HP Spectre XT TouchSmart 15t Review

This thin and light 15-inch Ultrabook features a beautiful IPS touch display, great backlit keyboard and a stylish design. See why we recommend this PC.

Read the full content of this Article: http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/hp-spectre-xt-touchsmart-15t-review/

 

This is a very nice PC, but I really wish Intel and the OEMs would stop trying to push 15-inch notebooks as "Ultrabooks." I understand that 15-inch laptops have the best sales figures among consumers in the U.S., but let's just leave the "Ultrabook" label for 13-inch and smaller permium thin-and-light laptops that are designed to compete with the MacBook Air.

I have a hard time believing there is a serious consumer or business demand for "Ultrabooks" with 15-inch screens.

 

Having a regular hard drive on your test system is not a con. You can get a 128GB SSD option for 160 dollars on a CTO system on HP.com.
Yeah, I agree, at 5 lbs this is no Ultra book. Not even. Nothing grabs me yet on IPS W8 systems except for the forth coming Samsung series 7 utra 13" which will have dedicated graphics and decent battery life. That might end up being the one to beat.

 

Think from the reviewer perspective however; based on your logic, if reviewing a car I couldn't complain about a 4-cylinder engine if a 6-cylinder was offered. Given the performance differences, prospective buyers should be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of getting a hard drive vs an SSD; I pointed out the differences and (perhaps you missed it) also highlighted that HP offers SSD upgrade options in two separate sections of the review, including the Conclusion (which is the most read part of the article).

I'm in agreement with Jerry that the 'Ultrabook' classification really is a misnomer when applied to a 15.6" notebook.

 

Nice review. This laptop has been available since early December. So you could have reviewed it earlier for the benefit of buyers. Where did you get it for $1175?
Owners report that the battery life is less than average at about 3 hrs. However, you're not expected to often lug around a 15 inch system too far from a power outlet.
Regarding the storage, the 32GB mSATA SSD should speed up app launching after you use the machine for a while. Having two hard drive bays is a plus. You can install a 256GB SSD in the mSATA slot and use the HDD for storage.

 

I think HP should have kept their ENVY 15 line and made it slightly thinner and put in the same IPS display you get here with the Spectre XT. Agreed, a 15-inch Ultrabook is almost an oxymoron, people expect a gaming rig to be 15-inches, not a super thin and light. As it stands, there's a giant hole in the HP lineup in which they have no standout consumer gaming machine that used to be what the ENVY brand offered, but they sure do have a ton of Ultrabooks.

 

That's not really a surprise because they're taking people off their PC division. HP is shifting focus to tablets.

HP hedges against declining PC business, diverts some resources to tablet division | The Verge

 

I just got my HP Spectre 15-4011nr. I tried to start it, but it does`nt boot, or load, nothing. Just the screen and keyboard light up. Any suggestions?