We sat down with Josephine Tan, Vice President of Product Management at HP, to discuss HP’s vision for the future of laptops, the impacts of COVID-19, and what innovations she’s looking to next.
Question: What is HP’s vision for the future of laptops?
Josephine Tan: We’re thinking about how HP can help people adapt to the “new normal” in a post-COVID world. The pandemic has introduced new trends, new behaviors, and new needs for how people interact with their PCs. Now, many of us work, learn, and play under one roof, so we need our PCs to help us stay connected, stay productive, and keep learning through Intelligent Compute while keeping our system and data secure.
HP’s Alex Cho talks about HP’s shared vision with Intel, and how ambient computing and technologies like AI and machine learning are enabling more relevant and personalized computing experiences.
For example, HP is making significant investments to support video creation. More and more young people are turning to their PCs to create short videos and consume video content. They want a PC that can help them with this light creation, focused on lifestyle and connection to their friends. Creativity is no longer the realm of ad agencies, and everyone, especially young people, now need a device that can help them unleash their creativity.
“Now, many of us work, learn, and play under one roof, so we need our PCs to help us stay connected, stay productive, and keep learning through Intelligent Compute while keeping our system and data secure.”
Q: How has Intel’s innovation program, Project Athena, helped your team to articulate this vision for what people need from their laptops?
Jo: Intel and Project Athena have been critical in advancing PC responsiveness, power and performance, and battery life. But there is one additional element that is even more critical in the post-COVID world: adaption.
Adaptivity allows a laptop to work smarter and deliver the best performance and responsiveness for the intended usage. Instead of running at the highest power all the time, we can now use techniques like machine learning to adapt power to a person’s needs.
For example, when you launch an application, the system learns you need more power, so Intel’s silicon will increase the CPU performance to launch the app quickly. But when you’re just using the application, the CPU performance returns to normal. This improves battery life and makes the system run more smoothly.
Q: Could you discuss how motion sensors create adaptive performance on the HP Spectre x360 14?
Jo: The motion sensors built into the HP Spectre x360 14 system can detect whether you are using your PC on the table, on your lap, or if you put it in a bag. If it senses you’re operating it on a table, then it knows you probably need more performance, so it will boost the CPU to higher power. When you put it in your lap, then it switches to a cooler, lower-power mode. So, the sensors serve as a translator, sending messages back to the silicon to raise or lower the CPU power. And if it detects that you’re putting it in a bag, it will go into hibernation mode.
In the past, you had to do all of that manually. Now, the Spectre x360 14 can do it automatically as a result of the intelligence Intel built into their silicon paired with HP’s motion sensors.
Q: What are the other features and technologies that make the HP Spectre x360 14 unique?
Jo: One is Auto Color, which is even more important now that people are spending so much time on their screens. Auto Color automatically adjusts the color space to match your usage. For example, it would adjust the colors when you’re using Adobe Photoshop, and then adjust them again when you switch to watching Netflix. It does all of this automatically to meet people’s needs and expectations.
Another great example of an adaptive features is Focus Mode. The HP Spectre x360 14 can tell what application you’re using on your primary screen and make only that part of the screen bright. Simultaneously, it will make the rest of the screen dimmer. This allows the user to focus, it increases their privacy, while also reducing power consumption on OLED screens.
Q: How did you work with Intel to enable features and bring this device to market?
Jo: Creating an amazing laptop requires amazing partners like Intel. Working together, we had to find the right balance of performance, acoustics, and battery life, especially on such a thin system. It’s really more of an art than a science. Our team had many discussions with Intel to fine tune and ensure that the laptop adapts to how the person is using it. We worked to track that interaction and develop a power profile, all of which runs in the background.
We also achieve that balance by adjusting the screen resolution. We know that people, especially those who might be using their device to create, aspire to a higher color saturation display, like OLED, but this burns power and eats your battery life. So, we worked with Intel to leverage panel characteristics and bring down the power demands. And all this tuning is done on the fly in close collaboration.
“Creating an amazing laptop, requires amazing partners like Intel.”
Q: As you look to the future, what are the innovations and technologies you are most excited about?
Jo: It’s hard not to get excited about AI and machine learning. Today, we are just beginning to see the benefits—adjusting systems and usage models to increase battery performance. But this is just the start.
We’re seeing AI deployed to enhance video call experiences. For example, noise cancellation. There are many applications that can do this already, but they burn through CPU power. Intel has solved this at the silicon level with GNA, an accelerator that takes the workload away from the CPU and runs it in super-low-power mode. That allows you to do noise cancellation effectively, without impacting your battery life.
HP wants to do more of this kind of innovation. It’s all about working with Intel and software vendors to bring truly end-to-end solutions that benefit people who want the most out of their PCs.
To learn more about Project Athena, go to Intel.com/ProjectAthena.