HP Spectre 13 (world's thinnest*) - Discussion thread

Hi guys,

Noticed there wasn't a discussion forum for the new HP Spectre, I've gone ahead and bought one and wanted to see if there were any other users who were quietly observing, or if anyone had any questions about the computer.

Couple of initial thoughts for anyone who may be interested.

1. Screen is 1080p FHD, no touch - but is bright, with great viewing angles, and good colour reproduction. I came from a 13" MBPretina, and to be honest, I dont miss the screen much.

2. Performance - as typical as you would expect from a 6th Gen Skylake ultrabook, have used it to do some photoshop and lightroom stuff, and also have played a little bit of overwatch - its coping!

3. Battery - HP Claims 9 hour, I think that's only possible if on low brightness and minimal CPU intensive work. Realistic use is 6 hours.

The battery component leads me to the most disappointing thing about the laptop so far for me - Charging.

The good : HP's 45 W usb-c Charger is small, lightweight, and inexpensive (I picked up a second charger for $67AUD, compared to what I paid before for an Apple magsafe 2 at $129, $67 is fair, thank you HP).

The bad: HP seemingly has "locked down" the charging, so it appears only HP branded chargers can work - NOW, I will preface this by saying, I have not yet plugged ANY other 45W USB-C charger in, but I have tried to put in 15W chargers (Google Pixel C / Nexus 6P), and a variety of external power banks, and none of them register.

It seems HP's current flock of USB-C computers are locked down to prevent damage from 3rd party chargers which may not meet their requirements - read more here http://www.pcworld.com/article/3017...-every-device-we-have-to-chase-the-dream.html

Whist that seems noble, it impairs the whole point of an Universal connector, and it does seem other computers can manage to still keep it relatively open, whilst HP has chosen not to.

The UGLY: the laptop doesnt charge particularly quickly. a 20% to 90% charge will take over 2 hours, and the trickle charge to get from 90-100 is also very slow - perhaps another full hour.

Also, I would like to see some official support for some external Thunderbolt 3 docks and external GPUs.

Any one with any input?

 

Thanks for starting this thread. I don't have anything to add I'm afraid, instead here to pick brains. I'm considering buying this one vs the Dell XPS 13. I can't get access to the Spectre here in Asia, but can buy one when I go Stateside this summer. Do you have any comments on the keyboard, how it compares specifically to the XPS 13, but perhaps any others like the Air? I am on a Samsung Series 9 and was originally going to go Thinkpad just for the keyboard, but the early comments on both the Dell and the HP sound too good to pass up, especially as the sizes are closer to my Series 9.

As an aside, thanks for the comment on the Type C power charging, I did not know. That was one of the key reasons to go HP or Dell frankly, the thought that in 3 years time I could borrow a friend's charger.

 

Thank you for the thread. Looks like an interesting machine. How has your experience been with the fan noise, heat and what is the config that you have?

Thanks.

 

Hi ClarenceX,

The keyboard is actually really nice. It has much more travel than the 12" Macbook, and is very comparable to the XPS 13, I find the Spectre's keys a little more "clicky" than the XPS 13, but they are very similar. The keyboard backlight doesn't have brightness adjustment, just on or off - not sure if thats an issue for you. It isn't an issue for me.

 

I've got the i7 6500U version with 8GB RAM (max in my market), and 512GB SSD.

Noise - the fan does come on more than I expected, but usually on at a whisper quiet setting. With heavy CPU load, they will then increase, never really obtrusive, and if you have audio volume at conversation volume, you will never hear it. The fans do seem to be more keen than others, but its efficient. You can actually feel the induction airflow on the bottom grilles. My spectre was preloaded with a HP utility basically to turn on a more aggressive cooling profile or not.... not a great deal of control, but its there.

 

Thanks, that's a little disappointing to hear about the fan coming on too often. It's good that HP gives you some level of control over the cooling profile.

What an interesting machine this would be if this came fanless.

 

I think it wouldn't be an "i5 or i7" processor if fanless. Likely to be similar to the Apple 12" macbook - intel m processors. Still decent if that is your use case. Im sitting in front of my spectre now, with the fans on, this is as loud as it has ever gotten for me, with the cooling profile on. using my phone to measure ambient noise it is about 33 dB when measured from the front, and 43dB when aimed at the exhaust

 

with the cooling profile off - and a noticable slowdown in fan, it is about 30dB. Mind you, its 11:30am where I am and I can hear construction in the background, so I'd say its in the mid to high 20 dBs under normal use. and early 30s in heavy use.

 

Oh yes, I didn't mean to say that the i5 can be fanless today, I was just doing some wishful thinking. One day fanless laptops will be sufficiently powerful for sure. I wonder if any laptops use active liquid-only cooling.

What tool or app did you use to measure the noise?

 

Thanks sephstyler for the reply! Another question: I always use a wireless mouse with my laptops. The Spectre only having USB-C though means I have to always insert the C-to-Standard USB dongle to use them, a minor nuisance. Do you do the same, or just only use the trackpad? One option I have tried before is using a Bluetooth mouse, but even using two different Bluetooth mice I found the mouse would stutter. My laptop only has 4G of memory so perhaps it was a memory issue that affected performance, though that would seem strange to me.

 

All i cores need a fan, it would have to have a core M to be fanless, Honestly I do not know why they do not include an M7 as an option without fan?

 

I think the fact that this laptop comes with a cooling system is one of the perks. Most fanless laptops using the Core M (Macbook, I'm looking at you) throttle due to the lack of thermal control, whereas the Spectre is just as thin and performs significantly better thanks to a cooling system being in place. I also think the cooling system is cleverly and elegantly implemented.

I do hope HP releases a BIOS and/or "HP Cool Control" update that actually lets you change the fan settings so they turn on at a higher temperature and turn off more quickly. The XPS 13's fan only turns on once the laptop is at an extremely high temperature, which I kind of prefer. Flash video really makes the CPU get hot.

 

I'm wondering if anyone else has had quality issues with the Spectre.
My first Spectre had very high-pitched coil whine, a wobbly right hinge, and two of the key switches broke when I tried to remove the keycaps and clean underneath. But I love the Spectre so much I bought another so I could return this one when it arrives.

My second Spectre seems worse than the first. The speaker grill holes are much larger and dirt/dust gets in them as a result and the bottom plate is bent in such a way that the middle of the laptop never sits quite flush with the surface it's on, which is very annoying. Initially I thought the materials were just more flexible, but I removed the bottom plate and sure enough, it has an obvious bend to it. It also has a much rougher texture than the original Spectre's bottom plate. Also, in trying to bend the middle of the laptop so it sits flat, one of the LED's in the keyboard stopped working.

So I've decided to keep my original Spectre despite the coil whine and wobbly hinge, since it otherwise feels like a better quality laptop than its replacement. I replaced the broken keys with the keys from the second Spectre, and I hope to return the second Spectre soon.

Do you think there's a chance that my third Spectre will still have these kinds of quality issues? I guess I'm okay with the coil whiney Spectre, but I wish oh so badly I could have a perfect one.

 

This machine is beautiful. I'm considering building a gaming desktop and buying one of these for my laptop.

 

I use a bluetooth mouse. It works great!

 

I have a brand new HP Spectre Ultrabook that I love. This particular unit has the i7-6500U processor with the 512GB SSD and Windows 10 Pro. I have some small problems that I am not ready to contact HP for support because I want to save my extended warranty/accident protection, because if I don't use it, I get the refund after 3 years.

Problem 1: Scratching/Squeeling noises from speakers when computer is "working". These noises are subtle, but if it's quiet, you can hear them clearly. They almost sound like a HDD that is writing data, but the noises are clearly coming from the speakers. They coincide with processor activity, whether it is movements on the screen or other CPU activity. When the CPU is completely inactive, the noises are silent. I have tried changes to the B&O drivers and software including disabling, I have tried changing the frequency and bit-rate of speaker format, but none of these things stop the noises. It seems as if X360 owners have had similar problems, but I could not a proposed solutions that worked for this Spectre.

Problem 2: Windows 10 CPU activity on lock screen. When the PC is locked, a process starts called lockapphost.exe. This process uses a tremendous amount of system resources, and is such a problem, the fans on the Spectre gear up and don't stop until you unlock the machine. A Google search for this process produced examples of other Windows 10 users experiencing the same problem, but it does not appear that any of them have found a true solution. The process starts up and consumes resources within 60 seconds of locking the machine and releases those resources within 30 seconds of unlocking it, consistently. It also appears to coincide with an event where ApplicationResourceManager fails to initiate, but it is not as consistent and I could not find useful results in searching for this.

Problem 3: Battery Discharge Forecast not working. When the battery is discharging, Windows should be able to calcuate time remaining, however, I have never seen the result of this calcuation on this machine. When I look at my power meter in the task tray, it simply says "Calculating..." but never presents the result. I have never fully discharged this battery and that might be why; can anyone confirm?

Problem 4 (FIXED): Function key lock is enabled by default, however there is no function key lock toggle. You can disable the function key lock in the BIOS settings. Silly default setting. Also a physical function lock toggle would be smart.

Problem 5: Windows 10 Shutdown time. Windows books from cold to all processes ready in mere seconds, however, Windows takes a couple minutes to shut down. I have not had the opportunity to investigate ths much yet, but I will look at processes and event logs when I do. Anybody aware of this issue and/or a fix?

 

Hey folks, just found this thread, and I got a new Spectre 13 a few days ago. Let me give you my thoughts, somewhat in response to some things mentioned so far:

1. I got the i7 / 8GB / 256GB / Windows 10 Home notebook from Best Buy. I sure would have preferred the 512GB version, but Best Buy only has this version, had it for a good sale price, and patience (waiting for a mail order) is not one of my virtues. Plus, all I would do with the extra space would be to fill it up with videos that I'll never find the time to watch, so I'm good. I do really miss an SD card or MicroSD card slot, which I tend to use these days as more-or-less "permanent" storage. So, I'm stuck with 256GB and fewer videos that I'll never have the time to watch.

2. I certainly don't have any quality issues. Everything works just fine, and I sure can't find any issues whatsoever. By buying locally, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to return the thing if I found any problems with it. But everything has been fine, so far.

3. Any fan noise I've heard hasn't been bad at all. It is absolutely NOT the noisiest notebook I've ever owned -- rather, it's as quiet as any I've owned. Though, I also have the HP Spectre X2 with an M5 and no fan at all. Which this essentially replaces as my "travel" notebook. And indeed, with no fan, there's just no noise at all. But there's no doubt about it -- I prefer the Spectre 13 over the Spectre X2.

4. One thing I have noticed the most about the Spectre 13 is that it is FAST! Just everything I've done with it -- running programs, transferring files from USB drives or via WiFi, and so on, are all just faster than, well, any other computer I've ever owned. I have been just blown away with some of the speeds I've seen with the file transfers.

5. Given that I've also got the Spectre X2, I'm well aware of HP's charger lockdown. Though, the Spectre 13's charger is nicer and smaller than the one that came with the Spectre X2. Both chargers will work with either notebook, so that's about half of a "plus." I tried a whole bunch of things with the Spectre X2 that didn't work -- I guess I haven't tried them with the Spectre 13, so I'll try my luck with those. Notably, I found that Innergie's 45-watt USB-C charger would charge the Spectre X2 when the notebook was turned off, but not when it turned on. Again, I haven't tried things with the Spectre 13, but I'll give them a shot and report. I really don't expect to see any differences, though.

6. In the end, I'm happy with the size and the weight and the looks and utterly everything else. Just a really neat computer. It's a very competent computer, and of course you can carry it around without even noticing that you've got anything in your bag.

Thus, my report for now. Happy computing!

thoots

 

Does the spectre come with any USB-C dongles, or do you have to buy them all? I have a Samsung Notebook 9 that is giving me fits with reliability, but I do like that it has std USB ports and a microHDMI port...

 

Yes, the Spectre 13 comes with a USB-to-USB-C adapter, like this:

http://h20386.www2.hp.com/AustraliaStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=P7Z56AA&opt=&sel=ACC

You can find quite a few interesting hubs and things on Amazon, such as the following:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...arch-alias=specialty-aps&field-keywords=usb-c

Powered, non-powered, with SD card slots, with HDMI output, and so on. If you need more than a simple USB adapter, there's something for virtually every need you might have.

 

Talked my mom in to getting one of these to replace her aging laptop and desktop - figured with a USB-C dock she could get down to one device. The hardware is beautiful. Very portable, and plenty of power for normal use. Here are the issues we saw:

1. Alas, no USB-C charging from the dock. I did not know about HP locking down the charging, so I'll keep an eye on that, but also there are all sorts of "profiles" for USB-C charging that I have learned about, and the charger's profile has to match the device's profile. In theory the 65-W dock should be able to charge the 45-W laptop, so hopefully HP will open that up some time. Until then, it has to be plugged in to both power and the dock.

2. USB-C activity (mouse, keyboard) does not wake the laptop up. So we have to keep the lid open when it is docked. Again, hoping a BIOS update will eventually help, because that is stupid.

3. After updating the Intel IO drivers, our external webcam stopped working - it gets a signal, but the signal is not stable. The laptop's webcam is fine, but again that does not help when it is docked. Also hoping some future driver/BIOS update will resolve this.

We're running a Kensington SD4600P universal dock, which works great other that what is noted above. To get more ports, we've got another 7-port USB hub plugged in to the Kensington, and that also works fine. The issues noted above happened even if the devices were plugged directly in to the laptop. Other devices (printer, scanner, etc.) have worked fine even when on the hub plugged in to a hub.

Overall, she loves it. It's very classy, light, powerful, and the problems aren't killers.

 

Hey guys,

Has anyone tried to connect their spectre to a Razer core? I know Dave2D on youtube has tried and it didnt work at that time, but wondering if any tinkerers have given it a go? I suspect the Bios and / or driver requires some work for it to work.

Alternatively, any hint that HP is working on anything similar?

Or any other docks that are verified to work with the Spectre? working off dongles is ok, to a degree....

 

I'm using a Logitech MX anywhere, works a treat.

 

I believe HP specifically disabled TB3 graphics docks. For now, there is no workaround.

 

Hi guys,

Just got my HP Spectre 13. After charging it and first time using it for around 2-3 hours, it become extremely hot (especially the gold part). I am not sure if this is normal, can someone share your experience?



Also, when it's very hot I checked the back, and it's like one side (the left side as shown on the photo) of the space that hot air coming out is like blocked by some plastic inside. Is it what it is or is it not normal?



Look forward to hearing from you guys. Thanks a lot. SAm

 

Just curious, how are these machines holding up over time?