HP Envy Spectre XT
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We have collected 10 reviews of the HP Envy Spectre XT. Experts rate HP Envy Spectre XT 7.6/10. Reviewsor.com helps you find reviews, best prices, user reviews of the HP Envy Spectre XT and HP Ultrabook.
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HP Envy Spectre XT Reviews
HP Envy Spectre XT Review
The HP Spectre XT TouchSmart is a full-sized, full-touch laptop with competent performance, good build quality, and an excellent display. Boring design lets the system down, however, and travelers won't want to deal with the system's bulk and so-so battery. Touch is all the rage with the youngins, these days, but that doesn't mean all hardware manufacturers have taken to touch with equal vigor. Many are slapping touch on to existing platforms and shipping them out as new models, regardless of their similarity to what's already on the shelf. HP has given us reason to believe it's taking the revolution more seriously with the Spectre XT TouchSmart. This is not a revision of an existing notebook; it's a brand new model, and the TouchSmart name carries some weight. After all, this is the banner HP rallied under while it conquered the touchscreen all-in-one market back in 2009. Certainly, the specifications impress. Our review unit arrived with a Core i7 low-voltage processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive assisted by solid-state caching. All of this can be yours for a reasonable price of $1,274. Let's see if it can stand out from the horde of newly touch-enabled competitors.
HP Spectre XT TouchSmart Ultrabook 15t-4000 Review
Although you probably can't say its name without taking a breath, the HP Spectre XT TouchSmart Ultrabook 15t-4000 hopes to take your breath away with a sleek chassis, swift Intel Core i7 processor and a 1080p touch-screen display. This machine also offers Beats Audio and is one of the few Windows laptops to feature a Thunderbolt port for fast data transfers. But will the price of this Windows 8 Ultrabook--$1,349--leave you gasping?Click to EnlargeEach iteration of the Spectre wanders further from the obsidian black Gorilla Glass lid that held us in rapt attention with the original 14-inch model. However, the brushed aluminum lid gives this machine an industrial chic vibe, complete with an HP logo in the bottom right corner.The brushed aluminum interior offers more eye candy, such as slightly recessed chambers for the keyboard and clickpad.The long speaker rests between a pair of metal hinges with a plastic finish, accented by a thin strip of chrome. A blazing red B adorns the right side of the grille, signifying Beats Audio technology. The power button also sits on the left with a white LED status light. We love how the rear of the deck curves downward, as well as the thin, diamond-cut line wrapping the outside of the deck.
HP Envy Spectre XT (13-2050nr)
If the HP Envy 14 Spectre showcased glass (with its Gorilla Glass covered screen, lid, and palmrest) then the new HP Envy Spectre XT (13-2050 nr) is all about metal. While it's easy to call every silver-hued ultrabook an Apple clone, the HP Envy Spectre XT distinguishes itself from the pack with solid performance, sweet-sounding Beats Audio, and a look and feel that is nothing like a MacBook. The slim Spectre XT looks like it was sliced whole from a larger slab of aluminum, with a rough-hewn brushed surface and beveled edges that glint in the light. It looks nice, but it's also luxurious to hold, feeling sturdy and substantial in spite of its thin profile and three-pound weight. Measuring 0.69 by 12.44 by 8.8 inches (HWD), this sturdiness stems from all metal construction, with a magnesium-alloy frame adding rigidity without weight, and a soft touch coating on the underside, so it's comfortable to hold or place on your lap. View all 5 photos in gallery The chiclet keyboard is well made, with HP's usual layout with half-size up and down keys. Though the slim dimensions of an ultrabook don't provide much room for key travel, HP's keyboards still offer a comfortable typing feel.
HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook Review
Ultrabooks, whether you like them or not, are here in full force. Manufacturers left and right are releasing ultrabook after ultrabook, so now the question isn't “who can make the fastest ultrabook?” but rather “who can make the best looking ultrabook?” Ultrabooks invite style - the entire idea behind them is to give consumers an incredibly portable and speedy laptop, after all. You don't want your super fast ultrabook to looking boring and plain, right? Of course you don't. You want your ultrabook to be sleek and well-designed. HP knows this, introducing us to ENVY Spectre XT, and it's certainly easy on the eyes. But does the Spectre XT have what's required on the inside, or will it be doomed to using its good looks to get by? Read on to find out. It has to be said right off the bat: the HP ENVY Spectre XT is a sexy machine, and a far cry from HP laptops of the past. Whereas old HP laptops had a tendency to look cheaply made, the Spectre XP looks like a higher-end piece of equipment. The brushed metal chassis looks great, as do the ports on the side and the speaker grill that has taken up residence above the keyboard.
HP Envy Spectre XT review
Three years ago, HP introduced the Envy 13. This week, we're reviewing its spiritual successor, the Envy Spectre XT. Oh, how times have changed. Then, as now, the Envy was accused of cribbing from Apple's MacBook playbook. Then, as now, it's a shiny silver machine, with an ultra-low-voltage processor, a single-button clickpad, no optical drive, few ports, and a 13-inch screen. So, what's new? HP's latest Envy sheds weight, girth, and adds a solid state drive to compete with the MacBook Air. At $1,000, you won't find a discrete graphics chip or a high-res screen in this Intel ultrabook, but it is $400 cheaper than the Gorilla Glass-covered HP Envy 14 Spectre we liked earlier this year. Can the Spectre XT deliver the same potential in a cheaper package? Three months late to a market filled with inexpensive ultrathin laptops, does the Spectre XT stand a chance? Hardware / design From across the room, my good friend didn't even realize I had a new laptop to review. He thought I was typing away on my MacBook Air. Hours later, the lack of a glowing Apple logo tipped him off, but the damage was done, regardless of what HP might have intended. While the Spectre XT isn't a complete clone of Apple's laptop — with rather different lid, hinge, speaker, and trackpad designs — the overall effect is clearly crafted to attract people who want a MacBook Air with Windows on board.
HP Envy Spectre XT review
As the current flagship of HP's laptop line, the new Envy Spectre XT certainly packs a lot of names into one product. This is a premium ultrabook, and our understanding is that the Spectre designation now indicates a level of product above HP's already high-end Envy line. The XT is for an especially thin product (eXtra Thin, perhaps?), and serves as a further modifier to either Envy- or Spectre-branded products. That's a lot of code names to go through for something that's essentially a very nice second-gen ultrabook, with an up-to-date Intel Core i5 CPU, a standard 128GB solid-state drive (SSD), a large buttonless clickpad, and Beats-powered audio. Other premium features include a backlit keyboard (which should be standard for all ultrabooks by now, but sadly isn't), and full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Adobe Premiere Elements 10. Making it feel a little less upscale: the pedestrian 1,366x768-pixel screen resolution and basic Intel HD 4000 graphics. Starting at $999 (with some CPU and SSD upgrades available), the Spectre XT is reasonably priced and fits in with other higher-end ultrabooks, such as the Asus Zenbook UX31. It's less expensive than the Samsung Series 9 or Acer Aspire S5, while being just about as attractive.
HP Envy Spectre XT Review
We've been enamored with HP's Envy Spectre series notebooks, so it should come as no surprise that we were eager to get our hands on the company's latest Envy Spectre XT. This slick, 13.3-inch $999 Ultrabook features an Intel Core i5 processor and a super quick 128GB SSD. But the ultraportable market is full of steep competition from the likes of Apple, ASUS and others. Read on to find out where this machine ranks.Click to EnlargeUnlike the Envy 14 Spectre, the Envy Spectre XT's chassis is an all-metal design; no glass-coated lid here. It's a handsome look that gives the system an industrial feel, similar to the ASUS Zenbook UX31A and MacBook Air. The sole design flourish on the Spectre XT's brushed metal lid is a small raised HP logo in the bottom right corner. As with other recent Envys, the bottom has a soft-touch coating that felt great as we were carrying around the notebook.Click to EnlargeFlip open the lid and you'll find the same brushed metal design on the keyboard deck. The Spectre XT's speaker bar runs along the top of the deck and is slightly angled, helping funnel audio toward the user. The system's long slender power button sits in the top left corner of the speaker bar, while a Beats Audio logo sits in the top right corner.
Hands on: HP Envy Spectre XT review
HP has announced an absolute plethora of new products today, including – by our count, at least – four new Ultrabooks.Best Ultrabook: 16 top thin and lights for 2012And TechRadar was on hand to get up close and personal with the pick of the bunch – the HP Envy Spectre XT.The follow up to the company's original Ultrabook contender – the HP Envy 14 Spectre – the HP Envy Spectre XT shaves off over 5mm in thickness from the older version, coming in at an Acer Aspire S5-esque 14.5mm.And the slimmer waistline makes all the difference, the XT is a gorgeous looking machine that quite rightly stole much of the attention at the HP event we attended in Shanghai.Described by its makers as an "ultramobile premium Ultrabook", the Spectre XT weighs 1.4kg. It certainly isn't the lightest Ultrabook that we've handled, but it's far from being heavy.This being HP, Beats Audio is on board – complete with quad speakers. Unfortunately, due to the booming noises inside the Shaghai Expo Centre, we couldn't fully gauge the quality but it sounded loud enough.The 13.3-inch HD screen held up pretty well under the hall lights, and surprisingly wasn't covered by smears and fingerprints, despite the array of global tech hacks giving it a quick fondle.
HP Envy Spectre XT
Of all the new laptops recently announced by Hewlett-Packard, the highlight was arguably the new Envy Spectre XT (although the midprice Pavilion m6 is also very interesting). This is a premium ultrabook, meant to be the flagship for HP's Envy line, and we got a chance to play around with an early unit briefly. The 14.5-millimeter-thick Spectre XT looks and feels a lot like other ultrabooks we've seen, including Dell's XPS 13, HP's own Folio 13, and even Apple's MacBook Air. Like those models, it sports a 13.3-inch screen. Its body tapers slightly toward the front and the lid has a brushed-metal finish that ties it into the overall look of both Envy and Pavilion laptops from HP. The system felt light, but not radically so, at what HP says is 3.07 pounds. Some ultrabooks are a few ounces heavier because of platter or hybrid hard drives, but this one sticks to a solid-state drive (SSD) only, starting at 128GB. Ports and connections sometimes get short shrift in ultrabooks, but here you'll find an Ethernet jack and HDMI, along with standard stuff such as a USB 3.0 port. Like most HP laptops, and the entire Envy line, the Spectre XT has a Beats Audio sound system, and four (tiny) speakers.
HP Envy Spectre XT
Apple's MacBook Air has given the whole laptop world a shot in the arm, with loads of other manufacturers keen to forge their own skinny-yet-powerful machines. HP's latest effort is the Spectre XT, a 13.3-inch aluminium ultrabook that -- at first glance -- is looking more appealing than the earlier Envy Spectre 14. I've been hands-on with the Spectre XT, so read on for my first impressions. It's set to land in the UK at the end of June, with prices starting at £899. The Spectre XT sports the now-standard wedge shape that signals ultrabooks as being a bit fancier than standard laptop fare. As well as keeping your patio door open, the sloping design leaves the XT measuring just 14.5mm thick, meaning it's very portable. At 1.39kg, the XT is rather light as well, so have no qualms about chucking it in a satchel or rucksack and lugging it around with you all day. There are a tonne of other wedge-shaped laptops floating around at the moment, built by the likes of Asus or Acer, but happily there are a few design touches on the XT that could help it stand out from the competition. For example, the 'Hewlett Packard' logo is tastefully etched into the back of the XT, while there's a boxy, angular look to the whole shebang that puts me in mind of Kryten's face.
Prices
| Retailer | Information | Prices | |
|---|---|---|---|
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HP Envy Spectre XT 13-2150NR 13.3 Ultrabook with Intel Core i5-3317U Processor & Windows 8 Silver/gray | $949.99 | See it |
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HP ENVY 13-2150nr Spectre XT 13.3 Ultrabook - Silver | $1030.99 | See it |
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HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook Notebook PC - 128GB SSD | $1199.99 | See it |
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HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook Notebook PC - 128GB SSD | $1199.99 | See it |
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HP Envy Spectre XT : (7.6/10)
10 expert reviews
0 user reviews
