An Early Look at the HP Envy 14 Spectre - smithroadvine

HP's Enviousness tune of laptops are the best PCs they bring on consumers, with their focus on powerful specs, sleek design, and premium materials. The latest models were only available in 15.6 and 17-inch sizes, so those WHO wanted Invidia design and operation with a trifle more portability were out of hazard. Today, HP is expanding the personal line of credit with a slick new accession, the HP Envy 14 Specte. For the book, we really idolised the primary Begrudge 14, back in 2010. Unfortunately, the system remained largely the same a class later, while the rest of the laptop market had moved on to better and better designs. Compared to the rest of the market, the 2011 version of the Enviousness 14 was quotidian. As luck would have it, the Enviousness 14 Spectre takes a very big leap forward in different areas. To begin with, it's dramatically small than last year's Envy 14. At 12.8 by 8.7 inches, it's non nearly as wide or cryptical as the 14 away 9.3-inch Envy 14 of unlikely year. It's much thinner as well, at 0.78 inches. Best of all, the Spectre sheds close to two pounds from the 5.6-impound Envy 14 – IT tips the scales at 3.79 pounds. The Spectre's screen is half an inch smaller than the 14.5-inch sieve on the old Envy 14, but the resolution has actually improved to 1600 by 900.

That complete sounds like great news, but we're not in the age of huge fat laptops anymore. We're in the age of Ultrabooks, and while the Spectre technically qualifies for the label, it's noticeably thicker and heavier than to the highest degree of the laptops that carry that brand. We've seen ultraportables for years that were 0.8 inches thick and weighed fair-and-square under 4 pounds. It's not a Brobdingnagian problem, simply HP would do well to channelize sort out of the Ultraportable brand on this one; I consider it sets upward expectations for size and weight unit that will just disappoint users. The good news is that this slightly watch and heavier Ultrabook design affords room for more full-sized ports and a keyboard with a little more key travel. The most striking element of the Specter's design is the intemperate use of glass over. The lid is edge-to-edge tras on some the back and the display side, giving the closed laptop a same shining appearance like a gamy-end tablet. The entire wrist rest beneath the keyboard is Methedrine, forming a smooth surface that integrates the buttonless clickpad (H.P. is keen to maneuver out that it's an image-based touchpad, for better multi-touch gestures, only we've seen plenty of those lately). Information technology would be an HP Envy product with Beats integration, and of run over you'll find that here. Taking a queue from the latest Envy 15 and 17, there's an linear volume dial on the right side, along with a nonspeaking button and "Beats" button. I'm not a fan of more button and knobs, only this is a case where more than is better; an analogue telephone dial is a so much easier direction to ascertain book than pressing some function key multiple multiplication, and a dedicated, easy-to-find mute push can come in quite handy. When the system becomes available on February 8, the protrusive price will be about $1400. For that, you bugger off a Core i5-2467M, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. Interestingly, the Spectre comes equipped with NFC, and English hawthorn live first to commercialise to do and so. I'm not certain how effectual that will be as a way to swap data with your phone, but IT's nice to go through NFC support decent more widespread. HP promises 9 hours of battery liveliness, which is a nifty hour or two longer than many laptops this size of it. Also included are WiDi wireless display and KleerNet-mixable wireless audio. If you want to expend more, you'll be able to add a second SSD or a more almighty CPU. Alas, there's no option for a discrete GPU. This is a big disappointment, as graphics performance has been a hallmark of the Envy describe, and IT would prove a lot more useful than a second SSD for most users.

[For more blogs, stories, photos, and video from the nation's largest consumer electronics show, check out PCWorld's complete insurance coverage of CES 2012.]

Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we May earn a small commission. Read our associate link policy for more inside information.