We had plenty of nice things to say about
the HP Envy Spectre XT when we reviewed it, but we were expecting to the HP
Spectre XT TouchSmart, which moves up to a 1080p touchscreen. Well, here it is,
with 10-point touch and the same all-metal design as its predecessor, this
15-inch laptop looks promising. But is it worth $1,350 or more, if you want an
SSD? Continue reading to find out.
Design and feel
The TouchSmart will look quite familiar to
those who have seen Envy Spectre XT. It has the same elegant, all-metal chassis
and brushed-silver surface, with a reflective HP logo on the lid. The only real
difference - excluding the TouchSmart's significantly larger look - is the
Beats Audio and Spectre XT TouchSmart brand that is on the top of the screen, opposite
to below of the screen on 13-inch XT. In brief, it's an attractive laptop although
it's also one that requires regular comparisons to Cupertino's child.
The
TouchSmart will look quite familiar to those who have seen Envy Spectre XT.
At 4.96-pound weight and 0.87 inch thick,
this machine is not the most dedicated version of an Ultrabook, but it's not
bulky for a 15-inch laptop. However, you will realize its weight when carrying
it in your backpack or briefcase; we're not sure you'd want to carry it to your
office every day. Like its non-touch sibling, this notebook feels very
comfortable in the hand thanks to graspable rounded corners and a lovely soft touch
surface on the bottom. The design feels very sturdy; it never creaks or bends
under pressure throughout our test time.
Everything is in a reasonable place on the
TouchSmart, with the grill under the speaker, and power button at the top of
the keyboard tray, and HP TrueVision HD Webcam centered above the display. The
laptop's bottom is completely clean to save a spot for an air vent and two
speakers; there's no removable battery here. Along the 2 sides, you'll find many
ports. An SD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB 2.0 port, charging connector
and a Kensington lock slot on the right side, while an Ethernet jack, large-size
HDMI port, Thunderbolt and two USB 3.0 ports are on the left edge. This is the
first HP system that includes a Thunderbolt port.
Keyboard and touchpad
We were huge fans of the Envy Spectre XT's
keyboard, and the 15-inch TouchSmart's backlit layout is equally comfortable.
It took a little bit of time so that this reviewer's small hands adjust to the
spacious setup, but the keys themselves offer a satisfying amount of move. You will
have no trouble reaching to your usual typing speed.
The large keyboard tray provides wide space
to put your palms and wrists, and it also provides a quite-large Synaptics
touchpad. The reviewer executes Windows 8 gestures flawlessly, and it provides
just enough resistance to scroll smoothly but not excessive. The integrated
left-and right-click buttons are quick and quite good at distinguishing
accidental input from intentional taps. As we've seen on previous HP systems,
this laptop offers a trackpad-disabling feature, which is enabled with a double
tap on the trackpad's upper-left corner.
The
large keyboard tray provides wide space to put your palms and wrists, and it
also provides a quite-large Synaptics touchpad.
Screen and sound
With a 1080p resolution and IPS technology,
the TouchSmart's 15.6-inch Radiance screen provides bright, clear images. It's
one of the best screens we've seen on the Ultrabook recently equal to Acer's
and ASUS' latest laptops and it's one of the advantages this system has over
the non-touch Envy Spectre XT, which has a 1,366 x 768 screen. HP don't confirm
if this is the same 1080p panel that had calibration issues on the Envy 15, but
a spokesman said TouchSmart users wouldn't face that problem. (We didn't face
it during our test time).
With
a 1080p resolution and IPS technology, the TouchSmart's 15.6-inch Radiance
screen provides bright, clear images.
Colors seem vibrant and accurate, and
content is visible from even extreme deviation angles. The touchscreen is very
responsive to all the Windows 8 gestures that you perform on it. Scrolling,
swiping to bring up the Charms bar and pinch to zoom all work without any
problem. Even though we're fans of this laptop's touchpad, we often prefer
navigating through the touch display - its large screen almost begs you to
touch it.
It’s unsurprised, TouchSmart sports Beats
Audio, and sound from the machine's tilted speaker grill is pretty loud, but
not particularly rich. As usual with Beats, we don't see the small-volume level
as we have on other laptops, but bass is still limited. Listening to music and
watching movies with headphones is definitely a more overwhelming, sonically
pleasing experience, but it's good to know if you have enough volume when you
want to emits some tunes loudly.
