HP Spectre 13.3 vs MacBook 12

[osnola ibax]

I really think the HP Spectre looks awful compared to the MacBook, 25% heavier, lower resolution screen, awful design.

You cannot beat the simple, elegant looks of the MacBook, it's much better designed and far more thought gone into it. Delighted with mine. Windows will always frustrate too.

 

[sunapple]

Uh, there's really nothing innovative about having one port, it's actually a huge PITA since you can't even charge the laptop while using a USB peripheral without an adapter.

I get what you're saying, those are some real issues right now. I wouldn't want to own this machine as my everyday laptop, so I bought a 15" rMBP.

My point, however, was about the philosophy. Of course the one port has drawbacks and Apple knows that, but Apple saw the future when they made a one port laptop. This is going to be the next standard and any issues will be resolved by then.

Just like removing the SuperDrive seemed problematic at first (2008 MBA), look how technology solved it (downloadable software, streaming video and music).

It's not easy to start building machines for the future, people will be upset, prices will be higher. Not a lot of company's are willing to take these risks. Innovation is all about taking risks, predicting future trends.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Queen6]

I was nervous to upgrade to Windows 10. Finally did in December. I have yet to experience one problem. Literally zero issues. Never froze, no random bugs or issues. I use my laptop 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. YMMV though.

Same my experience with W10 is has been positive to-date, certainly less issue than 10.11 which is truthfully disappointing.

Q-6

 

[C64]

Same my experience with W10 is has been positive to-date, certainly less issue than 10.11 which is truthfully disappointing.

My experience with 10.11 is the same as Blaze4G's with W10: all perfect.

My point, however, was about the philosophy. Of course the one port has drawbacks and Apple knows that, but Apple saw the future when they made a one port laptop. This is going to be the next standard and any issues will be resolved by then.

The drawback of having one port and needing an adapter to do more with it won't really change. It's more about people needing to realize that the rMB might not be for them if they want to plug in a bunch of stuff. If you rarely plug in anything apart from power, the single port really doesn't matter.

I'm looking forward to the MBP refresh, so that everyone that can't live with a single port has a good alternative.

The one thing that can help though is more USB-C devices. Let's say you have a USB-C monitor, you can use this to charge the rMB and use it as a dock at the same time for HDs, charging your phone, etc.

 

[RUGGLES99]

i had a 2015 hp spectre 360 for a day and returned it. while it looks great and was well made i found it too big, bulky and heavy despite its thinness, and the kb thats silver like the case is hard to read and has an un-tactile feel. instead, i have a lenovo yoga 3 pro, and its the thinnest 360 with touch screen and great kb. love it as much as my rmb.

 

[KPOM]

Uh, there's really nothing innovative about having one port, it's actually a huge PITA since you can't even charge the laptop while using a USB peripheral without an adapter.

I think the idea is that we don't plug in USB peripherals as often as we used to. Even my corporate network is wireless now. It was certainly daring to go all-in on USB-C before it became mainstream, just as the iMac was daring in 1998 to go all USB before there were even any peripherals for it.

 

[meboy]

Lenovo X1 Carbon 4th Gen is out now too.
6th gen Intel i series, 14" (matte yay, 16:9 boo), 2.6lbs

Should be in the mix of RMB/Air competitors.

 

[deeddawg]

Lenovo X1 Carbon 4th Gen is out now too.
6th gen Intel i series, 14" (matte yay, 16:9 boo), 2.6lbs

Should be in the mix of RMB/Air competitors.

This one?
Lenovo is 2.6lb, 13.11" x 9.01" x 0.65" (333 x 229 x 16.45mm)
rMB is 2.03lb 11.04" x 7.74" x 0.52" (280.5 x 196.5 x 13.1mm)

Sorry, the two are in completely different classes. Apples and Oranges.
The Lenovo is nearly 1/3 heavier, two inches wider, an inch and a quarter deeper, and 25% thicker.

Don't mistake me, the Lenovo looks to be a fine bit of kit, but for the shopper seeking small and light fully functional laptop for light-lifting tasks while travelling, there's a substantial difference between the two.

As you mentioned, it's far more comparable to the 13.3" Air (or whatever succeeds that model)

 

[meboy]

Or the Samsung Notebook 9 13.3"
Intel 6th Gen core i5, 1.9lbs, 100% srgb, 7 hours avg.

 

[RUGGLES99]

That Samsung mentioned by meboy is a great ultra that makes the rmb look sick. I've mentioed on here that I recently picked up the lenpvo yoga 3 pro 1.2 ghz m class. Beautiful and its as cool and great as my rmb except it 13.3 touch screen, and with an array of ports. BTW, maybe there should be a regular room here RMB vs. Ultrabook PCs. In fact I will.

 

[SteveJUAE]

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/HP-Spectre.htm

 

[Queen6]

New HP Spectre looks to be a very decent ultra portable, I owned a few HP`s over the years and they have never disappointed. Would certainly like to see the Spectre for myself and the new Samsung 13" Notebook 9. Generally I find Lisa Gade`s reviews to be very fair & unbiased, of course the aesthetics are subjective, and by nature the HP Spectre will be a highly polarised product.

Q-6

 

[SteveJUAE]

New HP Spectre looks to be a very decent ultra portable, I owned a few HP`s over the years and they have never disappointed. Would certainly like to see the Spectre for myself and the new Samsung 13" Notebook 9. Generally I find Lisa Gade`s reviews to be very fair & unbiased, of course the aesthetics are subjective, and by nature the HP Spectre will be a highly polarised product.

Q-6

Agreed and her "smackdowns" are as fare a you can get. Certainly the Spectre seems a more rounded device for the price than initial press release lead us to believe and the screen although not touch seems much better than most thought.

Is it me but many say the retina screen is (on paper/spec wise ) superior but vey few actually realise it at full res/capability so it's almost a waste.

The spectre has TB3 many hoped the 2016 rMB should of had, lets see what is announced in the next couple of weeks to see if the Spectre sits between the rMB and a new MBP and at what price point

 

[grahamperrin]

Trackpads

… strange trackpad (unsurprisingly, as HPs have always been crummy in this department) …

Please, can you elaborate?

I'm troubleshooting part of a batch of EliteBook 850 G2 notebooks. With a colleagues' use of Windows 7 on a G2, I have felt and observed (albeit briefly) misbehaviours. With my own use of PC-BSD on another G2 and Windows 7 on a third G2, I have not yet reproduced those misbehaviours.

HP's site finds twenty-two EliteBook 850 G2 products and http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=7343213&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4060 leads me to a Synaptics Mouse Driver (sic) for a G2.

Connections at the rear but not the sides

…

…
http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/hp-spectre-x360-13t

http://www.engadget.com/products/hp/spectre/x360/

http://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Spectre-x360-13-i5-6200U-Convertible-Review.153933.0.html

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...s-and-netbooks/hp-spectre-x360-1297082/review

http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/hp-spectre-x360-13t/
…

I'm grateful for the linked pages, some of which offer clearer views of keyboards, but I'm confused (and I don't expect to gain clarity from HP product pages, shame on the company); some of the pages show connections at the side.

… the back part looks decent but I don't think so for the sides. …

I would dislike connections at the rear.

 

[Queen6]

Agreed and her "smackdowns" are as fare a you can get. Certainly the Spectre seems a more rounded device for the price than initial press release lead us to believe and the screen although not touch seems much better than most thought.

Spectre looks to be a decent system, personally unsure of the design statement, definitely a more capable system than the rMB, am also interested in the new Samsung 13" although it lacks TB3, this notebook offers a very decent range of ports in the ultraportable 2lb class.

Is it me but many say the retina screen is (on paper/spec wise ) superior but vey few actually realise it at full res/capability so it's almost a waste.

OS X scaling is different to Windows, so although the resolution looks less as in work area, you are still getting the benefit of the HiDPI display panel, sharper fonts etc.

The spectre has TB3 many hoped the 2016 rMB should of had, lets see what is announced in the next couple of weeks to see if the Spectre sits between the rMB and a new MBP and at what price point

Spectre has a lot going for it as long as you can get along with the design, rMBP is unlikely to offer much more at a considerably higher price point. for most purposes 1080p is adequate for 13" notebooks downwards, and is also more suitable for those with gaming in mind, with less pixels for the iGPU to push. The ability to expand the the SSD in time is a bonus, especially for those who prefer to carry significant multimedia onboard. I see the Spectre & Samsung's 13" Notebook 9 sitting squarely between the rMB & rMBP in both performance & portability.

We are only going to see thinner & lighter with TB3 if we are lucky for the 2016 rMBP, I expect very little of Apple these days. Innovation with the Mac ceased several years back, hence why we see the current lacklustre lineup. Find it very interesting that the Spectre has TB3 and Apple rMB does not, especially as the HP has a lower rated battery & far higher rated CPU, there is the physical space argument, equally I rather feel that the omission of TB3 from the 2016 rMB is more related to Apple`s sales strategy than technology.

Apple should absolutely revise the cost of their in-house RAM & SSD upgrades, however as Apple has a monopoly on OS X hardware they will likely to continue to ripoff their customers to boost margins.

Q-6

 

[KPOM]

We are only going to see thinner & lighter with TB3 if we are lucky for the 2016 rMBP, I expect very little of Apple these days. Innovation with the Mac ceased several years back, hence why we see the current lacklustre lineup. Find it very interesting that the Spectre has TB3 and Apple rMB does not, especially as the HP has a lower rated battery & far higher rated CPU, there is the physical space argument, equally I rather feel that the omission of TB3 from the 2016 rMB is more related to Apple`s sales strategy than technology.

Apple should absolutely revise the cost of their in-house RAM & SSD upgrades, however as Apple has a monopoly on OS X hardware they will likely to continue to ripoff their customers to boost margins.

Q-6

The reason the MacBook lacks TB3 support is that it would require a separate chipset and there is no room on the logic board for it. Also, it would require active cooling like the Spectre to pull it off and Apple designed the MacBook to be fully passively cooled. The Spectre is larger and heavier than the MacBook.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Spectre has a lot going for it as long as you can get along with the design, rMBP is unlikely to offer much more at a considerably higher price point. for most purposes 1080p is adequate for 13" notebooks downwards, and is also more suitable for those with gaming in mind, with less pixels for the iGPU to push. The ability to expand the the SSD in time is a bonus, especially for those who prefer to carry significant multimedia onboard. I see the Spectre & Samsung's 13" Notebook 9 sitting squarely between the rMB & rMBP in both performance & portability.

We are only going to see thinner & lighter with TB3 if we are lucky for the 2016 rMBP, I expect very little of Apple these days. Innovation with the Mac ceased several years back, hence why we see the current lacklustre lineup. Find it very interesting that the Spectre has TB3 and Apple rMB does not, especially as the HP has a lower rated battery & far higher rated CPU, there is the physical space argument, equally I rather feel that the omission of TB3 from the 2016 rMB is more related to Apple`s sales strategy than technology.

Apple should absolutely revise the cost of their in-house RAM & SSD upgrades, however as Apple has a monopoly on OS X hardware they will likely to continue to ripoff their customers to boost margins.

Q-6

Agreed and if the Spectre design hurts your eyeballs you can always opt for the newer Del XPS which has plenty of ports, Stella battery life, screen options, upgradable SSD and a SD slot (that sticks out, why in this age is beyond me) and is thinner and lighter than the Air with a smaller foot print thanks to that 5mm bezel size

 

[eelpout]

...SD slot (that sticks out, why in this age is beyond me) ...

anyone who shoots regularly with 20 MP+ cameras will appreciate the SD slot, believe me.

I have an HP Spectre x360 (i7, 1080P). Bought it for $999 at a MS Store special a few months back. No complaints, 8.5-9 hour battery life, can flip to tablet when I need it (granted, it's not "welter weight" class ).

I think HP has turned itself around.

 

[vladi]

The reason the MacBook lacks TB3 support is that it would require a separate chipset and there is no room on the logic board for it. Also, it would require active cooling like the Spectre to pull it off and Apple designed the MacBook to be fully passively cooled. The Spectre is larger and heavier than the MacBook.

But also a lot more powerful for the same price pretty much. So its another option.

 

[SteveJUAE]

anyone who shoots regularly with 20 MP+ cameras will appreciate the SD slot, believe me.

I have an HP Spectre x360 (i7, 1080P). Bought it for $999 at a MS Store special a few months back. No complaints, 8.5-9 hour battery life, can flip to tablet when I need it (granted, it's not "welter weight" class ).

I think HP has turned itself around.

Not complaining about SD slot actually for those that buy in and are in 2 minds to go for a small or a large SSD the SD slot is a good alternative, my only complaint is it not fully recessing

 

[Queen6]

HP`s new Spectre compared directly with the Retina MacBook

 

[deeddawg]

The side-by-side (and stacked) comparison really emphasizes the huge footprint difference. Granted, you trade off some stuff for that, whether those tradeoffs are an issue for someone or not depends on their needs of course.

 

[Queen6]

Smaller footprint with few if any trade offs

Personally not sold on Dell, although I see them getting better of recent. Of the two Windows OEM systems I tend to lean more towards the Spectre, finding it a little more interesting.

Q-6
[doublepost=1464103168][/doublepost]Another Windows alternative in the flyweight class

For those seeking a larger display, yet remain in the lightest class

2016 rMBP is going to be very interesting with the Windows OEM`s already producing some very interesting hardware. One hopes Apple is going to surprise, lets see.

Q-6

 

[SteveJUAE]

It's the sort of choices Apple should give if they had of updated the MBA line, but I bet they would not be cheaper like the Spectre and the rMBP is going to be worse

The Dell has stellar battery life and that was the early 2015 model reviewed the later 2015 has USB-C port, just need to ramp up the aesthetics but I agree I would err more towards HP but Samsung won't be idle for long

 

[smelly cat]

Even as a fan of Apple, I've been really impressed with the HP Spectre so far. So much so that I'll probably pick one up as soon as they are available in Canada -- and as long as the reviews of the device continue to be reasonably positive.

HP bucked the trend with the inclusion of a "full fat" 15W Core i CPU instead of Core M. Kudos. Let's just hope it doesn't throttle when running CS:GO or something of the sort.

I can see the appeal of both the MacBook and the Spectre. Despite the frequent comparisons between the two, I really think they're for two different audiences though. The spectre seems more like a MacBook Air with some 13" MacBook Pro elements thrown in, rather than a direct competitor to the 12" MacBook.