 rpm hard drive with a plenty of storage space but slow read and write speeds. HP additionally sells a pricier $460+ Select Edition version with faster Intel Core M 5Y10(c) CPU and faster storage in form of a 128GB solid state drive. As a downside, 8GB RAM option isn’t available on the Select Edition model.

Outwardly, besides the glossy screen which reflects lights a lot, the most notable are aluminum base cover holding an isle-style keyboard with a decent tactile feedback and a spacious trackpad with integrated buttons for left and right clicks. The rest of the laptop is made of matte plastics in three different colors – Natural Silver, Sunset Red, and Minty Green. The convertible has a 0.9″ thick profile and weighs in at 3.2 pounds.

The right side of the chassis (in the laptop mode) houses a combo headphones / microphone audio connector, Windows Start button, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI video output jack, an Ethernet LAN port, and a power jack.

On the left side, clustered are a volume rocker, SD card reader slot, USB 2.0 port, Kensignton lock hole, and power button.

Stereo speakers are located on the bottom of the chassis. The speaker system is enhanced by Bang & Olufsen and customizable with a dedicated graphics equalizer software. For Internet connectivity, the laptop uses 802.11N wireless connection, besides wired Ethernet LAN. Other important features are a 720p web camera and Bluetooth interface.

Hewlett-Packard claims the battery life on this model lasts “up to 8 hours and 15 minutes”. That’s a brave statement, since the battery unit inside has a capacity of just 32 WHr. Maybe on idle the notebook can achieve more than 8 hours, but in the real world use like surfing the web with screen brightness set to half the battery life will be probably around five hours mark.