HP Spectre, the incredibly thin laptop leaves us surprises

hp-spectre

They are laptops, ultrabooks, convertible and if we want, equipment impossible. At least in thickness and weight, the last HP Spectre falls into that classification and confirms that the American giant has in its catalog some of the best Windows computers for a few years, all under the name Spectre.

Its design resembles nothing seen so far is the first thing we look, but there is much more. What commitments has had to take HP for a team with Core i7 is not thicker than 1 cm? Watch for our analysis of the HP Spectre 13 because there are surprises.

HP Spectre: Minimum thickness is not incompatible with good power or connectivity

Nothing else know the new HP Spectre 13-inch, our eyes and fingers went to a comparison with Apple’s Macbook team that has a number of singularities that many users have associated with the design and the idea of ultrabooks maximum portability and future but with clear limitations. The HP Spectre posed us for this 2016 seemed to offer solutions precisely to the “errors” that we thought had made the small ultrabook Apple.

hp-spectre
Image Source: Google Image

A priori and observing the table specifications HP Spectre, HP model succeeds in connectivity and power without sacrificing a unique design, you will not find another computer on the market.

HP SPECTRE
PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS 325 x 229 x 10.4 mm
1100 g
SCREEN WLED 13.3-inch IPS Gorilla Glass Protection
RESOLUTION 1080ps
PROCESSOR Intel Core i5-6200U / i7-6500U
GRAPHICS PROCESSOR Intel HD Graphics 520
RAM 8 GB DDR3-1866 LP (welded)
MEMORY 256GB PCIe SSD M.2 NVMe
SOFTWARE VERSION Windows 10 Home 64-bit
KEYBOARD Full, type and backlit island
CONNECTIVITY 802.11ac Wifi (2×2), Bluetooth 4.2, 1x USB-C 3.1 Gen 1, 2x USB-C 3.1 Gen 2, audio jack.
CAMERA AND SOUND Front HD and Bang & Olufsen sound system with four speakers
BATTERY 4-cell, 38 Wh

Despite being at a very thin and light equipment, HP has not opted for the Core M processors and directly offers this new team configurations where the Core i5 and i7 are protagonists, being the available RAM memory of 8 GB with no possibility of extending it.

A memory SSD (PCIe) and a good IPS screen with 1080p resolution are the other pillars of a configuration that in territories.

Dimensions tablet, portable power

Create a very thin and light laptop, which most of the current catalog of any brand in this diagonal, could have consisted of a common, simple and without risk of any design. But the HP Spectre we’ve tested, as you are checking for images, is nothing like that.

Its appearance is different, unique and quite risky. No one can argue that with 13.3 – inch screen, a weight of 1.1 kg and 10.4 mm thickness draw attention. Not to mention the convenience of going all the time with him in a backpack or bag where the charger not occupy too.

The choice of colors helps convey a sense of team premium and exclusive range, keeping the other hand the starting price for the base model, but you do not take your eyes because fingerprints and grease from your fingers is very easy to remain marked in housing.

The chassis is made of carbon fiber with aluminum accents in the part where the hinge system is enshrined. Being such a small team, this design element was critical, but I must say that HP has solved 10. The closure is robust but both easy to move and fix.

We must also say that it is not a design for everyone, has enough personality, so we feel that some other combination with the area of the hinge in matt or classic metallic color and no coppery more like gold than anything, would give more market opportunities.

Three USB ports-C

Good news we bring you a level of connectivity in this HP Spectre, always speaking from the perspective of a team of minimum thickness and where they often make excessive sacrifices.

In this HP Spectre total we are three main ports, namely three USB-C of which two can double as screens or Thunderbolt to connect peripherals. In case you need to connect a USB-A device, no serial adapter included. For other HDMI outputs as a common need to resort to another adapter. And no use SD cards, or even microSD.The other port on the computer is an input for headphones and microphone.

A matter of assimilate and understand that in those USB-C must not look to place the wires as they are reversible and peripheral we place on them are basically screens, but miss on the sides, at least one of them. The other, which can be used as the main load (actually any three serves for the task), it could stay in the back for comfort.

The pleasure of having a strong team

That so thin and light computer can accommodate such an attractive combination as a SSD PCI-e, 8 GB of RAM (eye because they are standard, they are welded and cannot be changed) and a processor Core i7 is an immense joy in time more processors controlled. You know that regardless of their appearance, demanding tasks of hard work by the processor they will either eliminate with.

So it has been with the HP Spectre of this year. All office automation you want, basic video editing or photography, web browsing with multiple tabs, multimedia and multitasking enough are no problem for this ultrabook. Think of it as a team with which you can work or have a leisure excluded where only professional – level video or gaming beyond casual tasks.

SSD (PCIe) is another point where it is noted that HP has carefully looked selection. In theory. The reality has given us a very good performance figures in reading (1.5 GB / s) but so quite disappointing in writing , which does not even reach 300 MB / s.

You may also like to read another article on TheKindle3Books: Lenovo Yoga 910: Convertible minimum thickness, 4K screen and a battery for 15 hours

Noise and improved autonomy: The price to pay

In the long month of use we have given this HP Spectre as the main team, we are clear its weakest point: the noise. HP showed off a lot in the presentation of this team around a variation of the classic portable cooling, and effectively ensures that the temperature not be dangerous (although clearly noticeable if you put the team on his knees). But with a Core i7 inside, the price to pay is there.

With such a small and a Core i7 by thick, the pleasure of working with a completely silent ultrabook is a utopia if we talk about this HP Spectre. When we squeeze the possibilities or SSD processor, the fan noise is more than evident. And not hit anything with the rest of the exquisiteness that we found in this ultrabook. It was the only time we wanted the option of a Core M. But if we put in the balance the pros and cons reflected in this HP Spectre, we are left with the HP solution. But you stay warned of this major inconvenience.

As expected and although HP claims to have made an important exercise in allocating the battery along the interior design of its iconic so far ultrabook within the Spectre range, battery HP Spectre is limited. At least you are thinking about a team to get home in the morning and we hold all day working.

In the test of continuous media playback and brightness to 50% (and Wifi enabled), the HP Spectre has reached half almost 8 hours. This low figure is considerably more common for a team routine ultrabook type: connectivity all the time, listen to some music with headphones, many social network, mail and office software, and some basic image editing time.

In that situation the average of our days without resorting to the charger (USB-C and fairly compact) has never exceeded six hours, a figure that is a couple of notches below what we expect from a team like this. They are the consequences of a reduced weight and thickness as attached to a larger processor. At least 8 hours is the minimum that, at this level, we must demand today considered a high -end model like this one from HP.

Look and write: For what I want a laptop

The HP Spectre ultrabook is a team that offers its tab specifications diagonal screen almost ideal: 13.3 inches. The chosen resolution is 1080p and there is a touch panel but simply protected by Gorilla Glass 4. It does not capture much attention as that of like the Dell XPS 12 and it’s near – zero edge equipment, but overall the space is well I tapped.

The screen quality of HP Spectre does not disappoint. Its brightness is quite high, above 300 nits, but it leaves us the typical reflexes of screens that are not dull and not exactly easy work outdoors. The pixel density allows us to enjoy multimedia playback while working comfortably in other more productive tasks. It also offers good viewing angles and a reproduction of fairly good color.

The only point which is below the competition is in resolution. With similar prices and diagonals, there competing models, with Lenovo side Windows and Apple Macbook by the head, which exceed it .

As we have indicated the HP Spectre is formed with an IPS panel 1080p but we understand that is a sacrifice (along with the fact that not a touch panel or there is the possibility in the settings) which HP takes “revenue” to in maintaining an acceptable autonomy and achieve the minimum thickness and weight of this equipment presumed.

Experiments minimum thickness on the keyboard

In extremely portable computers that have had the opportunity to try in recent years (and of course in the convertible), it was somewhat repetitive keyboard use where there was a strong commitment to comfort designs for very small thickness. Yes, you can get used to some of them very easily, as happened with the Apple Macbook, but long term I feel with them is to fatigue the little tour they offer, what ends up getting tired too early to write.

The keyboard of this HP Spectre does an excellent design exercise without trying to give back everything. It is full, no key settings too strange (although some improvable like Enter) but above all offers us a distance of 1.3 mm which each press on it. It is very easy to feel the movement of each key, recovery and thus less fatigue if you come from a more classic keyboard.

The keyboard is backlit and can activate it manually but without possibility of adjusting the brightness, which is individual and without enough at any time to be upset when we work completely dark.

How pleased he was with the keyboard on this computer despite its thinness soon he passed me by the grace of the touchpad. You have to see how difficult it is hit with this element on Windows computers. And go years.

The type of touchpad that integrates the HP Spectre works well, we can slide your fingers comfortably and responds very acceptable way, although not without occasional errors that really have not wanted to click but it has happened.

The main problem we found in the HP Spectre touchpad of this has to do with the size. Us is somewhat reduced given that today we consider an element that is very used in laptops, there are gestures that we take and demand more surface without touch screen and Windows 10 operating system, honestly expected more touchpad this HP equipment.

Version of Windows 10 that comes with this team luckily no mention almost no bloatware, focusing only on HP services itself.

B & O sound where it cannot be removed

B & O has found a good ally in HP. Many teams level PC manufacturer is responsible for the Danish brand. But sound, and however much we’re talking about B & O, miracles do not exist. So in a body so small thickness, despite the good positioning of the speakers and software B & O in between, not much related to the sound that we can highlight.

Meets comfortable listening sporadically, but little else. Or power or amplitude are among the virtues of sound system HP Spectre, although there are certainly teams with more potential of sound worse than this HP.