Spectre 13 - 13.3" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 8GB Memory - 256GB Solid State Drive - HP soft matte finish in ceramic white

Customer Images

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• See
  More

The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Gorgeous laptop, great performance, decent battery

  • Incentivized
  • My Best Buy® Elite Member
  • Verified Purchaser

  ======= Summary ======= The HP Spectre 13 (2017) in Ceramic White is a very nice laptop that is gorgeous-looking, attractively designed, thin, light, very fast, and well-constructed with premium materials. A couple of minor shortcomings include lack of ports and just a decent, not great, battery life. ======= Design ======= Just wow~!! The Spectre 13 in Ceramic White is highly attractive~! For me, it's the best-looking laptop I've ever laid my eyes on. Several adjectives sprang into my mind when I first saw it - gorgeous, beautiful, awesome, pretty, sophisticated, elegant...You get the point. I really LOVE its design. :D More specifically, I like the design for its slimness, thiness, and lightness (2.4 lbs). The laptop feels premium and solid with no creaking, no wobbling, and no loose hinges. I also like the Ceramic White color paired with the Pale Gold. It's smooth to the touch and resists fingerprints very well. Being a fan of both white and gold colors, my house and rooms contain white furniture (including my desktop PC and its accessories). The Spectre 13 fits in perfectly. The white lid, however, scratches very easily. So be careful and try not to put anything on top of the laptop. Not all scratches can be buffed out. Other design touches I like are the speakers located above the keyboard area. As a result, the sound is louder and closer to me when I watch videos and listen to music. Brilliant~! With the speakers up there, HP was able to make the keyboard go edge-to-edge and give the keys more spacing which resulted in a more comfortable typing experience for me. I don't like keyboards where it is too cramped and the keys are too close to each other. Speaking of the keyboard, the typing experience is wonderful. The keys have good travel, it's well-dampened and respond very well, and feels nice under the fingertips due to its matte coating. It's not slippery and it's not sticky-feeling either. I think it's just right with good grip and texture and a springy feel. The Synaptic TouchPad is nicely sized and I like that it's centered and not off to one side. It's smooth and solid-feeling and my fingertip glides across it very easily and precisely. The button presses (Left-Click and Right-Click) require more force than I like and more than what I'm used to but I did get used to it. If there is one design feature I wish HP had done differently, it would be for them to place some USB Type C ports on the side of the laptop. I know they couldn't because they wanted to make the laptop thinner but I still wish they had at the expense of a couple of millimeters of extra thickness. Overall, I give the Design a 9.8 out of 10. ======= Display ======= The 1080P Full HD display is bright and crispy with great viewing angles, color fidelity, and accuracy. There are absolutely no complaints here. ======= Speakers ======= For laptop speakers, I find the sound volume and quality to be above average. Thanks to its location above the keyboard, the sound is closer and louder. The bass, as expected, isn't great but that is expected from such a thin and light laptop chassis. ======= Network & Connectivity Options ======= The 2x2 MIMO Wifi and Bluetooth 4.2 performance are excellent. ======= Ports ======= With just 4 ports - one Audio Jack and three USB Type C - I feel kind of restricted and inconvenienced. I know why HP did this - to make the world's most thinnest laptop and looking toward the future. Still, I miss having an HDMI port, a SD card reader, and some USB Type A ports. It was nice that HP included one USB Type A to USB Type C dongle in the box. For my needs, though, I will be needing and getting a USB Type C hub that supports at least HDMI and USB Type A. ======= Performance ======= With the 8th-Generation Intel Core i7 8550U CPU (4 cores, 8 threads, 1.8GHz boosted up to 4 GHz), 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 256GB NVME PCIe SSD, and the Intel UHD Graphics 620, the Spectre will plow through everything very fast except for graphic-intensive 3D games. Opening Chrome or Firefox with ~20 tabs doesn't slow the machine down. Multi-tasking with multiple applications and background processes is also very good. Installation of large filesize applications, such as Office 2013, goes by very fast. Love it~! Bootup time is super fast and all the apps, processes and services that kick in upon startup load very quickly. As for upgradeability, only the size of the SSD is user-serviceable. The RAM is soldered to the board, which is a shame. I will be upgrading to a 1TB SSD in the near future. Since I don't game on a laptop, the performance of the Spectre is a 10 out of 10 from me. ======= Typing and TouchPad Useability ======= As mentioned above, I have absolutely no issues with the keyboard and I love everything about it. The Synaptic TouchPad, however, left me feeling wanted. I REALLY wanted a Microsoft Precision Pad due to its great support for 3-Finger and 4-Finger custom gestures. The options available from Synaptic is just so-so and I had a really difficult time adjusting to it from using a Precision Pad for a while. I was so used to custom finger gesture shortcuts for navigating around, it felt like a rude awakening and a massive downgrade having to use the Home, End, Pg Up, and Pg Down keys again. Luckily, I found a solution~! The app is called "MultiSwipe" and it costs just $5.00. It works on the Spectre 13 and allows me custom-program 2-finger, 3-finger, 4-finger, and 5-finger custom gestures~!! I'm a very happy person now. :D ======= Battery life ======= After experiencing dismal battery life for the first 2-3 days (most likely due to all the background Window Updates), I'm now experiencing pretty good battery life. I can easily obtain 6 to 8 hours of battery life before needing a recharge, which is more than good enough for me. In addition to charging the laptop via the included wall power adapter, one can also charge up with a power bank and a USB Type C cable which is very, very cool. ======= Pre-Installed Software ======= There were several Microsoft-included apps and "bloatware" I didn't need so they were almost all uninstalled. It wasn't too bad though. I kept all the HP Software because they're actually useful and will help me keep track of driver and BIOS updates. ======= So, is it any good? Is it a good buy? ======= Yes and Yes~! Out of 10, I rate the HP Spectre 13 laptop a 9.5 out of 10. It gets right the main crucial and important aspects of a good laptop experience - easy portability (thin, light, and good battery life), bright & crispy display, superb fit-and-finish with premium build materials, excellent keyboard, pretty good touchpad, fast storage (user-upgradeable), fast performance, and stable software. Supporting more ports (HDMI, USB Type A) and including the PrecisionPad would've increased the overall score to 10 out of 10 for me. With that said, this is a high-quality and premium machine from HP.

  • 
  • 

  Posted 8 years ago by optimummind

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Thin, light, good performance

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • My Best Buy® Elite Member

  Summary: HP has made great strides with the Spectre line of laptops over the past few years. The use of high-quality materials like Gorilla Glass and aluminum for the enclosure, a keyboard with good keytravel and feel, and strong performance from the quad-core i7 processor and PCIe solid-state drive offset a poor trackpad and a few other small details. If you're looking for an attractive, portable, high-end Windows 10 laptop, the Spectre 13 is a good choice. Introduction: Intel introduced the "Ultrabook" (a portmanteau of "ultraportable" and "notebook") specification in 2011 to try to help Windows laptop makers compete with Apple's premium laptops, in particular, the MacBook Air series. The idea was to make thin, light laptops with low-power processors (not necessarily *slow*, just low power consumption) providing excellent battery life. While Intel walked away from the Ultrabook terminology almost four years ago, the HP Spectre 13 is clearly designed against that same concept of premium materials, thin, light, and good battery life. About me: I am reviewing the Spectre 13 primarily as someone familiar with Apple products as the benchmark for a premium laptop; I have no experience with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon or other premium ultrabooks. I am familiar with business-class ThinkPad T-series and Dell Latitude products, as well as lower-end ThinkPad G-series laptops and HP's Omen line of gaming laptops. The Good: The built-in 1920x1080 IPS screen is clear and bright, with good color rendition and wide viewing angles, as one would expect of a premium laptop. The Gorilla Glass overlay on the screen is high quality and doesn't distort images, though it does pick up glare due to its glossy nature. The hinge on the screen is firm, and the screen does not "wobble". (This has been a major issue with other thin-and-light Windows laptops I've tried, like the Omen 15.) The Spectre 13 slots in between the 12" Retina MacBook and 13" Retina MacBook Pro in terms of size, weight, and thickness - heavier and larger than the 12, smaller and lighter than the 13 - so it's in a good place in terms of portability. The keyboard has "full travel" (by laptop standards) keys, which are actually quite pleasant to type on, and the keyboard has an adjustable backlight. Sound quality from the built-in Bang & Olufsen speakers is above average, though it falls a hair short of the current MacBooks in bass response. Includes three USB-C ports, which worked as expected with various USB-C accessories I have (such has the Apple Digital Multiport AV Adaptor, which converts a USB-C port into an HDMI and USB-A port, as well as providing power passthrough), an Apple 29W MacBook charger, and a CalDigit USB-C dock. I was encouraged to see that it didn't seem to matter which USB-C ports I plugged things into; charging, video output, etc. all worked as expected (with one small hitch - the 29W Apple USB-C adaptor, when plugged into the AV adaptor, didn't charge the Spectre...though it worked fine when connected directly to the laptop). Includes a 65W charger, which fills the battery quickly. The Windows "Hello" face recognition works well and works quickly, though it was confused once when I was wearing a hat (which is not HP's fault). The Bad: The 65W charger, while it charges the laptop quickly, is nearly four times the size/weight of Apple's 29W charger for the Retina MacBook - a major issue when dealing with a thin-and-light laptop. A smaller power cord that charged the laptop more slowly would have been a good tradeoff. Also, every single time. you plug the laptop in, or wake it from sleep with a non-HP charger, the Spectre 13 displays a "nag" message, complaining about how HP recommends you use their power cord. The Ugly: The trackpad is a bad joke; it feels cheap and flimsy - and worse, it's very inaccurate and inconsistent - which seems like an anomaly on an otherwise premium laptop. (This is not a problem limited to HP by any means; Apple has some kind of trackpad "magic" that no one else has been able to replicate, though Logitech was able to make the tolerable T650 trackpads.) I would probably have abandoned the review because of the trackpad if I didn't have a Logitech Bluetooth mouse to use with the Spectre 13. Also, the keyboard is white, and has a white backlight...so when the backlight is on, you can't read the text on the keys, as shown in the photos below. Ooops! Might be less of a problem on the black version of the Spectre 13.

  • 

  Posted 8 years ago by wrbluepearl

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  A Gorgeous, Functional Laptop

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • My Best Buy® Member

  Simply put, this is one of the most beautiful functioning pieces of technology I have ever seen. It comes in a jewel-box-like gold and white packaging. The laptop itself is the same colors and they are gorgeous. The keys and keyboard are white (see below) and can be back lit with gentle blue lighting.* The tactile feedback is excellent. Just opening the box tells you this is a premium laptop in virtually every respect. It is thin and relatively light. Overall visual and tactile effects are terrific, and my photos can’t do it justice. The screen’s resolution (1920 x 1080, refresh @ 60 HZ) is excellent and the it really “pops.” It, too, is a delight on the eyes and, more critically, the touchscreen is very responsive. It has the capability to responds to taps and slide finger inputs as does the touch pad. Anyone who has used an IPhone or Android will find this an easy transition. With 8 gigs of RAM and a Core I7 (Gen 8) processor, it is fast! HP clearly went to a lot of trouble to distinguish this computer from others by including many thoughtful and useful features. Like music or want to hear your Skype communications more clearly? The Bang and Olufsen speakers that stretch across the top of the keyboard offer surprisingly good output and enhanced voice clarity. Speaking of which, if you need to be seen over the Internet, the dual cameras are flanked by 2 LED lights that will be useful in a dark setting. Need to carry the Spectre? A thought faux-leather slip case comes with it. Working on a small airplane table? You can activate airplane mode with one button tap and be confident your laptop won’t slide thanks to 3 very grippy “feet” that run the width of the machine. Is it a perfect laptop? Not totally, but very close. Gripes are few and do not affect its great functionality. Like most, I dislike the “bloatware” that came preloaded, but I can’t tell which wonderfully useful apps were install by Windows or HP. The converter “brick” seems ridiculously oversized. The farthest the screen will tilt is just about ½ inch from ideal for those of us who occasionally like to work standing up. There are no USB ports or card readers, but there are 3 USB-C and Thunderbolt ports which will require adapters for many users with traditional flash drives or SD cards. Obviously the smaller ports contribute to the trim size of the Spectre, a good tradeoff. The lovely white keyboard stayed cleaned during my use, but over time might get pretty grimy. In sum, if your company won’t buy one of these gorgeous, high-powered laptops for you, splurged on yourself. You won’t regret it. *The literature that came with the Spectre included the standard disclaimer that colors and features “may vary.” I hope not!

  • 
  • 

  Posted 8 years ago by HonestJohn