Gadgetory

this is the HP Spectre the newest thinnest not to be confused with the 2012 HP Envy Spectre one and at a mere ten point four millimeters it is the thinnest notebook on the planet not that we're saying it couldn't still be sexy if it wasn't because on that note then is thin the only factor when it comes to sex appeal or could the spectre have weaknesses that lurk beneath its unblemished glowing skin that overshadow its strengths let's find out Tunnel Bear is the simple VPN app that makes it easy to browse privately and enjoy a more open Internet to try tunnel bear for free check out the link in the video description so the new West Specter sports an aluminum and carbon fiber construction with a pleasing metallic Brown I mean I don't know there's probably a fancy lipstick word for this and a shiny gold ghetto booty accent at the back that gives it a look that won't go particularly well with my sense of style but that certainly hits the elegant and sophisticated mark if that's what HP was aiming for simplicity is the name of the game here and on top we find HP's redesigned logo I did poke fun at it on Instagram but I actually really liked it and not a whole lot else on the bottom are the air intakes for the hyperbaric cooling system that HP has borrowed from Intel and some non-slip feet on the right side we find nothing on the left side we find nothing on the front we find nothing but an indent for the one finger operated and very stealthy hinge and finally around back we're treated to an IO selection that looks a lot more barren than it actually is so far right is a headphone microphone combo Jack far left is a type-c connector that handles USB three five gigabit connectivity and power input for the included 45 watt adapter then in the middle is where things get very interesting these type-c ports are both packing Thunderbolt three heat meaning they can drive 4k DisplayPort monitors a daisy chain of up to six supported devices each USB 3 10 gigabit per second or they can actually act as alternate power inputs if you had a bulky device to plug in and want it to put it over in the edge 1 this is a lot better than the current generation MacBook and it's wimpy single type-c USB five gigabit connector that requires a hub or a dongle to plug in anything while charging but I criticized Apple for sacrificing functionality to the thin and light gods and wily peas sacrifice is not quite as extreme they're not going to get away completely unscathed here first though let's talk hardware specs inside the spectres tiny frame HP has managed to cram and Intel Core i5 6200 u so that's a hyper threaded dual core at 2.3 to 2.8 gigahertz eight gigs of LP ddr3 memory 256 gigs of PCIe storage a 2 by 2 AC wireless solution a 38 watt hour lithium-ion hybrid battery and four bangin Olufsen approved speakers with core i7 models with up to 512 gigs of storage also available and I have to give credit where credit is due here while the spectre might lose a bit of the premium feel that normally comes with using high-end materials like aluminum and carbon fiber thanks to HP's mission to keep weight and thickness down to a minimum it's obvious that tremendous care and attention went into the execution of this device the screen is bright beautiful and rocking a very uniform IPS panel that lacks touch but whose strong contrast performance makes it look better than the mere 1080p resolution would suggest and I still believe 1080p is enough at 13 inches the speakers while not especially loud manage their full range without any noticeable distortion and without causing unpleasant vibrations elsewhere in the chassis a frequent problem with thin and light notebooks and most surprisingly the keyboard is a joy to use with this satisfying stiffness at the top of the keystroke that makes the travel feel longer than it is this is right up there with my favorite notebook keyboards from both a speed and accuracy perspective especially impressive considering the thickness of the device overall but not all the news is great the cooling solution works really well at room temperature keeping the fan off in idle and light load conditions and reasonably quiet even under full load but in spite of the hyperbaric cooler which by the way is just a fancy way of saying high static pressure intake fans versus the standard exhaust fan configuration sitting in the bedroom of my and house or going out into our warehouse on a 28 degree celcius day yielded some pretty unpleasant surface temperatures even at idle in the default cool control fan profile with the high performance one forcing the fairly whiny fans to work quite a bit harder even my blade 14 not known as a particularly cool running device was noticeably better in this regard to be clear this isn't a huge shot against it I mean the CPU is much faster than what you'd find in a MacBook and never thermal throttled in my testing but if you live somewhere hot it is something you should be aware of as is the inclusion of McAfee live safe on the kind of low-power machine that manages to sit between five and 10 percent CPU usage while idling at the desktop other than that the bloatware installations were really not that bad the webcam is super mediocre something that I wish wasn't true of any device that's advertised as being for business use on a manufacturer's website and the click pad while gesture enabled frustrated me with its inability to register left clicks when you touch the very edge of the pad during two-handed operation though with that said it has boatloads of customization options and as long as your name isn't Linus Sebastian you'll probably get it working just fine for you as long as you don't mind the below average size which I guess draws us perfectly then into the conclusion the last time I looked at a somethingest laptop in the world it was the gram and I praised LG for finding a unique identity for their product and seeing it through even if it meant some compromises that hurt usability but what was different about what LG did was that instead of beating out the competition by a hair in a way that's not really noticeable day-to-day while hurting the everyday convenience of the device a single type a port would have helped a lot here they crushed the competition I mean the grand is 10% lighter than even the specter whose screen is two inches smaller diagonally in a way that stands out much more to me than another thin and light even though it's the thinnest one yet with that said HP's target customer is not me that much was obvious from the moment that I wanted to plug in a mouse and a Yubikey for multi-factor authentication and needed to search high and low for another adapter separate from the one that they helpfully by the way do include in the box but while it would be easy for me then to say we'll just buy the razor blade stealth that makes a lot more sense I mean if I'm carrying a laptop already what's another two millimeters for higher performance a touchscreen and a more premium feel the stealth also completely misses the style mark for the young professional demographic that HP appears to be targeting with the specter and that's something that I think they nailed so if you're a yuppie or a jockey or whatever it is that they call them these days and it's between this and a MacBook I'd say take the specter for sure and you know what else I'd take for sure a look at master opcom they've got all kinds of great deals and the principle is pretty simple mass drop has this massive community of people who want to buy cool stuff but don't want to pay full price and they've got great connections with authorized distributors and directly with manufacturers who want to sell stuff to those people so they bring together they go hey we've got a bunch of people who want to buy it can you lower the price they go hey we got a lower price y'all want to buy it everybody freaking wins and they've even gone a step further beyond that very successful formula and collaborated with certain manufacturers to create mass drop Edition products and the one that we're highlighting today is the k7 xx mass drop Edition headphones from AKG now if you're not familiar with that particular headphone it's the same as the k7 xx that I checked out in my video which you can look at up here but in a nutshell they were configured by mass dropped and manufactured by AKG they're open backed headphones with large cushiony ear cups genuine leather on the headbands and memory foam ear pads with the lure covering they've got a two-year warranty which is covered by mass drop and you can order from anywhere but a $25 fee will be assessed on international orders still a pretty darn good deal though check it out at the link in the video description thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if it awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured at Amazon in the 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