HP Spectre 13T-3000

I have owned mine for 3 months and couldn't be happier. I have the max config: core i7-4500U, 8gb,256gb,QHD,intel 7260ac. The discount was so great that I only paid $1,100 for what was $1,599-$1,899 for competing machines. Today some other prices have fallen but this remains best by hundreds. If I was low on cash I might see the best deal possible with a partially upgradable i5,4g, 128gb,FHD that some have reported selling for as low as $800. The SSD can be expanded to 256GB for as little as $90 (third party) , thus you have a superb Ultrabook for $890. If you can afford the $1, 100 (and the $250 coupon is still or again running) then I would advise you get it, but no shame at all with the more basic config, may not even notice any difference. No machine is perfect but in today's market at these prices you just can't beat it. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

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I've never noticed a problem with any keys, but I'm typing this response to see if there is any tendency for my e or i key to require hitting harder or retyping to register. In typing this I am not noticing any of the keys being unresponsive and I've had plenty of 'e's in the response. In general I've never noticed a problem with my keyboard or any of the keys. The single most annoying thing to me about this keyboard - and about the whole computer - is the trackpad. Too often it registers my palm as an intent to move the cursor and when I take my hands off the keyboard in the midst of typing when I put my hands back on the keyboard I find the cursor is no longer located where I left it but rather that it has moved. This can be an incredible inconvenience and I have tried to many permutations of the "smart sense" settings which are supposed to adjust palm rejection while typing. I've always had this problem with Synaptics trackpads which is unfortunate as they are pretty much considered to be the best available for Windows notebooks. I've learned to make the best adjustments possible and to adjust the way I type - if you type correctly without lazily resting your palms on the keyboard deck, you don't get this problem at all but - what fun is it to have to be do 'perfect' in your typing form?!!

Anyway, typed this entire paragraph and didn't have a single key fail to fire. Could be you have a bad keybed and the only think that will resolve this is a replacement. In answer to the original question about whether they will "cross ship" a replacement laptop, I think it varies from call center to call center. However, if you can afford to have the cash extended, you can always have a full refund coming once they receive your defective one and at the same time have a new one in process so that you have your new unit within days of reporting the problem. If you're tight on funds, they may or may not ship the new one without insisting on payment or receipt of the defective one which is a shame but probably more common than not.

 

brilliant, so no noticeable problems to keep in mind before buying. I was considering the yoga 2 pro as well but it has loads of defects, from the mustard yellow to the single band wifi interfering with the bluetooth etc. so I'll avoid that.

I thought about upgrading the storage with a third part 256 SSD (I believe the connection is M.2, isn't it?) but wouldn't that void the warranty?

 

I can't yell uou about the wtty and adding a larger SSD. If you hey yhe $250 discount the net cost of the Spectre 13t is low enough that you may be best off taking the larger SSD in the CTO configuration even though you ca feel ok about what you're paying despite the possibility of saving s bit more. If you can get a trial period and still return the machine for aorage full refund you reslly can't lose. I think you havr little risk anyway at these prices.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Microsoft Store is presently offering the Dell XPS 13 for $899 with 8gb RAM, 128gb SSD, FHD screen. While this model lacks an SD card to increase storage you can change out the 128 gb card for a 256gb card (same potential wtty issues but worth checking out - and often you can simply re-install the stock 128gb card if you need to send the machine in for wtty service.) The cost of a good 256gb card is about $150 (or less) and at that rate your total cost for this highly competitive product fully configured would be $1, 050, a little less than a comparably configured Spectre 13t with a $250 discount. If you want to avoid any wtty issue you can presently buy the XPS 13 with a 256gb SSD for $1,199, still competitive with a fully discounted Spectre 13t.

Why devote so much ink to this option? In the interest of helping you make a well informed decision, this is, IMO, the best alternative to the Spectre 13t which some would say is superior, particularly the keyboard, trackpad and screen, comparing the FHD models. The present sale at the MS store - including online - is a whopping $400 off the price from just 2 weeks ago so it was irrelevant to compare until the recent sale. If this intrigues you at all Google some reviews; it had pros and cons, but so does the 13t. Also, the MS store offers sn unconditional 30 day full refund policy.

Good luck and let us know what you do.

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Thanks lovelaptops for taking the time to test I went ahead and started the return process. They would not allow an advanced exchange so I guess I will be without a laptop for almost a month while I wait for the new one. Seems like a great machine but HP needs a little more QA before they send them out the door.

 

Thanks, but as I mentioned in the first post I live in Italy, so I don't have those options here.. and everything costs much more. The Dell in particular costs way way more than the hp, almost as the ativ book 9 plus, despite having plastic inner side and lacking some stuff, first of all the kensington slot.
I see there are a few small problems with trackpad and keyboard on the hp, but for the rest seems a very solid ultrabook. I've recently found a couple of used but like new ativ book 9 plus's with i7, 8g, 256 for roughly 250€ more than the hp with i5, 8g, 128 so I'm a bit uncertain, I'll try to work this out asap

 

I have owned the Ativ 9 plus and I don't think it is worth spending more money to get a used one vs. less for a new Spectre 13 with a two year warranty (or do they only give one year in the EU?) Still, I assume the used Ativs would have some of their warranties expired. If you really want an i7 cpu (which, by the way, I consider a entire waste of money; it will not provide meaningfully improved performance -15% at absolute most, but pretty much 0% in apps most people run.) It will, however, run a bit hotter and take a small toll on battery life. You can always order it with your Spectre and likewise the 256GB SSD (which makes more sense to me, depending on your usage and whether you store large media files). I should think the 250 Euro difference would enable you to equal the configuration of the used Ativ 9 for the same price. I don't believe there are problems with the Spectre's keyboard, certainly not compared to that on the Ativ 9, as my experience with both has convinced me; if anything I think the keyboard of the Spectre is a bit better, with a bit deeper keystroke than on the exceedingly slender Ativ 9. As for the trackpad, my only complaint about that on the Spectre is that if I type lazily and let my palms rest on the trackpad it can be read as an input to the pad and cause the cursor to move. I've pretty much "cured" that problem by adopting somewhat more proper typing position.

To me the most important consideration in making such an expensive investment in a computer, the satisfaction from which is a very personal thing, is to try to find a vendor (in the US, HP direct is the best) that allows you a period of 14-30 days to try the computer and return it for a full refund - for any reason, or no reason! - within the allowed return window.

Do keep us posted on what you decide to do and how it goes!

 

Glad to hear you're on your way to getting the situation resolved, but I can't say I understand why it has to take a month for you to get your replacement. Forgive me but I don't recall what country you live in. Here in the US you can order a new Spectre 13t and it will ship out in two days. Do fight as hard as you can by phone and ask to go up the chain and speak to supervisors.

In any event, best of luck and do keep us posted.

 

I am also in the US. The expected ship date is June 5th. Maybe it is based on the configuration not sure. Either way I am happy I did not re-purpose my old Dell laptop! More annoyed about all the time I spent getting everything installed / configured on the Spetre. This time I will just use it for basic emails / web browsing for a few days before I go crazy installing everything again.

 

I hear you, DaPotato. Are you familiar with disk cloning? There are many programs available (Ghost, Acronis, Conezilla, etc.) that will take an exact copy of your hard drive and you can restore it to your replacement computer exactly as you had it set up. That is the safest back-up system you can use and it resolves the problem you're having with this transition check it out.

 

Hi everyone. I am living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

After a lot of thorough research and consideration I've finally bought my HP Spectre 13t-3000 from a local store here, as I could not order a customized version of HP US store since they do not deliver outside the USA.

Main Specs:
Intel i7 processor
256GB SSD
8GB RAM
FHD display
Wifi - AC type (so it detects my dual-band router)
Windows 8.1
+ MS Office 2013 (permanent install version).

All worth the equivalent from local currency here, to $1,500. The reason I bought it here in the Middle East is because I needed the Arabic Keyboard. I originally wanted to buy it online, especially because they had QHD feature that I could customize (QHD feature model was not in stores here, and it doesn't look like the retailers are getting it here), but there is delivery/purchase restriction to the Middle East.

So far I'm loving it, though I have a few initial comments:

1.) Immediately upon the very first initial start-up the fan sound was quite high. It settled down later on. It just surprised me initially.
2.) Beats Audio speakers - they did not really give me that "Spectacular" sound which I expected. I'm assuming the beats audio technology is more of the sound card, than the actual speaker? I played some trance music, a few Youtube videos in high quality but the sound was quite...average.

Also as an existing Norton subscriber, I had validity to install my Norton 360 software on 3 PC's. So installed it already on my HP Spectre, paralelly with McAfee. I noticed my PC was slowing down a little bit.

Is it ok to use both? Or should I remove one of them?

Finally - last question - Here in the UAE they didn't have the QHD resolution model. I was wondering, is it that crucial to have it? I'm happy with FHD so far.

 

By the way, I also checked the price of this laptop in my home country, Lebanon - at Virgin Megastore...

Retail price was $1,595 for the Spectre 13t-3000:

Intel i5
128 SSD
4GB RAM
FHD Display

Freakin' taxes back home...thank God they had it here in Dubai.

 

I have one ordered. i7, 256GB,8GB, upgraded video, etc.

I always turn off tap to click on my touchpad and keep a few gestures vailable. Since this laptop seems to have same touchpad I was hoping that I can set it up same as always and still use two side areas on left and right of touchpad.

From their manual about having to buy parts it seems it is in three pieces and I hoping each one can be configured individually. I can;t find anywhere a place to show software configuration to control these three areas. Does anyone have a link to a PDF for that information?

Thanks

 

Hey all can we talk touchpad?

My one annoyance with this system so far is that when scrolling using the two finger gesture, about 1/3rd of the time, the cursor will move either up or down instead of the window scrolling. It makes for a frustrating browsing experience to say the least.

I've tried adjusting palm rejection and sensitivity to try and mitigate the issue, but so far not much has helped. Any suggestions? What are your settings?

Thanks!

 

First of all, I love the way you started you post! Now, to business. The touchpad has been the only disappointment of this model for me. What's especially frustrating are:

1) The exact complaint you describe
2) The erratic behavior of the trackpad - sometimes it's all but perfect, and other times it is either insufficiently responsive or overly responsive.
3) I too find that the various adjustments offered by Synaptics have inadequate effect - often, though not always

The best news I can give you: I have owned or demoed for 14 days every single competitive premium Ultrabook and would have the same general comments to make about all - particularly that the performance is so erratic. That would explain why so many reviews say the touchpad is excellent because they haven't had to LIVE with it.

Here's a couple of ideas:

1) Depending on your browser of choice, see if it has an add-on that adjusts the speed and smoothness of scrolling. I use Firefox and it has an add on called "Yet Another Smooth Scrolling" [sic, that's it's full name!]. It has infinite adjustments and gives you three presets. If you use FF or would be interested in trying it, this utility has enabled me to both attain a good setting and quickly switch between 3 settings if the touchpad is up to its trick of suddenly getting wonky on one setting. If you don't use FF, I'm pretty sure Chrome has one or more similar addons, not sure about IE

2) This one is very obscure but amazingly effective, especially on HP clickpads, though it effects all synaptics. There was a very frustrated owner of an HP TMT2 tablet PC from 2010 that had HP's first use of a clickpad with no buttons - about the same time as it debuted on their Envy line. He wrote a utility that dramatically improved its performance. Since then, HP and Synaptics have jumped several orders of magnitude in clickpad performance, but in frustration I went looking for this utility and, damm if it doesn't make a huge difference. It runs concurrently with the Synaptics driver and many of its functions were never added - ie, it has features to check mark, but they don't operate. For the most part, I only use the "Scrolling" tab, and it has settings for both speed and acceleration. It also has three different settings that somewhat effect the smoothness of scrolling. This is a trial/error kind of thing, but the bottom line is that without it I often cannot get the TP to perform acceptably and with it I pretty much always can, particularly with regard to two finger scrolling.

Ironically-not, it is called TWO FINGER SCROLLING [ <--THIS IS THE LINK TO THE UTILITY(on my screen these hotlinks are such washed out gray you can't tell they're links!) and it was developed by a person under the name "Mac Hater Mod" a reference to his unwillingness to succumb to a Macbook to have decent trackpad scrolling.

Try these and see if they don't get you where you want to be. I use it with the Synaptics two finger scrolling speed set to the max and with the sensitivity set to one less than the most sensitive (one from far left). I typically have the scrolling speed at about 75% of max and acceleration at anywhere from 50% to unchecked! Besides Steve Jobs getting back at windows users from the grave, I believe that the synaptics touchpad response is often effected by temperature and humidity - colder temps causing poorer response, therefore requiring faster scroll settings and higher sensitivity.

I would return/sell my Spectre 13 because of this had I not experienced every single competitor and found it to be no better/no worse. Oh, one other thing, I occasionally roll back the driver and it just works better - at least for a while.

Finally, remember: You Have A Touchscreen!!! Not only can you just spit on your trackpad and use the screen for a while, but often I find just touching and moving the cursor around a bit on the screen, it starts behaving better on the pad.

With sympathy and assurance that your circumstance is "normal" and "state of the art!"

Oh, two more things (ya think I've spent any time on this????)

1. If you uninstall the keyboard driver and reboot, it will reinstall it and, amazingly, often fixes the touchpad response when it is at its worst.

2. You can, er, uh, always send it back to HP for repair ---????

 

Just pulled the trigger on the spectre

i7 - 8gb RAM - FHD screen - 128 Gb SSD - Wifi AC

I figured the FHD screen will be plenty in 13 inches, and the SSD i might upgrade it down the road, right now i could not afford the extra 150 bucks for the 256 gigs. I was not sure about the i7, but it was the best way to put the price above 1999 and get the $250 off coupon available.
All things considered it was something like $970 with shipping, before taxes.

I hope I don't get a lemon!

 

Hate to bump my own post but does anyone know if I can adjust touchpad independently than right and left swipe areas?

 

Hmm im considering between this and the xps 13. Read that the spectre has cpu throttling? But it has a sd card reader which the xps 13 does not have. Also if a sd card is inserted, does it stick out?

 

There is a throttling issue that many people have solved by un-installing an Intel utility called CPPC. from Control Panel > Programs and Features. And disable the CPPC driver in Device Manager > System Devices.

The SD card sticks out about 1/2 millimeter, no issues with accidental ejection. I had an Asus UX302LA for a while and the card stuck out about 1/2 the length of the card. And I read on the Yoga 2 Pro forum a thread where people were trying to find a half length card because a standard length card sticks out about half way.

Good luck, Jim

 

First, I fully concur with Jim. It's just amazing to me how many people - and most amazingly virtually all reviewers - run their computer at default settings and judge performance at that, when all experienced users know that you always have to tease out and adjust/update drivers, mfr proprietary "features" (worst example: nearly 100% of auto light sensing) and to remove (vs adjust or diasble) often quite a few programs, from standard "bloat ware" to operating programs that may be doing their job as designed - Intel CPPC a perfect example, it's there to save power demands of the cpu/gpu for the sole purpose of conserving battery life - but many owners find battery life is just fine but performance much better with it uninstalled. It was either Jim or another member here who found that uninstalling CPPC stopped all throttling - while plugged in (laptop will throttle cpu to 1.6ghz on battery no matter what you do) anf nothing else is needed. There are also third party apps - especially Throttlestop - which give you tools to control or eliminate throttling and it works very well and has been around for years. I have not usedThrottlestop largely because uninstalling CPPC did the job.

Note: the Dell XPS you are considering is an excellent UB and it has a better keyboard than the Spectre and is a bit smaller and lighter - but Dells are notorious for overheating and, in any case, as it has a very compact case, you can bet the farm it will throttle as much or more than the Spectre, though you can probably adjust the Dell in similar fashion.

Finally, know that all ultra-thin computers (especially Ultrabooks) even with low voltage processors often heat up quickly and lack the space for an effective cooling system. No program or technique can - or at least should) override the component heat limits which, when reached, automatically throttle to save your laptop from melting down. Some cases/exhaust systems are better at cooling than others and some mfrs are more aggressive or more conservative about when they start throttling and by how much. Ultrabooks all throttle way before cpus hit their maximum safe Temps, 100C in most cases because though the cpu can theoretically handle those temps the laptop cannot and as one component generates high heat the others do in response. The low voltage processors in Ultrabooks are governed by TDP (Thermal Design Power - the maximum temperature of the cpu, including the igp, which in full load usage will 'hog" available temperature headroom and cause throttling even if the cpu on its owm would not be at its heat maximum.

Whew, ok, I know you didn't ask for a lecture! I do get carried away, but it also really peeves me when reviews claim a machine easily throttles - and the HP Spectre 13t is not close to the worst reported - and leave prospective buyers "so, that's something you'll have to put up with! “ and it is almost always not true.

Hope this will make you - and others - rethink purchase decisions based on this issue (note: all owners threads will contain extensive discussions and fixes for throttling ; it's a universal problem with All Ultrabooks. Consider: the specs of the components in your laptop indicate their maxumum theoretical performance but in no way reflect the actual performance you will get. Intel is running like mad to increase cpu performance at lower and lower power draw (which is what causes cpus to heat up) but if all Ultrabooks of today were put in cases that are about 3/4" thick, their measured performance with the same components would improve from 25% — 50%. This is a major source of woe to power users, who find there are fewer laptops with Intel full voltage mobile cpus (designated with an M rather than U) to choose from. Until the advent of the Ultrabook, two years ago, it was rare to find a laptop with other than an "M" processor, now the opposite is true. At least you can find a laptop with a larger, thicker case that, even with "U" class cpus, will perform much better than in Ultrabooks and can accommodate discrete gpus for far more performance.

Ok, done with lecture! I would ask that Jim or others point out factual errors in this, as I'm sure there are a number . Jeff

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The only thing I will quibble about is that my Spectre on battery will go all the way to 2.55 GHz.

Jim

 

That's great to hear! I actually never checked, was just going by what I had read from others - on this thread. Jeff

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EDIT: While we're on the subject, I just received an Intelligent Power" message when I plugged in my power into the Spectre 13t. It said, in essence, that it could tell I was using an HP product that could run on that power supply (the one that came with my Spectre!) but that it would not run at full capacity unless I use a higher capacity power source. I tried to re-create the error message and couldn't, nor have I ever seen it before.

Anyone have any info about this?

 

Sounds like an add. If you are supplying PC design volts and amps, a power supply ten times the capacity will have zero affect on PC performance. It might charge the battery faster if it didn't burn up.

Regards, Jim

 

I assume you mean an "ad" as in advert? (not"add"). Thanks.

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Thanks for the helpful answers guys. The cpu throttling was the only issue for me. I think I have found my perfect laptop

 

Just wondering if those that complained about image retention have had the issue worsen and to what point? Is the screen unusable or is it more of an annoyance when looking at a gray screen after using it for a while? I've just noticed a bit of image retention on the edges of my device (only during the restart screen, really) and thought I should ask if this is something that needs to be taken up with HP as a warranty repair.

 

I tried most of the techniques on here to get mine to stop throttling. How did you get it to work?

 

Just wondering, do you see that retention during restart long after the original image was there, many times thereafter? I confess that I find this retention issue baffling, mostly because I have never experienced it to any meaningful degree. It is a general rule of thumb that the posts in forums about a problem are probably about rare issues or the forums would be chocked full of them - as they are when things like overheating are the issue, and it is wide spread. That tends to make me think that image retention is a significant issue in a minority, but still certain % of screens, and I believe it is found in, literally, every single IPS screen sold in the past 2-3 years at least. So my advice to you is, if it happens enough to bother you, more than you can really just ignore, do demand a replacement screen from HP. If your replacement is better, you're done. If it's the same or worse, I guess you should just shoot yourself NO DON'T DO THAT! Seriously, I've owned and demoed extensively so many modern premium laptop in the past several years that I consider image retention and backlight bleed (not related, but both insufferable by some and not observed by others) things that must occur more in some screen models than others (and you can track that by finding out which different brands use the same screen and look for patterns in reports from those models) and, as always, some samples will have more defects than others. In the case of the former, I would avoid those models that have screens that seem to have more reports of image retention (my seat of pants sense is that the Spectre is a little better than average among modern, bright IPS screens. Not clear whether the FHD or QHD is worse.) Ironically, the largest number of complaints seem to be with Mac "retina" screens. If your experience seems to be the former - you have a problem with a model that has some complaints, but fewer than average - I'd advise getting it replaced and odds are you will not have the problem.

I've read countless articles on the subject and can conclude nothing! Well, except that some of this is inevitable and certain practices will limit its occurence - let screen dim or turn off after a few minutes of non-activity, don't leave images on screen at high brightness for long periods of time if possible, use the many all-white and all-black utilities that apparently "cleanse" any residual image.

Mostly, I really think you can enjoy these marvelous screens and keep up with newer analyses - especially on anandtech.com - of the issue and follow their advice. It is likely that the industry will find a way to engineer the problem out of future screens, but likely that your screen will give you years of great service - with or without occasional temporary ghosts - and by the time you're ready to replace, the issue will probably be non-existent - but an all new problem will present from the new technology!

I hope people will continue to report their experiences and post useful articles. I also hope most will find they can enjoy these awesome screens (how we fought for the industry to stop selling us 1366x768 150 nit 150:1 contrast screens w/40% sRGB coverage - just 3 years ago!) with a minimum of irritation over their shortcomings.

I'm sorry the one thing I couldn't do is answer your key question, simply because I couldn't find an answer after reading about 12 articles!

 

I just bought the 13T-3000 and so far so good. Any recommendation on cases or anti-glare screen covers? Based on where I use the ultrabook the glare can be very bad. Thanks

 

Photodon has long been respected for making high quality screen protectors of all types, from fully transparent to varying degrees of matte/anti-glare. I am not sure if the link here is to the correct size for the Spectre 13t-3000 - as compared to the X2 version, which has a detachable screen and which may or may not have the same screen dimensions. You may want to call them to clarify. There are other good products, but IMO Photodon is the best known and it is US based - helpful if you are too!

 

Is there any touchpad software that will allow more gesture controls? I'd like to be able to go "Back" when browsing by swiping my finger to the left or right, or two fingers whatever, doesn't matter. Maybe allow horizontal or vertical scrolling by swiping within the textured area on the right. Even my old old laptops had some of these features. Thanks and I love the laptop but this is the only thing that I can ask.

 

Sorry, but I have played with all of the Synaptics settings which purport to allow for those kinds of swipes and flicks but they just don't seem to happen. Have you tried the Synaptics settings from Control Panel -> Mouse? You may just be luckier than me. I too have had success with other Synaptics touchpads. Problem is HP meddling. ONe thing to try might be to go to synaptics website and down load their non-HP generic touchpad software. It will disable those useless "wings" on the right and left, but it might enable those conventional gestures like swipe and flick.

Anyone else have ideas?

 

As the title asks, just how OCD are you about fingerprints on the lid (or bottom) of your Spectre 13? If you're like me, , have I got a product for you!! :thumbsup: It's called Mequiar's Ultimate Detailer and it's made to - get this - protect the polymer finish on your car - between polishings - says it will handle up to 5 washings! Well, I don't plan on running this through the car wash anytime soon, but I really was looking for something to help the lid surface resist it's magnetism for fingerprints and this was recommended. After a week, with no other special precautions, my lid has that gorgeous brushed satin finish, and virtually no fingerprints or finger oils.

If you're a normal person, just disregard and laugh.

 

Can anybody do me a favor and upload a picture of their keyboard in the dark with the keyboard back-light on? I just received my laptop from repair where they had to swap out the keyboard due to a faulty enter key. I'm not 100% sure but the back-lighting appears much worse now. It is dim and hard to read all the letters in the word "enter" (the first e and the r aren't even light up). The B, N, and M keys look like there's no light under them at all, just residuals from keys around them.

Is there a way to increase the back-light brightness?

Thanks!

 

Anyone notice that the Spectre 13t-3000 is not anywhere on the HP site for sale?

Regards, Jim

 

I saw it just now when I searched under touchscreen laptops.

Edit: Just noticed it was out of stock.

 

Yeah, it's been out of stock for a few days. Was considering an upgrade after reading this forum from the beginning. Wonder what's up with it? Discontinued, sold out?

 

I'd have to assume it is temporarily out of stock, though that doesn't quite make sense on a CTO page, when they can just set the expected shipment date further out to reflect shortage of parts or completed chassis. I sure hope HP doesn't do what they have been known to do occasionally in the past: take a fantastic new model and abruptly discontinue the whole line, with no warning or explanation. They did that with the Envy 14, 15 and 17 when they were the premium line, before they cheapened the Envy brand by converting all the "Pavillion" models to "envy." That's about when they introduced the Spectre line, specifically in the form of the " Envy 14 Spectre**," a positively gorgeous and quite desirable Ultrabook in 2012 (Sandy Bridge) and then did an Ivy Bridge refresh, then just let it disappear. (See below for long, interesting-to-me (!) story) Then they started introducing the Spectre X2 models, and a number of others leading to the Spectre 13t-3000 and the 13 X2, an almost entirely non-promoted model which, as many of you know, is essentially a Spectre 13t-3000 with a detachable keyboard and Y-class cpus instead of the U-class used in the 13t-3000 and all other Haswell Ultrabooks, is still for sale on the HP site. I'd like to think this is just a weird glitch in inventory management - or web site management for that matter! I really love HP and have owned their gear for over a decade, but they can really wreck product line management (see below).

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( ** Envy 14 Spectre review. FYI, this was the first UB to be made with a Gorilla Glass lid, screen and touchpad/palm rest. It was an amazingly stunning piano black lid and a completely fingerprint resistant keyboard deck with a wonderful feeling due to thin layer of GG and a great keyboard (black with white backlit lettering) with far more keypress depth than SA most UB's (it was a little thicker and 0.75 lb heavier than the avg UB@ 3.75 lbs, but it really didn't feel that heavy, and it's stunning appearance - with build quality every bit as good as the Spectre 13t - was what distinguished it, along with the superb keyboard, the first decent Windows trackpad, a full size HDMI, full size Ethernet, displayport, two USBs and i5/i7 Sandybridge then Ivybridge cpus, 4-8GB (not soldered) RAM and 128-256GB ,SATA SSD with second free slot for second drive!, an excellent - especially by those standards "Radiance" screen, 1600x900 with superb color gamut and excellent viewing angles (a 14" screen in a 13" form factor body) which, before FHD then QHD rushed into production in 2013/2014 was considered "high resolution" and really looked wonderful. The audio on that model was like the 13t but with more depth and wattage and small subwoofer, also a round analog control for volume on the right edge of the body, just as the Envy 15 and 17 of the day had. Why was this model not an absolute runaway best seller with such awesome appeal? Well, it may have been the initial $1,499 price for 4GB Sandy Bridge i5-2467 and 128GB SATA 2 SSD! They did finally lower the price $100 or so, add some content at that price, did an Ivy Bridge refresh which also meant SATA 3 SSD at more than double the speed. Still, as much as it was universally praised for gorgeous design and excellent usability it was panned for price and HP never even promoted the IB refresh or price reduction. Why am I going into such great length about this former HP laptop?

1) Most Important: to illustrate the bizarre ways HP has handled brand management in recent years. I really can't believe they will kill off the Spectre 13 - it's gotten nearly universal great reviews and by all indications was selling very well, but stranger things have happened though, admittedly, it took HP 2 years to kill off the Envy Spectre 14 and it probably didn't sell cumulatively the number of units the Spectre 13 already has.

2) I've always adored that model and hated the way HP just let it die instead of bringing price in line with market

3) I own TWO of them! I bought one open box on eBay for $450 (Sandy Bridge) for my wife, who has adored it for 1.5 yrs, then bought an IB one, also open box (still under wtty til 8/2-14) for and excellent price and it was my daily driver until the 13T came out. I know I need to sell the IB one because I don't need it (also have two Sony Zs!) and I never use it anymore now that I have my 13T (how do you do better than great?). It's just so beautiful and more comfortable to use even than the 13T that I hate to part with it but I will be putting it on Marketplace, then eBay soon. Offers????

4) I like to write about laptops.

Let's hope this thing is just a snafu and HP doesn't leave us with orphaned product! I have high hopes it will straighten itself out shortly.

 

I took several pictures of mine and it has way more contrast in the photo than in reality - unless the room is extremely dark, so posting them would mislead you into thinking my backlighting was better than yours and I'm sure it is not. This model is not the only one taking an approach I don't favor, but it has its benefits and, in any case, you'll find the same in the Samsung Ativ9 and in the last two years of the Sony Z. Specifically, the backlighting is quite muted and not even noticeable unless the room is quite dark. The Spectre 13 is the same way, but it has advantages over the others mentioned in that the light that's there is pure white and when it's pretty dark and hard to see the keys without the light, you can see it just fine, and what it doesn't do is blind you with white light that spills over all the sides of the keys. Most important though, I've never found that I couldn't see the unlit keys just fine when the ambient light was such that the backlight didn't help, or even hindered visibility. In other words, I can either see the dark black looking key masks against the silver keys, which receive quite a bit of reflective light from the screen to create plenty of contrast, or it's dark enough that I need the backlight, and it performs just right. In the case of, say, the Samsung Ativ 9, the backlight is a very dim blue and there are definitely ambient lighting situations in which you just can't see the key masks well, with or without the backlight.

Is this (the Spectre's and Ativ9's) approach to backlighting ideal? I don't think so. I'm a fan of black keys with broad white key masks and a 2-3 position brightness adjustment for the white backlighting. Still, this does save the battery drain of backlighting except when it gets quite dark and as uneven and weak the backlighting seems in other than pretty dark environments, when you really need the lighting, it looks fine and I can read all the markings well, including the words "enter" and "shift" on those keys. I'd suggest you test the backlighting in a very dark room and see if it is full and even. If it is not, then first try an uninstall of your keyboard driver and let it reinstall itself by rebooting. If there is no change you need to send it back to HP for repair/replacing.

I consider the backlighting one of the weakest areas of this computer, but far from a deal breaker. I think most have come to the same conclusion, but by all means if yours is not doing the job you need it to, get satisfaction from HP.

EDIT: Sorry, I failed to grasp that your problem occurred after a keyboard replacement. By all means, it is likely you need to send it back (ycch!) for the lighting to be fixed.

 

sorry i dont have the time to sift through pages but i was contributing to this thread when this laptop first came out. ive had a 13t-3000 for about 5 months now. i love the laptop but the speakers/audio are really pissing me off as of lately. has anyone else had this problem? even when the laptop was fairly new, id just have very short static bursts or skips in audio (whether playing a song on itunes, watching a video on youtube). just very little distortion or annoying static coming from the speakers.

now its just happening more frequently. like every 20 seconds during a song. i cant take it anymore. its so damn annoying that i cant enjoy this fantastic laptop cus the sound/speakers/audio is turning to crap. has anyone else dealt with this? do i just have a freaking lemon? if so im extremely mad because i actually bought a 13t-3000 but returned THAT one becuase when i tried to edit a video clip in windows movie maker, i got horrible static issues with the speakers. the replacement they sent me is the one i have had since then, and i actually still have the same issue in movie maker but i just figured id deal with it. i cant be the only one with audio problems if ive noticed this static issue with 2 different 13t-3000s. hoping i can hear from others. cant believe its only been 5 months and my speakers cant even work correctly

 

Have you tried to disable Beats audio?... after you disable Beats, do the problem persist?

 

Either that or try different lisitening mode and / or reduce bass with equalizer.. I ge't those kinds of noises (I think they are the same) but since I made the adjustments it's never happened.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

 

The troubleshooting is very simple here, you should disable Beats (in listening experience) and put volume to 90%, at this point there is no audio processing, if you hear a noise you have two options, uninstall the driver and install it again or there is a hardware fault.

 

New/revisited topic: battery life. I apologize that I haven't yet gotten my act together to get a standardized test for all to try and to compile stats by configuration, etc. I wasn't all that impressed with the Peacekeeper product and then I got crazy busy - but never too busy to post to this thread!

So, just wanted to pass along a great battery use measurement utility called BatteryInfoView that is a great alternative or complement to Battery Bar that I think most people use. I find Battery Bar to be pretty inaccurate and it is especially slow to update wattage drain. Well BatteryInfoView will give you measurements in increments as low as every 15 seconds! I find it especially useful to use increments of around 30 seconds and that enables me to play with a bunch of adjustments and see which effects power draw more or less. In the end, it ends up with an accurate prediction of time left on a charge, so it does not overstate usage, but you'll see lots of times the power draw is 3,000 - 4,000 mwh when Battery Bar shows 8,500!

Let me know what you think.

 

Hey all,
I've finally joined the ranks and consider myself a proud owner of a Spectre 13. While waiting for the shipment I've had lots of time to read through much of this thread and even copied some notes out to test my machine upon arrival.

I have minimal back light bleed, no dead pixels, fully operational ports, a functional keyboard, a super clear screen (providing I abandon G Chrome as a browser), screaming wifi and a solid build.

All in all the machine is a keeper. There have been, however, some issues along the way Id like to share.

1) Soft contact with the touch pad resulted in an audible click without fully depressing the pad down to its fullest - meaning i wasn't actuating the purposeful click aspect of the touch pad. I slipped the corner of a piece of print paper just under the front edge of the pad and found the audible click to disappear. I crack this up to an issue of machining tolerance of manufacturing parts potentially combined with sub par assembly. I pulled the paper out and held the laptop between index finger and thumb on either side of the touch pad allowing the weight of the device to stress backward and heard a singular pop. While stiff the uni-body held from the very front of the machine did flex a small amount - enough to pop the touch pad into what i presume to be its proper position. The pad no longer makes a false click...for now until i unknowingly stress the body in the opposite direction.

2) The fan does pitch an oscillating whirl sound at the lowest apparent speed; less so under load as decibels increase. I updated Cool Sense to rev 2.2 and the oscillating whirl diminished slightly but remains detectable in a silent environment-more noticeable on my lap than a table. It is much higher pitched than my Lenovo T400 but only slightly so compared to my Yoga 1st Gen. Not worth a return for me as I'd rather find a solution than create a problem. Finally, I just ended up leaving the Cool Sense off.

3) CPU throttling on battery seems a realistic measure to increase use while off the grid but I like the option of having the choice to have full power. I achieved the benchmark settings appropriate to 2.6-3.0 Ghz others mentioned while on battery after I deleted CPPC from program files, disabled it in device manager and installed Throttle Stop 6 in my start-up menu with an .ini file mod to run for 1 second upon startup (based upon a comment back in 2013 on this thread that i cant seem to find)...but after reboot cpu throttle is back. It seems plausible its a nuance of the way I installed throttle stop and placed it in the startup menu. These type of manipulations are a bit beyond me. Id really appreciate any advice any of you might have about how to retain de-throttle post restart?

I'm also keen to run metrics on battery performance for those of you looking for data.

Generally stoked.

Ken

 

I've been writing something whenever new owners speak of the very dim backlighting of the keyboard on the Spectre 13T. I've been saying that it is actually more a hindrance than a help except in very dark rooms but that the screen reflects on the silver colored keys and makes it easy to see the black-appearing key masks until it's dark enough for the backlight to be helpful.

Is this true for all? I've never seen a pro review mention it though several mentioned it here in the early going. I just suddenly hit me that, even though it works out fine for me, if mine is dimmer than normal I'd certainly send it back to HP (with regrets, I have a great unit). I have owned and now own other laptops which similarly have backlights with little function except in very dark rooms but I have and now own several whose backlights were bright white lights that highlight the keys even in daylight. Ironically my Sony Z1 has such bright keys and its successor Z2 has lights that don't show/help unless it's quite dark.

Can I get your comments? Thank you.

 

Whats this about ditching G Chrome? What do you use instead. I've been playing around with firefox and IE as well but always come back to chrome.

I'm in love with this laptop. I tried a couple lenovos latest gen carbon x1 and t440s - I was not impressed at all. I think they may good tanks and "business machines" (in that they are rugged) but other than the keyboard (save for x1s recent changes) didn't like them much at all. Battery life, screen, trackpad all have been stellar.

I'd participate in battery performance metrics as well.

 

I don't get the Chrome thing either. I have the QHD screen, 200% setting and have no problem at all using Chrome.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

Chrome text was a bit hazy using the option for hidpi scalability checked. I unchecked and increased font zoom but that left my tabs small. I tried to upload chrome beta without success. I'm currently using Firefox which has improved text clarity but at the cost of 2 finger scroll which is more sluggish in fox. Do you have a different work around for Chrome that you are happy with?

-also curious what you and others have done to keep the cpu from being throttled. I've removed Intel's CPPC software and installed throttle stop software in my start up menu but once the system is restarted the throttle is back.

 

When i de-select the scaling for high dpi in chrome properties and chose 200% zoom in the chrome control zone it fails to zoom tabs and text in the url window. It also seems that i need to re-adjust zoom with each and every tab i open. Is this the same behavior you are experiencing?