HP Spectre 13T-3000

Ah - thanks for that - quite a lot more $$$ than in the US. Question - did yours come with Adobe Lightroom 5 - or is that only for US purchasers?

 

Yes, it comes with Adobe Lightroom (I am in the U.S.)

 

I'm looking for an ultrabook for my graduate study, and the 13t-3000 is at the top of my list right now. Fortunately, I can wait until August to buy. This is why i'm planning to wait until some 20% off coupons are available. I'm thinking maybe there will be a back-to-school deal or something like that.
I read all the 160+ pages of this thread, but now I can't find the coupons codes that were used for 20% off. Considering that this kind of offers come and go frequently, could anybody list the old coupon codes??? That way I could try daily with those until I get lucky....

Thanks!

 

I think one of the old 20% coupons was PC92229, though my guess is they'd use a new code for whatever new 20% deal they'd offer.

 

I'm sure you'll see a coupon before then. Like most technology, if you wait until this Summer you'll end up driving yourself crazy with the rumors of the next technology right around the corner. At least I would.

 

Where's a good place to find HP coupons?

 

http://www.fatwallet.com/HP-Home-coupons/

I'm sure there are others, but that's who I went through.

 

I'll probably will go crazy lol, but that same part of my brain demanded that I started this research so early.... sooo not much that I can do to avoid going crazy.
Anyway, if something new comes up, I'm not sure I want to be beta tester for new systems. I'd rather jump on a not-so-new but proven system like this spectre

 

I got my replacement today and the screen bleeding is much better on this one, splash screen is a little better (but still shows the typical bleeding shown on most splash screens) but doing an all black screen test I see almost no bleeding.

Does anyone else notice that if you pinch the part of the laptop below and to the left of the Spectre writing by the keyboard that it compresses a little and makes a squeaking noise? Happens fairly easily on the left part but on right side it takes a little for it to happen, don't remember if this happened on the previous one I had.

I also think my track pad is a different material than the first one I had also, this one feels a bit more glossy and original one felt more of like a matte finish.

 

On my 1st Spectre, the left palm rest area would make a pop or click noise fairly consistently when a little pressure was applied. Drove my crazy and it did not happen on the right side palm rest area. Something inside was definitely not right but that system also had a hugh screen defect in the upper left hand corner. So, I wrote off that machine as a quality control failure that was some how shipped out. My second one does not make that click or popping noise and has no screen blotch/defect on it. However, on my second one, the screen backlight is not as bright as it should be so I have a 3rd replacement coming now...crazy, but I like the overall system if I can get one that meets basic quality expectations on all fronts. I took my QHD machine into Best Buy who carries that FHD 1080 screen. Found out that the screen brightness was brighter on the 1080 panel and all settings were the same. I checked the LED backlight level/brightness in the bios screen area as I was told to do by HP tech support. Both the 1080 and QHD screens are supposed to be IDENTICAL in terms of brightness for anyone else that might be wondering. Per HP Tech support, there is ZERO difference in max brightness between the panels and as a result I was told to return my system for another due to the difference

 

I wanted to give an update on my laptop experience in hopes to help others out there. I had returned my laptop in early February because of the control zones not working properly on the left side. The HP techs couldn't figure out if it was hardware or software issues. I just got my new Spectre 13 last night and started playing around with it.

Here are my findings with the Control Zones:
You can swipe the left to switch between apps. Another option is to have a list of apps. To make the left side bring up a list you can swipe in from the left but it wont let you scroll through the list. If you depress the left control zone, I had to push down hard at first, the list will pop up and then you can scroll up and down through the list. In the included quick setup manual it shows control zone gestures. It looks like they are just touching the control zones, but you actually have to push down on them. Now that I know you can depress the sides I don't have to push hard. I thought I was going to break the touchpad at first.

I hope this helps others out there who were having trouble with the control zones.

As for the rest of the machine so far everything works great. No fan issues, mine hardly turns on. Only did when I was installing all the Windows updates. I can see how others might say it has a high pitched whine, but unless your in total silence I don't see it as a big deal. Screen is plenty bright on my FHD screen, a tiny bit of screen light leak on the bottom left, but only visible on startup screen. Not a deal breaker for me. Speakers at full volume do have some crackling noise but it was too loud, I have mine set at about 48, plenty loud. USB ports work fine but only used them with a 2.0 device.

Pretty sure this is a keeper for me, Ill post more findings later. Still have a few more tests to run.

 

Yes, that's exactly as it's occurred with me. It's as if the BT 4.0 drivers mysteriously get uninstalled and are gone, and all the BT devices show as greyed out, and you have to re-install the HP 4.0 Bluetooth drivers and then all is well with the world again. It's especially annoying because one of the reasons I decided to purchase a new, designed for W8 from the ground up computer was so BT 4.0 would be thoroughly integrated and pairing and connecting devices would be a cinch. Instead it is easy about 50% of the time and impossible the other 50% of the time, requiring the re-installation of the 4.0 drivers. At least in W7 with BT 2.0/3.0 when things got flaky you could just uninstall/reinstall the device itself - faster and easier than now. Why does this have to be so hard?

 

Even though you shouldn't need to, as HP should have tested drivers without fault already, an alternative is to try the BT drivers from Intel's page. Their organization is a little strange but you can find them by manually searching for drivers (Intel Support link), choosing Wifi and 7260AC and you'll see the link for Windows 8.1 64-bit has a BT drivers link. I have them installed but I can't tell you for sure if they solve the problem as I haven't been using any BT devices with my Spectre. Eventually I'll probably get a BT mouse.

 

Anyone????

 

Sony also equips owners with an option of capping battery charges at 80% or even 50% to preserve battery longevity while usually using it plugged in, and it adds years to batteries keeping 100% chages. I haven't seen a third party utility, but I'll second the motion by sootnsmoke if anyone knows of a community driver to do this.

Edit: I've searched all over for a third-party utility to accomplish this but there doesn't seem to be one, surprising though it seems since it should be fairly easy to develop one. Only Sony and Samsung appear to have a utility built in to limit charging to 80% or less. I have read in numerous places that with latest lithium ion battery technology the 100% charge - that pretty much always stops charging when it reaches that level is not as hard on long term battery life as it used to be. I've also read that occasional use of the battery, taking it down to about 40% capacity and then recharging will add to the number of full recharges of the battery. It is said to be especially worthwhile to let the battery run down if you are using it in a high heat environment.

 

Still loving my 13t more than any other laptop I've tried since the immortal Sony Z1! My only complaints remain:

1) Flying cursor no matter what I set Palm Rejection at
2) Occasionally dissapearing Bluetooth drivers for 4.0 and, even without that occuring, having to remove and reinstall some BT devices to get them to operate.
3) Inadequate keyboard backlighting except in very dark ambient lighting. It is true that you can usually see the black masking on keys until the room is dark enough for backlighting, at which point the lighting appears perfectly uniform and fully adequate for usage. Still, an unconventional approach though pretty much universal with metallic keys and translucent masking. Key here is that the masking is very bold and the lighting from the screen appears to reflect sufficiently on the metallic keys to keep the lettering clear enough even in relatively darkened surroundings. An example where this doesn't work well is the Samsung Ativ 7, which has very fine lined characters.

Neither of the first two - nor the third - are deal breakers but I can't understand why the first two should occur. Thoughts anyone?

Also, as good as this product is, I might take a closer look at the Acer S7-392 and Dell XPS-12 without the 20% discount on the 13t, though still might choose the 13t in the end. I think the Asus UX301 is just too expensive and quality control remains and issue, and the Samsung Ativ 9 Plus has a very short stroke keyboard and a noisy space bar, as well as equally bad keyboard lighting without the compensating bold masking of the keys. The rMBP might also be a contender if you were partial to OSX, which I am not. Anyone have other thoughts?

My sense is that people are pretty happy with the product because there is not much traffic on this thread these days.

 

I have looked all over as well and found pretty much the same information as you. Apparently it is not just a software component but there is also a bios feature set/dependency as well for battery management. Despite developments in battery technology Samsung and Sony consistently build that utility into their new laptops. It must still be a fairly important consideration to build long term battery life. Other independent sources confirm that operating a battery at a static 100% charge level is not ideal. Not a problem for conventional laptop users with removable batteries. Running in long term desktop replacement scenarios on AC power can certainly be an issue for ultrabook users with sealed batteries (in the interest of maximum battery life). If you find a lead on a software based utility that works for HP systems let me know!

 

Does anyone know if getting QHD+ on this machine is a good choice? I've seen many criticisms due to the screen size, but is it that bad? I may consider getting this as FHD instead of QHD+ but I cannot decide. I'm getting this for my sister.

 

I'm on the fence, although I haven't seen the FHD. From the comments on here, both tend to have their pros and cons. Some of the notable points taken from analyzing posts:

- The FHD "might" have a higher tendency for backlight bleed than the QHD. My QHD has some backlight bleed, mainly on the bottom but it isn't extremely noticeable except at the initial HP startup screen. If you look back earlier in this thread there are some FHD owners (some might chime in) that had really bad experiences with the FHD.
- The QHD has image retention issues. Sadly, I didn't notice it on mine until I read it on here. Once I did, however, I noticed it on mine. I'll be gauging on whether it gets worse or not. It isn't a dealbreaker but if you expect perfection it will definitely bug you (so would the backlight bleed for that matter)
- Images on my QHD are amazing and text is razor sharp. There are some scaling issues with certain apps though. Google Chrome is a good example that, despite a workaround, still has issues (on mine some toolbar icons like Xmarks show up as blank even though they're functional). I think the FHD on the 13" screen will look fantastic too, seeing as this is only a 13" screen. Scaling issues could get improved with a Service Pack or by application developers. There are more and more high resolution laptops and ultrabooks coming out.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for your input! I went ahead and ordered the device with QHD. I sort of thought about it in the same way -- it's good to have around and I could always adjust the resolution if I run into any issues with scaling and such until that larger resolution is supported more appropriately. I hope I don't run into any major retention issues.

I'm so excited for my sister! I ordered the system with the following configuration:

Intel Core i7 4500U
8GB RAM
256GB SSD
QHD Display
AC Bluetooth WiFi

This seems like a really solid Ultrabook. Can't wait.

 

Anyone bought the leather sleeve together with the laptop? I'm wondering if it fits well. The dimensions given seems that it would be rather large for this spectre.

HP 13.3 Leather Sleeve | HP® Official Store

Any reviews from sleeve owners?

 

Hello,

I recently bought a case from this website, apparently they stop selling the case i recently bought. Anyway, since these are cases for macbook, the case i ordered was a MAC BOOK AIR 13 and it fit my SPECTRE 13T-3000 perfectly.

 

I just ordered the laptop, and using a couple coupons, ordered a few accessories. I got the USB->Ethernet dongle, the HDMI->VGA adapter, and the leather sleeve, for a total of $80.

The laptop isn't scheduled to ship until tomorrow, but I should have the accessories by Thursday. I can take some pics of the sleeve, but won't know how the laptop fits until next week at the earliest (unless HP has some super fast shipping).

 

Thanks! will look forward to your pics. What coupons did you use for the accessories?

 

Lenovo (at least with the Thinkpad T400S I have) also builds this feature into their Power Manager utility. You can set the level at which charging stops and starts; or you can let the utility set an optimal charge level for you (I've never seen this particular feature in action). I can attest to its usefulness; after nearly 4 years (most of the time it's asleep and plugged in) I'm still on the original battery, and according to the utility it has retained 90% of its original charge capacity . In contrast, with my previous HP dv4t I followed the 'drain it till it gave a low battery alert, then recharge 100%' method-- I went through 3 lithium batteries in 2 years on that machine.

Thankfully most of the time I spend using the Spectre hardly depletes the battery at all (its become my favorite web browsing machine displacing my Nexus 7 tablet, which ironically can't come near the HP's battery life). I've gotten in the habit of yanking out the power plug whenever I'm not using it and usually keep it about 50% charged-- it still seems to be good for hours of use before needing to be plugged in. But HP seems to be the outlier here without equivalent functionality.

 

I have discounts through my employer, I used a 15% off laptop accessories HP Home: 15% off Laptop Accessories coupon - ace8477 and I should get 3% cash back from FW.

The leather sleeve came today. I wasn't expecting it. I didn't realize the email from HP had 2 tracking numbers. The two adapters should be here on Thurs, but my laptop isn't scheduled to ship until tomorrow. The sleeve seems very nice. I, too, was a bit concerned since the size seemed to be about 1-2in bigger in each dimension than what the laptop is. Looking at it (and not having the laptop), it seems like it'll fit nicely, since the sleeve is basically flat, the extra size is needed to accommodate the laptop thickness. I got it for my fiancé, primarily since I really liked it. She'll most likely end up getting a sleeve for the MacBook Air, since that and this HP are basically the same exact size.

 

The sleeve seems really well made, the sides are 3/8" thick. The outside is a smooth leather, and the inside is a very soft suede material.

It came with a foam insert. I measured it, and it's the same width and depth as the Spectre, but only 0.4" thick. The insert seems to fit just fine, just snug enough, so I feel the laptop will be a perfectly snug fit.

Here are some pics of the sleeve:

 

I bought these two. They work great. You can use the bag with the handles, either with the sleeve or just with the Spectre alone.

 

I just bought the HP leather sleeve (impulse buy since its on sale and you can use a coupon code but you lose free shipping so it ends up being almost the same price) and I hope it fits the Spectre perfectly. I saw the pics and quick review just posted on here but I really wish you had your laptop to test fit it!! (as I am sure you do as well)

 

Yep, can't wait for it to show up. I used the 15% off coupon, and still had free shipping.

 

Sleeve is on sale for 53 and I used the 15% coupon and lost free shipping, my total with tax and shipping came out to 50 so not so bad.

 

You'd think they'd be more consistent with coupons and pricing. Seems like it'd be more work to not be more consistent. Yeah, $50 isn't too bad, about the price after the coupon, but before my employer discount.

 

There is a cushion that is built in near the zipper that closes up when you zip it up that protects the laptop form getting scratched.

The sleeve is snug side to side but does have some slight room to move from top to bottom. I'm not too concerned because it is well cushioned.

 

any ideas on what a compatible power plug would be from ebay?

I am looking for a spare & an older one is fine with me as long as it will work.

 

I found a source for adapters to step down from a more common adapter to the 4.5 mm plug. Price is $6.95. I bought two and have had no issues using them with old power supplies I had sitting around.

FuelScience

BiXPower CNT-C32

 

Thank you Katmom; somehow I completely missed this post. Can you clarify: do you believe your original "Control Zone" touchpad was defective and you now have functionality on the left side because it was replaced, or did you just get better instruction on how to use it? Was your original one working fine on the right, just not on the left (as mine is) or not at all? Also, did they send you an entirely new machine or a refurb? In the end, was it worth it to return and replace your 13t solely for this left side control zone function, given just the vicissitudes of model variation? I do have one other issue with the touch pad - palm rejection isn't great no matter how I set it. Did you have this problem before or do you now? That could be a second reason I might want to follow in your path and get a replacement.

Thanks so much for taking us through your experience.

 

What cord/plug are you plugging into the adapter so that it will run the Spectre 13t?

 

I've used it with a Toshiba power supply as well as a couple of generic power supplies that had lots of tips, but not one for the HP. It's worked well with all of them.

FuelScience

 

Do you think this would work?

Charger for HP Ultrabook Sleekbook AC Adapter Power Cord 677770 002 613149 001 | eBay

It looks like its the right size.

 

My original laptop was sent back and I was given a full refund from HP. They sent me out a brand new one, and I was able to get the 20% off again, even though the coupon had expired at the time of the new order. I did have to ask for it, they didn't offer it me, but the guy on the phone was very helpful in getting the discount applied to my order.

I'm not 100% sure if my first laptop had a hardware issue, but HP seemed to think it did. My original laptop only had problems on the left side control zone. The right side was working with the swipe feature, left side would let me swipe to switch between apps but that was it. I wanted the option of a list view of apps to choose from. However I never tried to actually push the left or right side control zone area down. I didn't know that was even a function.
My new laptop seemed to have the same issue until I figured out how the control zones really work. You have to actually depress them, not just touch. I just thought I would try since you can push the bottom down for the left and right mouse functions. And low and behold it worked! There is no instructions on how to correctly use the control zones. HP needs a better manual to explain it.

As far as the flying cursor goes, on my first laptop I didn't have it long so I can't say much about it. But on this new one I have had it happen once or twice. I haven't played much with the settings for the touch pad. I'll play around with that and see if I can eliminate it. But I will say that if I am doing a lot of typing I hold my hands differently than when doing other tasks and just have to fill in typing fields on a website. While typing this post on my Spectre I haven't had any issues at all.

Overall I think this is a great laptop and am happy with my decision to return the first one and get a new one. One of the main reasons I got this laptop is because of the control zones, so having them function was very important to me. The only drawback was waiting for the new one to be shipped out.

I hope I answered all your questions. Let me know if I can help with anything else.

 

I was actually thinking about throwing in HP's Spectre sleeve with the device (a gift to my sister), but it's honestly overpriced (as are all company-made accessories). Even though it was designed for the device, there are many good quality sleeves for a much better price. But I can understand that compulsive need to match everything, from HP. Are there any deals on getting this sleeve? If only it was a little cheaper, I'd get it to match the device as it would nicely wrap up the gift. I need to get my sister an accessory or two with the notebook.

 

Thanks for the find! I have an external battery that I want to use with my 13t-3000. But, none of the tips fit the 13t-3000. This adapter tip will fit one of the tips that came with the external battery. Now I will be able to double my battery life for those long plane rides.

Thanks again, Jim

 

Got the HP sleeve today and I don't love it, the Spectre fits in it just fine but the sleeve is kinda on the big side and could be a little tighter holding the Spectre. I may have to return it and get something cheaper or wait for one that is meant for this laptop.

 

Thanks for letting us know! I was kind of waiting to hear a brief review/opinion anyway. If that's the case, I'd also rather wait. Even with the coupon, it seems like it's not really worth it.

 

I would call them and ask for the exact dimensions of the plug. You need a male connector with 4.5 mm O.D. and 2.8 mm I.D.
FuelScience