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The battle for thinness isn't over, and thankfully as technology advances, the penalties are fewer. The HP Spectre 13.3" is currently the world's thinnest laptop, but performance, keyboard ergonomics and heat don't suffer. The Spectre is available with Intel Core i5 and Core i7 dual core CPUs for true Ultrabook performance and the dual fan "hyperbaric chamber" design keeps intense heat at bay. The keyboard is crisp and tactile, and the only casualty we lament is the lack of a touch screen. The Ultrabook has one of the nicest full HD 1920 x 1080 displays we've seen in some time on a laptop, and clearly HP has built on the very successful Spectre x360 convertible that married classy materials and great looks with solid displays and overall good ergonomics.
The 10.4mm thick Spectre is available with 8 gigs of RAM and a fast PCIe SSD drive. It has a backlit keyboard and weighs just 2.45 pounds. According to HP it uses "Artisan" materials and a design that's inspired by high end furniture rather than consumer electronics. Though HP's product photos accentuate and even exaggerate the designer look, it is rather fetching in person. It's a minimalist yet blingy approach to design--the surfaces are tasteful low key matte brown-gray (depending on the light it can remind you of a Hershey's chocolate bar) and the rear end cap and cabinet style hinges are bright gold. HP's new logo, apparently reserved for their high end laptops, is modern and abstract. As you'll notice, it sounds like I'm talking about a piece of exquisite decor, and that means HP has succeeded at making a laptop that's equal parts designer and notebook. In person it looks like a notebook, but one with a great deal of flare. Pick it up and you'll be shocked at how light it is, though there are a very few laptops that are even lighter like the 1.9 lb. Samsung Notebook 9 13.3" model and the 2.2 lb. LG Gram 15 (a 15" laptop that's much less rigid).
So what's the gotcha? The fans are often on, particularly when charging, though they're quiet enough if you're working on an MS Office document or playing a video. The bottom air intake vents are placed so that your legs will block them when using it on your lap. The fans are very audible if you're pushing it hard with video editing or gaming (to be fair, this is not a gaming laptop). That said, the carbon fiber bottom gets warm but not hot, and the small fans aren't capable of drowning out a video's dialog. Overall, we're impressed by HP's thermal management when they had so little room to work with. Battery life is just OK--it's not an all-day machine, but it has enough stamina to survive a flight from L.A. to NYC, and almost back if layovers and security lines aren't included.
Design and Ergonomics
The HP Spectre is made of a mix of aluminum alloy, copper and carbon fiber. It has a metal frame and aluminum alloy covered carbon fiber to add durability (the bottom panel is just carbon fiber). It's very rigid and doesn't feel in the least bit delicate, despite the designer look. The lid, often a point of flex in these ultralights, does have some flex, but far less than the LG Gram 15. The 12" MacBook's lid doesn't flex at all in comparison, and the Samsung Notebook 9's aluminum alloy lid has a similar amount of flex. The lid is rigid enough that light won't pool on the display if you press from behind.
The cabinet style display hinges are an attractive though, though I'm not sure they add anything functionally beyond allowing for a thinner design. The don't extend very far back from upright, and there's a good deal of wiggle and jiggle when the display is pushed back to a comfortable max, which will drive train and bus commuters slightly mad. The hinges are stiff enough for stationary use on a lap, even if you occasionally jiggle your legs.
Ports are simple here, and cutting edge. Perhaps too cutting edge for those who are using today's USB, HDMI and DisplayPorts. You get a USB-C port for charging/peripherals and two USB-C 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 ports. That will undoubtedly be great a year from now, but in the meantime you'll be hunting for USB-C or in the future, Thunderbolt 3 adapters for display out, Ethernet and USB hubs. HP does include a USB-C to USB 3.0 dongle adapter in the box. That's more than Apple gives you with the 12" MacBook, but HP did have more room to work with in the Spectre's bigger 13.3' chassis.
The look is definitely unique, and I leave it to you to decide if it's awesome or ostentatious. In person it's subtler and more laptop like than in HP's photos, but no one will doubt that you're using an expensive laptop. That said, the price isn't as insane as you might think from appearances--chalk that up to HP's big manufacturer prowess and experience with the also lovely looking Spectre x360.
Display
Ultralights don't get touch screens or super high resolution displays. The Spectre's is clad in Gorilla Glass 4 and is glossy. It's very reflective-- a bit less so than very glare-prone HP Spectre x360, but much more than the MacBook and Samsung Notebook 9 (Samsung really works some magic with fighting glare in their recent glossy-screen laptops). The 1920 x 1080 display is made by Samsung and HP says it's IPS (rather than the PLS technology Samsung is known for). It's a wonderful display. Yes, it's not the highest resolution display on the market, but this is one of the nicest we've seen in a notebook this size. It's quite bright at a measured 315 nits according to our Spyder4 Pro colorimeter, and color saturation is high without being overdone. Contrast is likewise very good at 950:1 with a low .3 black level at max brightness. That means colors really pop and text is very crisp. Color calibration out of the box is good and our colorimeter managed to get it spot on. Gamma is perfect at 2.2. It's simply a wonderful display for photo and video editing, watching movies and reading text at length.
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