Enlarge / With the width trimmed, the keyboard now spans almost the full width of the system. (credit: HP)

We really liked HP’s Spectre x360 Ultrabook when we reviewed its first Broadwell version last year. HP gave it a minor revision to add a Skylake processor, but didn’t change the basic formula. Today the company announced the third version of its Spectre x360, now with a 7th generation Intel Core processor (better known to you and me as Kaby Lake). While some of the Kaby Lake refreshes we’ve seen have been minor, doing little more than swapping out a Skylake part and putting in a Kaby Lake chip, HP’s been a little more ambitious with the Spectre x360.

The updated system is smaller and sleeker: it shaves 2mm (0.01 inches) off its thickness, cutting it to 13.8mm (0.54 inches) at its thickest point, and almost 10mm (0.39 inches) off each side. This reduces the Spectre’s weight by 0.16kg (0.35lb). In spite of this, the new x360 sports a bigger battery (57.8 Wh, up from 56), and, with Kaby Lake’s power reductions, HP claims that the battery life will be at least 25 percent better than the Skylake version.

With its 360 degree hinge, the Spectre x360 is more versatile than a traditional laptop. (credit: HP)

That’s all nice, but the Spectre’s new features are more exciting: HP has added Thunderbolt 3—a pair of USB Type-C ports support the high-speed technology—and an infra-red camera to enable Windows Hello biometric authentication. These are two of our favorite laptop features, and we’re delighted to see HP adding them to an already desirable system. The SSD (available up to 1TB) has been upgraded, too: it now uses NVMe instead of SATA, which should provide a performance boost. The system also sports fast-charging, taking about 90 minutes to reach 90 percent charge.