With fashionably sleek design, LED
backlight and powerful specs, Spectre XT 13 is suitable with travellers.
With a design directly rivaling MacBook
Air, Spectre XT 13 received several criticisms about infringement. Though, in
fact, the model still retains typical features of HP Envy series, yet it is totally
different from Apple MacBook Air.
Spectre XT 13 has a sturdy uni-body design
featuring an alloy chassis. Aiming at the young and travellers, Spectre XT 13
weighs only 1.42kg (without accessories) and seizes sleekly. The thickest and
thinnest parts seize 1.8cm and 1.5cm, respectively.
In comparison with Envy 4-1102TU, HP’s
newest model looks considerably slim. The coat also uses brushed aluminum material
to enhance the beauty. Beside anti-scratching, the aluminum chassis helps
eliminating heat.
Sound
is supported by Beats Audio.
The device’s sound is impressive, supported
by Beats Audio. Practice showed that audio quality was quite good, clear,
detailed and deep yet it was partial to treble and mid-range like from other
laptops.
The
device is equipped with a 13in LED back-lit LCD.
The device is equipped with a 13in LED
back-lit LCD (1,366x768pixel, WXGA), supporting BrightView technology for
bright and sharp image in different conditions. It’s a pity that the screen is
conventional so it can’t take full advantage of Windows 8’s touch-sensitive
Modern UI. User’s interaction is still through keyboard and touchpad.
Chiclet-type
keyboard
Chiclet-type keyboard provides sensitive
full-covered buttons and good feedback, bringing fast typing experience. Buttons’
distances are appropriate, suiting even big-sized hands.
Touchpad is large, supporting smart
multi-pointing. Right and left mouse buttons are also integrated. They feel
soft, sensitive and user-friendly. The smoothness helps moving mouse accurately.
Scrolling, zooming and rotating are easily operated.
HP
Spectre XT 13 still supports full of common connectors.
Though having a slim design, HP Spectre XT
13 still supports full of common connectors: HDMI, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, 3-in-1
card reader and even micro integrated headphone.
The model also supports wireless
connections such as Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11n, 1Gbps Ethernet via RJ-45
port, getting ready for sharing photos and videos through PC and HDTV,
following Wireless Display 3.0 standard.
Right
USB 2.0 port corporates fast charging even when the device is off.
The bottom lid is coated with an anti-shake
finish, bringing a stable feeling when the model is handled. The device is also
equipped with HP CoolSense technology which automatically controls cooling system
to meet hardware’s operating level, plus reduce the system’s temperature.
The
device is also equipped with HP CoolSense technology.
Spectre XT 13 comes with inbox Adobe
Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premiere Elements. They are limited versions yet
supply users with basic and necessary features.
Performance
Our test model features Intel Core i7-3517U
(1.9GHz, 3MB smart cache, 17W TPD), Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU, 4GB of RAM
(DDR3, 1,600MHz bus) and 128GB SSD (SATA, 6Gbps). Compared with HP Envy
4-1102TU and some ultra-books in the same series, Spectre XT 13 is favored when
given an Intel Core i7-3517U processor, raising its overall performance. However,
because of the integrated GPU (Intel HD Graphics), Spectre XT 13 is only
suitable for common usage.
The equipment of SSD boosts both general
performance and response time, for instance, Windows 8 start-up took only 8sec since
pressing power button until showing UI. This was the fastest result we had ever
had. Transfer rates were 261.6MBps (write) and 517.5MBps (read). In PCMark 05
test, executing apps and scanning virus took 89.2MBps and 297.6MBps
respectively. Runtime, recorded by MobileMark 2007, was 4h and 57min in
Productivity test, slightly higher than Dell XPS 12.
Detailed results
Graphic performance
Noticeably, though Intel uses the term of
HD Graphics 4000 to call integrated chips in mobile processors, in fact, each
chipset has different power in every series. For example, with Cinebench R11.5
(64bit) judging graphics through OpenGL library, Core i7-3517U got 16.6fps
while Core i5-3317U got 13.2fps and Core i3-3217U got 7.8fps, the lowest. Similarly,
in 3DMark 11 in Performance configuration, Core i7-3516U got 557, 9% higher
than the score of Core i5-3317U (511) and twice as much as that of Core
i3-3217U (280).
Runtime
We used MobileMark 2007 to test and
received the result of 4h and 57min for runtime in Productivity test. The
result was slightly higher than from Dell XPS 12, yet it was still lower than
from other ultra-books
Cooling system
Beside test of performance above, we also
witnessed the device’s cooling system in a condition featuring around 26-degree-Celsius
heat. Using the aluminum alloy chassis and HP CoolSense helps the system to
eliminate heat as well as operate fluently and effectively not only with office
apps and games but also with hard-core graphics in 3DMark 11 or Alien vs.
Predator. Particularly, highest temperatures of processor and GPU were 84 and
85 degrees Celsius.
|
Technical
specifications
·
Chipset: Intel HM76 Express
·
Processor: Core i7-3517U (1.9GHz, 4MB smart
cache)
·
Memory: 4GB of RAM (DDR3), 1600MHz bus
·
Display: 13.3in WXGA 16:9, LED backlight,
BrightView
·
Webcam: HD 1.3MP
·
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4000
·
Drive: 128GB SSD
·
Optical drive: N/A
·
Keyboard: Chiclet style, LED backlit
·
Connectors: HDMI,1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0,
3-in-1 card reader, headphone, micro (combo)
·
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11n,
LAN 1Gbps, WiDi
·
Battery: Li-ion 2950mAh, 45WHr
·
Size/weight: 31.6x22.4x1.5-1.8cm/1.42kg
·
OS: : Microsoft Windows 8 (64bit)
·
Price: $1,280 (1-year warranty)
|
