HP Spectre 13t review: A gorgeous 13-inch Ultrabook worth your attention

HP Spectre Laptop 13t

HP has been on a tear the last few years with innovative pattern, premium builds, and excellent keyboards. All that technology inventiveness reveals itself with the Spectre 13t – the non-tablet sibling to the Spectre x360 (run across my contempo review). I've been using the Spectre (tardily-2017) for a few months now generally in place of the Surface Laptop. It'south a slap-up ultrabook — and probably the best-looking laptop on the market.

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HP Spectre 13t specifications

HP Spectre Laptop 13t

The hardware for the Spectre falls in line with other Ultrabooks in its class including the Dell XPS 13 and Surface Laptop (which has a last gen CPU).

Feature	HP Spectre x360 13-inch
Processor	Intel Cadre i5-8250U or Intel Core i7-8550U
Display blazon	thirteen.three-inch IPS micro-edge WLED Touch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass
Display resolution	1920 ten 1080 (FHD) or 3840 x 2160 (4K)
Digital pen	No
RAM	8GB or 16GB LPDDR3-2133 SDRAM (soldered)
Native graphics	Intel Hard disk drive Graphics 620 Intel UHD Graphics 620
Discrete graphics	None
Storage	256GB, 512GB, or 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
Wireless	Intel 802.11b/g/n/ac (2x2) Wi-Fi and Bluetooth four.ii
Ports	ii Thunderbolt three (Data Transfer up to 40 Gb/southward, Power Delivery, DP1.2, HP Sleep and Charge) ane USB 3.1 Type C
Audio	Blindside & Olufsen dual speakers
Dimensions	x.4mm thin
Weight	2.45 lbs (1.11 kg)
Cameras	Front-facing HP TrueVision 1080p FHD IR Webcam
Biometrics	IR Camera
Colors	Ceramic white with pale gilded accents \| Dark ash with copper accents
Cost	Starts at $ane,149

The Spectre is astonishingly light, weighing the aforementioned every bit the Surface Pro with a keyboard. It'south also uncommonly thin at just 10.4 mm. It's so thin that HP had to omit a traditional USB Type-A port for the more frontwards-thinking Type-C. There are three Blazon-C ports, ii of which are full Thunderbolt 3 qualified with 4x PCIe lane support and let for dual 4K external monitors (or an external GPU).

The review unit I used is the newer ceramic white, an all-new material that is light, but firm, and thankfully resistant to fingerprints, which is aided by the matte coloring.

The other big deal for the Spectre this yr is the addition of a touchscreen. That feature is found in the total Hd or 4K variant. While the 4K brandish is brilliant nigh people will be fine with the full Hard disk drive option – not merely does it expect fantastic, but it seems more than like a QHD in person.

Finally, HP is no stickler for CPUs, so I do find the concluding Intel 8th generation quad-core 15W processors with a Core i5 or Cadre i7 for options.

HP Spectre 13t is highly recommended

HP Spectre Laptop 13t

So, here'southward the deal with the Spectre 13t. Information technology's low-cal, information technology's sparse, and it looks like nothing else on the marketplace (the ceramic white is ace). But it's non just all appearances hither. Under the hood, the keen SSD and processor options combined with an innovative thermal solution makes the experience of using the Spectre 13t for productivity very satisfying.

If I had to highlight my favorite features – likewise the look and feel – it would the display and keyboard, both of which are above average. In fact, this is one of the best laptops for typing on that I have tried.

And dissimilar Dell, HP is adamant about keeping its webcam on top of the bezel, and it has a great Windows Hello facial recognition ability too.

HP Spectre Laptop 13t

I should also mention something that is often overlooked: resume times. HP does whatever it is that Microsoft does with its motherboards for quick resume times from standby (around eight seconds from hibernate; merely two seconds from standby). Dell is still much slower at this, and it's not entirely clear what is being done that is different, but the HP Spectre is very much like Surface Laptop in this regard (merely style cheaper).

There are my usual gripes too with HP including an fantabulous trackpad that is held back by using Synaptics instead of Microsoft Precision drivers. If you are audacious yous can install Precision drivers to "fix" this choice by HP - it does work. The speakers are good – specially for placement – just the tuning is however a little light on the bass for my tastes.

Battery life is just at the edge of being all-day hovering around the seven or viii-hour mark (luckily it has Type-C fast accuse, with a teeny charger).

Compared to the new Spectre x360 I prefer the Spectre more often than not due to the fact I don't use the hybrid-flipping functionality very ofttimes. I too observe the keyboard a smidge better due to the more than rigid body of the Spectre'due south deck. Same goes for the trackpad, which does not accept a slight rattle. But, if you desire a two-in-i laptop, the Spectre x360 is notwithstanding a bargain.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is another league – equally far equally price goes. A Surface Laptop is a few hundred dollars more expensive, and you'd be getting a 7th Generation Intel processor versus the newer eighth Gen found in the HP Spectre. HP is also not shy nearly embracing not only USB Type-C but full Thunderbolt iii support (2 ports, in fact), making the HP more future proof. Luckily, HP tosses in a Blazon-A dongle in the box for when you lot need it.

Overall, the HP Spectre 13t is one of my favorite modern Ultrabooks on the market. The design, look, and components used are all excellent, and if you are OK with the traditional laptop form factor and only USB Type-C ports, this is one killer option. My recommendation? Be bold and go with ceramic white.