HP Spectre 13T-3000

I just came to ask that same question. I cannot figure out how to do back / forward in a browser by swiping. Has anyone figured out how to?

 

With the 1080p screen I had to right click on the chrome exe and tell it to now adjust font for high DPI in the compatibility tab. Needed to do the same for notepad++. This seems to be a windows 8 issue with high res screens.

 

yeah that's the link sorry

 

1) Bloatware: Not much. office 365 and photoshop lightroom come to mind. Much better than my previous pc laptops. Various HP system/help bloatware.
2) 256 gig ssd here. 215 gig available on C, 13.7 gigs on recovery drive, ~240 gigs total I think on the drive. Disappointed by this.
3) IMO due to the relative lack of bloatware it is not recommended to reformat. Might be worth reformatting to get more available HD space - if you do so please let us know your findings.
4) No idea on the adapter.

 

You can move the recovery partition to a USB drive and recover that space if you really want to.

 

If you are using IE from the Start Menu, a single finger swipe on the screen or touchpad will work.

 

The only three finger operation on the touch pad I have used is to drag three fingers down and metro apps will close. The three finger flick described in the pdf manual doesn't work as described. However, a two finger flick does what is described for the three finger flick.

Good luck, Jim

 

You can also enable a 4-finger flick in the clickpad properties box. This bring up a tiled view of running applications that you can rotate around.

 

I'm curious regarding the sensitivity and responsiveness to touch / tap of the screen . I'm most interested in the touch screen sensitivity especially with regards to tapping small boxes and small links . The Ipad for example is very responsive and accurate when trying to tap small " objects " on the screen, the Nook for example is not. What is the HP 1080p FHD screen like ?

 

OMG!!! I can't believe my response to all of you, my friends and advisors, for your awesome responses to my requests for help in a purchase decision on the 13t, didn't publish when I wrote it last night!!! I was blown away by the number, depth and quality of responses you all provided and, pressed for time, I wrote a brief response and "Thank You" for your responsiveness. Somehow - and this is far from the first time I have been a forum-klutz, after 4 years no less - my post didn't publish. I feel really badly that you all put so much effort so quickly after my requests and it seemed as if I either didn't look for them or, worse, had no response or gratitude to express.

Well, what can I say? First, only time availability will prevent me from making my purchase today - if not, surely tonight or tomorrow. Second, all of you who said, in essence, "stop analyzing and just do it!" carried the day and made me laugh at myself. For some reason, I am feeling particularly guilty about over-indulging in tech toys - affordability is not an issue (I am 57 and had a good decade or two and I am extremely fortunate), but I think there is a correlation between success and modesty about spending - for all purposes except charity, which you can't over-indulge enough.

Beyond all of the above, I want to say something important. I became an NBR member four years ago, at the time I purchased one of HP's unsung (and unpopular) classics: the DV8t. I found the DV8t thread on NBR and in short order a group of early adopters created a "social media" experience before the term was a mass-market concept. The thread became not only a way to get advice, help and conversation about our device, but more of a general forum about technology, occasionally straying too far from topic, but usually reining in soon. So I really hope we will stay together and keep this going well past the time of decisions to buy and early experiences. ***Caution: we, collectively, ultimately blew it on the DV8t thread, and it embarrasses me personally, as I was in the center of some, but not all, of the conflict that developed. Suffice to say I learned about proper conduct in this "society" and about how to deal with both trolls and NBR Mods (a ridiculous conflict with a Mod became a great friendship in short order )

Once again, thanks to all and know that I decided I wanted to hang with this thread and offer whatever shreds of knowledge I had when relevant questions came up, even when I wasn't at all sure I was going to purchase the product anytime soon. Now, I just want to have one to share the experience. (Btw, on additional bit of help would be if anyone could refer a potential buyer of my 2013, Ivy Bridge i5 Envy 14 Spectre; it's absolutely gorgeous and a true joy to use as well as view, but it has to make room for my incoming 13t.)

All the best,
Jeff Bellin (stuck with silly "lovelaptops" moniker as it became my "brand" on this forum and most people only know me that way!)

 

Best of luck with your purchase, Jeff! BTW - I agree, as I get older these purchasing decisions get harder and I tend to perseverate a lot more while decision making than I used to.

Which model number Spectre 14 Envy do you have?

 

]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)

Thank you I appreciate the information.

 

I just want to say that I have followed this thread since page 2. I joined the forum just now to say that I'm happy to have followed the thread this far. Learning about this amazing laptop through you all has been a pleasure and one day I hope to get one myself. Right now it just isn't feasible for my budget. I hope the noise under the enter key is just a QC issue that they will get fixed soon and they release some update to fix the performance issues without downloading the Intel tool.

regarding the screen - someone was asking if it was plastic or glass - I thought I read somewhere that it was a corning glass stronger than gorilla glass. Is that right? I can't imagine a plastic touch screen being worth a darn.

Has anyone played any moderately modern games on this machine? Can it handle the likes of Civ 5 or Arkham City? I'm sure it could handle web, flash-based games with ease...

Jeff B - send me a PM on what you were thinking of selling the older spectre for please. Not really in the budget right now either, but I would probably be just as happy with that as I would with this as I am currently using a ca. 2009 DV5 with a 2 Ghz C2D as my web surfing/light gaming, couch potato rig. I have a self built desktop for the real work(play). I think you said you would sell it for $600 but I may be wrong.


To the fella who has an Asus that takes 5 minutes to boot up, it sounds like you could seriously benefit from doing a fresh install of windows or a restore if they put a recovery partition(like HP) on those notebooks! Antivirus programs and other misc. things that we install over the years with our equipment tend to really inhibit the speed of our toys. My 2009 DV5 boots up in around a minute to a usable state. Granted its got a clean install of windows on it with no bloatware, but it's still a 500 gb 5400 rpm hd.

Thanks for everyone's inputs that I've been following for weeks on this subject! It's been incredibly valuable! I, too, was shocked that there weren't any reviews of this machine on any major site like Engadget or anything else...

I look forward to reading all the coming opinions on this laptop in the coming weeks!

 

I played Borderlands (the first one) and that is quite passable at full resolution. I haven't tried Borderlands 2. I played briefly StarCraft 2 and that seemed fine, but I didn't get to a point where there was a lot going on which is when machines can get bogged down. I think I have Arkham City on steam. I'll try that if I get a chance.

 

I was interested in buying this new spectre 14, however if you have the spectre 14 depending on the specs I may be interested in taking this off your hands.

 

Jeff: Congratulations on your decision! I hope you like your 13t-3000 as much as I do. I have been sort of out of the loop and missed your question about FHD vs the high res display. I don't know what you decided, but I went with FHD because I had a 1366x768?? and for my weak eyes, I had to increase text size to be able to read anything with the 1366. And I have to do the same thing with the FHD. So, I thought the high res wouldn't give me anything except bragging rights.

Good luck, Jim

 

I just tried out Arkham City and it plays great on my 13t-3000 (I have the maxed i7 config).

 

I just got my laptop. I have had a few issues in the first hour of playing with it:
1- I hear a whistling noise coming out of the fan. It is completely annoying. I can't live with that Is it only mine which makes this noise?
2- The touchpad is not good at all! It is not sensitive. Do I need to configure/calibrate it?

 

I dont like how I only have 70gb available on my 128 gb SSD. Also its not reading my brand new Sony 16gb SDHC card. it makes the noise alert that it reads it, but it doesnt show up as a drive in the my computer section. Anyone else have this issue? USB reads fine, I am making a recovery USB drive right now so I can get 14gb back and have a wopping 84gb available.

 

1) I can't compare my fan to yours, but mine does make a sort of high pitched whine. What previous laptops are you comparing this to? When reading reviews, it seems quite a few laptops suffer from noisy fans. I suggest using it for a bit and seeing if you become accustomed to it.
2) Can you describe the touchpad issue more? I had to decrease sensitivity and increase speed on mine. You should definitely configure it to your liking by using the classic mouse settings (available by right clicking the start button in the desktop mode and clicking control panel). My issue with the trackpad has been misinterpreting of single finger clicks as double-finger right clicks. I hope this becomes configurable in a future driver version or is improved with driver logic as this never happens on my Macbook air.

 

Great to hear! That game can slow systems down when fighting a group of thugs!

 

I thought the laptop fan was loud the first day but for some reason I don't seem to notice it anymore. Has it gotten quieter? Or maybe I've just gotten used to it. One thing is that the fan only kicks in when I'm actually doing something (like playing a game), so it's pretty quiet most of the time.

That's odd about the touchpad... you shouldn't need to adjust it - mine seems to work fine. You can play around with the settings by opening the control panel (swipe from the right border of the screen, select the settings "charm", then select the control panel), and select the mouse and pointer settings and then go to the touch pad properties. There is at least one settings that effects sensitivity. Again, I'm surprised you would need to change this.

 

Before buying the 13t-3000, I went and read on a number of forums about the competitors like the Yoga 2 Pro. People had exactly the same complaint about the 128G SSD's: the OS took around 40G of space and you were left with a pretty small amount of disk space to work with. I'm not sure why the OS needs so much space...

 

So, my old laptop died last night...won't even let me boot from cd-rom for a clean reinstall. Good thing I just ordered my spectre, but 2 weeks without a computer seems so long

 

I found this in the specs. It says the display is "flush glass"...
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03984004.pdf

Product description
Category Description
Product Name HP Spectre 13 Ultrabook
Processors Intel Quad Core i7-4500U 1.80-GHz processor (turbo up to 3.00-GHz;
1600-MHz FSB, 4.0-MB cache, dual core, 15 W; configured with 8-GB
RAM only)
Intel® Quad Core® i5-4200U 1.60-GHz processor (turbo up to 2.60-
GHz; 1600-MHz FSB, 3.0-MB cache, dual core. 15 W)
Chipset Intel Lynx Point - LP PCH (Integrated in MCP)
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 4400
Supports HD Decode, DX11, and HDMI
Panel Flush glass design, touchscreen, multitouch enabled, 340 nits
● (33.8-cm) 13.3-in display, WLED, full-high definition (FHD)
(1920x1080), BrightView, 2.85-mm, UWVA (eDP 1.2) at 72% Color
Gamut
● (33.8-cm) 13.3-in display, WLED, Quad High Definition (QHD)
(2560x1440), BrightView, 2.55-mm, UWVA (eDP1.3+PSR) at 72%
Color Gamut
Memory No customer-accessible/upgradable memory module slots
DDR3L-1600-MHz dual channel support
Supports up to 8 GB of system RAM integrated into the system board in the
following options:
● 8192-MB
● 4096-MB
Solid-state drive Single M.2 SSD Configuration as storage
Supports the following SSDs:
● 512-GB
● 256-GB
● 128-GB

 

I ordered mine on Nov 29th and arrived on Dec 16th (originally ship date was the 16th, so it was about 6 days ahead of schedule). Got the 20% CM deal when I called back a few days after ordering, they were great to work with on the phone to get credit for the difference back from my original price.

i7/8GB/QHD/256/AC

My initial impression are very good.

Build is above the expectations even touted here. The screen is outstanding. I ran my monitor calibration (Spyder 3 Pro) and it had only minor adjustments (colors were initially a little blue/green), but it's the least dramatic adjustment I've seen on any monitor I’ve run calibration on. I've noticed some of the minor resolution concerns others have noted (such as using Chrome), but it's generally just installation screens and menus that look a little off; all of the "in application" resolution behavior seems just fine.

Speed seems good for everything I've tried, I copied about 30GB of stuff from a USB 3.0 external drive in under 5 minutes. I also imported about 4000 raw files into Lightroom and it took less than a minute to fully process them which is quite impressive. I bought this to use lightroom primarily so it coming with it was a nice perk. It’ll take some menu layout adjustments and use of full screen mode to get used to photo editing on a 13” screen, but editing on the go will be very nice. I loaded the intel tuning utility based on remarks from this post, but I haven’t had a chance to run a benchmark.

The keyboard is excellent and I not only didn't have an issue with the backlight, but actually like the setup so I think there’s some personal preference involved there. In brighter light I do intend to leave it off, which I would do regardless. Touchscreen is very responsive and works well (for the rare times I plan on using it).

The only "issue" I've run into so far is the same as others have mentioned with the track pad and my left charms menu won't work at all and the one on the right works different than described (have to swipe in to get the right charms to come up, and then up/down/select works fine after that). Those zones work fine if I switch them to tradition zones in the settings, so I’m sure it's just a software thing that they’ll hopefully correct.

After several hours of use on battery (in a dead silent room) I did start to notice light fan noise/whistle/whine, but it wasn’t anything I wouldn’t normally expect for channeling lots of air through a small space. I’ll report back if it gets worse or other concerns arise… but in normal conditions I would not let that determine you from buying this laptop.

Thanks to all of those on this forum for keeping everyone informed through this being a fairly un-reviewed/untested product.

 

My 64 GB Scan Disc Ultra works with no problems. I have about 73 Gb left on my 128 Gb ssd after installing everything I need/want. The used space is about 43 GB.I also deleted the recovery partition and added it the the "C" partition.

You can also use the free 50 GB Box cloud account for stuff that takes up a lot of room, but that you don't need frequently. I find Box a little slow for viewing a large jpg file. SkyDrive is much faster, but it costs $25/yr for 50 GB.

Good luck, Jim

 

I'd really like to hear if others are experiencing touchscreen issues. I reported previously that after spending some time on a website the touch screen feature ceases to work. I am now experiencing the same problem with the touchscreen stopping to work after a few minutes on a webpage. It is not a consistent problem, but I am really making use of the touch screen for navigating and find it is really useful, so when it stops functioning it is very annoying to me. I can close out of chrome and reopen the window/website and it works again. There is no consistent pattern either. I've now had the touchscreen feature stop working after navigating through only 3 pages within a site. I'm very happy with pretty much everything about this ultrabook BUT it was purchased for the touchscreen feature and to have it totally not function periodically is going to be a deal breaker for me.

 

^ sorry but I haven't tried the touchscreen feature and I have no intention to. I would have ordered without it if I could.

 

Are you using Chrome? Because that would explain it.

 

CNET also just put out an online review this evening. For those interested in checking it out, here's the link:

HP Spectre 13t-3000 Ultrabook Review - Watch CNET's Video & Read Our Review

 

Thanks! Mine should be shipping out any day now.

 

Thanks for the heads up, this article addressed my issues with the control zones, I didn't realize they were rocker buttons biased to the bottom (vs touch sensitive like the rest of the touchpad).

 

Well, after a few days of using this laptop (err, ultrabook), I absolutely love it. But, there are a few issues with it that have prompted me to contact HP. There's an area towards the lower left of the screen that's lighter than the rest of the screen, about 2" wide by 4mm high or so. It's most noticeable one a white background. Also, when the lid is closed, it sticks off the right hand side of the base about 2mm, while on the left it's to the right that same amount, so the lid isn't lined up correctly. It sounds like they're going to take it back to fix?

"so that we would be able to proceed for service repair at service centre by HP Qualified Technician under special instruction"

I'd obviously prefer a new one, but it sounds like they'd just fix it. Can anyone confirm? Also, I can't be without this now. It's for my work, and I need it every day. I've responded saying I need a replacement or something if I'm shipping it off, but what's the normal procedure for this?

It's a shame, I love this thing and I'm still excited to be able to use one. This one just has some issues that should have been caught by quality control. Actually, even as I sit here typing this, I just noticed that the metal hinge is bent. Not like dented, but completely not flat against the screen. Ugh.

 

Ahh Ive had this laptop for alittle bit over 24 hours and just turned off everything in the room (fan, tv) and I hear that whirring noise too. Wow that is annoying. Reminds me off a samung buzzing plasma tv I used to own. I cant live with that. How crappy, i was enjoying this laptop too. Thats what us' early adopters' get I supposed.

Another thing is My i7-4500u is supposed to get a cpu mark of 3950 ish and My scores are severely under that to the effect of 2650. I tried plugging it in and turning on performance mode to no avail. I tried reading through the forums and saw this is a wide spread issue.

 

Yeah sucks about the sound. I need mine for work and not sure what a better option would be, so sticking with it as it appears that a high percentage if not all the models have the issue.

What program did you use for computing CPU mark?

 

You have options. You have 21 days to return it, so you could do that and either order a new one or not. Or you can send it in for repair. You should not expect a loaner while it's being repaired.

 

Yes I am using Chrome. Should I not expect it to be compatible?

 

did you download and run the intel tool that everyone mentioned? It practically doubled the performance of the computer by only running and not tweaking anything.

Chrome has serious issues with windows 8. That's probably where it all stems from. on my OLD laptop now running 8.1, Chrome continues to run processes in the background long after being closed and it uses up most of my processor causing it to get hot etc. I couldn't even uninstall Chrome without some quick clicking and task killing while trying to uninstall. I know we all hate to hear this but IE is really the best browser for windows 8...

Oh and I had the chrome settings set to not run any apps in the background, so I don't know why it acts that way...

 

Did you buy the laptop directly from HP? If so, they should replace it rather than repair it within the first 21 days. If they push back I would fight for it (tell them that with the number of issues you would rather have a replacement) and if that doesn't work ask to be transferred to the return department.

 

I had the same issue when I turned on my spectre 13t, but since I've given it a few days of normal day to day use I've actually found it to be pretty quiet. I'm still going to be evaluating over the next week or so, but I think its something I would get used to anyway. My older laptop has a fan that's actually louder, but it doesn't make have the whiny sound that the spectre has. I think part of the reason I was so focused on the noise was that I was specifically looking for it too since I've read about it so much in the forums.

 

Well either I'm getting old and loosing my hearing or the background sound is high in the room or the noise isn't that bad for me. But I'm used to laptops running like hair dryers. This one isn't so bad.

You should check the earlier threads. A few of us found that simply downloading and running the latest version of the Intel Extreme Tuning Utiltiy without changing anything seems to make the laptop perform much better:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?keyword=""extreme+tuning+utility""

I also recommend everyone check the HP support site for updated drivers. There may be some important fixes out there.

 

I bought it directly from HP (during the Cyber Monday sale). They've replied saying that a case worker is being assigned to my issue and they'll talk to me about a "loaner". I'll talk with them and see how it goes. Thanks for the heads up!

 

Ugh mine's sitting in Alaska. Come on already!!! LOL

 

Mistaken duplicate post

 

Strong advice: go straight to customer service and demand they process a refund right away. I'm not familiar with a "return dept" another member mentioned, but cutomer support will process a refund and may even take a few bucks off your reorder (if you choose to). It is your only "safe" option now. Read below for details. I've been around NBR for a long time and this thread from early on and ordering my 13t today. I promise you I am not trolling.

@ The Community and mdewyer:

Word to the wise: avoid dealing with HP's case management "juggernaut" at all costs! Contrary to their stated purpose and the generic meaning of the term, this group has a terrible combination of unbridled power, no product or technical knowlege an almost no contact with HP's Tech support group. I have had 3 experiences with HP case management in the past two years and they were uniformly disastrous. If you can get internal HP staff to speak frankly they will tell you CS is the kiss of death! And once a CM has been assigned, even if you seek to avoid them and deal directly with HP customer or tech support, CS will literally scoop it out of the hands of the other divisions and tell you that you can deal with CS only. Not only are they megalomaniacs with unchecked organizational power (you cannot find any group in HP to complain or escalate to), but their "solutions" are worse and often take many weeks into months until it is done. They will refuse to take your preferences into account. They will Tell you what will be done, take a long time to do so and then it can be a long time until the "workout" is executed.

Given what I have said, I can only advise you to return the computer to HP for a full refund and order a new one. I know that's more of a hassle than your desired plan to send it in jave it repaired quickly and be back in business in 2 weeks at most. That's entirely plausible as long as you are not being "Case Managed." But I speak with sincerity and experience about this. Perhaps when Meg Whitman learns of this legacy department it will be eliminated, but until then they are pretty much self- perpetuating.

Feel free to pm me if you wish to. I would have sent this via PM but have long felt remiss for not making this public. I'm grateful for the opportunity.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk



Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

 

Guys upgrading the BIOS "DEFINATELY" fixes the i7 speed issue. I was getting 2650 on the CPU mark running intel Extreme utlity on power. (plugged in) Didn't matter what I did. Immediately after I upgraded BIOS it shot up to 4100.

However it is still performing much slower on battery which IMO is awful. I dont hardly ever plan on keeping my notebook plugged the majority of the time. If i did I would have got a much larger, powerful unit not a ultrabook. I feel hosed that I paid for the i7 because when it is not connected to the wall. It is a much noticably slower unit.

 

Seriously? Ugh, thats not a good sign. Can you try playing a game with and without it plugged in to see if it throttles?

 

Can anyone post their completed tracking info? I'm trying to judge how much longer mine will be.

 

Unfortunately, I think I've decided to go with a Lenovo y410p over this one for the upgrade accessibility, great graphics power and most of all price. The screen isnt nearly as nice but I can deal for the MQ i7...