HP Spectre 13T-3000

Okay, I had the laptop unplugged all day and shutdown. Plugged in and rebooted - the benchmark from Geekbench is about the same (maybe slightly lower). So I think the change made by the Intel Utility stuck.

 

Hi, been following this laptop for a bit now, and I'm thinking of getting it. Also, I noticed that a couple online reviews came out recently. They seem very positive:

HP Spectre 13 Ultrabook Review - Editors' Choice - LAPTOP

HP Spectre 13t review | Digital Trends Reviews

 

Got mine today. It's frickin' awesome.

That is all.

 

That's precisely why I returned mine. And also an identical replacement model that did the same - both i5/8/256 (UK).

I'm in Singapore and found one in a PC store today (128GB, don't know other specs). It also made the same electronic buzzing sounds from the right side of the keyboard. I could live with those. That suggests it's not the 256GB SSD emitting the sounds.

It was when the sound changed to much louder 'random tapping' sounds when the screen shut off for energy saving - that's what made me return my two units - you could hear those across a room, albeit a quiet room. I didn't get a chance to check that behaviour on this Singapore shop display unit because it was running a promotional screensaver - so the screen never powered down.

 

Hello all...I posted this before but now I can't find it or whether there were any responses. Does anyone know if the screen is gorilla glass or another scratch-resistant material and, if not, if anyone makes a screen protector for it?

 

Just curious, what kind of environment would you be using this in where the display might get scratched? This isn't a phone or a tablet.

 

I haven't heard any strange noises from my unit since I first started it up. The first time it booted I did hear a noise from under the right side of the keyboard. I also had issues with the battery which may or may not have been related (those have cleared up).

I did a google search "ultrabook buzzing sound" which generates a lot of hits. The Mac Air had this problem. I think the most likely source is the fan since that really is the only moving part. Even though the fan is directly under the left side of the keyboard, there is an "arm" that extends the heat sink from the CPU on the right side over to the fan on the left side. This mechanical coupling could lead to a buzzing sound. Probably a very think piece of rubber inserted in the right place would put an end to it. Its interesting that only certain units seem to have this problem.

 

My Chrome settings:

I'm using the beta version (32.0.1700.55), in chrome://flags/ I have HiDPI Support Enabled, and also modified the command line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --high-dpi-support=0 but I don't think this makes any difference because the chrome flags settings take over.

You can get the Chrome beta here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/beta.html

I also don't have any electronic buzzing noises either.

 

I'm 'not very computer savvy and the discussion regarding performance, throttling, bios setting, benchmarks etc is like reading Greek to me. I'd like to make sure this laptop is performing as well as it should with the i7 processor I speced before my daughter receives it for Christmas.

I'd really appreciate it if someone could summarize in layman's terms the issue and how someone without any coding/software experience could run the test and if what steps to try to get optimized performance. Thanks!

 

Excellent question. If someone else doesn't get to it first, I'll put together a brief guide.

Maybe we need a new thread for this kind of thing?

 

I am interested to know if the performance problem is a hardware configuration issue vs. an OS issue. It is quite good if someone could test it by running some benchmarks on Linux and see how it compares with the equivalent models. I would assume there are lots of benchmarks available out there for Linux as well.

PS. I ordered mine on Cyber Monday and the ship date estimate was Dec. 17, but it is shipped much earlier and I will get the unit by Wednesday (hopefully sooner; it's already in California).

 

Hey everyone! I'm guessing nobody noticed this post had key new info: laptopmag.com gave our pet model a full review yesterday, came out with very high readings on benchmarks, found really zero cons and made it an Editor's Choice with 4 stars. Compared it favorably to MBA and all the other premium Ultrabooks that cost $1, 800 for the same config of the Spectre 13t selling under $1,200.

In short, confirms everything you all already knew, except they managed to get good benchmarks without equivocation. So it's likely that once you optimize the settings this baby performs just as it should. They got 9 hours battery life - not too shabby! Laptopmag.com is not at the calibre of notebookcheck.net or anandtech.com, but it is credible. Despite Lisa Gade's finding HP was not distributing machines for testing, HP either made an exception for them or they've just re-opened the supply line.

One last comment: the reason you were getting the same cpu benchmarks when you dropped down a level in power plan is because the HP keeps the default setting for maximum cpu power at 100%, even at "power saver" mode while plugged in (or so I was just told), so no difference at diff pwer modes - my bad. . All you need to do to keep it from going into turbo mode is drop it down to 99%. The rest of the power settings have no effect on performance.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

HP is really being aggressive. This is potentially even better than the 20% off coupon depending on your configuration. I think all of us who ordered last week got the same "expected ship" date of 12/17. Probably one big batch coming from the factory in China or wherever.

New discounts available
Holiday coupon savings on this PC*
- $175 off $899.99 configuration with code BUY175
- $250 off $1199.99 configuration with code BUY250

 

I did read the review and I noticed it. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the link to the newest review.

 

With the 20% off, I ended up with $273 off. Very happy with that.

 

If my wife decides to use it, and use the touchscreen, she has long nails. I will use my fingertips, but she won't

 

Capacitive stylus.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

 

As mentioned, a stylus could work. Trying to use the touchscreen with fingernails wouldn't work well, but I can't imagine they'd scratch the glass. I think trying to use a screen protector on a laptop would be a bad idea, unless you don't care about display quality.

 

Haha...I definitely care and know exactly what you mean. Even though some screen protectos claim 99.9% transparency you can always tell. I'm guessing the screen is not glass, but plastic, so I'll just have to figure out how to keep it to myself so it lasts a long time. I go out of my way to take care of my electronics. Thanks.

 

I ordered the 1st, fully maxed out. It shipped yesterday and left China last night.

 

How can you tell that?

I ordered mine on the 5th.

 

I ordered the 13t-3000 on Sat.... site unseen and no reviews to be found out there. Looked high and low. Not my usual method. Must have missed this somehow. Glad I found it, makes me comfortable with the order.

HP Spectre 13 Ultrabook Review - Editors' Choice - LAPTOP

 

You should have checked this thread earlier.

That review was referenced in post #602 a couple of pages back. :thumbsup:

 

That it shipped or left China?

 

Well, mine is now fast even on battery! I checked all three stock power plans and all three have maximum processor at 100% for both on battery and plugged in.

Jim

 

Yes. How would I know when mine leaves China?
Do you get an email saying it has left China? or just one that says that t has 'shipped' (with a tracking number)?

Or is there something else that you have to specifically do?


One reason I ask this is that I have another HP laptop (an HP Envy 15t-j100) on order that was 'expected' to ship on Dec.12 but so far I haven't heard anything about that one. I called HP customer service and they really couldn't tell me any more than, I would get an email when it got through customs with a tracking number.

My HP Spectre 13t-3000 is 'expected' to ship on Dec. 18th.

 

Was the random tapping sound present when you first started using the laptop with the screen shut off, or did it start after using the laptop for a while? Mine does not make any random tapping sound with the screen shut off that I've noticed, although I'll test it again to confirm.

I've gotten accustomed to the softer random buzzing/working sound from the keyboard - I think i'm going to live with it as well. I've been spoiled with the quality of the last two macbooks I've had - they are virtually silent.

 

I don't think it's the fan because the sound does not change with the activity of the fan, and it's a totally different location than the fan. It seems related to the audio a bit as I've heard it change in response to system beeps.

 

Well this is what the current theory is:

1) plug in laptop
2) run geekbench benchmark (regardless of power plan setting, leave at default hp). Install from: Geekbench 3 - Next-Generation Processor Benchmark
3) run intel tuner utility (just open the app, don't change any settings)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...4&keyword=""extreme+tuning+utility""&lang=eng
4) run geekbench benchmark again you should see the numbers to be about twice as high as original run. Single core should be upper 2000's, and multicore should be around 5500 give or take (with i7).

 

Okay, yeah I got an email with a tracking number and the status on the HP Order page changed to shipped. It left Chongqing China yesterday.

 

Ordered mine last night, a maxed out configuration other than sticking with the FHD screen. Estimated to ship the day after Christmas. My current laptop on gets 1.5 hrs of battery-life and weighs more than 6lbs, so I'm looking forward to finally having an ultraportable with all-day battery

 

Wow, yes, this should be a massive upgrade in terms of screen quality, weight and battery duration. The only real downside is that my old clunker had a 17" screen, but I have to say that I don't really miss it...

Now, would it ever be worth making a light 1/2" thik 17" laptop? I don't know...

 

Congratulations! Would you be willing to share the price you paid?

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

 

I ordered the same HP Spectre 13 on Dec 5. I got it for $1092 before taxes with the 20% off coupon at the time.

Windows 8.1 64
• 4th generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4500U Processor + Intel(R) HD Graphics(For 8GB Memory)
• Onboard 8GB DDR3 System Memory
• 13.3-inch diagonal Radiance Full HD Infinity LED-backlit Display (1920x1080) Touchscreen
• 256GB Flash Solid State Drive
• No Additional Office Software
• Free Upgrade to 1-yr McAfee LiveSafe service(TM)
• 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• No Internal DVD or CD Drive
• Backlit Keyboard
• Included 2 Year Warranty
• Webcam and Microphone
• 802.11 AC WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [2x2]

 

Mine was slightly more because the 20% had expired and only the buy250 coupon was offered, so I paid about $1,115.

 

That's still an outstanding price for such a great configuration. I priced one out with the buy250 coupon and it seemed to take about 20% off the price, not too bad.

One more question, if I may? What went into your decision to go with the FHD rather than QHD? I am having that dilemma now. As well as I can tell, there is little content or even W8 OS software optimized for the higher resolution but there will be in the future; for the small price ($70) is too little to give it a second thought as a hedge for the future. But I have also read that at least some QHD displays are unable to scale down to, say, 1080p, without scaling errors that make the FHD image far worse than it would be on a native 1080p. If this is the case, I would be sooner likely to get the 1080p screen now, and plan to update in a couple of years when QHD support is more entrenched. Then again, support for 1080p displays has been slow to come, as most laptop displays were 1366x768 until last year.

What was your take, and what led to your decision to choose the FHD screen? Others, feel free to respond too. Thanks.

 

Sorry for back-to-back posting; I felt this needed to be by itself.Also, sorry for never-ending post!

Good folks, some of you have gotten to know me a bit on this thread and many have gotten to "know" this computer. I really want this machine but find it tough to jusiffy the prchase - even for me, a "laptop collector!"

My uses all run just fine on my second gen (Ivy Bridge) Hp ENVY 14 Spectre w/4gb RAM (upgradeable to 8, but very complex surgery) and 256 gb SATA 3 SSDS. Same actually goes for my #2 and #3 laptops (recall my screen name!), which are Sony Z models with Sandy Bridge and Anandale i7 cpus, 8GB RAM,256GB SSD in RAIDO (come that way from mfr,) speed demons for their time, 2-3 yrs ago - surprisingly competitive with ULT Haswell products today), no problems with any, except my Sony Z Z2 has cracks and chips all around its carbon fiber (aka, plastic!) case, so no resale oppty with this one).

Would you all be kind enough to hlp me with a decison? Know that I am not a power user by a long shot. My main uses for laptops are the entire range of web sites (ie, surfing) and web apps In addition to the above I use MS Office extensively. I do watch videos on the road and use a computer at home for WIDI wireless connection to HDTV (doesn't have to be newest one, but probably best to, as that product has been improved). One thing that would severely cramp my style is if I could not work with 15 open browser windows on 2 browsers, 3-4 more W8 application software. My goal is to have extremely 'fast launching of apps, same for web sites assuming I have very fast Internet speeds and an AC router (done) and on any and all I/O of the relatively low power-needing - but potentially high RAM-needs (including lazy windows open!) for them to operate. Oh, and I should mention I am dabbling in video, audio and photo editing - one or more of these may become more important more important to me going forward. That said, are there any of these apps or types of apps that need more cpu and gpu?

So, here is what my decision consists of:

Pros for getting the Spectre 13t now:


1. Brand new, fully "up to date hdwe and software (eg, supports Blue tooth 4.0, supports AC router standards, etc.) That can really help. The bluetooth alone means a lot to me.

2. W8.1 is built in - vs a very, very long procedure to upgrade from W7 models. Biggest advantage of this: much faster OS boot-ups and execution of programs, but the idea of combining speed with greater security - so some say - is very appealing. When I I have had machines with W8 I generally booted into "desktop", but Tiles is supported in FHD and who knows, I could get used to them.

3. Navigation - W8, Ultrabooks and now HP have combined to make navigation so much easier with touchscreens, and a touchpad that is apparently out of this world as a platform to do W8 gestures. Each of my current W7 notebooks have touchpads that are subpar, small or both , the Envy Spectre 14 being the best of them.

4. Reasonably bright, otherwise high quality IPS FHD or QHD display. My best is Sony with FHD and 95% aRGP (that's "a" not "s" !) and a bit less brightness, but it is not IPS, it is TN (with very good horizontal angles, terrible vertical.

5. Battery Life - Oops, forgot the most important reason! The 13t tested at 9 hours by Laptopmag and they have a reasonable testing method. The best battery life I'm getting now is on the Sandy Bridge Sony Z with "slice" battery: 6-7 hrs.
Cons - for me getting the Spectre 13t now:

1. Cost. Since I really don't "need" this laptop, it seems silly to lay out significant dough just to get a pretty new one with a few not-must-have features. If I sell my Envy 14 Spectre, I would probably get around $650 (it's loaded) so I'd be laying out around $500. (I may just have talked myself into it: didn't realize it came down to that small a difference!) Still, $500 for no materal operating benefit, particularly when I have such excellent laptops from yesteryear. It's a pure throwawy for a "cooler" machine. Sometimes that's ok, but I would like to think there are more benefits to the purchase.

2. Bother: I have never found computer transitions to go smoothly, no matter how well backed up you are. Mitigating that some is that the Spectre 13t already has the OS on it, and I would not do a clean install, just move data files, media files and a few program files over. Then there's the work in selling the Envy 14 Spectre (and the pain of parting with it - it is truly the most beautifully conceived and rendered designs ever in this product category! You have to see it in real life to believe it! I would probably buy the Spectre 13 from HP before putting the 13 on the market, then do A/B comparisons including, does the 13t feel as perfectly proportioned and buttery smooth as the 14 does..

3. Chance of Lemons: I know the quality on the Spectre 13t has been almost "legendary," but law of averages and other factors are likely to make a new machine a bit of a crap shoot, particularly after the return period is over. I've had decent experiences over the many, many HP notebooks I've owned (business and personal) over the past 6 years, but tech support has been the weakest. The point is, right now I have 1-3 yr. old laptops with plenty of use on them and I know they working reliably. "The devil you know..."

This post is already so long, so I will abruptly end it here. I'm not looking for a "Which Notebook Should I Buy" inquiry, just among you owners.

 

I went with the base 1080p screen as in my experience, anything more isn't necessarily any more usable. I already need to scale up font sizes and web page scaling on the 1080p screen (using large font and 125% scaling on this page as I type).

If you're doing high resolution graphics work, it may be worth your while, if not, IMO it's not worth it at the moment with the current level of operating system support and the extra drain on your graphics card (and battery life) to render and push the extra pixels.

 

My decision for going with the FHD (1920x1080) screen was that at 13", I didn't feel like the QHD screen would be that noticeable or different for 95% of applications (photography being an exception possibly). Also, I felt that for a lot of applications you would need to set the display to resolution to HD anyway or the fonts would be too small to read easily.

My 42" HDTV in my bedroom is a 1920x1080 LED and the picture on it is great so 13" should be no problem.

Heck, I'm on a 15.6" laptop with a 1366x768 resolution so I know the 13" will be a BIG step up.

 

My reasoning is as follows, I currently use a laptop with a 16" screen that has a basic HD resolution. The 720p has been fine for my uses, so I figured if I was going with a smaller screen 13.3" and a higher resolution 1080p, then that would more than enough for my eyes. I think QHD is a bit much, and I did factor in that Windows 8.1 doesn't provide the best support to scaling when compared to Mac.

 

The main reason that I decided to spend this much on a new laptop is to learn to use a 'Touch Screen' and Windows 8. Also, my current laptop is about 5 years old and I wanted something lighter and much faster.

I'm running Windows 7 on my old Asus and it takes forever to boot up and for me to be able to get online. (Over 5 minutes)

I may still use this older laptop in some cases when I need use of a bigger screen though.

 

I wish I could do a real side-by-side comparison, but I can't. I will say this: the QHD screen looks beautiful. I have no complaints. I have found very few problems with scaling. Chrome actually works fine - especially if you run it on the desktop (i.e. pop out of "metro"). I don't recall doing anything special to get it working.

I think Haswell will basically give you two things over your previous systems: longer battery life and a better GPU. You only need the former if you are away from an outlet for long periods of time and you only need the latter if you play games.

Okay, I will help as I can

I don't think you need much horse power for most of the activities you mention with the possible exception of video and audio editing. I guess chrome can be a bit processor and ram greedy and maybe office is too, but I would think you could get by with 4Gig of RAM. With Chrome each tab runs in it's own process, so tons of tabs leads to tons of processes. I'm seriously thinking of switching back to firefox because of Chrome's bloat issue.

Launching applications has more to do with SSD I/O speeds than anything else. You really only have to think about how much space you need for files, videos, audio etc.

Note that HDTV is 720p which should look better on the QHD screen since it's an even 4x the 720p resolution. Blueray or 1080p in theory should look better on the FHD screen. I tested my QHD screen with 1080p and it looked pretty darn good.

If you have a free USB port on one of your current systems, you could put in a tiny Bluetooth dongle like this one: Amazon.com: Kensington K33902US Bluetooth USB Micro Adapter: Electronics

Getting AC would probably require a bigger dongle though..

Okay, here's a real selling point. The 13t-3000 has a great touch pad for working with Win8. It sounds like you might also gain a touchscreen out of the deal unless your existing systems have this.

W8 is definitely odd and it seems to me it is evolving. Having said that, it seems to me that it is evolving in the right direction.

Yes, if you are ready to commit to Win8 at this time, then the HP is a pretty good option. HP definitely thought this one through.

Sadly I haven't seen enough laptops to make the comparison. The QHD screen is stunning and from what I've heard the FHD screen is too.

Okay, my battery life so far hasn't been quite that great, but then I haven't really tested it. I'll have to read the review to figure out what kind of processing they were running for 9 hours.

Hmm.. yes, you've got to summarize again the pros and cons. What you need and what you want. You should get longer battery life and Win8 out of this deal.

Okay, how about this? HP's return policy has been pretty generous. If you can lay out the money to buy one and test drive it through the return period that my be the way to go.

I'm not a Win8 believer yet, so I won't try to sell you on that or on the touchscreen that all these new ultrabooks have.

I think if you are committed to buying *any* new machine you will run a risk of getting a lemon. It's a really tough question whether now's the right time to go through the hassle of running the gauntlet of system transitioning and lemon dodging. There are two things to think about: there will be a next generation and you could buy these machines in 6-8 months when they should be considerably less.

So I've been carefully dodging a completely different "reason" to buy, and that's would be what drove me to buy this laptop. I really wanted the state-of-the-art Haswell Ultrabook with the maxed i7/8G/256G configuration. I was fixated on that particular type of sports car mainly because of it's shiny luster and beefy engine under the hood. The HP comes in at a very reasonable price for this configuration. Even maxing the screen res to QHD doesn't add that much no does adding AC wifi. So I bought this machine mainly "because". Like all new toys, this one will lose it's shine either sooner or later, but even taking this into account I believe it's a damn fine machine. I can't bring the perspective of a collector to this, but I believe 13t-3000 is worthy of a collection. It's is a beautiful machine.

 

Hey Lovelaptops,, I have read all of your posts, which I have found to be interesting, and I feel that I almost know you. My advice: Quit over analyzing, just go get one! I am sort of a laptop lover also. I have had about five over the last two years. I sold all but two, so all I have now is my awesome 13t-3000, a Fujitsu Q702 which is up for sale and I just bought an Asus UX302LA which I will probably just use for experiments and maybe do some user upgrades just for the fun of it.

Anyway, just my perspective.

Good luck, Jim

 

My laptop said it cleared customs yesterday. Does anyone know how long it took for them to get theirs after clearing customs? I paid for two-day shipping.

 

For those of you who have the laptop, would you mind checking the following multitouch gesture to see if it works on yours. Supposedly, you should be able to swipe 3 fingers to the left or right to go forward or backward in your internet browser. Does that work for you? In my touch pad settings there isn't even an option for that but in the online pdf manual from HP's site it says that's a feature. I've updated my touchpad to the most current drivers.

 

Your laptop can speak? That must be an option I didn't check off. LOL

Seriously, glad to hear that yours is on the way. Mine has an 'expected' ship date of 12/18 so hopefully I will hear something soon as well.

 

No, that doesn't seem to work for me. I don't see it listed in the clickpad properties.

 

That link didn't work for me, and the only search item I found was for the Extreme Tuning utility for overclocking specific Intel processors. Is this the utility you ran?

 

Well I should hopefully have mine next week or the week after...I'm military overseas and my parents received mine and will be mailing it to me tomorrow Looking forward to the new toy! A few questions:

- How much bloatware is on the machine when it comes and is it easy to remove (e.g. does it leave a lot of stuff in the registry when removed)?
- How many partitions come on the 256GB drive? I assume there's two, including a recovery partition? How big is it?
- Assuming HP has all of the drivers available on their web site, is it worth it to reformat and install a fresh copy of Windows (I have a Windows 8 upgrade disk and I assume I could just download the 8.1 update and install?
- Can I use a 60W or 90W AC adapter with this laptop without any damage? Will it charge faster?

 

Possibly this one?

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...084&ProdId=3483&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows 8*