Inside it's a standard 13.3" Ultrabook with 4th
generation Intel Haswell ULV Ultrabook CPUs with Intel HD 4400 graphics,
DDR3 RAM and an SSD drive. The touch screen is IPS quality and full
HD--no it won't wow you on specs like those 3200 x 1800 Ultrabooks on
the market, but that's actually an ample and practical resolution given
the way many Windows programs ignore scaling. And for those who do crave
higher resolution, there's a 2560 x 1440 Sharp IGZO panel option that
costs only $70.
13" Ultrabooks are often
port-constrained given their small dimensions. The 3.25 lb. HP Spectre
13 is better than average with two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, full
size HDMI and a mini Display Port to drive greater than full HD
monitors. It also has the usual 3.5mm combo headphone/mic jack and a
lock slot. Since this is a consumer laptop, there is no docking port.
The tapered design is attractive and the display hinge is beefy so
there's little bounce when you tap the screen. The screen doesn't tilt
very far back, but the wide viewing angles mean you won't need lots of
range to get good contrast and colors. Despite the metal bottom, the
Spectre 13 doesn't get too hot to handle and fan noise is minimal when
doing productivity tasks. Exporting full HD video or playing Civ V will
get the fan going (the same is true of most smaller laptops with limited
space for cooling), but it's not shrill or harsh sounding.
Control Zone and Keyboard
HP knows that even elegant Ultrabooks
have competition, so they added a standout feature. Honestly, it doesn't
excite me wildly, but it does make the laptop look a little different
from others on the shelf: a wider than normal trackpad with Control Zone
navigation areas on the left and right for Windows 8's Charms and
multi-tasking areas. HP thought their trackpad might make these new
Windows features more intuitive, and while I'm not sure I agree, the
tactile feel of the left and right areas helps keep your finger in the
center, avoiding accidental app switches or Charms menu activation. The
Synaptics trackpad is smooth and easy to operate and the side zones are
slightly rough. It behaved well enough as a standard trackpad with
support for multi-touch gestures.
The keyboard has a perfectly normal
layout with an Fn row that controls multimedia functions (press the Fn
key to activate F1-F12), a small embedded arrow cluster with normal size
right and left arrow keys and half height up/down keys and oversize
backspace, shift, tab, caps lock and enter keys. Backlighting is even
and key spacing is good, but key travel and tactile feel are OK rather
than top notch. The keys are uniformly shaped with no curves to help
locate the fingers and they emit a gentle click rather than the loose,
clacky sound typical of cheaper keyboards. Given the rigid metal
keyboard deck, there's absolutely no trampolining. It's a perfectly
serviceable keyboard with no surprises, but it's not a typist's dream
like the Dell XPS and Lenovo ThinkPad models.
Display
We have the standard full HD, 1920 x
1080 model for review, and as you'd expect from a premium Ultrabook,
this is a sharp and colorful glossy display with IPS-level wide viewing
angles. It has wide color gamut and it competes with the top LCDs found
on the Sony Vaio Pro, 13" Retina MacBook Pro and Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro in
terms of color representation. Contrast is good and brightness is good
but not shockingly bright at 284 nits. I still like full HD resolution
since it's viewable (if you have good eyes) without scaling, and that
means programs like the Adobe CS suite that ignore Windows 8 scaling
will still have readable menus. However, if you're craving even higher
resolution, the 2560 x 1440 display for just $70 is tempting. It's a
Sharp IGZO panel and we expect it be similar in quality to the Asus
Zenbook UX301LA that we reviewed with the same IGZO panel.
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Performance and Horsepower
Ultrabooks have little variety
when it comes to CPU and graphics. The Spectre 13 uses the same 4th
generation Intel Haswell ULV low power Ultrabook CPUs and Intel HD 4400
integrated graphics as competing models. Again, like most Ultrabooks,
you have a choice of 4 or 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM that's soldered on board
(not upgradeable) and an M.2 SSD drive with 128 gigs being standard for
the $999 configuration. Thus performance is perfectly in line with other
Ultrabooks running on the same 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U with 4 gigs
of RAM and a 128 gig SSD.
For those who want a little extra
performance, HP sells a 1.8GHz Core i7-4500U via their website. As of
this writing, if you want 8 gigs of RAM, you'll need to order the Core
i7 or the Core i5/8 gigs/256 gig/high DPI display model. The good news
is that combo only raises the price to $1,195, which is quite
reasonable. Moving up to a 256 gig SSD will add an additional $150 to
the price, which again is reasonable. A configuration with the Core i5, 8
gigs of RAM, 256 gig SSD and the 2560 x 1440 display is just $1,229 on
HP's website--making it a steal compared to the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus, Acer Aspire S7 and Asus Zenbook UX301LA with similar specs. Despite the luxury chassis, the HP Spectre 13 remains relatively affordable as you move up the line.
Battery Life
The HP has a 4 cell, 51 Wh Lithium
Ion battery, that as per usual for Ultrabooks, is sealed inside. The
battery lasted us an impressive 8.5 hours on a full charge with average
mixed use: working in MS Office, checking email, browsing the web,
streaming an hour of House of Cards, social networking and editing 15
RAW files in Adobe Photoshop. That's at the higher end of Haswell
Ultrabook battery life, not including the MacBook Air running Mac OS X
that outlasts the Windows competition.
Wireless
The Spectre 13 has dual band Intel
Wireless 7260AC WiFi 802.11b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0 on a combo card.
That's currently one of the best wireless adapters on the market, and HP
uses a 2 x 2 antenna for good reception. WiFi behaved well in our 3
weeks with the laptop, and we only saw Windows 8.1's annoying "limited
connection" bug twice in that period. Since all Windows 8 and 8.1
laptops and tablets we've tested suffer this problem on occasion,
regardless of wireless adapter used, we blame this on Microsoft rather
than HP. Data transfer speeds were very good on our 802.11n and
802.11ac test networks and range was solid up to 30 feet through walls
and the connection stayed usable up to 45 feet.
Conclusion
It's easy to fall for the HP
Spectre 13: it has that combo of quality materials, a sharp full HD (or
higher) display and good looks that we expect from an Ultrabook. Better
yet, it's priced to sell when compared to the metal-clad full HD or
higher competition. Though HP put some hope and thought into the Control
Zone trackpad as a differentiator, I don't think it's a huge selling
point, but the quality, overall competence and solid performance for the
price are do make it easy to recommend.
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