HP Spectre Review: The World's Thinnest Laptop

Scorpus

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HP has been one of the most prolific PC companies throughout the Windows era, sitting at the top of most market share charts for the past ten years. But despite this dominance, HP hasn’t been known for its beautiful laptop designs, instead relying mostly on functionality and performance to sell its products in large numbers. The HP Spectre deviates away from this philosophy, and it might just be the best laptop the company has ever created.

The Spectre is a thing of beauty. At 10.4mm, it’s the world's thinnest laptop, edging out Apple's 12-inch MacBook by a few millimeters. It’s also very light for a 13-inch device, at just 2.45lbs (1.1 kg), making it a perfect companion for the businessman on the go. And the design itself is truly unlike any Windows laptop I’ve seen before, thanks to a breathtaking hinge and use of premium materials.

Read the complete review.

 
Sounds like an overall great laptop. Maybe its 2nd generation will resolve the battery issues.
 
Great design ... and thumbs up for the usb-c ports. They might want to focus on reducing that bezel around the display in future designs - I think it would look even better. Also, I am a big fan of 360 degrees hinges - not seen here.
 
This sounds quite a lot like an Apple fanboy review, all about how it looks and excuses about how it works. I own a Macbook, a Macbook Air and a Pro Retina. Running the same program under OS X any of them will run rings around the Spectre. You are looking at specifications not typical performance. At least Apple allows me to upgrade the processor, the memory and the storage. If these nitwits would let me upgrade to 16GB (the minimum for an adequate Windows experience) then I would switch today and run Linux. I'd also like a faster i7 option. I'd pay more although the Retina display has spoiled me a bit. Apple is smart enough to recognize that just because I want a thin, light device doesn't mean I want a netbook. As soon as Dell, Razer or some PC manufacturer gives me a quality, thin device that performs, I'm in. Until then, quit squawking about these pretty wannabes. The fact that the tagline always has to compare these to Apple tells you a lot.
 
I do not understand the need for 'thinnest' . Who gives a crap? I want better battery life and something that won't snap under my hands cause it's too thin. But that's just me I guess... Even in the phone world, I have to use a case on my phone just so I can HOLD it. They are too small (thin) for my hands to function properly on them. Guess that's what a cripple gets today though. But older phones and laptops, no problems. I just can't even hold my LG G5 without a fat case on it.
 
Thinnest is great if you take your laptop around with you everywhere. Having a small backpack or briefcase etc.

Looking at this segment with great interest. Intel graphics still are very disappointing (sub 640M perf - Q1 2012 low/mid end discrete mobile graphics!). Would love to see more graphics performance somehow. Maybe there is an APU based solution that could do better? Who knows...
 
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