After missing out on the first ultrabook wave last year (with the HP Folio 13 joining the game a bit later), HP is simply bombarding us with ultrabooks lately, making it hard for us to even keep count of all of the company’s new great products.
We’ve already talked about the EliteBook 2170p and the EliteBook Folio 9470M, a fresh and exciting business ultrabook duo, and now we are honored to tell you all about the Envy Spectre XT, the second-generation “premium ultrabook”.
While not targeted specifically towards business users, the Envy Spectre XT looks absolutely splendid and is set to come with one of the best designs we’ve seen so far on the ultrabook market. Weighing in at 3.07 pounds, the Spectre XT is not exactly the world’s lightest ultrabook, but it might be the most elegant.
Update: Here’s my full review of the HP Spectre XT and here’s a list of online stores that have it on sale right now. Also, you should see my list of recommended ultrabooks, if you’re after such a computer.
The brushed aluminum case looks smooth, the rounded edges and the curves are sexy and the Envy Spectre XT simply looks like a thinner and better version of the original Envy 14 Spectre. In fact, HP’s newest ultrabook only measures 14.5 mm (around half an inch), which is impressive, anyway you look at it.
The second Envy Spectre looks even better than the first.
Although it’s pretty obvious that this laptop will turn some heads with its sexy design, you shouldn’t understand that that’s the only thing the Envy Spectre XT has to offer. Not at all, because the keyboard looks comfortable, spacious and responsive (it’s backlit, too), the display is bright and the ports and connectivity options are generous enough if we take into consideration the laptop’s dimensions.
The 13.3-inch display features a 1366 x 768 pixels resolution, which is not spectacular, but overall the ultrabook seems to deliver both in terms of color reproduction and viewing angles. Unfortunately, as far as we can tell, the screen is not matte, which is somewhat of a weak point.
The 13.3-inch screen looks great and offers nice viewing angles.
The Spectre XT is set to impress you in terms of sound reproduction as well, featuring Beats Audio technology and four stereo speakers ready to partay.
In terms of ports and connectivity options, you get a USB 3.0 connector, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth and WiDi.
The keyboard is comfortable, large and backlit.
As far as hardware goes, we don’t have the laptop’s entire spec sheet right now, but we do know that the base version will come with an Intel Core Ivy Bridge i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM and an 128 GB SSD. Of course, if you feel the need to step it up a notch in terms of performance, you will be able to purchase models packing i7 chipsets, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSDs.
From the front, from the back or from the sides, the HP Envy Spectre XT looks just amazing!
The Envy Spectre XT will be available in the United States on June 8th (that’s right, just a month from now) and the starting price is set to be… drumrolls, please… 999 bucks. That’s pretty decent, if you ask me, looking at what this 13-incher will bring to the table.
If you want to take a closer look at the HP Envy Spectre XT (and you should), please check out the following exclusive hands-on preview coming from Shanghai.
