HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook Specs, Price Review

HP Envy Spectre XT Overview

HP Envy Spectre XT Laptop was a good-looking laptop, the new Spectre XT is by far the more attractive computer. With it's Chiclet-style keyboard and all-metal cases, comparisons to the 13-inch MacBook Air are inevitable. We think that HP has come close, but we slightly prefer the MacBook's long integrated hinge, rather than the dual-hinges of the HP Envy Spectre XT.

The HP Envy Spectre XT is a good looking laptop and a lot thinner than the previous Ultrabook, the Envy Spectre 14.

We only had time to use the keyboard quickly, but our initial tappings showed that it's comfortable to type on. A large touchpad (or HP Imagepad if you want to use the company's vernacular) dominates the bottom of the laptop. It supports multi-touch gestures, although these aren't as smooth as on the MacBook Air due to Windows 7; Windows 8 should improve this when it's released later in the year. For standard desktop use, though, the touchpad felt accurate and responsive to us.

Measuring just 14.4mm deep, there's no denying that the HP Envy Spectre XT is a slim laptop, but it's good to see that there's a full range of ports. Many Ultrabooks ditch the Ethernet port to save on space, relying on a USB adaptor instead, but HP hasn't. Instead, the Spectre XT has a fold-down Gigabit Ethernet port that expands when you need to plug in a cable, but closes up when you're travelling or using wireless.

HP Envy Spectre XT Price

HP's Envy 14 Spectre hit almost all the right notes when we reviewed it back in March, thanks to its high-res display, sleek metal-and-glass design and brisk performance, but a stiff trackpad and the steep $1,400 HP Envy Spectre XT price were clear downsides. The new Envy Spectre XT, a 13.3-inch Ivy Bridge-powered Ultrabook, has a thinner, lighter profile than its big brother, and a lower $1,000 price tag to match. That's still not chump change, though, so does the XT deserve a spot in the top tier of Intel-approved ultraportables?

HP Envy Spectre XT

HP Envy Spectre XT Specifications

HP Envy Spectre XT Specs detail :

Size it up

12.88"Wx8.7"Dx0.79"H
Starting at under 4 lbs^*
The first scratch-resistant glass laptop
Long-lasting battery, up to 9.5 hours¹
HP CoolSense keeps you comfortable while on the move
Full-versions of Adobe^® Photoshop^® Elements and Premiere^® Elements software
Free 2 years of Norton™ Internet Security 2012²

Amazing view

14" diagonal HD+ Radiance LED backlit display³ in a 13.3" chassis
HP Radiance backlit keyboard senses your approach and gradually lights up every row
Multi-touch-enabled HP Imagepad allows precise 2- and 3-finger interaction

Speed and storage

128GB or 256GB mSATA solid-state drive⁴ for lightning-fast performance
Performance-tuned software image for incredibly fast boot and wake times
Intel^® Rapid Start Technology
Intel^® Core™ i5 and i7 ULV Processors⁵
4GB or 8GB of DDR3
Intel^® Centrino^® Advanced-N 6230 + Bluetooth (2x2 Wi-Fi)⁶

Expansion
capabilities

Mini DisplayPort
1 USB 3.0 port
1 microphone-in/headphone stereo-out jack combo

HP Envy Spectre XT Review

Keyboard and trackpad

The Envy Spectre XT's black, island-style keyboard offers decently sized keys that respond to input with a satisfying clack. You'll enjoy much more travel on this layout than on many other Ultrabooks, which seem to be plagued with shallow keyboards. In everyday use, we made very few spelling mistakes, and didn't notice much, if any, flex.

Like the Envy 14 Spectre and HP Folio 13, the XT sports a backlit keyboard, with a separate LED under each key. The layout is pretty much identical to what you'll find on the original Spectre, with shrunken arrow keys standing out as the only undersized elements.

HP Envy Spectre XT Keyboard and Speaker

Display and audio

The HP Envy Spectre XT's 1,366 x 768 display isn't exceptionally crisp and clear, but colors appear plenty vibrant. As to be expected with a glossy, non-IPS screen, viewing angles are limited. Images begin to wash out when you move even a smidgen to the left or right of center, and tipping the lid a bit forward renders content on the display unviewable. That's not to say this is the most glare-ridden panel we've contended with, but it makes us appreciate the Envy 14 Spectre's screen all the more. In a perfect world, HP would carry over that pixel count without raising the price, but that's not going to happen any time soon.

Beats Audio on HP Envy Spectre XT is a given on most HP machines and that usually means a better listening experience than what you'll get on your average laptop. That said, we aren't blown away with the sound quality on the Spectre XT. Though the machine offers ample volume, songs come through tinny and canned. We can't knock HP too hard for this: beefier machines such as the Envy 15 have room for a subwoofer, and that's just not a possibility on this Ultrabook. Two of the XT's speakers are placed on the underside of the machine, which might explain the muffled audio. (There are also speakers on the front grille.) With headphones plugged in, you'll get the Beats benefit; music sounds richer, and there's a satisfying amount of bass.

Performance

HP Envy Spectre XT, A Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD hint at a high-performing Ultrabook, and the Spectre XT does pretty darn well in synthetic benchmark tests. In PCMark Vantage, the system notched a score of 12,223, which bests the Envy 14 Spectre by nearly 3,000 points. Among Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks, too, that's a solid showing. The ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A and the Acer Aspire S5 are in the same ballpark, with scores of 12,494 and 12,895, respectively. In the disk benchmark ATTO, the XT delivered max read speeds of 520 MB/s, while writes topped off at 265 MB/s. Those numbers are impressive -- about on par with the Samsung Series 9's performance, though both fall short of the Aspire S5's mind-blowing 875 MB/s reads and 700 MB/s writes.

Champ performer though this system may be, it's an Ultrabook with Intel HD Graphics 4000, and there's only so much you can do without a discrete chip. Still, the Spectre XT fares considerably better than its competitors in 3DMark06, knocking out a score of 5,197. That trumps the UX31A (4,989), pulls in well ahead of the Envy 14 Spectre (3,468) and falls 630 points short of the MacBook Air (5,827).

Suffice to say, those strong benchmark showings translate into swift real-word performance. Cold-booting into Windows 7 Home Professional takes a breezy 16 seconds, and waking from sleep takes about three. Not only do those times feel refreshingly speedy, they hold their own against top-performing Ultrabooks, such as the MacBook Air (15 seconds) and the Sandy Bridge-equipped ASUS UX31 (16 seconds).

The HP Envy Spectre XT can satisfy a casual gaming habit, but firing up graphically intensive titles like Call of Duty will push this guy to the limits. We saw a modest 20 frames per second in this game, and the fan started acting up merely minutes into our fragging. In World of Warcraft, the frame rate hovered around a playable 60 fps. Here too, though, the fan began to whir and we felt the XT getting a bit toasty.

Battery life

The HP Envy Spectre XT's four-cell lithium-ion battery lasted four hours and 57 minutes on our video rundown test, which involves playing a locally stored video on loop with WiFi on and display brightness set to 65 percent. That runtime falls a bit short of average for the Ultrabook category, and it's 33 minutes less than the Envy 14 Spectre's showing. The earlier HP Folio also lasted longer: six hours and eight minutes. Needless to say, it's one of the biggest reasons you might consider a competing Ultrabook instead.

Software

HP continues its tradition of generous (and actually useful!) software pre-loads with the Envy Spectre XT. The company includes full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, plus a complimentary two-year subscription to Norton Internet Security 2012. Lest you think HP is a complete angel, though, you'll still find a healthy serving of bloatware. Pre-installed programs include CyberLink YouCam, a suite of card and casino-style games. There's also HP's selection of utilities, including Support Assistant and Recovery Manager, which make themselves a little too known through pop-ups. (One word: disable.)

Like other Envy laptops, the HP Envy Spectre XT comes with a two-year limited hardware warranty. Support includes 24 / 7 phone support and parts and labor coverage. Nothing shocking here, but HP does compare favorably to other PC vendors in this department. Dell and Toshiba, for instance, offer only one year of coverage, and extending warranties can cost up to nearly $199.

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