Does the HP Specter x360 (2022) have Thunderbolt?

HP recently introduced the 2022 Specter x360 update, which comes in 13.5 and 16 inches. As usual, these are some of the best laptops that HP makes, which have top-notch specs, great screens, and an excellent stunning design with a dual-tone look. While some parts of laptops have changed – particularly on the inside – the ports have remained the same as from the previous generation. As such, if you’re wondering if your 2022 HP Specter x360 supports Thunderbolt, don’t worry — both models support it.

In fact, the 13.5-inch and 16-inch versions of the laptop come with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one of which is conveniently placed at an angle in the laptop’s back corner. The reason this might be a good thing is that you can keep the power cable away from the sides of the laptop, in case you have an external mouse attached or you just want the space on the side.

What is Thunderbolt and why do you want it?

If you’re reading this, you may be wondering why you’d want Thunderbolt support in the first place. Thunderbolt is a protocol developed by Intel for high-bandwidth communications, specifically using USB Type-C ports (since Thunderbolt 3). While the Thunderbolt port is similar to the standard USB Type-C port, it supports 40Gbps of bandwidth, which means you can connect fast external storage and plenty of peripheral devices using the Thunderbolt dock. If you are using a laptop with a desk setup, this can be very useful for convenience. If you want to connect a mouse, keyboard, and monitors, you can connect them to a dock and connect them all at once using a single port on your laptop. In addition, most charging bases also charge your laptop in this way.

And since we mentioned monitors, yes, that’s another thing that Thunderbolt excels at. With Thunderbolt 4, you can use a dock to connect two 4K displays at 60Hz using a single port. If you want more screen real estate while working in your office, the Thunderbolt dock can make it very easy to achieve.

Finally, there is another feature that we can not forget – PCIe signals. PCIe is a communication protocol commonly used by components inside your computer. This is how things like graphics cards, storage, and everything else connect to the motherboard. It obviously has to be a pretty fast connection in order to handle all that data, and with Thunderbolt 4 a PCIe signal can be sent over a USB cable. What that means is that you can connect external graphics cards to your laptop, so even if you have an Ultrabook like the HP Specter x360 13.5, you can use the Thunderbolt port to connect a powerful GPU and use it as a gaming tool.

What other ports does the HP Specter x360 (2022) have?

HP Specter x360 13.5.0 Update

As convenient as Thunderbolt can be, accessories that take advantage of this technology can be expensive, so you may still need more ports built into your laptop. In this case, the HP Specter x360 13.5 has a USB Type-A port, a headphone jack, a microSD card reader as well as two Thunderbolt 4 ports. If you get the larger 16-inch model, that also gives you a built-in HDMI port, so you can connect an external monitor without No adapters needed.

This is a fairly standard setup for an excellent modern laptop. Usually only business or gaming laptops have a lot of ports built in, so this is par for the course and actually a bit better than alternatives like the Dell XPS 13 Plus.

If you are interested in purchasing the HP Specter x360, you can do so using the links below. Both sizes are now available, although the larger model is more expensive because it has a better screen and more powerful specs. Other than that, you can always check out the best laptops you can buy right now for some other options.