Gadgetory

if you looking for a premium ultra portable laptop chances are you're looking at a Mac Apple's laptops have dominated the segment for so long it seems like no one else is even trying anymore but HP is trying to change that narrative with a new Specter it's an ultra light ultra thin premium Windows 10 laptop with an equally premium price tag it's easy to compare the specter to the macbook because it's so light and thin but it's really like HP took the best of what the macbook offers and blended it with the best of what the macbook air offers it weighs just under two and a half pounds measures a scant ten point four millimeters thick when it's closed and it's a 13.3 inch display with a full-size keyboard the HP is selling this for 1169 to start but the unit that I've been testing which has a core i7 processor eight gigs of RAM and 256 gigs of storage cost 1249 the specter is really striking to look at it has a dark brown finish that stands out from the sea of aluminum silver computers it also has this really shiny gold hinge catches your eye but it also catches a ton of fingerprints which means that it doesn't really look so great after a few minutes of using it the next thing you're going to notice about the specter is that it doesn't have a touch screen it doesn't detach and it doesn't try to be anything more than a traditional laptop the 1080p screen isn't as high-res as you can get on other computers but it's perfectly sharp at this size my only real complaint here is that the hinge doesn't tilt back as far as I'd like it to which makes it a little uncomfortable to use when I'm standing at a desk the keyboard is really nice to type on it's got well spaced keys and much better travel than Apple's MacBook the trackpad is also really good too it's smooth and glassy and tracks really nicely it's a little small and feels cramped compared to other computers with larger trackpads like the MacBook The Spectre relies on USBC for all of its connectivity but unlike the MacBook HP gives you three ports instead of one now two of these support thunderbolt connections for fast data transfer and all three handle power definitely more convenient to have multiple USB seaports and just one but because USB C is still really new I have to carry around a bunch of adapters to plug anything into it unlike the MacBook this vector has Intel's more powerful chips inside so it doesn't really get bogged down too easily the core i7 chip and the one that I've been testing has been able to handle everything I throw at it whether it's multitasking web browsing photo editing or any other productivity tasks you're definitely not gonna be gaming on this machine but for productivity stuff the specter definitely has enough now unfortunately that performance doesn't extend to its battery life the spectra can last about five to six hours between charges with my daily use which isn't enough to last a full day and definitely less than I can get with a comparably spec MacBook hair the battery life isn't so bad to be a deal breaker but if you want the ultimate road warrior machine the specter probably isn't it the size of my complaint to the battery life the specter is really an excellent laptop it's really well-made it looks great have lots of performance and it's so thin and light that carrying around everywhere isn't really burdened Apple may still be the king of premium laptops but HP is shown that it can play this game too and as a result the spectre is an excellent laptop talking about laptops