HP Elite x3 review: Yep, this was the last great Windows phone - murraywharand83

Updated October 10, 2017: So much for that. HP has decided to discontinue the Elite x3 after Microsoft put Windows Movable into maintenance musical mode.

HP's Elite x3 smartphone has achieved at least one thing: IT has triumphantly completed Microsoft's dream of phones that could eventually supercede your PC.

Microsoft's vision was hollow unless those phones could support the PC's legacy apps. Microsoft's Continuum feature already allows you to connect a mouse and keyboard, giving the phone the look and feel of a background PC. HP designed the Selected x3 to evolve that construct. Pick any Win32 app you'd like—Photoshop, AutoCAD, even Chromium-plate—and HP's new Workspace feature will tolerate IT to be run via your phone. Commingle that with stellar battery life, truly useful utilities, and an (almost) elite set of hardware glasses, and you indeed have a PC in your pocket.

It's a pity, then, that all this comes at a real elite, PC-like price. These costs relegate the Elite x3 to corporate use, where an IT section foots the bill.

Mark Hachman

HP's Selected x3, within its billfold case.

The Elite x3: A pricey phablet

Let's set out our tour of the Elite group x3's formidable specs with perhaps the largest act of all: its price. I've always been a fan of large phones alike the Nokia Lumia 1520 and the Samsung Galax urceolata Musical note series, but the Selected x3 pushes the limits of the "phablet" designation.

The phone's $699 Mary Leontyne Pric is fit north of affordable—recall that we dinged the competing Acer Liquid Jade Best for its $649 price tag along (information technology's currently $449 in the Microsoft Computer memory). HP's Desk Loading dock adds Continuum capabilities for other $150. Then thither's the upcoming ultrabook-like Circle Dock, which at $500 brings the total bill to $1,299—just for the hardware. Gulp.

The phone itself is enormous as well: 6.3 x 3.29 x 0.3 inches, weighing a sturdy 6.9 ounces. Though the Elite x3 is slightly narrower and shorter than Nokia's massive Lumia 1520, both phones are just too large for me to use with one hand. The Elite x3's sure as shooting bigger than Microsoft's ain flagship Lumia 950XL A well as the Genus Acer Liquid Jade Primo.

The Elite x3's 5.96-in, 2,560×1,440 AMOLED display has the Lapp specs A the Lumia 950XL's, only IT pushes more pixels than the Liquid Fatigu Primo's 5.5-inch, 1920×1080 display. Fortunately, it's also protected aside Corning's Gorilla Glass 4, and unlike any separate Windows phone, is both IP67 irrigate-resistant and MIL-STD 810G drop-resistant, too.

Mark Hachman

The HP Elect x3 is Interahamw larger than Microsoft's Lumia 950, to the left.

If Microsoft had ready-made this phone, it probably would have settled for midrange hardware to keep costs downward. HP, though? Hell no. With a 2.15GHz, quad-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and an integrated Adreno 530 GPU, the Elite x3 opened apps without a hint of imprison, and transitioned swimmingly from unitary chore to some other.

The Elite group x3 is also the only Windows phone with 4GB of Aries as well as 64GB of internal storage. The Lumia 950XL and Liquid Jade Primo some include 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.

An SD poster slot allows up to a theoretical 2TB of elaboration, though that slot is shared with a 2d SIM. Other noteworthy features include 2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi for better wireless reception, plus Bluetooth 4.0LE and Miracast. The earpiece also offers NFC, making the Elite x3 theoretically well-matched with Microsoft's hydrant-to-fund Wallet app — though Horsepower told us that that feature hasn't been enabled. In that location's a 3.5-mm audio jackass, too.

Bell ringer Hachman

We reviewed a dual-SIM model of the Elite x3. One of those SIMs can be used to hold an SD card, with capacity busy a TB.

You may recall that I'm a large fan of Windows Howdy, the quick and easy right smart Windows recognizes you and logs you in. The Elite x3 does something few, if any, other phones do: it lets you log in via Hello withii biometric authenticators—an iris scanner and fingerprint reader. Both are competent, if not completely predictable. Waking up the phone involved retention it with my finger over the lector, hoping that either information technology or the iris scanner logged Pine Tree State in—and they almost always did.

Mark Hachman

The Elite x3 includes front-firing speakers from Bang & Olufsen, though I didn't hear much difference from the flat sound another smartphone speakers generate.

Benchmarks reveal the Elite x3's mightiness

The Elite x3's performance lives up to its name. Benchmarked against the Lumia 950 and the Liquid Fag Primo (unfortunately we didn't have a Lumia 950XL to trial run), the Elite x3 proved it's the most regnant Windows phone on the market today. Pay attention to tests alike JetStream 1.1, a browser-supported artificial benchmark, where the Elite x3 is 70 percentage faster. IT's symmetrical systematically faster than the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, an Android phone. (Also take a sneak peek here at how apps run low the Workspace environment, which we'll discuss later.)

HP's Elect x3 sets a new bench mark for performance among Windows phones.

We've also broken out the AnTuTu benchmark happening the tierce Windows 10 phones to offer a more direct comparability.

The Selected x3 enjoys a sizable lead over its competition.

Battery lifetime is another major plus for the Elite x3. Inside the phone is a big (though, lamentably, unremoveable) 4,150 mAh battery, with far Sir Thomas More capacity than either the Galaxy 6s Edge (3,600 mAh),  iPhone 7 Plus (2,900 mAh)  Lumia 950XL (3,340 mAh) or Acer Liquid Fornicatress Primo (2,870 mAh). In just 10 minutes, the Elite x3's quick-charge technology will fill the battery past 14 percent, good for a 2.5-hour shout out.

The Elite x3 looped a 4K test video repeatedly for an incredible 9 hours and 23 proceedings, compared to just under 6 hours for the Acer Liquid Jade Best. Information technology's unmistakable that this is an all-solar day phone, and to a greater extent.

I also spent some time with the Elite x3's camera, which, like Genus Acer's Fluent Jade Primo, is one area where HP seemed to cut up corners. If you were hoping that the Elite x3's 16MP rear and 8MP front-facing cameras would emulate an iPhone, say, with a pair of dual lenses, you'll be disappointed. C'Monday HP, what's an extra few bucks for a good camera?

From top left, clockwise: studio lights, at full brightness; uncomplete brightness level; lamplight, and lamplight with flash. Our studio apartment has a Caucasoid scop.

The test photos disclosed a substantial flaw that had nothing to do with image quality: the time from which the camera icon was pressed to the time the picture was taken careful about a second. It hearkens back to the invalid old days of Windows phones, where excellent color breeding was marred aside slow shot times. Optical look-alike stabilization wasn't included, either. In my mind, the Elite group x3's television camera ranks to a higher place the Liquid Jade Primo's but infra the Lumia 950's.

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An outdoor shot taken away the Elite group x3 along a late afternoon in October.

A marvelous Continuum see

If the Elite x3 were an iPhone or an Humanoid phone, we'd essentially end the review right there. The admittedly advantage of Windows phones, however, is the Continuum experience, which allows a docked Windows phone to serve as a slightly degraded variant of a desktop PC. HP over-engineered the Continuum experience with the indistinguishable attention to detail as its other aspects, and connected the Elite x3 IT shines brightly.

Deutsche Mark Hachman

HP's Desk Dock, which includes the full complement of ports.

Let's begin with the wedgelike Tail, a insufficient pound's worth of formative and aluminum which could literally stand in as a weapon in a game of Hint. With 2 USB 3.0 ports as well as a USB-C porthole (which can be used for charging), the Elite group x3 pier means business. In fact, the dock's commitment to productivity extends to the display connector—a full-sized DisplayPort connector, rather than the more park HDMI.

I criticized Acer's Liquid Jade Primo because if you used its bundled case, the sound wouldn't sound into the dock. HP's thought of that—oh boy, has it ever. HP's Elite x3 includes three sleeves that magnetically slither over and connected top of the dock: one organized to fit the bare phone, one designed to dock the phone within HP's notecase case, and a third that adds an wing electric cord so you potty hold IT in your hand while still using the phone's touchpad to navigate.

Mark Hachman

The Desk Dock's sleeves identify how it's to be used: case, or atomic number 102 slip.

Copulative the phone via the dock works well.  But the real innovation here is thewireless connection. Totally of the previous iterations of the wireless Continuum know I've used ranged from laggy to downright unserviceable, partly because of the Miracast radio set technology that connected the 2. HP's Elite x3 uses Wi-Fi to connect the phone to your computer's display, extending its cooking stove but besides significantly reduction rotational latency to just a smidgeon. In fact, the only lag I really detected was from the phone itself, slowly burden pages o'er a wireless connection.

Mark Hachman

If you want to be able to stand and interact with the Elite x3, there's an "extension phone cord" arm, also.

Unfortunately, HP didn't provide us with extraordinary of the identify accessories for the Elite x3: the Lap Dock. Essentially, IT's an improved version of the NexDock, a "dumb" ultrabook that's powered by your phone. In HP's case, the Lap Dock is a 2.3-lb, laptop-like device with a 46.5-Whr battery, tercet USB-C ports, and a 12.5-in 1080p display. It eliminates the indigence to convey your pussyfoot, keyboard, and Expose Dock on trips.

HP's Elite X3 Lap Dock will ship Nov. 14 from the Microsoft Store.

HP's apps: Nobelium bloatware here

Unremarkably, we'd be concerned with a smartphone maker who bundled extra apps with the phone. With the Elite x3, however, HP bundled an impressive selection of ten profitable utilities, totaling a skimp over 4.4GB, and most of them uninstallable.

An HP Mobile Hardware Diagnostics app tests all but every component for failure.  HP's Device Hub app does what Microsoft should: provide a one-stop shop of your twist information, with golf links to the substance abuser template, regulative and warranty entropy, and to a greater extent. HP's Display Tools will override Windows' own settings to keep your screen door from dimming OR turning turned when docked.

Mark Hachman

HP's throwback calculator app is an Easter egg of sorts.

You might find the included WinZip and Salesforce apps excess, as well as an app to control HP printers. "HP Picks," though, provides a nicely curated list of business apps on the Microsoft Lay in.

And past, course, there's Workspace, HP's gateway to virtualized Win32 apps that live in the HP befog—and the entire reason to buy up this sound.

HP's Workspace: Wow, Win32 apps on your earphone!

Workspace makes your phone your PC—for real. Allege what you will about Continuum, or how cured HP has implemented it; you're still at Microsoft's mercy. And because Continuum only supports Microsoft's relatively new UWP apps, thither's a vast physical structure of apps that you simply can't role: browsers like Microsoft's Explorer or Google Chrome, graphics apps like AutoCAD, surgery collaboration apps same HipChat. Project Period of time may be bringing older Win32 apps to the Windows Memory boar, but progress has been slow.

Note Hachman

HP's Workspace app opens up your phone to bad much whatever Win32 app you give birth a permission for, and ask HP to load into the Workspace defile.

Workspace, meanwhile, arse run these bequest apps in a virtualized cloud environment, right like they're connected your PC. Though Citrix and its competitors hold offered these capabilities to PCs and thin client devices for years, IT's still a new experience for phone users.

Unfortunately, an expensive licensing procedure overshadows what could be a transformational experience. Workspace is available in two tiers: Essential ($579 per year, per user, or $49 per month) and Premium ($939 per year, per drug user, or $79 per month). A year of VPN integration costs extra: $2,995. Each account tier comes with 24-time of day support during the five-day workweek.

Scrape Hachman

At that place's no easy way to lading individual files in Workspace. HP encourages you to store documents inside thirdly-party cloud services, which are accessible As essential drives from within the apps.

HP manages the installation of the apps you choose in its cloud. The Constituent tier allows upbound to 10 apps; Premium users can select as many apps as they would like. HP runs the apps along a virtual Processor and dedicated memory board (4GB or 8GB, depending upon the tier) and interacting with them remotely.

Mark Hachman

Workspace has its own file directory, though information technology's not really clear whether it's there to be accessed by users.

Workspace was generally enjoyable to exercise, even up if IT had its own little quirks. Not surprisingly, HP forces you to use Workspace in conjunction with a dock. Horsepower supplied a login and password, which I had to manually enter each time. Workspace also encourages you to store files in befog storage services the like Box, Dropbox, surgery (shortly) OneDrive. (HP does non ply any cloud storage within Workspace itself.) But there's no obvious way to in reality access a Word single file stored in Boxwood unless you're in Word.

At one time logged in, Workspace let Maine use more than a dozen apps that HP seedless for my use, including Chrome, Internet Explorer, Slack, the full versions of the Authority 2013 apps, and even Notepad.

Because it's virtualized, Horsepower keeps an center along your usage. Go idle for more than nine minutes, and IT logs you out. Windows itself will turn turned the shield after five minutes away default, so if you don't have HP's own Display Tools organized properly, you'll have to log in again, then navigate to the Workspace app. And if you go on to close descending all the Workspace virtualized apps, there was atomic number 102 obvious way to get even to the intense Workspace environment, aside from a small Settings icon.

Fool Hachman

Workspace limits your frame rate to about 15 frames per indorse—unimpeachable for adynamic apps like Word or accounting software, but dead useless for high-bandwidth applications like video editing or even YouTube.

The real kicker, though, is the monthly usage: 40 hours per user for the Constitutive tier, and 80 hours per month for the Bounty tier up. Granted, that's a jelled workweek for the Essential user. Still, I'd hatred to be the maneuverable worker who comes to hinge upon Workspace and then runs stunned of their allocated time while on the itinerant.

The Charles Herbert Best Windows phone

Windows phones are now the insane-eyed prophets of productivity, preaching Microsoft's "cloud first, transferrable first" gospel to a mostly unaffectionate world. If a review must end with a buy recommendation, for an case-by-case, my answer is a regretful no.

For businesses with numerous Win32 legacy apps (and big IT budgets), it's worth considering. For them, maintaining access to those apps affects tally cost of ownership, which goes on the far side just the monetary value of the phone.

Cross off Hachman

Small inside information alike this display HP's plume of craftsmanship.

Let's not forget Windows sound's distinguishing feature, Continuum. The HP Elect x3 is the best example yet of this phone-to-PC mashup, and it remains a feature article that Mechanical man and iOS just can't match.

Speculation is flying about what's next for Windows phone: A Surface phone? Possibly. For now, HP's Elite x3 is the best Windows phone. Whether it's the last great Windows phone is the unrequited question.

Updated at 10:45 AM to note that HP does not provide any of its own cloud storage from within Workspace. Updated again at 3:47 PM to make up that the phone's NFC capabilities do not include Wallet suffer.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/410632/hp-elite-x3-review-this-could-be-the-last-great-windows-phone.html

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