HP Spectre 13T-3000

Smart decision you should enjoy it. If I had to push you one thing, I would have highly recommended you getting the 802.11AC Wireless upgrade for only $20. And I don't know what Wireless Router you have at home, but the 802.11 ac technology offers a lot more benefits other then higher throughput. You could've brought an ac Wireless Router later on as they are coming down in price. But I commend you for sticking to your budget.

You still have an awesome spec'd laptop and the base Wifi card will still get you excellent results, so don't kick yourself too much for not getting the ac Wireless card.

 

Wasn't trying to start a big thing here. Just a curiosity to me. Thanks for your reply

 

Does this mean my laptop is on it's way? I was checking my order and it says at the top "Awaiting Shipment" as of today at 12pm.
EDIT: Oh wait, the regular status page hasn't changed, so this probably doesn't mean anything...

Anyway...

I was having a little Zenbook envy (specifically for the UX301LA-DH71T), which has the same configuration.

Pros:
- Faster processor and better graphics (I7-4558U with Iris 5100 vs I7-4500U with HD 4400). I'm sure some games would run better on the Zenbook.
- Looks cool

Cons:
- HP support, HP return policy and the discounted 3 year HP accidental damage coverage are great. I don't know about Asus' support etc.
- Cost about $2000 (at least $500 too much)
- Some people don't like the keyboard, but that could be true with any Ultrabook
(EDIT: thought I would add these)
- light bleed
- RAID 0 drives - striping is a little risky (roughly twice the failure rate of one drive).

Fortunately I only plan to play pretty old games on the Ultrabook. I play newer games on my Desktop. So even if there were a $500 discount on the Asus, I'm not sure I'd go for it.

 

Can you pls measure the SSD read/write speed? How good is the built quality? How good is the touchpad? What battery life are you getting?
Thanks!

 

Hi, How is the touchpad more like Inspiron 7000 or more like Apple? Can you compare the keyboard/screen against other machines? How is the heat on this machine during regular browsing vs. watching a movie. What is the other laptop/brand that you would compare this laptop to and what are some significant differences?

Thanks,

 

Fred, I understand your "Zenbook Envy" (terrible pun!) but it seems you have made your own case against it - on price alone. In addition to the higher cost for relatively small performance differences you also have reason for concern about the keyboard and, not mentioned here, I've seen reviews (including in Notebookcheck) indicating that the new Zenbook, like its predecessor, has noticeable backlight bleed. The only negative I've read about this HP is that "crackle" noise cited by several on this thread. I don't think I would want to put up with that though it sounds like it could be a software /driver issue that may be easily resolved. It yours produces that noise at an annoying level I would get Tech Support (not Customer Support) on the phone and make sure they acknowledge that it is an issue they are working on and get a reassuring feeling or send it back!

Otherwise this sounds like a great laptop at a net price far, far below its competitors. Even is you gamble with that noise if you have the comprehensive warranty you probably can get satisfaction one way or another. My experience owning 2 Envy Spectre 14s is that HP really does provide a higher level of service to the"Spectre"series, much as they did for the True Envys in the past and the HDX models before - and I've owned all three, and standard Pavillion models (now"Envy Pavilions") and the differences are very real.

For now it's an irrevocable decision and it's on its way, so kick back and look forward to a box with your name on it arriving on your doorstep! And do keep us posted Best, Jeff



Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

 

Thank you for the feedback! One other "con" for the Zenbook I forgot about is the RAID 0 drives. I don't like doubling the failure rate of a hard drive just on principal...

That's very reassuring to hear you've had good support with the Spectre line. I've had good luck with HP in the past. I also agree with you pricewise that it's very hard to beat the 13t-3000. I've gone back over my list of contenders and I really don't see one I would pick even if price weren't the issue.

The low volume of complaints here has been very reassuring, but I to be fair I don't know how many people actually have the 13t-3000 in their hands. I'm hoping mine will ship in two weeks

 

I will leave SSD speed to someone else. I think the build quality is excellent, no flex anywhere that I can see. The total machine looks and feels elegant. I get 8 hr 47 min battery life on a use profile of Email, Web browsing, Downloads and program installation, board games- Spider Solitaire and Mahjong, Angry Birds, some music and a little video clip viewing. I measure battery life by starting at 100% and then keeping a log of start and end times for multiple sessions over a day or day and a half until the screen goes black. I have left the power profile at what ever came from the factory. I love the touch pad. The touch zones on each side are an interesting and useful feature. The whole middle zone is touch pad with no distinction between left and right click, so you can easily make clicks without looking. A one finger click is a left click and a two finger click is a right click. A right click can also be done by pressing the touch screen on the target and holding until the right click menu comes up.

Regards, Jim

 

I'm currently weighing the HP Spectre 13T-3000 (Smart Buy) against a MacBook Pro w/Retina (mid-grade model). Both would come with 8G, 256SSD, 13" HD+ screen, WiFi AC. I think the MBP has a better Intel (i5) Haswell chip with upgraded graphics though.

An Apple rep in a local store mentioned to me that the MBP will be getting a sizable ($200) discount for Black Friday. After crunching some numbers it looks like the two will be close enough in price to negate any sizable cost advantage. That remains to be seen though. One thing I'm not sure about is whether the HP has a PCI-e bus for the SSD as the MBP does.

In the past, I've always been an MS guy, but after living with Vista for 6 years and getting an iPad2 a couple of years ago, I'm starting to think Apple might be the way to go. So, I guess you could say I'm at the crossroads of technology at the moment. Anyone have a killer reason to go with one over the other? I can still be swayed.

 

Hopefully who's monitoring this forum (either by HP or by someone knowledgeable of the situation) can help me understand why this particular ultrabook isn't getting the coverage in the media that many other ultrabooks by companies, acer and asus (which aren't as well known as HP), are receiving?

I'm confident I made the right choice but whenever you are spending this kind of money on something, you generally want to see and feel the item. I wish HP would do a better job of getting this laptop into the hands of journalists and retailers.

 

+1, haven't been able to find a single review, that's weird to say the least

 

Order placed on Nov 17 with Dec 6 estimated ship date. HP website now shows it has shipped from China with a delivery date of Dec 5. Thank God that will give us time to check out the performance before giving it to our daughter in college for Christmas and decide if it is worth keeping before the January 15 return date. I'm really, really hopeful this will be a great ultra book for her and will post our experience with the model.

As an aside, we've never owned any HP computers previously, but in my opinion their customer service (US based and out sourced) have been really impressive imo. I hope if we need technical service they will be as good quality. I looked at the Samsun Ativ Book 9 Plus and Asus Zenbook Infinity with outstanding specs but I was really turned off by the terrible quality of their customer service.

Thanks to all who posted their experiences here as it really helped me to bite the bullet and make this purchase.

 

I haven't kept up with this forum lately, but the brown leather sleeve is now listed online! It's $69.99, but of course, sold out. In other words...as slow as HP has been, I'll be getting one in January of 2014, lol!

I'm still liking this ultrabook though. I've decided to keep mine. As the previous poster mentioned, despite the slow delivery, HP support has actually handled my situation very well and the build quality on this is very high for the price. My next two choices, the Dell XPS 13 and Asus UX301LA are $500+ for similar configurations(the Asus is, but the Dell is still a lot more).

There are so practically no reviews yet besides the previews from months ago, but this laptop is a sleeper hit IMO.

 

I got the same message -- was supposed to ship next week but apparently it's already left China.

Anyone have any experience with Fedex delivery, indirect signature? I live in an apartment building, and HP has dropped off stuff before without a signature, but I hate the idea of them doing it with a $1,500 laptop and they'd be stupid enough to do just that. I can't have it re-routed to a Fedex Store because of how the item was shipped, and so I'm SOL if they drop it off and someone else nabs it. Has anyone figured out an HP/Fedex workaround to getting the delivery sent to another address?

P.S. I called Fedex to try to re-route the package and the operator, clearly reading off a script, said I'd have to call HP, that Fedex can't do anything. When I asked if I could speak to a supervisor, she repeated her script again verbatim and then hung up on me. Nice.

 

I have purchased many of items direct from HP over the years, but when it comes to laptops/computers they will not re-route it and FedEx does have specific instructions not to re-route it. The best that I can do, if I knew I wasn't going to be home to sign for my HP computer, I will call FedEx and have them hold at a closest FedEx Hub, which is about an Hour away. My new HP printer, I wasn't here to sign for it, but they dropped it off at my door.

Even if it was an option, I wouldn't do an indirect signature too much a risk. especially if you live in a apartment BLDG. And the Box clearly say HP Computer. Call FedEx and ask what is the closest FedEx Hub (not store) that you can pick it up at. Hope this helps, Happy Gobble Day!

 

Well, Indirect Signature means that they will deliver if you leave a note on the door. But, since you are in an apartment, that wouldn't be wise. Is there a resident apartment manager? They might leave it there if you asked in your note. Otherwise, the best solution is probably what mcsey suggested.

Good luck, Jim

Edit: You must sign and date the note.

 

I guess I am slow, but I just discovered a new (to me) feature of this little gem. Go to Control Panel > Mouse> HP Control Zone. I didn't realize so much could be done from the touch pad.

Regards, Jim

 

Thanks, guys. I'll check out the location of the nearst hub.

 

I was wondering if anyone could find any good deal for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday. I just called HP and offered $75 off for being a student. There's also a $50 off coupon (PC599BF) which I wasn't allowed to combine with the previous deal.

 

Guys, can someone please measure the speed of 256Gb SSD? With most of the components being of-the-shelf nowadays, SSD speed varies considerably from manufacturer to manufacturer (model to model even), and this is arguably the most important component for daily performance.

I need to make the decision tomorrow of getting this one vs a Macbook Pro, so please help!

 

Well, I'm a member of the club! My item shipped out yesterday. The only think I can't figure out is that Fedex predicts the item to arrive next Thursday. I payed for 2 day shipping! I guess I'll call HP and see if I can get a refund.

Anyway, it's all very exciting, I'm really looking forward to the new arrival

 

Early congratulations! I don't see how FedEx can deliver on a two day delivery from China, I think it takes a day to get through China's export/import process and then travel time to the US and another day to get through US import/customs, Maybe two days after US customs.

Good luck, Jim

 

Yes, I see what you're saying. HP states that customs can add one business day to shipping. However, even accounting for that, the Holiday and the weekend the delivery is still late. Also, the tracking info didn't indicate that shipping was expedited in any way so I think I will call HP to sort it out.

EDIT: The rep I talked to said HP was unable to provide 2 day shipping due to the number of orders going out. I did manage to get a $39 refund for the 2-day shipping though.

 

Can someone comment on the sound of the HP 13t-3000? Are the speakers and sound quality good/decent?

 

My ears are not the same as your ears. The sound is OK for me. BUT, if you are buying a laptop or ultrabook for high quality sound, good luck.

 

C mon Hawkeye, you can do better that! My HP Envy 14 Spectre - 3100 has loud, crisp sound that is more than sufficient for 2 people watching HD movies and quite enjoyable for music at low to moderate volumes, while my two Sony Zs (which some suckers paid over $2.5 grand for when new!) sound worse than a telephone speaker from 1972!

Unless you've never experienced an Ultrabook with decent audio quality, surely you can be somewhat more descriptive!. I will say that I've found Hp notebooks to have better than average audio for years (though by no means always), and the truly best-ever Ultrabook sound quality on my recent predecessor in the Envy Spectre brand bodes well for the 13T.

Any further/revised opinions?.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

 

The sound quality is actually very good. The best that I can describe the sound is clean and crisp, the mid and high tones are very good. It doesn't have a muffled sounds at all. As for the bass, well it's a Ultrabook, so if you are listening to a lot of music that has bass, like, hip hop, House Music or Heavy metal, you are not going to feel the bass (This should be expected.)

The volume is loud enough for an Ultrabook. I am a big fan of beats and I have had a lot of products that bear the name beats, some of those products wasn't worthy of the bearing the name, the HP Spectre is a products that is worthy of the bearing the Beats brand. So it is crisp and clean and should be loud enough.

 

I got $120 off with a coupon code I found on Google. I think it was PC1723. The expiration date was supposed to be Nov 27th, but some others said Nov 30th.

 

Have any owners out there had trouble with the large touchpad? If your palms hit the edges of the pad while typing, does it trigger any unwanted actions?

 

I was aware of this code before BlackFriday. Then I became greedy and waited for better deals. Guess what? The coupon got expired and hp gave no better deals

 

Try googling for a different deal. Also, cyber Monday is coming up and you'd think they'd do something for that. Lastly, you could talk to a customer rep and see what they can do for you.

EDIT: I did see this coupon code that looks really good: PC799BF - 15% off custom build laptop or desktop. I tried it and I don't think it works, but you could talk to a customer rep.

 

Well, I guess I have never heard good quality sound on a laptop. To me good quality sound is DVD-A played on a system designed for DVD-A. I have had laptops with such low volume that you couldn't watch a movie and enjoy it. The tiny speakers on any ultrabook or laptop certainly aren't capable of producing high quality sound in the larger definition of high quality sound, I would describe any ulrabook or laptop adequate at best. That is just my opinion and what my ears hear.

Regards, Jim

 

I just received mine! I'm very impressed, but I noticed when I picked up the laptop upside down or by the hinge side, the hinge was not strong enough to hold the laptop closed. It would hang open like an inch. Can those of you who have received their laptops check if your laptops do that. I don't know if I'm just being nitpicky. I don't remember my four year old HP doing that. I know most people don't hold their laptops upside down regularly; I just noticed it as I was turning the laptop upside down to admire the finish on the bottom.

 

Thanks. I can see where the previous review was coming from. Obviously, with an ultrabook's usual thickness, I wouldn't expect much bass. Right now I'm typing on a Lenovo W510 which is great for productivity but the speakers were terrible...I have a Logitech soundbar attached and it now sounds fine. For the HP, I just wanted to make sure that you could actually watch Youtube videos and maybe a movie with someone else and actually be able to hear it and not be terribly disappointed in clarity and volume. Also, I didn't see in the specs, does it have a SD card slot or not?

 

Yes, there is SD card slot.I have a 64 GB micro SDXC card in a standard size adapter in mine. It works perfectly.

Regards, Jim

 

Not sure how you are holding it to have it hang open, If I pick it up from either top, bottom or sides, I need at least two fingers extending down about three inches in order to get a firm grip. No way can it hang partially open. And looking at the bottom, I have a similar grip, so again, no way for it to hang open.

Regards, Jim

 

The touchpad is excellent; I have used it for a week and have not had a false touch. It is the closest thing that I have found to the Apple touchpads, which are all excellent. As a point of reference, the touchpad is WAY better than the one found on the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro.

 

testing testing.

 

Ok so I've tried it again. When I'm holding the laptop with the hinge side in my hand and the open side is pointing up, the lid will not stay closed.

 

I actually called them twice. One day before Black Friday and the actual day. On both tries, my call was directed to a call center in India. The guy over the phone was stupid enough not to understand what a deal is. It took him 10min to calculate 9% sales tax!!

The best offer I could get on both days was $75 off. I have a $50 off coupon already plus 3% cash back from my credit card if I place the order on hp.com which translates to more than what they offer me.

PS. I saw PC799BF which doesn't work for me neither.

 

If you haven't committed yet, hold out until cyber Monday. I'm sure they want your business! Also, try seeing if you can talk to a customer rep manager. Some people have had better luck with that.

 

Hi Guys,
I'm new to these. I have been looking for new ultrabooks and right now im down to Acer S7-392 and this new HP Spectre. Since there are no reviews of HP spectre I have been leaning towards Acer. Does anyone who had experience with both ultrabooks would recomment the new Acer 392 or this new HP Spectre ultrabook.

Thank you very much!!

 

I just found a new coupon for cyber Monday and placed my order. The coupon is PC999CM which gives %20 off. For the max config (which I got), it saved me $287 :thumbsup:

 

I just tried it and it didn't work. It said "please check requirements for this coupon" Are there any that you know of? Where did you find the code?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

If I open mine so the screen is 90 degrees to the keyboard, I can hold the keyboard and tilt it any direction any angle and the screen doesn't move at all relative to the keyboard.

Regards, Jim

Edit: If I hold the unit by the screen (very carefully) and tilt it, the keyboard will move relative to the screen. Since most of the weight is in the keyboard, this not unexpected. I can't think of any reason to hold the unit by the screen

Jim

 

The PC999CM code works for 20% off the laptop, but it cannot be combined. When I repriced my computer with the 3 years AD insurance it was $54 less than when I purchased in November. HP honored the price guarantee and credited the difference. I hope I'm as satisfied with the computer when it arrives as I have been with the customer service.

 

Hi Guys,
I'm new to these. I have been looking for new ultrabooks and right now im down to Acer S7-392 and this new HP Spectre. Since there are no reviews of HP spectre I have been leaning towards Acer. Does anyone who had experience with both ultrabooks would recomment the new Acer 392 or this new HP Spectre ultrabook.

Thank you very much!!

 

Anyone, please measure the SSD speed, especially of the 256gb version!

 

I don't have much experience with the Acer, but that was also on my list. I would highly recommend reading the Amazon reviews. At least one person had issues with the keyboard and trackpad. I'm also not a big fan of RAID0 as it doubles the failure rate of a single drive and recovering files is nearly impossible when there is a failure...

I think what ultimately made up my mind was the price difference and HP's support and return policy. I also got a pretty good deal on 3year accidental coverage from HP (I hope to keep using this laptop for at least 3 years).

 

I read somewhere that these coupons have a limited number of "uses" (like around 1000). I wonder if they're getting used up?