HP unveils fanless, Surface-like, Elite x2 convertible, offers easy DIY upgrades, Intel Skylake Core M, available in January from $899
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
HP is taking another run at Microsoft's Surface playbook with the Elite x2, a fanless detachable built on Intel's Skylake Core M and priced at $899 when it lands in January. It follows HP's earlier swing at the convertible category, the $899 Broadwell-powered Spectre x360 from March of the same year, but moves from a hinged design to a true detachable aimed at the business buyer.
What sets this one apart is serviceability: in a market where thin-and-fanless usually means soldered-down components, HP is advertising easy DIY upgrades on its flagship business convertible.
First-order effects
- Business IT buyers get a fanless, Surface-like detachable at $899 that can be opened up and upgraded in-house rather than replaced whole — a direct counterpoint to Microsoft's sealed hardware.
- Intel gains another marquee design slot for the low-power Skylake Core M, which makes the fanless chassis possible.
Second-order effects
- Rivals in the premium Windows convertible race are pushed to justify non-upgradeable designs; Dell's eventual answer was to keep iterating the XPS 13 2-in-1, which it later rebuilt into a detachable Surface rival around Intel's 12th Gen chips.
- HP's own lineup fragments by audience: consumer convertibles like the x360 line continue separately, while the Elite brand carries the enterprise features — a split HP formalized later with the ultra-light EliteBook Dragonfly business convertible.
Third-order effects
- If upgradeability sells at the business tier while consumer devices stay sealed, the Windows PC market splits structurally into disposable thin-and-lights for consumers and serviceable platforms for enterprises — a durable differentiator against both Surface and Chromebooks like HP's own x360 14 Chromebook aimed at the same price-sensitive segment.
The trend: Windows OEMs are converging on the Surface's fanless detachable form factor, with serviceability emerging as the enterprise-side counterweight to sealed consumer designs.