HP Spectre 13T-3000

I reinstalled chrome on this laptop and the background processes still run and prevent me from uninstalling chrome unless I kill them in task manager and quickly uninstall, however, their resource usage was negligible when Chrome was closed. Using Chrome used 100% of my processor in windows 8.1 while IE barely uses 40% while playing a flash-based internet game. I don't understand why Chrome is so bad in 8.1, but I'm thinking about putting 7 back on my laptop.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday!

 

Hi Jeff, I guess I have to disagree with previous posters. I think the i7 does nothing for a non-power user except maybe decrease battery life and add fan noise. And I think the QHD resolution does nothing for a 13.3 inch screen except give you bragging rights. Even 1080p is such high resolution that I have to scale to 150% to be able to read text. Just my opinion. Good luck with your decision.

Regards, Jim

 

Hi Jeff!

You probably won't be surprised by my opinions. I really like my max'd machined (i7/8G/QHD/256G). I tried a few 1080p video cuts before and they looked great to me. Most of my HD is from Comcast and Amazon which is actually at 720p. This (in theory) should look better on the QHD screen since the res is an even factor of 4.

Interesting option for support. I did get the HP 3 year accidental coverage and I'm hoping it was a good choice (the price was right).

-Fred

 

Assuming you have the 2560x1440 screen?

 

Thanks - repped

 

Yes, it's the QHD display.

 

Thanks! :thumbsup:

I didn't even know what 'repped' was until I checked out my notifications. I'm fairly new here.

 

so im going to build another spectre and hope it comes with no flaws. thinking about going for the QHD display. i definitely dont need it as I think the FHD is nice already (plus i ended up resizing/rescaling in the screen resolution settings since several programs weren't looking good). so will the QHD "look" nicer to me or will I not notice a difference? and also, more importantly, will having the QHD screen drain battery at all more/faster in any way? basically any reason NOT to get the QHD screen?

 

Thanks - repped also

 

I wholeheartedly disagree with this assessment. i7 is faster. It's not a gimmick, It's hands-on tangibly faster. Even if it's only a difference of 15%, it will make a big difference under certain circumstances.

being a "power user" has many different definitions. You don't have to edit video or play games to be a "power user". Having a few instances of MS Excel open side by side with Quickbooks, plus a few tabs in Chrome and transferring some files to a USB stick will hog processing power and Ram.

It's like being offered a V8 engine in your new car for $100 and turning it down because you are not a "power driver". Utter nonsense.

 

I can only tell you that the HD (1920x1080) is very clear to me. I can't imagine that the display can get much better. I'm not sure that you can see the difference on a 13" screen.

It would be nice to have both side by side to see if there is a noticeable difference. I guess eventually when more programs/apps are written to take advantage of the higher resolution, it might be worth it.

I would think things might get a little tiny on a QHD screen.

So you have already had a HD display? So, you can report back your opinion on whether you think the QHD display is a better choice.

 

Thanks to one and all. I decided to max out on everything except the screen. I've had two Sony Zs with 1080p 13" screens and I can't see pixels in those unless I hold my eyes 3" away. If it was all upside and future with no downside, ie, poor scaling and blurred images, I'd go for it.
; but for now I think I'd pay $70 extra for the std FHD because I know that resolution is gorgeous on a 13"! By the time Windows and its apps support QHD it will be time to pass this one down.

Look forward to joining the club!

Oh, one last thing, are we talking a standard Amex business acct for the 10%? A regular Amex will not work?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

If this is the way you use your PC, then I would call you a power user and an i7 and max ram would be an appropriate choice for you. Just my opinion.

Regards, Jim

 

Shame HP's 'solution' seemingly isn't - it did seem a bit implausible.

There's no option for me to reply to HP's comment on my review on the John Lewis website (btw the only major UK retailer now to stock the Spectre 13 AFAIK). I'll have to leave it to others to add their reviews.

 

the details are here: American Express OPEN cardmembers savings | HP® Official Store

It does require a business credit card. Also, before you buy from HP make sure that you go here and click "choose your benefit" to receive the discount (vs points that they offer): https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/opensavings/opensavings.do?inav=open_opensavings

 

QHD is nice, I haven't had any real issues with it, but I wish I could do a side-by-side with FHD...

 

Hi everybody! I've been lurking this thread since the beginning of December and decided to make an account just now. I ordered an almost fully loaded spectre except with an i5 instead of i7 at that time as well. Anyways I was wondering if any of you guys had a weird shipping delay? Mine was supposed to ship out on Christmas, but I was told that there were production delays or something so my computer is supposed to arrive by the 10th of January. Did anyone else get a notification like that?

 

yes i currently have the FHD version of the Spectre 13t. And like I said I set the resolution to 125% in the "Screen Resolution" settings so everything would look better because Chrome, among other programs, were not scaling well for me.

So if I buy the QHD, will doing the same scaling option make everything look the same as it does on my FHD? I won't have any problems right?

And also does the QHD use more battery at all or no?

 

In regards to the i7 vs i5, the " smart buy" option (i5, 256gb SSD, 8gb RAM, qHD, AC wifi) comes with an additional discount, so you can save a bit more with the i5.

As for 1440p vs 1080p, the pixel density difference (220 vs 166) should be noticeable to most people, especially with font rendering. It's not until the >300ppi range where the difference becomes negligible. However, both screens should look pretty great nonetheless. If you think you'd appreciate the improved font rendering, I'd go for the 1440p.

You'll probably want to increase the scaling to 150% or 200% on the QHD. I'd guess the QHD would have higher power usage, but I don't think the difference should be too big. The GPU would need to drive more pixels, but the HD 4400 (and modern GPU's in general) are pretty great with 2D acceleration so that the increased GPU usage shouldn't increase power draw by much.
You would then be more likely to have scaling issues though. ie the programs that don't support Windows' scaling would look tiny.

 

No. It is not quite true that the i7 will significantly impact battery life. The i7 has a greater dynamic range of performance, it can clock up to its max speed as needed but reach very low power states when the performance is not needed. This gives you more flexibility in choosing more performance if you need it or more battery life if you need it. You can limit how high the processor will clock under load just by changing your power profile. The i7 also has 33% more L2 cache (1 mb more) and GPU core that can clock up to 100 Mhz higher. If you can afford the extra cost of the i7, I would get it. Otherwise the i5 should do just fine too. I do agree that for the average user, the i7 isn't strictly necessary.

 

I've had my HP 13t-3000 for a week now. I got the QHD screen with i7 and 8 RAM. I find it very snappy and have no problems with buzzing or heat or fan noise. Just LOVE the screen. My wife likes it even better than her Apple retina. Keyboard is big enough with great key travel. I use it mostly for word processing and light Excel and surfing. No problems with the white on silver keys-I find them visible in all lighting conditions. I got the HP 14" Ultra Portable Sleeve with 2 Handles (H4f08AA#ABC) and it's a snug fit but still easy to get the computer in and out. The sleeve has one pocket which is JUST big enough to store the power block and cables. It is not designed to protect from a drop but great for a back pack. Great design HP. I almost fee privileged to own it!

 

Hi guys
Ive made an order yesterday through paypal, after finished submitting my order I could see the order is "been verified" and later after refreshing the page it changed to "pending".
The thing is I closed the browser without writing the order number! and I didnt receive any confirmation email and also I cant see the charge on my paypal account.
Has anyone else here ordered through paypal and encountered similar issue??

 

If you go to the order status page at hp.com, you should be able to create an account based on your email. You can then check the order status that way. You should also get the confirmation email soon.

 

Thank you for your answer.
So its normal that I still didnt recieve confirmation email? I thought I was supposed to recieve one immediately after submiting the order..

 

Yeah, I agree. I have a desktop with i7 and 12 GB RAM. Way overkill for the way I use a PC. (Call me an average user.) The desktop is two years old running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. My i5 Spectre 13t-3000 with 4 GB RAM running Windows 8 64-bit feels much faster for my use profile.

Regards, Jim

 

Normally you do get one but I have had this happen in the past.

Just call HP customer service and ask them about your order. I believe they can find it without the order number.

They will be happy to send you a confirmation email.:thumbsup:

 

In answer to your battery question, I've been getting 7 and a half hours on battery with QHD (i7processor), on 'power saver' option. This is with pretty light use, internet browsing, bit of YouTube ect. But this is more than acceptable to me.

 

I've been using this laptop for 2 weeks. Pretty good aside from annoying fan noise. Unfortunately, there's a half-dime sized on the edge of the screen where it's shattered. I don't ever remember dropping or abusing it.... would this be covered under hp warranty?

 

Sorry to hear that. You will have to call HP customer service to see about warranty, but I doubt it would be covered unless it was caused by a defect in the display.


My fan has been very quiet. I guess I don't stress mine enough. I also use a laptop cooler tray.

 

Well i actually reconsidered and was going to get this tonight but it looks like the 20% coupon is dead now.

 

Be patient, it will be back at some point. (maybe)

They might have been trying to spur end of year sales and you waited just a little too long.

 

oops - dupe

 

Me too! I have been trying to place an order using a non-US based credit card and HP rejected me. (I'm shipping it overseas).

What a bummer!

How often does the 20% offer happen?

 

Hey guys, I''m really loving the looks of the Spectre 13 but I'm having trouble picking between these 3 -

HP Spectre 13 $2736 NZD - ($2246 USD)
Intel - Core i7 i7-4500U 1.8GHz
2560 x 1440
8GB Ram
256 GB SSD
(This spec spectre is the only one available in New Zealand atm)

Dell XPS 12 $2059 NZD - ($1690 USD)
Intel- i7-4500U processor (4M Cache, up to 3.0 GHz)
12.5 inch LED Backlit Touch Display with Truelife and FHD resolution (1920 x 1080)
8GB Ram
256 GB SSD

Dell XPS 13 $2399 NZD - ($1969 USD)
Intel - i7-4500U processor (4M Cache, up to 3.0 GHz)
13.3 inch LED Backlit Touch Display with Truelife and FHD resolution (1920 x 1080)
8 GB Ram
256 GB SSD

Their all appealing to me and prices do vary quite a bit.. However I have heard from friends that Dell isn't as good as it was and have quite a lot of issues every now and then.. I'm really confused with these options even though the Spectre is so over priced here then the other 2 but I really appreciate the design and the fact that it has a SC card reader which would be pretty useful for me.

Would be great to get some of your thoughts, Thanks

 

The price you are seeing for the HP seems crazy expensive to me.

With coupon code PC92229 the fully maxed 13t-3000 right now is 1148 USD (without the coupon it's just under 1435 USD).

The prices for the two Dells in the US (with an automatic $200 discount) are 1650 USD and 1400 USD respectively.

I would be very interested to hear more about the XPS 12 convertible with the i7/8G/256G config. I was interested in the tablet-able ultrabook concept when I first started looking around. I started with the Yoga and got scared off by some issues.

Actually, I think if I had looked now I might have been scared off by some of the reports on this forum, but then HP's return policies pretty much make up for the few failures reported here. I'm fairly sure the issues aren't any worse for this model then for the other similar Ultrabooks floating around out there.

Anyway, I seem to have been lucky and I have no issues with my laptop so far.

The XPS 13 touch looks like a very close competitor for the 13t-3000. You might be able to find some reviews or check for a thread here at notebookreviews.com

 

I just tried out coupon code PC92229 with a custom 13t-3000 and it worked.

If you're trying to get a discount on the "smart-buy" option that may be a different story.

 

Thank you very much.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

Just finished setting up my Spectre 13, and so far so good. The screen and keyboard are high quality. I don't hear any noise yet, so no complaints there. Performance wise I'll have to play around a bit more in order to get a better idea. First impressions though are great.

 

Well, I found a problem with my display and will have to return mine.

When I hit the power switch to power it up, the first thing it shows is the screen with the BLUE HP LOGO on a black background and the circular 'busy' display. I just noticed that there is light leakage at the bottom edges of the display. I hadn't noticed that before today, so I'm not sure if it is something that just developed or that I just hadn't noticed it before.

I was over at my sister's house, so it could be that the different lighting at her place just made it noticeable.

I don't really see it once the 'windows' screen comes up, just at the very first power up screen.

Has anyone else notice any light leakage on the 'boot up' screen. (black with the blue HP logo)?

 

Well its wierd....i tried to buy one last night and it told me the coupon had expired. I tried today and it was active again. I guess they changed their mind .

Like i stated previously my choice was between a macbook rMBP 13 and this. I currently have both windows machines and one macbook air (2012). It was a really hard decision to be honest with you. After you use mac you can definitely tell them have a premium feel to them and with the reality that i still think windows 8/8.1 is half-baked. Hopefully this machine will have some of the premium feel of the macbook air. I've also started to get used to some of the apps you can get with the mac (primarily read it later (which isn't available as a native app on 8.1) & tweetbot).

So what swayed me. Primarily its because i'm a windows (visual studio) developer. If it wasn't for that i know what choice i would have made. I've start to get used to the keyboard shortcuts mapping when using parallels with visual studio & resharper but its still not as good as a native experience. Next the awesome price of this machine. I got it fully decked out:

HP Spectre 13t-3000 Ultrabook (ENERGY STAR)
Windows 8.1 64
4th generation Intel® Core™ i7-4500U Processor + Intel® HD Graphics(For 8GB Memory)
Onboard 8GB DDR3 System Memory
13.3-inch diagonal Vivid QHD Infinity LED-backlit Display (2560x1440) Touchscreen
256GB Flash Solid State Drive
No Additional Office Software
Free Upgrade to 1-yr McAfee LiveSafe service™
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® [2x2]
Estimated ship date: January 21, 2014
This ships free Free standard shipping on this item
The HP Home & Home Office Store will accept returns or exchanges for this product up to 21 days after delivery
Update
Remove
$1,434.99
Coupon:–$287.00
Price after savings:$1,147.99

and as you can tell it was still less than $1,200 (wow). Also got an extra 6% off (ebates + cc). It's nice having a 2 year warranty. Touch screen is a nice touch though i doubt it gets much use. I can see it being nice when reading.

Still my concerns are the keyboard, trackpad, & wireless. With using a macbook for a short time period i'm used to everything be great. Great keyboard, great trackpad, & great wireless. I have a sandy bridge based dell xps 17 and it feels like a piece of junk. The keyboard is mushy, the trackpad absolutely stinks, wireless is good though.

According to what i've read this is one of the best trackpads on a windows notebook every. Will just see how good that is . Every trackpad on any windows machine i've ever tried has been horrible (carried a mouse around with me). Also i have always made sure my wireless cards in notebooks i've got have been intel cards because the first non-intel wireless card i got was so horrible i had to return the machine.

Also to a lesser extent i have scaling concerns with win 8.1 & high resolution displays. Mac does it great we will see how bad/good windows handles it.

But in the end i heard HP has very good return policy so it its not up to my expectations then it will go back and i'll get a rMBP.

This saved me quite a bit of money if it works out. I was looking at a base i5 + 16GB memory rMBP (cheapest i could find it for was 1650). I wish i could have got 16GB of memory on the spectre could have been outfited with 16GB but hopefully dynamic memory in hyper-v will make up some for that (parallels doesn't have dynamic memory). Also the I/O speed is going to be greater on the MAC because it uses a PCI-E SSD compared to a SATA3 (yes it does make a difference). I'll have to use a linux vm when i plan around with node/django.

 

Yes, I tried the 20% discount code last night as well and it did not work, but the 20% off works as of right now. :thumbsup:

 

The prices are high here but that's not really comparable to the US prices, we just have to suck it up haha. My Spectre has been great so far, no complaints, am loving it!

I was considering getting my brother to send me a Spectre over from the US and save myself a grand, but here's the kicker - HP NZ won't honour the manufacture's warranty. They will only repair NZ-new products. So that put me off that idea.

My first laptop was a Dell, and it was a piece of junk, broke after 14 months use, just out of manufacturers warranty. This is my fourth HP since then. I had big issues with my ENVY three years ago but customer service were really good and eventually compensated me with a higher-speced unit from Aussie and extended warranty. On the other hand I found Dell's customer service shocking when my first one broke.

The Spectre is a really nice looking ultrabook, as many of the reviews will point out, it does look very 'Mac Book Pro-like' but that's not a bad thing at all. The 'champagne-brown' cover is a nice subtle colour and gives it a point of difference.

 

Redacted post. The rMBP performs well with CC and tweaks to how the graphics card is used.

 

I least i think one will if they don't switch directions (windows ). You have to be aware it might be a "Adobe" problem. Sure throwing more hardware at a problem will usually eventually solve any performance problem but that doesn't mean its what the problems was. Case in point my desktop is an i7 based ivy bridge system with an SSD & 32GB ram and itunes is still slow. Sloppy coding is sloppy coding. Of course there aren't many alternatives to photoshop. The spectere may indeed be faster than your mac but its not based upon hardware but maybe the windows code for photoshop is much better.

 

Redacted post.

 

I have to return my Spectre 13t because of backlight leakage at the bottom of the screen.
I can only see it on black screens but I was worried that it might get worse.

I just ordered a replacement. I hope it it OK because I was really liking the Spectre Ultrabook.

 

Backlight bleeding usually doesn't change over time. Hopefully your next screen is better. If the bleeding isn't too severe, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

I would really double check that. As far as I know, HP has international warranty and will honor repairs worldwide PROVIDED that same model is sold in the country. They will also try to match the warranty as far as possible. This is from what I read from HP's website. Do check it out. I very much doubt HP New Zealand will not honor repairs unless they franchise it out to a third party.

 

OK, thanks for that info. I have already sent it back, but that is good to know for the next one.

I was just worried since I didn't notice it at first and now I do.

Once the Windows 8 screen came up, I couldn't see it unless I was on a screen with a black background.

 

FWIW, with extremely rare exceptions, what most perceive as backlight "bleed" is truly a non-issue in all actual usage scenariod. By far and away this sense of "bleed " is rarely perceptible except with OS and certain app sftwe background splash screens that are not really black, but are an absence of any color pigmentation, and some backlight will always show through if the led brightness is over about 200 nit whereas most premium IPS LCDs on laptops these days are closer to 300 or more. Also, for reasons I can't recall but have read often, IPS technology tends to exacerbate this truly benign "problem."

I think you were right to return it but if the replacement seems the same I suggest you do the following :

1) Relax! This is almost surely normal and will not affect any usage other than on dark, non-pigmented splash screens that go away in seconds.

2) Test it using one of the hundreds of free color calibration apps by setting brightness to max (auto adjustment turned off) and try numerous dark backgrounds - from black to navy blue, etc - and see if there is any noticeable "bleed."

3) If you do observe any meaningful bleed post a couple of screen shots and provide a link to the color calibration program you used. Let others with the same screen compare their results to yours under identical conditions. I expect you will find only slight variations and none will adversely affect viewing.

Sorry for such a long post but this has been a pet peeve of mine for years. Ever since my first Sony Z1 with 1080p 280 nit gorgeous screen which was also my first W7 laptop with that blurry, dark "gauze curtain-like" boot screen that became iconic od Windows boot process. It drove the OCD in me crazy that the background of that Windows boot screen was not deep black (despite measured black levels of 0.3 nit) and light peaked/bled through the lower corners. Well, there was so much obsession among the first owners of that now "legendary" screen - bested at the 13" class only last year - (read the NBR threads from them if you care to, but I don't recommend it ) that it exceeded ridiculousness!

It is true that a few of the very brightest new IPS screens, when defective, will exhibit blred that is at least slightly visible even in videos with dark backgrounds. Beyond that, I feel strongly (or couldn't you tell? ) that this is all much ado aboit nothing!

Happy New Year and enjoy what will hopefully be an excellent replacement product.

(In case anyone thinks I've gotten this wrong, please do chime in, loudly! I've got very thick skin and value truth above all )

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