HP Spectre 13T-3000

The HP Web Site shows December 9th ship date for a 13t-3000 ordered today. I know nothing about the Dell, but the UX302LA would be a good choice if you would be happy with a HDD rather than an SSD.

Good luck, Jim

 

mine has been delayed twice, still don't have it. I asked for two day shipping, and paid for it, but is coming economy and can't be changed. they will give me credit for the shipping, and Other Credits that amount to $330, but I would really prefer to receive my computer on time. good luck

 

thanks for the info, sounds great. yes ill just be doing medium gaming at most, i just wasn't sure how strong the 4400 is.

i guess ill go with the qHD then! does the i7-4500u better help with the qHD display or not really? i was planning on getting the i5-4200u, so just curious what would make it worth it to get the i7? its my understanding that the i7 would just help out if i was doing heavy video editing or things like that, right? or would there be any other reasons to get the i7?

those who own the device, you should post some nice pictures, close ups, or take a video! id love to see the top lid of the laptop in better detail, how the color of it is etc.

also, did the laptop come with a carrying sleeve and mouse? i assume not, but i watched one video where they said it came with those 2 things.

 

I tried ordering online 3 times, and got rejected several times by HP.

Got tired of trying and said it wasn't worth it.

Went ahead and bought the ASUS Zenbook UX302LA instead

 

Got the UK version today (13-3000ea), I'll be happy to answer any questions.

 

I got hit with the delay Ship date moved up to on or before the 25th of this month. I called HP because I had a feeling it was delayed and was told that they will prioritize my shipment, which is nice and reassuring I guess. I was surprised at how quickly I got to a customer service representative. Can't wait to get my hands on that beautiful machine. One of the best looking ultrabooks currently in the market.

Called HP again and got a refund for 2 day shipping. Victory!

 

Well, surprise, I finally had it delivered. Now to do updates, load programs, and see if it is keeper. already I don't think I like the backlit keys, the keys are the wrong color with the light emiting oddly.

 

Congrats! Yes, as I already mentioned, the keyboard silver on white is the wrong combination, especially with the backlight on. So in a well lit room, I just turn the keyboard light off and the issue becomes a moot point. Also what I noticed is that I can see the keys better in a semi-dark room with the backlit off because the keys becomes silver on black.

Well I hope you enjoy it and I hope its a keeper for you. Kind Regards,

 

I'll be able to comment on FHD when I get mine. For now though, it hasn't updated on FedEx for over 24 hours....last status update I had was: International shipment release - Import on Wednesday and in Chongqing, dang.

Oh well, I've been sick the last several days so I don't mind. Yeah, I can see the problem with the keys. Guess I'll wait to judge for myself. I was okay with doing something a little different as I always seem to own the typical silver with black accents(including keys) laptops. Nothing wrong with that look though. If that's my biggest problem I encounter, I'm a-ok with that, lol.

 

The i7-4500U helps with a lot of things because it has a 4MB cache oppose to 3MB cache and the CPU is clocked a little higher as well as the 4400GPU base frequency. All of the upgrades helps with performance aspects, I am sure it helps out pushing pixels to the to the screen when it at full 2560x1440. If HP had the i7-4558U option I would've chosen that option. I am not saying it is significant difference between the two, but it helps!

No, there is no bag or mouse that comes with it. And taking pictures will not do this computer any justice. The Pics on HP website and the video links that are floating around are better then any pictures that I can send.

 

Well, I pulled the plug on a Yoga 2 Pro and pulled the trigger on one of these 13T-3000 babies instead. Some of the Y2P complaints started freaking me out...

It was a pretty nerve wracking purchasing decision since this time I can't easily pull the plug, but my last 2 laptops were both HP's so I have some confidence in the brand.

Anyway, I went with the i7 / 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD / QHD / 802.11 AC configuration. I'm not sure I believe in "future proof", but if it's out there somewhere than maybe I found it! =P

Thin, light, powerful and durable were my main objectives. I'm planning on carrying this along with a bigger laptop in a backpack and I'm fairly certain I have room for it (or lets just say it will be a real bummer if I don't).

Anyway, the delivery date is 9th of Dec. I also opted for 2nd day delivery. If this thing arrives more than a week after that than I'm in trouble...

EDIT: I did save $100 using an HP coupon code from dealdigg.com for anyone else that wants to try it.

 

Here is more of my story. I placed my order on October 26th. Estimated ship date was November 20th. Status changed to shipped on November 9th, with a delivery date of November 15th. My 13t-3000 arrived today at 12:13 PM, a day early! My initial reaction is WOW. I haven't found anything to complain about yet. The keyboard backlight issue means nothing to me, I have never used a backlight keyboard and see no reason to start.

Regards, Jim

Edit: I haven't used the touch pad extensively, but my initial impression is that it is going to be a terrific feature.

 

hI MCSEY2K1. yes, I remembered your previous post about the back lit, and i'll be using your solution.
finally finished downloading office & quicken, now to upload my data files.....Then I'll be in a position to test this thing out. A lot of useful info on this site which I will be using for my eval.

 

Congrats on pulling the trigger on the HP, I think it was a wise move over the Yoga. I hope you like it. The Yoga Pro has a lot of screen issues and I knew my Ultrabook needed to be all aluminum all over, thin/sleek and powerful. The Asus UX301/2 is a beautiful Ultrabook but the price is was just too much, not a money issue, just a principal.

No there is no such thing of future proof. Buy for your current needs and not for your future needs, unless you know your future needs.

 

For the new owners...how does the laptop sound? Obviously, most laptops aren't going to turn on any audiophile but is the volume good...any bass? Just saying "Beats" on them, or any other high end sound brand, doesn't really mean much.

 

Wow, congratz! So there is some hope that mine might actually come early!

Even while pulling the trigger I realized there is one possibly misleading thing: I'm not sure if I the 13T-3000 necessarily has fewer problems than other similar models. It's more likely the case that there aren't as many people with the 13T-3000 unit in their hands. For example, there is a Y2P owner's thread here (maybe that's what this thread will become) and and on Lenovo's own forum there is quite a bit of Y2P activity (admittedly not a good sign). I've been hard pressed to even find a review of the 13T-3000 (which seems really strange) and I haven't seen any 13T-3000 posts in HP's own forum (which may be a good sign).

All that being said, I've found HP to be a good company to deal with when there is a problems which made it easier for me to take the 13T-3000 leap.

On a completely unrelated note, I have a few questions that maybe you guys can answer:

• Can anyone recommend a sleeve?
• Has anyone tried to play any games?

I wasn't buying this as a gaming machine, and I would only expect to play games that are quite old without performance loss, but I am wondering if anyone's tried playing a recent title with any success.

 

my hp unboxing and preliminary setup hp spectre 13t3000 unboxing - Imgur

enjoy!

 

it is worth noting that the free box.com account must be activated by logging in using the icon/app in the 'Start Menu' once you create an account.
login once and it will activate the 50gb account.
shuting down to format....

 

@hack6500 - wow, very nice! (*drool*)

I just had a few questions:

* On slide 42, is that a flaw in the paint job? Bummer man...
* Where'd you get that awesome sticker?
* What triggered the "automatic repair" at bootup?

Excellent pics, thank for sharing!

 

it was dirt, the intire unit had a 'crusty' feel to it, if you look closely the units packaging was damaged in this corner.
the soft velvet was smeared on there very good, but it came off when i gave it the baby-wipee bath.. the surface cleans up nicely and has excellent lines so scrub in that direction!

i have the zombi snow white for my air, which will be in the next set of photos, and wanted to make this one unique too.. it was from Amazon!

it did that automagically up startup, and i took that opportunity to explore and photo the bios.
currently i have formated and installing kubuntu! i must say fellas.. its looking mighty good!

 

great shots hack6500. i just got mine configured today also, and will anxiously await your critique.

 

Kubuntu v13.10 x64 Album : hp spectre 13t3000 kubuntu 13.10 - Imgur

well this is what the SSD looks like if you boot gParted v0.8.0-1

that went away quickly, and i attempted a native kubuntu 13.10 x64 install! WOW well i am impressed! AC wifi, bluetooth, touchscreen, audio and trackpad all worked in the INSTALLER! and it quickly rebooted to offer up my desktop! I decided to encrypt the system storage, and at boot you will need to increase the screen brightness to actually see the prompt, otherwise it should boot right to the xlogin!

I was surpised to see the webcam and wireless work out of the box, something I am very greatful for. no gestures work for the trackpad or touchscreen but that is to be expected, and soon will be corrected. I will be giving kubuntu a ride for few days, then i may attempt another distro, before possibly going back to 8.1 in which case i plan to give N a whirl...

I have harvested the windows 8.1 drivers as well as detailed system information viewer reports and will be posting those shortly, stay tuned!

 

i made a video of the audio quality... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10v71L0qsLY

i will say, i am slightly disappointed, compared to the new 7" kindle HDX these speakers seem underwhelming, and muffled. now it could be my desk, or all the stuff around it, or something like special windows 'enhanced' drivers etc? but using a basic driver really demonstrates the raw device in its simplest form. we shall see if they are any better using other settings etc. i will be connecting these to my studio monitors to fully evaluate.

 

Congratulations to all new owners
I think I will order mine tomorrow. There is a shop with 10% off only this weekend.

How do you feel the laptop? Any issues so far?
Do you also have the 2560x1440 screen? How does it look? colors, view angles, brightness.

And how does the fan behave. Any noise or not so much?


Thank you in advance

 

HP Spectre 13t3000 Kubuntu 13.10 boot speed - YouTube
and another video of the boot time for kubuntu 13.10, it could easily be under 30sec if i typed faster, and with out passwords i would bet around 24sec!

 

so has anyone opted for just the FHD screen? still deciding which one to get. really doubt i need qHD but someone give me your thoughts?

also, anyone go with the i5 instead of i7? is this really just a matter of the performance that's needed? im a business college student and will the i5 and FHD be better for me?

 

Are you thinking of a 256Gig SSD? How about 8Gig of RAM? Those are the first two upgrades I'd think about (in that order). Then I'd think about the qHD upgrade and finally the i7 upgrade.

The OS takes around 40Gig, so I'd consider the bigger disk. Then if you want to run a lot of things at once I'd get the 8Gig RAM upgrade.

The qHD upgrade for $70 might be nice, but chances are you won't actually need more screen resolution than FHD on a 13" monitor. (I'm planning on wearing strong reading glasses with mine).

The i7 probably gives you about a 10% speed increase. You'd have to consider if that's worth another $100 to you (~10% increase in cost if you think about it that way).

So it depends on how budget conscious you are.

 

Congratulations - excellent choice and great configuration. Mind my asking what the bottom line was? I have a strong inclination that I personally could do fine with an i5 and the 1080p screen, once I see a review to confirm it is a high quality IPS, which is likely based on HP's current models. I'd rather spend the money on RAM and SSD upgrades, but if the price is right I guess I'd go for the luxe config you got.

 

For what it's worth, the specs of the FHD screen indicate it is indeed IPS.

 

The total before tax and shipping came to $1,334.99. This includes the $100 coupon I mentioned (which I think you can still get). You can play around with configing things on HP's site without making the purchase to see what the total comes to.

That price actually comes pretty close to the Yoga 2 Pro (BestBuy has it for $1200) which has almost the same configuration (the Y2P has a 3200x1800 screen which apparently has some issues).

 

I have the FHD and its quite fine for me, even now i can barely read the 10pt font at 1920x1080. its working for me!

i seem to keep 'grazing' the touchpad which sends my cursor to another position. its annoying.

and mixed feelings over this full fixed width keyboard. one of my favorite features of my EliteBook 2530p was the crunched keys towards the outside edge. this keboard will take some getting used to... the arrow keys have worked as well as you might expect for their silly shape.

 

Yes, I have the base configuration, i5, FHD, 4 GB ram, 128 GB ssd. It is more than adequate for my needs. Unless you are a power user the i7 is overkill. Another Win8 tablet I have is i3, which is OK for my use profile. The i5 gives me a little more speed. I can't see even FHD text without increasing text size, so higher resolution would only give me bragging rights. I have another Win8 tablet that has only 64 GB ssd and that gives me about 25 GB free, so 128 GB ssd is more than enough for my particular use profile. The FHD screen is definitely ISP.

Good luck, Jim

 

For us non-literates: what is the term FHD mean, and also IPS? And while I'm asking, what is a kubuntu 13.10? I need to get my arms around these terms.

TIA

 

So what sales/discounts are still available for this computer. Also, what's the ssd interface on this computer? Is it the new m.2 sata standard, something proprietary or an older standard?

 

FHD just means "Full HD" which is the 1920x1080 resolution used in HD movies. The alternative for this 13t-3000 laptop is QHD which is 2560x1440. IPS is an LCD panel technology that has some advantages over the older TN technology. Kubuntu is a Linux distribution for the very advanced and slightly insane laptop user (j/k hack6500 !).

I used coupon code NB1713 for $100 off which I think expires on 11/17

Early in this thread and on HP's site you can get a set of full specs. The PDF from HP is here http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03984004.pdf

In the manual it does say M.2

 

Here is a link that explains IPS. In practical terms, IPS gives a wider viewing angle than the older (and cheaper TN).

IPS panel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regards, Jim

 

Can the bottom of this device be easily removed in order to upgrade the ssd and replace the battery? Also, how many ssd ports does it actually have?

 

thanks, yes i certainly plan to go with the 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. I think I'll stick with the i5 and FHD now!

Do you guys think there will be a better coupon available (maybe more $ off or a high % off) that will apply to the 13t around Black Friday, or should I place my order with the $100 off coupon now?

 

I don't know if it is easy, but on the Maintenance and Service Guide it talks about 8 Torx screws. Maybe it needs an additional pry tool to properly detach it. But doesn't look that bad on the paper
Once that's done it shall be quite simple to replace the SSD or battery. The main problems will be to find compatible ones.

It doesn't have any SATA or mSATA connectors. It has a single NGFF M.2 2280 slot. That slot could in theory support both SATA and PCIe interfaces. But for that it needs to be cabled to both SATA and PCI lanes. If that is done I don't know. For sure it is cabled to the SATA as the SSD that is being shipped is a M.2. SATA version.

 

If I need to cut due to money saving I would first cut on the disk space. This is the only part that can be replaced later on. The extra 15% CPU power of the i7 might not be relevant today but can be the difference on when the next new laptop will be needed.

The FHD panel was also my first choice as I was thinking I would not take advantage of the QHD and the FHD should be more adjusted to the current programs.

What I just saw on the Service Manual is that the QHD panel is: eDP1.3+PSR.
I was trying to find out what the hell was this and discover that the PSR means Panel Self Refresh. So it seems the QHD version will not need the CPU/GPU to be refreshing the panel if the image is static. That could lead to some more minutes of battery if one is mostly reading static stuff on screen. How much is what we will need to see

 

Thanks Hawkeye and Fred for the info. I'm learning. odd that i'm the only one who asks such dumb questions. one more question while i'm at it. I also have another hp, the splitX2. it has only 128SSD. is it possible to replace it with the larger ssd?

Whoops, i see that this was just answered above. looks like it would be a hassel to try and change out the SSD.

 

HP is really good about providing service manuals on their web site in the support area. You could check it out and see if swapping the drive seems difficult or not.

 

Any backlight bleed issues with the QHD panel?

 

Can anyone recommend a sleeve?

 

I was so close to ordering the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus, when I saw this and started looking at this HP model. Samsung customer service was horrible so I contacted HP and decided this model was definitely worth ordering since there's no real downside.

HP is offering Black Friday deals now. Ordered the i7 proc8essor, QHD display, 8GB Ram, 256 SSD, 802.11 AC WLAN and ethernet adapter, 3 year accidental damage protection and lowjack (reg $269.99) and got the entire package with regular shipping for $1488 with the NB1713 coupon and Black Friday offers. The computer is for my daughter in college, so the 3 year AD protection was important to me. HP is offering an extended return window until Jan 15 and will accept the return for any reason and will pay for return shipping. So I figured there was little downside to trying this model. It is scheduled to ship Dec 5. Seems like a good deal to me.

By comparison, an equivalent Samsung Ativ book 9 plus was priced at $2100 and customer service can't tell you if a restocking fee would apply or not.

 

That looks like a really good deal when you include the extra coverage. Where did you see this deal? I couldn't find it on the HP site...

EDIT: Looks like you can get the protection plan your talking about on sale for $202.49 now, but even with that and the $100 coupon your price is about $50 cheaper.

 

There's a pretty good deal on the 13 right now for a maxxed spec version with 11.5% off at $1,186. The only thing lacking is the option to add 3-year support. Does anyone know how to do that separately, or which link on the hp.com site allows for this?

 

The 3 year coverage is on sale now for $152:

HP 3 year 3 day Onsite Response for Envy Notebook Hardware Support | HP® Official Store

I'm debating whether to get this or not.

Where did you see the 11.5% deal?

 

Thanks for the link. Will that work on a Spectre 13t even though it says Envy? It seems like the kind of detail HP might hold against me in the future. Is there a list of models that it says it covers?

Anyway, try this link for the price. I hope it shows up for you -- it did for me.

Spectre 13t-3000 Ultrabook - Smart Buy | HP® Official Store

 

Note that this is the maxed i5 version (which is very good, I just wanted to point out that there is also an i7 version). What coupon code did you use? I see it for $100 off without a coupon ($1,240 sale price).

I would talk to a sales rep about the care package price.

EDIT: okay, I see that if you also use the SVD8492 coupon code you get another 5% off which brings the price down to $1,173