HP Spectre 13T-3000

I have the same experience. While the lack of contrast between silver keys and key back lighting do pose an issue in dimly lit conditions, I avoid switching back lighting on until ambient light is insufficient to see the keys. Coming from a 'zero back lighting' past, I find the option to light up my board in low to no light conditions a valuable gain. If only the unit had a photo sensor installed to sense low light and automatically actuate back lighting I wouldn't even have to reach up and switch the Fn5 key...

 

Thanks for responding; I just needed a gut check.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

You can get Chrome to work better with scaling if you enable the hidpi setting. It used to be in the chrome:flags options but now you have to add a registry key to enable it. I still don't like it as much in Win 8 as I have in Win 7. I use Firefox (Nightly build) now and it has been great. To improve scrolling I use the addon "Yet Another Smooth Scrolling " You can make a variety of adjustment so it scrolls the way you want.

 

Thanks for the addon tip. -a great improvement!

 

What am I missing here? I have no issues at all when I use Chrome and I haven't enabled hidpi. Everything looks fine (at 200%) I do use two (!) smooth scrolling extensions ("Smooth Scroll " and "Smooth Gestures") and I've long used "Another Smooth Scrolling..." on Firefox as mikenavy suggests? I have the QHD screen. Why do I not experience any problems with Chrome? Can someone suggest a web site that Chrome cannot render properly so I see what it's like?

It's weird; My throttling issue easily resolved when I uninstalled Intel CPPC, I haven't had any image retention or backlight bleed, my fan rarely goes on and when it does it goes off soon. This is the most competent, consistent and responsive laptop I have had "out of the box" since my Sony Z1 4 yrs ago (a classic!) and before that... never!

I don't love the keyboard - nothing about it, it's all ok but just barely though I don't think many Ultrabooks are better, and I can deal.

Otherwise, knock wood, I can see this serving me well for 2 years and my daughter probably for 2 more. Makes me glad I got the QHD screen - there's going to be plenty of QHD anf even 4k content well before this guy is ready to retire!

Best,
Jeff

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

You might try this: go into HP Control Zone Settings, highlight 'Clicking', then click on the 'gear' icon to customize the two-finger and/or three-finger actions. I've set two-finger click to 'Button 4 click (Navigate Backward)' and three-finger click to 'Button 5 Click (Navigate Forward)'. This will allow you to 'page back' in a browser by depressing the clickpad when contacting it with two fingers, and 'page forward' when you click the touchpad with three fingers making contact. Works quite well (at least on the version I'm using, which is 17.0.5.18).

 

The only thing I know is that lovelaptops really loves laptops, or at least the 13T-3000 . Whether you like the 13T-3000 or not, just amazed at at the breathe of knowledge and enthusiasm applied to this forum. Kudos!

 

Thank you so much for those tips. I had given up after many unsuccessful tries to get swiping with 3 or 4 fingers to work for browser control. This is an even more efficient, 100% accurate method for touchpad browser control.

You are too kind! Sometimes I worry that my endless posts will be attributed to something less positive than "enthusiasm" (which truly is accurate), something more along the lines of: "oppressively long winded" or " love [to talk endlessly about] laptops!

 

I'm still wondering about availability. The 13t-3000 has not been listed since 5/15.

I had monitored regularly, hoping for a valid coupon code to come up, since most coupons excluded Spectre models. So, I happened to finally place my order around 10pm on the 15th using the $ 250 discount code, and received a ship date of 6/2.

The next morning, the CTO model was no longer listed and the preconfigured model was "out-of-stock" (and was later removed).

 

It's probably worth a call to the Sales line, see if they're taking orders, ask what gives with the web site, availability issues.

 

I am on the same boat, used the 250 coupon and as soon as I ordered, the other day the spectre disappeared from the website.

 

Does anyone know what HP-specific features their touchpad drivers have that the general Synaptics ones don't? Synaptics seems to update theirs a lot more frequently. Has anyone tries theirs instead of HP's? Any issues?

 

After you change %, the web page itself looks normal, but Chrome tabs and menus are still ridiculously small. Any solution for this?

Thanks,
Claudio

 

I notice that Best Buy has a "Best Buy Only" Spectre 13 listed. It is the base model, i5, 4 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD. The model number is 13-3010dx. Still no Spectre 13 on the HP web site. Very strange situation.

Jim

 

In my experience HP will normally honor a discount that was in place but you couldn't use because the product was removed from the web site, so you couldn't order, even for a delayed delivery date. It will help you get that done if you can easily show them "evidence" that the coupon was available. Since you can't prove that the product was removed from the web site, the issue will default to whether the coupon was available recently and then became unavailable. Usually that alone will get you the coupon price even if you can't "prove" the product was unorderable.

The only HP-specific features are the "Control Zone" features, that essentially simulate the Windows 8 features you can get using the touch screen - the "charms" bar if you swipe on the right side of the elongated touch pad and scrolls through open W8 programs if you swipe the left side extension. While those features are a major selling point for HP, touch pad "wings" and all, I personally don't use them because I find it easy to invoke them when I don't mean to because I am not used to the "normal" part of the touch pad ending before the touch pad does. Besides, there are other ways to bring up those menus (don't ask me for specifics ATM!) without using the special touch pad settings. I have used the Synaptics drivers on most of my (fairly numerous) laptop models and more often than not they work fine and are updated far more often than the OEM drivers.

Funny, I have heard that before but the tabs look like they scale with the content, in any event they are not "ridiculously small" as others experience. I have a number of extensions in use, perhaps one or more of them do some kind of scaling/zooming of the tabs. I'll look at what I have (don't have Chrome on this machine and kind of pressed), but you may want to take a look at them yourself. It's got to be something, though, because I have checked this many, many times and my eyes can't be deceiving me!

 

I called HP and tried to order another 13T-3000 and was told that the Spectre was discontinued and is no longer available.

 

WOW! HP shooting self in foot? Why discontinue a successful ultrabook? It has only been on the market about six months.

Jim

 

WHAT?!!! Say it ain't so!!! This is exactly what HP has done with virtually every Spectre model they have ever made.** So, true to form, HP has again killed off an awesome design with class-competitive performance - this time value priced, and additionally heavily discounted with 20%-25% off coupons. It's hard to imagine what is in their minds, other than making orphans of their installed base and further deprecating HP's brand - how appealing will future new models be, no matter how awesome they look on paper or look and perform in real life, if the only thing you can depend on is that the model will be abandoned in 6 months, building no brand equity (for the installed base to sell and upgrade from) and assuring there will be no driver updates or accessories, whether from HP or third parties, as there are for "real" companies and their products.

Sorry, I'm just ranting, as we all have a right to do. I guess you could say that the very low net prices we payed help to offset the damage to resale value - I mean, how low can their values go when they remain close to the absolute best models produced in this time frame? Although, I must disclose, for my beloved Envy 14 Spectres (1 for my wife, 1 for me, the latter technically for sale, since acquisition of 13T-3000). I paid 66% off list for an open box Sandy Bridge model, 9 months after release, and 50% off list for an Ivy Bridge model, 6 months after release .

It's been fun. NO, seriously, we still own incredible machines and need this thread even more since there will be limited mfr. support. I intend to keep my 13T for as long as it's as good or better than I can buy for its resale value. I don't know if there really is such thing as a "classic" in the laptop computer market, since by definition even the best will be obsolete in 2 years - EXCEPT that my 2010 Sony Z (after the line was discontinued in 2013, and Sony SOLD their entire PC business 2 months ago!!!) is still feature and performance competitive today, at it's 4th birthday, and selling for 50% of its original selling price on eBay. So let's enjoy using this wonderful creation and know that when it's time to upgrade, there will be knowledge in the resale market that this is one of the best deals out there.

Peace,
Jeff

=========================================================

**A semi-short (consider the author !) history of HP's Spectre "premium" laptop brand, all of 2 years old as of this writing:

Beginning with the Envy 14 Spectre, a beautiful, high end 14" (in 13" form factor) HP "Radiance" screen (though only 1600x00 because that was "high end" in 2012!) with 90% sRGB, Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge versions (early, late 2012), 4-8GB RAM (user expandable) 128-256GB mSATA SSD (user replaceable and expandable via extra slot) phenomenally leading-edge design (first Ultrabook to use Gorilla Glass on lid, gorgeous "piano black" lid, also used GG on plam rest and track pad, otherwise a gorgeous and unusually well equipped UB: 2 USB3, Gigabit Ethernet, full size HDMI, mini DP, VGA, nearly full-travel, widely spaced backlit keyboard (senses if you are near and turns on/off accordingly) NFC, "B" audio (I hate using the name because we all know it's meaningless, but in this case it's simply true that it produced...) high volume, good freq. response, rotary volume dial on right side, illuminated in red (a high end Envy feature at the time). Altogether design and usability surpassing all UB's before or since. Only few "Cons" : a little heavy for 13" UB (but not for 14"), screen not high res. by today's standards (but I challenge anyone to find it wanting!), price - released as a low configuration (4GB/128GB, i5 ULT) for $1,500, gradually lowered to $1,299, much admired but relatively low sales until price cuts, but HP instead DISCONTINUED IT!! (Disclosure: I own 2 of these, one of which is for sale, so take the above with whatever grains of salt you think approprieate ) Subsequent Spectre models (13-2XXX, X2, etc) were not as distinctive, yet had the same 4-6 mo. product cycle - until the great (now late) Spectre 13T-3000, released 6 MONTHS AGO!!!

 

Assuming the Spectre 13 line is truly discontinued, an aptly appropriate Sopranos quote comes to mind: "Whaddaya gonna do?" This is the nature of the consumer driven tech sector - albeit 6 months is a bit short of the mean product cycle.

 

I placed my order for the base 13t-3000 on November 8, 2013. After some discounts and dickering, the bottom line price was $864 plus tax. After the 30 day return period I saw the 13t-3000 on Amazon. So, I put it up for sale as a place holder at a ridiculous price of $1,250. Yeah, you guessed it, about a week ago, someone bought it. Now I have the money, but no Spectre 13.! Well, maybe I will go for the Best Buy base model for $999.

Jim

 

Wow! So, effectively you can get a new unit for a little over 600 bucks! What a steal! Nice work Hawkeye.

 

You're right, but 6 months is ridiculous and is not in any way related to the consumer market; no new processors are coming for more than 6 months, and everything else in the 13T-3000 is leading edge. The only thing I can think of is that they had planned to raise prices as the product's reputation was solidified (highly doubt they can make any money at these prices), but then Dell and Acer dropped trou and turned into a price war. Even so, it just look so, so bad, so unprofessional for them to keep releasing products - perfectly good products - and killing them off after the professional community gives them nothing but 4-4.5 starts, many naming them as Editor's Choice - why?

Nice going, Jim. I suppose we should all list ours for that price, take our profits and either re-buy or buy what you've been saying to yourself, "I wish I had returned this Spectre and gotten a -------!"

See above. I'm sure there is a window for many of us to sell ours before it's seen as a "flawed product," which is the likely response that the bloggers will have to hearing it was discontinued (see above, above). Thanks HP. Smooth, really smooth. /

 

Thanks for the info on the Synaptics drivers. I'll consider them. I pretty much have downloaded and am using Intel drivers for everything else.

 

Wow. Really bummed it's been discontinued. I'm actually still waiting on a replacement unit as the original unit sent to me had some defects (the bottom plate wasn't screwed down all the way and looked like it didn't actually fit correctly, and the track pad is loose). They were friendly enough with providing the replacement although I had to pay for the new machine before they'd send it, and I'm still waiting as the first machine they made for me didn't match the original specs I ordered. The second replacement is being manufactured right now, and they did upgrade the processor for me for my hassle (it was the only upgrade left). I sure hope this new one is perfect because I'm not sure I'll be able to have them send me another if this one has issues too.

I just recommended the Spectre to a friend, and she was interested until I couldn't find it on HP's site. I sure hope they reconsider, but I doubt it. Can't complain much, though. I got a top of the line Spectre for under $1100 in the end. What a bargain.

 

I am also waiting for my replacement. It was shipped on Friday. I can also confirm that I spoke to customer service on Saturday and they stated it is no longer available. It is really disappointing, actually unless my new one is 100% perfect I think I will just return it and get my money back and figure what to get next. What is a good alternative? XPS 13, Carbon X1? Maybe Surface Pro 3?

 

Yoga 2 13. i5-4200U, 8 GB ram, 256 GB SSD, 1920x1080,. $999.

Good luck, Jim

 

I really like computer but am on bubble.

Keyboard is really lousy. You need to hit two keeps for up, down, pgup, pgdown, insert, end and home. Pgup and pgdown are really small.

I develop lots of software and am alwas using those keys.

I do think computer itself is pretty nice but sort of wierd to make pretty common keys difficult to use.. I saw post above and it seems kepboard on Yoga 2 is not limiting in this area.

 

I hear you about the keyboard, this model's only achilles heel, IMO. But are you possibly over-counting the number of two-key operations? I only count four (pg up, pg dn, home, end). Those keys are definitely much more important to programmers (my former past time) than to consumers, even non-programmer professionals - which is why HP, and most makers of compact consumer laptops shrink those keys: they assume the majority of their customers are not programmers, and would rather have larger Shift and Enter keys and, with real estate at a premium on 13" model keyboards, guess-what has to give. Perhaps HP found the challenge of improving the keyboard too great to bear and, after several designers jumped off bridges at their failure, decided it best to discontinue the product line.

 

Hey Jeff, Try here.

Lenovo Yoga 2 Multimode Laptop | Multimode Laptops & Ultrabooks | Lenovo (US)

Good luck, Jim

 

I guess we can split differnce here arrows are OK, insert is shared with prt screen and needs FN keystoke. Too bad having Function keys remapped to be without FN did not do same for Prt Screen and Insert.

 

That's a bummer. Like I said, I don't think they take programmers into account when they design the keyboard. If they could do that with no impact to other usability issues I'm sure they would, but with limits on the "real estate" available on the keyboard they no doubt have tradeoffs and decide based on which kind of users comprise the majority and it's pretty surely not programmers. I would expect business class notebooks are more likely to have those keys separated so that all could be invoked with just one key pressed, plus I'll bet they are more likely to use full(er) sized keys for cursor arrows and Pg Up/Dn and Home/end. Of course, it appears that HP doesn't really take anyone into account when making decisions about their notebook computers or they wouldn't "orphan" so many loyal buyers, who want to have good support - with repairs, drivers, etc - for more than six months. Pitiful. They may just as well have exited the consumer PC business when they threatened to about two years ago. When Meg Whitman arrived and clearly reversed that decision I thought it also would be well and rationally manageable - wrong again. Oh well, as a blunt member wrote earlier: "whatcha gonna do?!!"

 

I was able to remap prtsc to insert in my programmer's editor. BTW I seem to use Home and End with CTRL all the time in Excel too. To be honest to use extra key will not be too big an issue. I think small arrows / pgup, etc. will be more of a pain than holding FN key for certain things. I can;t be the only person that needs to scroll through documents, etc. and use pgup, pgdown and arrows quite often.

 

Has anyone with the image retention issue had their screen replaced and received one that didn't exhibit the issue?

 

In case you missed it here is a link to the Yoga 2 13. Lenovo Yoga 2 Multimode Laptop | Multimode Laptops & Ultrabooks | Lenovo (US)

Note that this is not the Yoga 2 Pro. This model just came out as an alternative to the Yoga 2 Pro. None of the issues with the 3200x1800 res.

Jim

 

Hi All,

It's been a harrowing couple of days. The long and short of it is money is going to be very tight for a while, I am forced to sell my top config Spectre 13T (see in my sig.), for personal/financial reasons.
Please PM me if you're interested.

Thanks, Jeff

 

Im still waiting for my Spectre to be delivered (around June 10).... I'm hoping its perfect, because if its not, I know that there won't be any replacement. With this in mind, I am looking for options.
At the top of my list is the Dell XPS 13 ($1000 in the Microsoft Store) and the Lenovo Yoga 2 that hawkeye62 posted a few posts up.
Any opinions on these laptops??? I think i'm leaning more towards the XPS for the build quality, AC Wifi, and battery life.

All of this is, of course, if my spectre has some kind of fault
I really hope I get a good unit and I can keep it, I still think the spectre is the best choice.

 

Good luck! I dented mine - steal, if you want it.

Please PM me if interested.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

 

can the ram for this be changed, upgraded or is it soldered on?

 

Hi Jeff,

I am interested in your laptop, but I can't figure out how to PM you. Perhaps you can PM me and we can discuss further?

Thanks!

 

It appears that I don't have enough posts yet to be able to utilize Private Messaging. I'll get to work on that

 

Ok, I think I should be able to PM now, I'm just not sure how long it will take to go into effect.

 

Sorry, error on post.

 

Let me know if I can help.

 

FYI: The Spectre 13t is still being sold on HP websites in the UK, AU and NZ and perhaps others. HP UK and AU offer the i5 fhd version for 999 GBP and 1700 AUD. HP NZ offer the max'd version for a whopping 3000 NZD. While I'm not sure of the details, Ebay and Amazon now use a new global shipping program with reduced rates and increased reach into international markets. -just thought you might appreciate the potential for a more lucrative sale. Good luck.

 

Lovelaptops,

WOW...I was blown away reading your post about selling. You've been a great contributor to the thread and really helped when I purchased about a month ago for my wife. So far she likes the laptop but there are little things that bug her. The trackpad isn't great and she is still getting used to W8, even with the program that creates the start button. My clunker HP is starting to fritz out...screen is flickering. I may try to fix it myself but working on it is awful.

I know you are trying to sell yours but I'm not ready to buy at this time. It's too bad...I noticed your are in Arlington; I live in DC.

I'll be curious to see what folks think of the Lenova Yogi and Dell you have mentioned.

I wish you the best and hope things work out!

 

The RAM is soldered in place so it cannot be upgraded. Sorry.

 

Thanks so much, CK. I really appreciate both the compliment and your recognizing that this is truly a "loss" for me . Don't worry, though, I will stay very active on this thread, keeping it as an "email when new post comes in." But as I've asked everyone in the family to tighten belts, I felt it important that I show my own personal sacrifice and, frankly, it was very gratifying that my family were rather shocked that I was doing this, as they realized more than I knew how much I prized this machine. There's also a lesson to my kids about values and materialism - i.e., it's not really a "loss" for me - it's a thing!


All the best,
Jeff

 

That is a fantastic find, a great contribution to the forum and a great assist for me. Fortunately I have more interested parties stateside than I need, though I hear what you are saying about possibly getting a better price. (hmm, that's to you, those people considering purchasing mine - and you know who you are! - I may just turn around and sell it for much more than I've offered it to you for. :hi2:

I wonder if HP will continue to market this model, full speed ahead, in what I guess we would call UK and it's former English-speaking colonies . Do you know if it's also still for sale on other European or Asian markets? Very hard figuring out why this company does what it does, when it does it! Still, I've always loved HP's best designs and, frankly, have never had a bad model, consumer or business lines. I have always bough their highest end models with loaded configurations; that may or may not have accounted for my success, but it certainly keeps me coming back for more, but sometimes it feels like "more" abuse - when they discontinue models just when I get them!

Thanks again mate. All the best,
Jeff

 

While I doubt premium overseas prices and the additional customs import duty would attract prospective US buyers away from your machine, knowledge that HP continues to market the unit abroad provides some solace should future support and repair be necessary for current owners. Then again, it may only add up to HP selling off surplus inventory in foreign markets.

As for whether European and Asian sales of the Spectre 13 continue, I'm not sure but they will fetch a similar overseas premium if they do.

Cheers

 

Great points, all. I hope it isn't just HP dumping its inventory of Spectres. While nothing about discontinuing the product in the US makes any sense, it likewise wouldn't make sense not to allocate some of their unsold inventory to this market, if only to satiate some of the lingering demand for this product. I was, of course, joking about the overseas sales hampering my sale of my one personal laptop domestically in the US. I do agree with you that the longer HP continues to sell new units outside the US the more confidence it will inspire - correctly or not - that they will be supporting the product continuously, even for the US installed base's benefit. Sharp analyst, you are.