HP Spectre 13T-3000

I greatly improved scaling for everything including chrome for my FHD display by going to "screen resolution" -> "make text and items larger or smaller" -> medium 125%. everything looks great now.

I have a question about audio though: when watching video im hearing like just a bit of annoying fuzz while someone talks/music plays. its like coming from where the speakers are. the slight staticky noise is exactly the same pattern as the audio that i hear. does that make sense? anyone else having a similar problem? its not HORRIBLE but a little annoying. any way to fix this?

 

Are you using the same computer?
There is no nvidia graphics installed its intel only. And i changed the scaling options. Nothing

 

Doh! You're right, I was logged into my other laptop when I check =P Middle age is catching up with me...

I get the same thing you did: 1280 x 720

But when I right click on the desktop and select "Screen Resolution" it states "2560 x 1440". I think what's going on is that the JavaScript screen object's properties are incorrect. So I think this is a bug in the JavaScript interpreter.

 

Chrome works fine. No performance issues.

 

Okay, so I have found an example of a real interface issue. I want to use Acrobat Reader IX, but the Metro App is too limited. I installed the Windows 7 version and the problem I have is that the fonts for the tool bar and menus is way too small. I haven't looked extensively, but I'm trying to find a way to fix this...

 

SHE JUST ARRIVED! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (was supposed to get here on monday)

First impressions:
Light
The fan whine is definitely present (I can see this getting annoying in quiet places like at work ... may/may not be a deal-breaker ...)
Not as bright as my current XPS 14, but I love the display and resolution
Bloatware isn't as bad as I thought so I might actually not do a clean install of windows (feels weird not to lol)
Backlight is less than idea, but def not a deal-breaker

Need to find new wallpapers.... all my 1080p ones now don't look that great ... T_T

 

Any issues with WiFi ? WiFi AC or otherwise ? At only $20 it seems like a no brainer. Is there any downside to getting the upgraded WiFi AC ?

 

I got the AC WIFI and so far it's been working really well even though I just use normal Wifi.

 

I have no issues with the wifi, but the Intel 7260 doesn't like my Actiontec c1000a Centurylink branded modem/router. Every 30 minutes or so it loses connectivity. I have no idea why but after doing some research I've found others with this issue as well.

This isn't a deal breaker as I've got a brand new AC router on the way!

 

Just got mine!

It's a pretty impressive machine - seems well built, speedy, very responsive touch screen and touchpad.

My only complaint so far is fan noise. There's almost always a persistent whine - not super loud, but loud enough to bother me (the noise is obvious when compared with the noise level produced by a 2010 Macbook Air, which basically produces no sound while doing basic web browsing). I got it to stop once by uninstalling the preinstalled antivirus, but it's kicked in again. Have you all experienced this, or do you think it's possible it's a defect? (For the record, I toggled Coolsense on/off - no real difference, and updated the BIOS to the latest version. That hasn't helped either). I hope it's fixable or a defect, because it might be a dealbreaker for me.

Update: I noticed that the fan kicks in when I'm using the computer on my lap. When I'm using on a table (a cool glass one, anyway), there's very little/no noise. Has anyone noticed a difference in noise based on the surface the laptop is on?

Update 2: The other thing I've noticed is that once I get the fan operating at audible levels, I can't get it to quiet down again without putting the computer to sleep or restarting it.

 

I also purchased one during the 20% sale, got mine today, and found this forum. Same issue for me--fan noise is definitely annoyingly pitched enough to be a deal-breaker, but I guess we'll see. It really is kind of amazing how irritating the noise is.

Its definitely a little bit different, but I can still make it kick on when its on hard surfaces. Its to be expected, though, as the hard surface will allow for more airflow under the little leg things.

 

Yeah, the pitch is what does it: even when the fan isn't roaring, the sound it produces is much higher pitched than pretty much any other laptop fan I've used. It almost produces a a whistling sound that oscillates in pitch in addition to a normal laptop fan sound; this is, as you say, almost amazingly annoying. I'm hoping there's a software update (maybe an update to Coolsense?) that deals with it, but I'm keeping all of my packaging in case.

 

I just ordered this laptop several days ago and although I have not received it yet, the many reports of the fan noise are getting me nervous and making me rethink this.

From my experience with laptop fans (have replaced several over the past few years in Macbooks and other brands), even at the fastest speed they should not be making the type of noise being described here. That noise sounds like a hardware problem.

I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to try this and let me know how it works for them: Re: Envy Spectre XT Fan Noise - Page 2 - HP Support Forum - 1748695

That page is about the Spectre XT model. The last response on that page is from a guy who claims that covering part of the intake vent with a piece of tape stops the high pitched noise. I wonder if this will work on this model as well.

Thanks

 

So...whether it will irritate you or not depends on your hearing...other than the fan noise its a fantastic machine. The control zones are kind of silly but the extra pad space is nice.

As for that fix, I don't think it will work here. The design is totally different. I can't tell which part is which, but my thought is it is separated left vs right, as you can see through the top vents to the bottom vents. I'll fiddle some and see if I find more out.

 

Well, since you have already order it, it will be shipped to you. There is no way to cancel the order. The GOOD news is that you can unpack it and try it out. If it doesn't meet your expectations you can call HP customer service and they will send you a Fedex RETURN label via an email and you can send it back to HP, and you will get ALL of your money back (including the shipping charge). :thumbsup:

As long as you do that within 21 days of receiving the laptop.

 

That would be a shame... the price and the specs on this beats out any competing ultrabook.

I may check if the fan is replaceable, and if so, replace it with a compatible fan. It will void the HP warranty, but I will still have my warranty from my Amex card, so I am not concerned about that.

The whining is either coming from the fan itself, or from the the way it's set up to exhaust. The airflow through the exhaust may be acting as a whistle causing all the whining.

Of course, this is all speculation as I have not yet seen the machine.

 

I would recommend making sure everything is up-to-date including "HP CoolSense". This app was at version 2.1 on my laptop and I updated it to 2.2.

Yes, the fan is sometimes annoying, but I don't notice it all that often. I'm frequently in situations with a lot of background noise (currently a loud air handler).

-Fred

 

I received my 13t-3000 a few days ago and have been delighted with it. As I read this forum, though, I was beginning to wonder if we were all talking about the same machine.

Granted, being an over-50 kind of guy, my hi-range hearing is fading - I can't hear anything over about 10khz. I wondered if perhaps I was just enjoying one of the few perks of being an old fart by not being able to hear the high-pitched noise generated by the fan.

That made me start to wonder - just what frequency was this noise? I decided to run an experiment, vis:

1. I downloaded three different spectrum analyzer software packages to three different machines - the t-3000, a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2012 edition, and a Motorola Droid Razr Maxx smartphone.
2. I located all three machines in a quiet room and baselined background noise on all 3 test systems.
3. I started the geekbench benchmarking utility and set the t-3000 performance level to high performance to force high heat levels
4. I waited until I could physically feel moving air out of the vents of the t-3000
5. Recorded results from all three analysis tools.

Guess what I found?

Nothing. There was no increase in dB output registered on any of the 3 systems for any frequency over 10khz.

Human hearing ranges to about 22khz maximum, although that is an average, meaning there are people whose hearing falls both above and below that frequency. The analysis tools I used appear to top out at 20khz, so there is a possibility (but not a very big one) that the fan noise is above that level. I know there are professional analysis tools that can capture sounds well over 20khz, and if anyone has access to one of them it would be great to see the results.

My conclusion is that if you're one of the people worried about having to return the t-3000 you've ordered and not yet received, and you're not a dog, stop worrying.

I would love to see if others can replicate this experiment and get different results. For reference purposes, the packages used were:

- Goldwave v5.69 on the t-3000
- Spectrum Analyzer v1.1 on the Note (located at http:trajkovski.net)
- Frequensee v1.2.3 on the Droid Maxx

- recorded while fan was on, high performance level.

 

Sorry I didn't post back. I think its the vent, just as it was for the other laptop--but the vent isn't separated, its just one big thing. From what I can tell, the left 3 inches are output and the right 6 are input. Whistling comes from the left 3.

Casaverde, thats pretty awesome. I'll try it out. Its worth noting though that on phone/tablet microphones the frequency range will be focused toward 1 kHz--or at least that is what I would assume. I've got a slightly better mic laying around but I think I left it at work and...well...its the holidays.

Here are my results from a galaxy nexus w/ frequensee (hover over names for location)

I would guess the low end peak is the "air" sound, maybe the 9k peak as well, and them Im thinking my device simply can't measure above 10k. Also, the "intake" images were not distinguishable from silence.

 

Great post!:thumbsup: My high frequency hearing is also almost gone. (Too much skeet shooting.) But, my i5 fan rarely comes on and when it does, all I hear is a low rushing air sound.

Regards, Jim

 

I just pulled the trigger on the Spectre 13t-3000. I went with an I7 4500U, 8GB, QHD, 256GB SSD, WIFI AC. Pretty unbeatable specs for the price. I do have 2 questions/concerns though:

1. I am currently and have been for a while a Thinkpad user and I really expect high build quality and durability. I have used some HP consumer grade laptops in the past and they were quite underwhelming. I am hoping that the Spectre 13t-3000 is not one of these poorly built devices. The few reviews out there seem positive but can anyone confirm that the machine is well built and feels sturdy? (No keyboard flexing, flimsy screen hinge, etc).

2. Did anyone ever figure out the panel technology on these displays? Is it TN, IPS, etc? I went with the QHD display and there seems to be no formal reviews on that one.

Thanks all.

 

So I had the laptop for a week now, and I thought i would give my own quick review. I've read every single post from page 1 of this thread and will try to keep up with the important points that were previously mentioned.
First, I haven't noticed any performance issue with my particular unit. It works rather well with the power cable plugged in/out. Boot time is constantly 7 sec, and the shut down time is 5. Upon booting it up for the first time, I uninstalled Mcafee immediately. I personally believe that the Windows Defender is enough for most people. But, if you're the type to excessively search fishy contents and download torrents on a regular basis, I suggest getting Avast. They're are generally known to be the most light antivirus market.
The battery life has impressed me thus far. It lasted a little over 8 hours before reaching below 3% with 40% brightness (6 hours light web browsing + 2 hours of youtube) in one sitting. I'm quite certain it can last even longer if I didn't stream youtube for so long.
Typing feels pretty good too. The spaces between each keys are even and the feedback from each press is nice. The trackpad itself is probably my favorite feature. I haven't had any issue with any of the gestures. The two scrolling is really useful, a feature that my previous laptop did not have. The zones on the left and right takes away the need to use the touchscreen, something i am grateful for. Finger marks on the screen is a no-no for me.
Seeing the 71gb that it comes with wasn't all that surprising. It's not a problem for me since I already had a 32gb SDHC memory card + another 32gb thumb/flash drive that I keep plugged into the laptop.
The web browser experience was where I had the most trouble. Like everyone else has mentioned before, Chrome was quite awful with a 2560x1440 resolution. It took me several hours of looking up multiple forums to find the most optimized setting that makes the browser useable. The texts on the bookmarks bar and search bar are still small, but they are at least much sharper looking now.
I upgraded my wifi to the AC for $20, b/c why not take advantage of the cheap upgrade? I have not had a single disconnect so far. It always has a strong signal bar.
The number 1 problem that most people in this thread have been experiencing was the fan noise. Well, I had that too. I thought it had to do with all the automatic updates (Windows/Software/Antivirus updates). So, I disabled them all since i can manually do them myself. When the problem persisted, I used the process explorer program that showed me as to what was cranking up my fan so often. It read that "System Idle Process" was constantly around 95%, so that was no help. Then, I eventually found the source of my problem to be the flash player. Whenever I was on youtube or any other video streaming sites, once I was on my 8-10 min mark, the fan would kick in at high volume. I retested this theory by not streaming videos on a four session. During those four hours, the fan did not kick in once. It was dead quiet. I could listen to music, use microsoft office, and stream other contents on the web without any of that loud high pitched whine that bothered me before. As long as I only need to deal with the noise when viewing videos, I can totally live with that.
Overall, I believe the Spectre will serve me well for the next 2-3 years. It has been a large improvement from my old chunky Asus that had dead pixel lines covering 1/5 of my screen and a permanently disconnected wifi card. haha~

 

Thanks for your review. What do you think about the build quality of the device? Does it feel well put together? The fan noise is certainly worrying since my current laptop (Thinkpad X220) does exactly the same thing. High pitched fan noise that happens whenever you push the computer even slightly (like watching an HD youtube video).

 

I would say that the build quality is nearly on par with a macbook. The hinge that connects the screen to the body has a very slight flex to them if you press hard enough. But it is really unnoticeable. You can pick up the laptop while the lid is open and lightly jostle it back and forth, and the screen lid will stay firmly in place without wobbling. The entire build looks very well polished. I can't help but run my fingers over the closed lid and the palm rest at random times hehe.
If you watch a lot of videos online, then you might want to tone it down a bit. I think lowering the quality of the videos might help, but I always like mine on HD and nothing less.

 

I wouldn't call HD youtube pushing the computer "slightly"--flash is ridiculously bad. I tried one of those dell venue 8 (bay trail) tablets and on a device which could handle most anything with ease, youtube used 45-55% of the cpu...but enough flash hate.

Yes, build quality is fantastic. I had the yoga 2 pro previously (returned it because of the yellow being green) and while that felt like a premium machine, this device feels far better. The only unimpressive part of is it the fan sound. I also have the qHD monitor and its very nice. The downside is the software support which will progress with time.

 

Where do you find the Coolsense update on HP's site? I can't seem to find it? Would someone mind providing a direct link? Thanks a bunch!

 

Link for CoolSense 2.2:
HP CoolSense Technology | HP® Support

I'm going to use mine for a few days and see if the annoying fan noise dies down any, maybe give HP a call to see if there's anything that can be done. If not, I'll probably be returning mine, which would be too bad, because it's a nice computer otherwise.

 

Do you know if the sd card slot can take sdxc cards? What are the speed specs... Thanks

 

My apologies if this has already been posted...

Its official, Laptop Magazine gave the HP Specter 13t-3000 it Editors Choice and benchmarked it against the other Ultrabooks mentioned in this thread including the MacBook Air.

HP Spectre 13 Ultrabook Review - Editors' Choice - LAPTOP

My fully loaded HP should be here today or Wednesday to replace my Asus U36SD with discreet NVIDIA graphics. Will I miss this? Will My new HP run a dual 23" monitor setup via a Targus USB 3.0 port replicator as well as my Asus?

E

 

Assuming you make sure there are no throttling issues like other people have been experiencing (via the Intel Extreme Utility or otherwise) the new HP should outperform your Asus. The CPU will be about 25% more powerful and the GPU should be on par to slightly more powerful depending on the game.

If your Asus could handle those monitors through your setup then the HP should be able to.

 

hello, you have to differntiate - i own both machines. the spectre 13 x2 and the spectre 13 with qhd and i7 version.
the spectre 13 x2 uses a fanless system and therefore sacrifices "power" tdp to operate fanless with no noises.

my i7 spectre qhd scores above i7-4500u average with no tweaks or changes to the system. can not speak for the i5-4 version. but i changed the powerplan, since there are windows features which limit the potential when running on battery.

cheers, seste

 

1.) Solution Source: Running Google Chrome on a High DPI Windows Machine | BIT-101
1. Open Chrome, type “chrome://flags” into the url field.
2. Search for “HiDPI Support”.
3. Change to “Enabled”.
4. Restart Chrome.

2.) i think the coating is glass, and therefore you have temperature sweat/condensation - comes and goes on mine, no bother for me.

 

I have a SanDisc 64 GB SDXC card in mine. It works with no problems.

Good luck, Jim

 

I'm having a bad audio problem with my laptop right now, horrible static noise coming from the laptop whenever I try to play anything with audio. Here's a video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEZZWBMZbaU&feature=youtu.be

Has anyone had a similar problem? NO idea why this is happening. Everything was fine until I discovered this problem in Movie Maker, now ANY program or video/music I try to play has this horrible static noise accompanied with it.

 

nice review - you have to click in the textiled zone to get the zones, at least it is with mine the case.

 

No, but I was actually coming on here to see if anyone else had experienced audio issues. Mine don't look so bad anymore

I just noticed that music sounds a bit off when played through headphones on the spectre. Does anyone else feel the same? Are my ears playing tricks on me?

 

just a hint, you can tell chrome to use the html5 player instead of the flash player - it will handle the videos with less cpu power, since flash is a pain to resources.

 

Like Hawkeye62 said, it can read sdxc cards too. As for the speed, i think it will vary between what cards you use.

 

HP Spectre 13 review: an exceedingly well-executed return to the basics | PCWorld

New review by PCworld

 

Mine arrived today. Overall I am pretty pleased. Thanks to seste for telling us how to fix Chrome. I really didn't want to have to switch the display to 1920x1080. And now I don't need to.

The audio is way louder than my Asus. But there is definitely a bit of static to it. I am experimenting with turning the volume down a bit to see if that helps. Jury is still out.

It's going to take some time to get used to Windows 8.1. Already discovered one of my programs (DxO Optics Pro 9) is incompatible. Hopefully that will get fixed before long.

 

Yeah, so I think the beats settings were clipping the amplifier or something weird...anyway, I fixed my issues by uninstalling beats:
Beats Audio EQ Setting/ General Sound Advice - Page 15 - HP Support Forum - 524739

Warning: I had issues with this the first time I tried it, so here are my revised instructions:
-From HP support, install the newest beats
-From Add or Remove Programs, remove the IDT driver...dont worry its still there. Go ahead and reboot though.
-Follow the directions in the post above
-When you reboot, I noticed speakers were quiet--so, from device manager, go to the first item (audio i and o) and do the same update trick, this time installing "audio endpoint"...now volume is OK

(obviously the above is at your own risk...this was just my experience)

 

So I think my Inspiron 15 7000 Series is going back and I'm probably going to pick up the Spectre. Too many little issues with the Inspiron... for example the keyboard feels worse than the keyboard on my old HP dm1.

Anyway, I'm hoping the fan whine isn't an issue... HP luckily has a great return policy, but I'm running out of laptop options! I had a question about the QHD display... how does it look when scaled to 720p? I'd like to be able to play games like Diablo 3/etc... on it and I assume running them at 720p would be more successfully than 1440p.

 

FYI - The 20% off coupon is back as of right now.

PC92229 for $999 and over laptops.

 

I'm considering getting this notebook but I think the cover looks repulsive. I don't like how the intrusive the HP logo is and how the color doesn't match the rest of the notebook. Does it bother anybody else? I'm wondering if I could put some sort of cover over it.

 

Anyone experiencing issues with full screen YouTube playback at HD?
I seem to be getting a lot of stuttering when full screen.

My setup:
i5-4200U
8GB
qHD 2560x1440
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

 

Sooo...like the other posters in this thread, I'm getting used to it. Its definitely *there*, but...you know. People get used to things. The screen actually looks pretty good even at odd resolutions. I tried switching to 1080p for example and it still looked nice. If you downgrade by 2 to 720p I'm very confident it will look nice. That having been said, as an owner of QHD--right now, I would rather I went with the 256 GB drive and the 1080p screen. The reason I got what I got is that in two years hidpi will (hopefully) be more common and so will m.2 sata drives, meaning the thing that isn't replaceable will be more valuable and the thing that is replaceable will be cheap(er). But thats a dream, of course, not fact .

Its actually quite beautiful, I think. I definitely wish they used the spectre logo instead of the HP one, but the colors really work.

Youtube tends to be throttled by internet services (at least in the US). Is the playback bar turning gray well ahead of your current position (indicating performance issue) or is the "current pos" bead butting up against the end of the gray bar (indicating network issue)? If it *is* a performance issue, open up task manager and take a look at whats causing it. 1080p vids on mine use about 25% (when flash) or 8% (when html5) of the CPU.

 

I'd disagree. The colours actually do look really nice. As mentioned in many of the reviews so far, the 'brown' if you can call it that, is very subtle but just enough to make the notebook standout. It works nicely though.

 

So far I've found mine to be excellent. I can't say I have an issue with fan noise/whine. My hearing is pretty good I think (I'm 26), but the Spectre is just really quite. When the fan does run it's very faint and there is nothing what I'd call a whistle or whine. 90% of the time it's dead quite.

There is no noise/buzz coming from below the keyboard j/k keys (something I had with my ENVY). The build quality is really good, the keyboard feels fantastic to type on, perfect amount of feedback and give on the keys.

The screen is excellent. I haven't had any issues with scaling. Yea, some of the menus appear very small but not a issue, just when you're installing something I'd notice the HP Assistant writing was very small. I had an issue getting the cursor to disappear when in full screen in YouTube, but fixed this after some fiddling. NB: I must be one of the only people that I know using IE11, I just find it to be far less greedy on system resources than Chrome, and it performs just as well and the interface is clean and nice. And then coming back to scaling, IE11 has no scaling issues with text or menus that I've noticed.

Everything is snappy and responsive. The touch screen and keypad are great. Seriously, I'm really impressed!

Then there's Windows 8.1. Hmm, it's a bit of a mixed bag to say the least. Taking some getting used to. It's nice to be able to revert back to a 'desktop' when you need to, but things are just a little poky and hard to find in settings ect. Some of the widgets are really nice, others are ridiculous. But that's not an HP thing obviously.

Overall I'm really happy with it (touch wood). Tomorrow it'll probably blown up!

 

Yep, same age group here--but I am definitely *very* picky when it comes to sound. Still, I agree--it is usually silent.
----------------
Thumbs up on the ie11--its really really good, way better on resources than chrome, let alone firefox. Its interesting how times change. The big downside is the loss of google resources, but part of that is their own fault as they've slowly pulled everything into chrome.
----------------
Win8 and 8.1 are tough to get used to, but they're actually quite good. Yes, there are some rough points. Yes, they should have made it so metro apps can run in "windowed" mode on the desktop...but all in all its pretty good. For work I have an old non-touch laptop, and even there windows 8 breathed some new life into old hardware.

 

In my opinion it would be a real shame to cover up any part of this beautifully designed ultrabook. It just looks fantastic.

So, in my case, third times a charm. No Windows 8 pun intended. First one had to be canceled and reordered because of a ship to issue. Second one had dust under the glass and a small dent on the bottom. The third one, although arriving 3 days later than it was supposed to, is so far absolutely perfect. No fan noise, no quality control problems - just great. In the end we got one with better options for less money, so the issues with the first two will soon be forgotten.