HP Spectre 13T-3000

Doesn't show any signs of skews. But on my original one's hindge was "skewed", it just so happened that the plastic covering was not snapped on all the way. You see what I mean once you take a look at it. It just requires a bit of pressure to snap it into place

 

I decided to try a second FHD Spectre13 and it also has light bleed. Don't think it's as severe as the first one I had - but still definately there. Currently evaluating whether I can live with it - or whether to return it within the (stingy) 7 day UK return period and try something else like XPS13

It sounds like the FHD screen is more likely to have light bleed than the QHD - however the QHD is unfortunately not available in the UK.

 

Is that on the QHD or FHD screen? Based on similar discussions regarding the XPS12, it can indeed get worse over time

 

What you're seeing is not burn-in. Burn-in is permanent. What you're seeing is image retention. Image retention is incredibly common on IPS displays. You'll see complaints on the XPS 13, Inspiron 7000 series, Thinkpad Yoga, and as you pointed out the Macbook Pro Retina display.

Edit: And it's not likely to be fixed by getting it replaced. The reason people only saw it with some MBPr's was that Apple used two different display manufacturers for the laptop so it was a roll of the dice whether you would get one that experienced image retention (LG) or did not (Samsung).

 

Anyone know who manufactures the Spectre13 displays (FHD and QHD)? From what I've heard, Image Retention mostly affects LG displays.

Also I haven't heard of any IR on XPS13 - did you mean XPS12?

 

Hm, maybe.

And I believe the QHD is LG based on what people have posted in the thread. I don't know about the FHD.

 

I've now spent about two weeks with my 13t, and it is working very nicely with one exception. I get an intermittent issue with the touch screen, with the symptom being that the screen taps itself very rapidly on the left side of the screen. So any icons or tiles that happen to be under where the phantom tapping occurs start executing. it may be a hardware thing, as I can get it to stop by just manipulating the screen (opening and closing, and gentle twisting), and once it stops its fine. I've calibrated the touch screen, and have downloaded all available updates. It's a minor thing, but I might need to RMA it if I can't find a setting or calibration to stop the behavior. Anyone experiencing this?

Thanks,

Jim

 

I had a similar issue on the MS Surface. It turned out to be a hardware fault. Would recommend exchanging. Have you tried cleaning the screen?

 

Sounds like you're mostly pleased, exceptions above noted. I hope so; anyone who has to go through multiple units deserves to "get lucky" eventually! Regarding the hinge gap, you are either the most discerning perfectionist or my eyes deceive me! I say this because the length of the plastic hinge cover (which, btw, is a great job of using plastic to save weight with almost perfect matching of finish to adjacent metal chassis) is at most 1mm less than the length of the notch into which it must fit, so even if that 1mm is unevenly distributed, there's just not much room for wide differential. Now that you have brought this to my attention (curses! ) I can say that there is a just-barely perceptible difference between the gaps on either side. The difference is so small that I probably would never have discovered it mad had you not called it to my attention. Now I'm going to have to go down to the Apple store and look at every MBA and MBP to see if somewhere they have a discrepancy of this size!

As for the dynamic frequency range locking, that too is absent based also on my "eyeball" measurement: I put the Intel Turbo Boost Widget in the lower right corner of my screen and I find that the clock speed rises and falls with regularity, depending upon what tasks are running. Did you try uninstalling the Intel CPPC drivers? Someone found that ended all throttling on AC power and that whatever the CPPC drivers are for (I just don't recall) removing them has no impact on performance or operation. I still get throttling running on battery, but that is the way I prefer it, to conserve power. I usually drop the maximum processor setting to 60% on battery to induce throttling.

 

I hope someone can help me. I have been following this thread since it started. I finally decided to buy the Specter 13t and got mine yesterday after a very long wait. I love it, seems to have none of the problems that others have noticed. I do however have a problem with the Control Zones.
The left side one doesn't seem to be working properly. There are two options for the left zone, 1. Switch between apps being used or 2. Show a list of app being used. When I have the switch between apps selected it usually works fine, I'm sure I'm not used to the swiping action yet. But when I use the show list option it doesn't work. The list will show up on the left side of the screen but I can't scroll up or down through the list. I have to manually use the pointer and drag it over to the left side of the screen to select an app. The right side Control Zone works fine, I can scroll up and down.
I was wondering if anyone else has this issue? Is this a driver or hardware issue? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the other comments and questions that have been addressed before, they have really helped.
Just to let you know I have the following specs:
i7 CPU, 8gbs RAM, FHD screen, AC wireless, 256SSD

 

As it turns out that plastic silver sleeve that goes over the hinge mechanism can be pushed left and right when the display is in the near closed position. No issue and everything is testing out fine so far. When I first noticed it, I thought maybe a screen alignment issue with the build. Where did you get that Intel Turbo boost widget? I cant find that. I came across something similar but it was not for 4th gen processors. That would be much better than task manager for the purposes of monitoring CPU operation.

On the previous system I did uninstall and reinstall the CPPC drivers and it made no difference. As you mentioned, throttling and frequency locking is still an issue. However, on both my last and new system it works fine about 80% of the time. Even on battery, when it is not frequency locked, both the turbo boost and modulating down to .77 works fine. Not worried as I am sure it will disappear with future updates. When on AC, about 90% of the time there is no issue either. If someone was disturbed by that, you could go the route of stackpointer2.0 and just uninstall the CPPC drivers and use Throttle Stop to manually correct the condition.

 

You owe me a bit more than 5 minutes since Im a slow reader, but it was fun reading

The range is much more important to me than speed, since Im living in 2 floor house. I have a mac(2011) and I can hardly get a signal when im on the bottom floor \:
Im guessing that the best way is to check it yourself,so Ill check and update for future members..
I read that changing the wifi card is not that complicated so maybe ill try that.

Thanks

 

I tried it on mine and it's working OK. Did you disable tap to click? I think it's required to make a selection (same with the right control zone). Otherwise, not sure what the problem is, but can confirm doesn't affect every Spectre13 as it's working ok here.

 

I'm afraid that might be the case, but wish I could reliably reproduce it. Otherwise, this device is great, would rather not take a chance on another one (or invest the time)

 

Soot,

So glad to hear we're all squared away on the tolerances of the hinge cover! :thumbsup:

As for the Intel Turbo Boost Widget, when I went to get you the link I saw that I had neglected to read the "read me;" It does indeed say that the widget is "not supported" for 4th gen. cpus, even suggests that installing and running it could cause "unexpected behaviors" - whatever that means! Then they went on to say that the whole product will become "orphaned" by Intel as of June 2014. All this said, with the exception of the bit about "unexpected behavior" I am undaunted about using the widget product. I mean, it's nothing but a graphical representation of the data exhibited in cpuz. For now, I am throwing caution to the wind and using it anyway. I watched it for a while and glanced between cpuz readings and the positioning of the clock speed bar on the widget and they tracked reasonably well, with some timing differences, that I think reflect different sampling rates. Overall, the widget seems to work fne and it does track pretty well with the cpuz clock speed monitor. If you are equally brave/stupid (I did create a restore point before installing the Intel widget "just in case." you can find the widget here

Finally, the advice I recall getting from this thread on the CPPC drivers was not to uninstall and reinstall - but rather to uninstall them and leave them uninstalled. I believe the person who found this workaround found that by leaving the CPPC drivers uninstalled, there was no need to use Throttlestop. In any event, I am not using it but I have uninstalled the CPPC drivers and I don't appear to have the experience of throttling or locked-in clock speeds when on AC power, and the maximum clock speed on battery seems to be 1.7gHz, but it's not locked on that or any other frequency at any time, As you say, it's highly likely that there will be a BIOS update to cure the problem, I forgot what the CPPC drivers do, but all things being equal, I prefer to have all needed drivers installed and up to date.

 

I have the QHD, Any advice guys? My post is on page 150 if anyone hasn't read it. Does the warranty cover the screen defects? I've heard image retention can get worse over time. Then again it looks as if the screen is being squeezed at the bezels. Appreciate any feedback! If everyone doesn't mind can y'all please test the image retention with the link I posted. I think it might be only happening in the areas you might have slight bleeds.

 

Tap to click is enabled, the right side works just fine. Guess it may be a hardware issue and will need to be sent back. It just doesn't make sense why one side wouldn't work. Its a shame because everything else on the machine works great. Now I'll be waiting weeks for a new one.

 

Here is another odd thing. If I use the laptop without connecting a second display, all the swipe and tap functions work as described in the manual. If I connect a second display(in extend mode) via HDMI, all the swipe and tap functions work EXCEPT the three finger pull down swipe that closes apps. What's up with that? Anyone else notice swiping/tapping functions working differently with a second display connected

 

I would guess that your router will have the biggest impact on your wireless range. I just bought a ASUS (RT-AC68) Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router and the range on it is much better than my previous D-link router. You can also get a wireless 'repeater' to extend your range as a last resort.

After doing some research it is my understanding that the 'N' wireless will give you more range where as the newer "AC" wireless will give you faster through put but the range isn't as good as the "N" band. That's why I like a dual band router, you have a choice to 2 different wireless networks to hook up to depending on your needs.

 

So I am itching to pull the trigger on a new spectre, but I have read through most of this thread, and the deals you guys were getting back in December with the 20% off coupons are incredible. I have scoured the internets but haven't been able to find a currently working 20% off coupon for the laptop. Any idea when one will be available again? How often do these come around? I like the smart buy option right now, but the thought of being able to put an i7 in for even cheaper than the smart buy deal makes me want to wait.

 

Sorry about taking so much of your time! If you want to even us out, just write me a long PM full of questions and I will spend as much time as necessary to answer them all.

I am curious to know what kinds of speeds and range you get with your 13t with the Intel 7260N card. If your only comparison is to a 2011 Mac, it won't really tell us much, because those are notorious for their poor range - even though some used the same Intel cards as Windows machines that had much longer range. No idea why. If you have a fairly recent Windows laptop with a good N card in it, it would be interesting to see the difference with the 7260's N card. I'll tell you this: since I have a compulsion to buy laptops I have several to compare my 13t with the AC card and the difference is almost double the range at very acceptable speeds. Thus, if you find the N card doesn't give you phenomenal range, you might want to consider getting the AC card, especially because it won't be long before you will be able to get 100 mb/s service but will need an AC router and AC card to take advantage.

Otherwise I wish you good luck with your new toy and I will tell you that in case you get one with problems, I strongly recommend you return and reorder because this can be an absolutely phenomenal machine at prices that are $300 - $500 less than other premium Ultrabooks with the same configuration.

Best, Jeff

 

If you call in your order to HP and beg, chances are they will give you the 20% off even if the coupon is no longer in effect. If you don't succeed with the first call, hang up and try with another rep. Hp is pretty consistent about doing business that way. (If your conscience can stand this, tell them you were ill when the coupon was last in effect!) for some reason they've gotten really tough about no discount without active coupon, I will tell you that this coupon has gone on and off many times since December, and there is probably an excellent chance it will be reactivated again soon. You would be well advised to try daily (same coupon code) because they go on and off that frequently. Good luck. It's worth going to the extra trouble, as this is a truly fine piece of kit and, especially with the 20% off, it is by far and away the best premium Ultrabook you can buy. Because they charge so little for upgrades of the screen to QHD and the wifi card to AC, I strongly recommend adding them for "future proofing." The i7 is a tougher call; I don't recall what the upgrade from the i5 was, but depending on your usage it may offer you no benefits, may reduce your battery life a bit, may increase your heat/fan activation a bit. Having said this, I really can't justify the i7 for my uses, but I got it anyway because the total price with discount was so low. I haven't noticed much heat or fan time, and my battery life is great! Good luck, Jeff

Very interesting. Do you know if the AC wifi card operates with N frequencies/protocols with an N router? I ask because I've done some extensive testing with, say, an Ivy Bridge laptop with a 6230 N wifi card and the range of the 7260 AC with the same N router is significantly greater. The speeds are also a little better more consistently, and over a longer range than the N-card laptops I have. We're talking a consistent 60 Mb/s download for 50 ft vs. more like 50-55 Mb/s and declining after around 30 ft. with the older N card computers. Still and all, I see a dual band AC/N router in my future.

 

Sorry for three posts in a row, but responding to so many at a time my own question gets lost!

I have only one remaining problem with this otherwise near-perfect laptop, but it's quite annoying. My problem is with the poor palm rejection I am getting from the trackpad and the constant "flying cursor" I am getting. I've asked about this before and tried whatever was suggested, but nothing has improved this. Can I put out an all-points-bulletin to ask if others are having this problem and if any of you had the problem but have resolved or improved it, and tell me what you did. I have to confess I really don't understand the Advanced Filter/Restrict Pointing Zone settings, and think I have tried just about every combination. I've found the best overall performance comes from leaving these at the default settings (which uses 1 second delay, most of the trackpad area restricted. I can't swear that this works better than, say, turning the Advanced Filtering off, but it seems to be a little better, but still quite unsatisfactory.

Thanks.

 

There is no doubt that there are differences in the reception from one wireless card to another. I'm fairly sure that the wireless card in the Spectre would be one of the better ones compared to what you might find in a 'cheaper' laptop. For $20 the AC card is a no brainer. It will connect on either the 5000 Ghz AC band or the 2.4 Ghz N band (or even the G band).

I have had 3 different wireless routers (2 dual band routers Asus & Trendnet and an older D-Link). I have found that my ASUS (RT-AC68) has the best range of the routers that I have tried. I think the 3 special antenna probably help a lot.

I am online right now using my older Asus laptop and it has an older 'N' card in it. I'm getting 5 bars from my router at about 60 feet and it's plenty fast enough for all but the most demanding tasks.

 

I'm still working this as well. I've gone back to the default settings as well. For me, making the touch pad less sensitive to palm touch, also seems to make it less sensitive to taps and swipes. So I've gone a different route. I find that the flying cursor happens when my palm lightly brushes the touchpad. if you press down firmly with your palm when you type, it works as expected, no cursor motion, the touchpad basically turns off. I'm trying to see if I can train myself to type in this manner, but there are two problems 1) it's retraining myself from a lifetime of avoiding the touchpad while typing and 2) I'm not sure my wrists like typing in that position, they seem to like being rotated out, which results in the dreaded brushing of the touchpad and resulting flying cursor. I think ultimately i'll figure it out, I like the computer too much to change to a different one, and everything else seems to work like a champ (save the weird phantom tapping think I've mentioned in previous threads, but that seems to be happening less and less)

My 2003 Pavilion ZT3000 had a switch at the top of the touchpad to turn it off, which worked great. I miss that switch......

 

I'd like to share my own observations re wireless N card. I actually purposely ordered the N card due to some reports of difficulty of the Intel AC card with some legacy N routers; firmware issues , dropped and lost connections etc. If you recall , this was a problem with the newer Macbooks as well ( I know , comparing apples to .....whatever ). My understanding is AC is most useful to high speed stream data such as video from a router to a device , or from a device to say a TV. This can be at the expense of range depending on location of routers and devices. My own experience is that the N router is superb . I get full speed delivered by cable ISP near the router and minimal degradation of speed with distances of up to 40-50 ft. I also get very good signal between floors (even 2 levels in my home ), and certainly better range and signal than my 3 yr old laptop,and last years iPad / iPhone. Another notable feature is the spectre's ability to almost immediately acquire the WiFi signal upon waking from sleep. Note however , that this N card is only single band (2.4 ghz) . My understanding is that the AC card is only dual band in AC mode , but reverts to the same single band with N routers. So essentially , the AC card and the N card should behave in an identical fashion with N routers , without the "risk" of incompatibility issues with older routers. Unless you're planning on AC in the future, and again for simple web access this may not be necessary, I would not exchange a notebook if everything else was OK. Someone please correct me if any of my observations are incorrect.

 

I agree that the high end Asus 3-antenna routers are pretty much the best in the market. I bought an Asus "Gigabit" RTN-66U N router on a great sale around Black Friday - 2012! - and haven't even installed it yet. I knew AC was coming, but at the time it was really expensive and I was just looking for better range and capacity for more simultaneous users which the Asus will surely deliver vs. my Linksys, which has always been a disappointment. But what I did was to use an older D-Link N router as a repeater and it took care of my range problem throughout the house. I was considering giving the Asus to my in-laws because they badly needed a better router and don't know much about it. Blah, blah...So, now I think I will install that Asus, see if it covers the house and if not use the Linksys as a repeater, then shop for a good deal on an AC.

I may have asked this question before but don't recall if you answered: if you are using an N router with an AC card (eg, ours in the Spectre) does our card function as an N card if it's "talking" to an N router, or will it it produce a kind of hybrid connection which is worse for range (I know the speed is awesome) than if I had the N card with my N router?

EDIT: your post appeared while I was writing this one but since I wrote the one above without having seen yours, my thoughts may seem disorganized. Interesting points, all. As far as the AC functioning on dual band, when you go into settings on Device Manager for the wireless network card (ie, the Intel 7260AC) you can set it for low, high or dual band. I don't know if that means it will use both bands with an N router or if the card just sets up that arrangement because it can technically perform on both bands but, if you are correct, it just won't switch when it encounters an N router. Regardless, I am surprised that the N card for this computer is single band only; it's a high end card and a high end laptop and they don't cheap-out on any of the main components. It's helpful to know that you think the AC card will perform just like it's N alternate with an N router because my router is modern and there appears to be no legacy compatibility issues.

Now, if only someone could supply an answer to the awful "flying cursor" problem I'm having with the touchpad! (see below)

Yeah, I know what you mean about the on/off toggle in the upper left of the tp. I've had many HP's that had it and, in fact, this is the first HP laptop I've ever had that didn't have it. Earlier, before I had my Spectre 13, someone posted in this forum asking if anyone knew a way to toggle it and I said I was "highly confident" without having one that touchpad would have that little light in the upper left. Well, the person posted back saying in fact it was not there on this model - makig me feel like a jerk! - and he looked all over and in owners manuals and found only a 3-step process, which is not convenient to do, say, just to post to a forum or answer an email. I'm considering turning the tp off and just using the touch screen for navigation, at least when I'm mostly typing. Having a small bluetooth mouse at the ready may be a good way to go so that you always have two alternative ways to navigate, but the touchpad is not one of them! As for your typing position, it is true that the "correct" position is with your palms way higher than the palm rests so they'll never come in contact with the tp while typing, but if you don't have an ideal position - keyboard lower than desk height, sitting upright in a chair - that can be either very uncomfortable or near impossible. It's just more natural for a lazy person like me to rest my palms on the deck of the keyboard.

I'm just surprised that more people aren't commenting about this nor even responding to my posts about it. I've been on this thread from its beginning and it isn't as if the matter was cleared up a long time ago. Hopefully we'll get a few more responses and maybe good advice. This is really just a minor annoyance - because there are workarounds - on an otherwise dam near perfect Ultrabook.

 

Anyone? Advice please? My post is on page 150 about image retention.

 

Been playing with my exchange 13T for the last day or two. There is no big screen defect on the QHD screen which is a great thing and the overall brightness of the screen in marginally brighter at a max setting on this exchange unit. However, there is no way that this panel is 340 NITS. Not even close. Anybody disappointed in the max brightness level of the QHD display? I thought my original defective panel was the cause of sub par max brightness but alas, maybe not so. I believe others may have commented in this regard but since brightness is subjective depending upon eye balls involved, I reserved my thoughts until getting my second system. Again, no way is this panel anything close to 340 NITS

 

again I can only comment on experiences and settings changes. I too was disappointed at the brightness levels of my FHD 1020p screen until I made these changes : first I turned off all auto brightness settings. Then in POWER settings , I set my battery profile to max brightness. Last, I went into Intel graphics HD settings, under power , I turned off all battery saving options and clicked MAX performance options. All these resulted in a significantly brighter and not harsh/ pleasing screen. I'm still not sure if it's 340 nits , but much more acceptable. I understand all this will cut down on battery life, but for my 50+ eyes , this was important. I rather needed a brighter screen , than worry about all the toggling issues some have had on this site. Even with this brighter setting, I still find battery life really good.

 

Yeah, my base model came with a single band N 7260 adapter. Dual band N and AC are two other options. My single band N gives me the same Internet speed as my wired desk top, which is about 15% greater than my ISP promises. And that holds for 25 feet straight line from my AP or about 40 feet through 4 walls.

Regards, Jim

 

I have my FHD set to 60% with no auto dimming. That is bright enough for my old eyes. Full brightness is much too bright for me.

Regards, Jim

 

To clear up some of the confusion in regard to networking standards. All NICs and wireless base stations aka wifi cards and routers have a range of supported wifi standards such as a, b, g, n and ac. This allows for increased compatibility between new and old devices.

Dual band essentially means that a device is capable of operating on two different bands aka 2.4 and 5 Ghz. The ac standard is 5 Ghz where the n standard is 2.4 or 5 Ghz.
When your device connects to a router it will negotiate for the best possible connection and speed. Now if only single band is possible for your device, the n standard is chosen. If it is dual band, but only n and not ac, it will probably depend on settings and possibly the same for ac.

Often your NIC is or can be configured to prefer a band or standard. Otherwise it usually tries to connect to the strongest access point.

While connectivity in terms of signal strength and range is somewhat determined by the hardware (NIC or router) and of course software too (drivers and firmware), the antenna quality, quantity as well as placement also matters (iPhone anyone?).

I hope my semi wall of text helped you guys.

 

Our Spectre 13t is going to connect to one band at a time (either the "N" 2.4Ghz or the "AC" 5 Ghz). If your current router is an "N" router, the Spectre will connect as if it had only an "N" wireless card.

Even if you have a dual band router that has the "AC" capability, then you would have to choose which band to connect to. When I open my "Network Connections" I can see both of my wireless networks, N-2.4Ggz & AC-5.0Ghz (along with all of the neighbors networks that aren't hidden), I can chose to connect by using either one, but not both. :thumbsup:

 

Yes, that is what I did as well. Those complaining about the brightness of the FHD don't have it adjusted correctly. When I had my FHD screen I was able to adjust it too get it very bright. I didn't even have it set to the brightest level that I could get, because that was actually too bright for me. I think the power saver when it goes on battery is getting a lot of folks disappointed with the brightness, but that can be fixed, but then the battery will won't last as long.

User's choice.

 

Am I correct in thinking that you previously had an FHD (1080 screen) and now you have a QHD screen? If so, you find the FHD screen was capable of a higher maximum brightness level? Am I correct there?

Gsdoc4kids - I had all the settings MAXED at all those areas already.

 

Has anyone found reasonably priced AC & 12 VDC adapters for the Spectre 13t-3000? I've seen the HP adapters, but I'd like something cheaper if it's available. None of the "Universal" adapters I've seen have 4.5mm x 2.8mm plugs.

FuelScience

 

Somewhat off tropic, but is there any news about HP's next ultrabook/convertible models? And where is the best place to keep up to date on such news?

Thanks, Jim

 

I just love being able to get a scoop!

Here is the Notebookcheck.net HP Spectre 13-3000 review - dated 2/5/14, one of the most highly respected and thorough notebook computer review web sites.

Spoiler Alerts:

Overall Score: 87 - Very Good The competition all scores between 86 and 90 (amazingly, only the 2013 rMBP 13!). For those of you who regularly read this site, you will know that differences of a couple of points are meaningless, and though they present an impressive-looking statistical model for tallying the score, many of the sub-scores are subjective. Also, it's a German web site and they don't have the awesome discounts we have, so they don't take into account what a bargain this baby is. They actually call it "expensive relative to its competition!" If you price-weighted the results (with our pricing) the 13t would be all alone in the top spot!

Anyway, it strikes me as a very fair and thorough review and they dinged the product for some of the reasons we do: fan noise, slightly hesitant overclocking cpu (but all benchies are very high) and highly reflective screen that trails the best IPSs in the bunch on perfection of viewing angles. They do fully appreciate the phenomenal build, sharp design, and attention to detail.

The great thing about having an nbc review is it pretty much put to rest all the anxieties we OCD early adopters have . Of note:

1. Screen brightness (QHD): 362 nits maximum, 331 nits average (see chart, below). I was one who thought the published number was overstated, but I have a lot of faith in the testing procedures and equipment these guys have. Note some of the other exceptional measures (black values, contrast). Later in the review, they note the color gamut measurements, which are fair at 59% aRGB and, from the looks of charts, about 85% sRGB (sorry, I've been using Sony Z's for the last 2 years- 96% aRGB!)

X-Rite i1Pro 2 Display measurements:
Maximum: 362 cd/m²
Average: 331.4 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 80 %
Center on Battery: 311 cd/m²
Black: 0.31 cd/m²
Contrast: 1003:1
ICC File (X-Rite i1Pro 2)

Source: notebookcheck.net review, 2/5/14

2. Battery life: they got 6:41 on their "full usage" test (wifi on, screen bright, various tasks) it's a pretty taxing test, and and few Ultrabooks (MBA excluded) beat it. It translates to about 8 hrs. true "normal" usage, as we are getting.

I'll leave the rest for suspense - and to make sure no one slips in front of me with the scoop! :hi2::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

As a point of clarification, if you have a dual band wireless N router you can take advantage of its 5Ghz band with the 7260AC adapter in wireless N mode.

 

A little over a month in an I'm seeing build quality issues . When I life the screen when the laptop is closed, the lcd/touchscreen panel looks like its glue is gone and it opens up. Only getting worse with each open/close.

I love this machine, but I've never had something like this happen with my Dells and it makes me really sad . I really wanted to have some faith in HP though ....

I guess I have to find time and call them but if they want me to ship the laptop to them to have it fixed, It'll pretty much guarantee that this will be my last HP deal.... Besides that, still loving the machine

 

The video linked in the notebookcheck.net review is worth viewing. They demonstrate a couple swipes/gestures that I wasn't aware of (and weren't in the manual)

 

Just wanted to give an update to help others out there. After spending hours updating the bios and reinstalling windows, etc. I'm positive this is a hardware issue. The control zone on the left side didn't recognize up and down swiping.
Called HP and they are sending me out a new one. Sadly it won't ship out until the 18th of this month.
I hope this was an isolated incident and not a wide spread problem with other machines.

 

Can you be a little more specific as to where the glue is "gone"from? Is the LCD separating from the lid?. Regardless, it's got to be disappointing and annoying.

Just my opinion but I would suggest you reserve judgment about Hp and this being your "last HP deal." Everyone who has purchased HP notebooks over the past 5 years seems to have one or more "horror stories" about product quality and/or customer service. But substitute any other mfr for "HP" and the statement would be true. Some of the very best Ultrabooks of the past two years - eg. Asus Zenbooks or even vaunted ThinkPad products, including the Carbon X1 - were notorious for multiple quality problems and maddenly useless customer service. IMO this is the "dirty secret" of this industry. We are lured in by sexy designs and glowing "professional" reviews only to find out after we buy a product that it is plagued with quality problems and the manufacturers provide abysmal service when you call to report a problem. Some mfrs even deny the problem and suggest it must be due to "owner abuse," a Sony favorite.

Do I have a point here? Actually, yes. If the only problem with your Spectre 13t turns out to be a gluing defect, and Hp will efficiently and competently fix or replace it, I would say you have really "lucked out"and must have a much higher opinion of HP overall quality and customer support - not exactly the sentiment you have conveyed! But in the very next sentence you say "besides [this glue problem] still loving the machine." What I am suggesting is that if, after a month of ownership, you love the computer and your only problem with it is a glue defect - low tech, easily remedied - that of all problems you can have, you got off really lucky that your only one is so minor. FWIW, Apple has had notorious gluing problems with Macs and iPads, as well as other serious issues - eg. terrible wifi - and that's the gold standard!

Just sayin. (God only knows why it takes me a page of writing to advance such a basic point! May be 'cause my Dad was a lawyer, and I had to prepare a brief to justify my request for a new basketball! )

 

FYI - Mine doesn't do that either, and I just received my QHD Spectre.

 

Katmom, I haven't been able to get my touchpad to produce the behavior shown in the "Properties for HP Control Zone" settings video for "Enable Edge Swipes" either (regardless of the setting, I can't get a tap on the right side of the touchpad to produce the charms bar as shown in the video, though I can bring up the charms bar by swiping in from the right on the touchpad; and tapping on the left control zone also doesn't work as described). But I doubt its hardware, at least in my case; I've verified that both right and left control zones do respond to taps and swipes (though just not producing the expected results) by playing around in the desktop and modern UI's. I suspect the driver (or video documentaion) is at fault. All the hardware has to do is sense your finger swipe or tap and it has done its job; its up to the driver to produce the right action depending on the settings and context (and I think that's where the ball is being dropped here).

 

FWIW mine is pretty much like yours. Katmon. I just assumed there were settings I needed to adjust but it didn't matter much to me as I find the right side Control Zone, which does operate correctly on mine, to be annoying because I often hit it when I didn't mean to and just got distracted by often having to tap it again when I don't really use the Charms bar very often as I mostly am in desktop mode and execute those functions as I would in W7 - though I will say the charms bar is one aspect of W8 I do like. I don't find it very inconvenient to swipe the right side of the screen when I want to use Charms. Still, I don't want my brand new fancy computer to start out with a hardware defect. Would you kindly keep us posted as to how your new machine works out? Point of fact is that my unit is problem - free except other occasional annoyances with the touchpad that I chalked up to "typical" Synaptics issues.

Are many of this community finding their touchpad is fine, including the Control Zones?


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

I still have not been able to find reasonably priced (cheap) power supplies for the Spectre, but I did find a source for adapters to step down from a more common adapter to the 4.5 mm plug. Price is $6.95. I'll report back when mine arrives and give feedback on how it works.

FuelScience

BiXPower CNT-C32

 

A while ago I saw someone asking if our machines where not loosing Battery while shutdown (like 5% overnight?).
I just came after some days out and I didn't found any relevant power loss on my battery (was at 99%)

However I had done something before.
In BIOS, System Configurations, set the USB charging (while in Sleep/Off) to OFF.
It seems in some older models people wanted to have this option to avoid the system from continuously drawing power.

I think this due to this feature that notebookcheck saw a power consumption while the machine was turn down.

If you have some problems with battery consumption give it a try.

Also after turning off the automatic brightness of windows my screen (QHD) is too bright
I no longer keep it at 100%.

I think with that option enabled when you set it to 100% it is more like at 70% or 80% of it's real capacity.

 

That was me. Thanks for the tip, I'll take a look. The weird part was that I would see about 5% drain for the first two days but after that it more or less held steady (I left it for 5 days and was still at 90%). I'm waiting on a replacement due to the screen now.