Review: HP Envy Spectre XT 13''
Category : Notebooks / Tablets
Published by Marc Büchel on 03.10.12
With the Spectre XT, HP has built a very classy Ultrabook. Already at a first glance you can see that the manufacturer spent a lot of time on designing all the little details as well as the overall appearance. Furhtermore they've used only high quality materials. Sounds like a promising combination, doesn't it?
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When you take the Spectre XT out of the box you'll see that this exquisite product comes with in a velvet sleeve. After removing the sleeve we were in for the next wow-effect. What you get is an exquisitely designed and manufactured device. But is this enough to excel in our review?
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Preview
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Specifications / Chassis
| CPU | Intel Core i5-3317U (1.7 GHz Standard, 2.3 GHz Turbo) |
| Graphics card | Intel HD Graphics 4000 |
| Chipset | Intel HM76 (Panther Point) |
| Memory | DDR3 1'600 MHz, 4 Gigabyte |
| Display | 13.3 Zoll TFT, 1366 x 768 Pixel, Glare-Type, LED Backlight |
| Hard drive / Drive | Samsung MZMPC128HBFU, 128 GB |
| Video Camera | HP TrueVision HD-Webcam, 720p |
| Keyboard | backlight |
| Connectors | 1 x USB 2.0 1 x USB 3.0 1 x HDMI 1 x Kensington Lock Audio Card Reader SD RJ 45 |
| Battery | 45 Wh 2950 mAh |
| Dimensions | 316 x 224 x 14.5 - 17.5 mm (W x D x H) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit |
| Weight | 1.415 kg |
Chassis / Design / Build quality
Already the first glance at the Spectre XT reveals that HP built a high quality Ultrabook. The materials they've used have been exquisitely processed and the result is very good haptics. The hairline brushed aluminium cover gives the Spectre XT a luxurious touch and makes it very appealing. The plastic, which can be found at the bottom of this ultrabook comes with a matte velvety finish, which is very comfortable and offers good grip once your going to lift the device. Going a step further and opening we had to use both hands. There is no comfortable way to open the lid with one hand, since it keeps sliding off because of its low weigtht. Talking about weight: the Spectre XT only weighs only 1.415 Kilogram and is therefore a perfect companion.
Looking at the connectors shows that HP hasn't been saving here. Wether or not a slim notebook where manufacturers have design ambitions should offer many connectors that's what people can argue about. But on the other hand there is the fact that a RJ45 connector, an HDMI port, one USB 2.0 as well as one USB 3.0 connector and a card reader are convinient no matter if you're at home, at work or on the go.
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Display / Input Devices
Display
For its Spectre XT HP uses a LGD0368 which offers a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Furthermore the dispaly comes with a mirroring surface. In our tests we measured a maximum brightness level of 202 Candela per squaremeter and a minimum value of 191 Candela per squaremeter, which really isn't much. For Ultrabooks the likelihood, that they're being use outside is very high and therefore maximum brightness should be at least 250 Candela per squaremeter. This display doesn't even offer good stability regarding the viewing angle. Furthermore there is the contrast level that could be improve. Black values are way too high and therefore if you're watching a movie it looks pale and matte. Overall this really isn't a panel one should put into a device that is going to be sold in a premium market segment. It's simply inappropriate.
Input Devices
The keyboard has been placed in an aluminium bed which also fits perfectly into the decent design of the entire notebook. As soon as you place your hands and start typing you'll be surprised what a good keyboard HP used for this Ultrabook. Writing even longer articles (such as this review) is very comfortable. Even after hours your wrists wont start to hurt. The only thing which might need some time to get used to the arrow keys with their custom layout.
Overall HP decided to make use of a decent
touchpad. It is very accurate and it's no big deal if you do not have a mouse at
hand. Something else that was working very well were the multitouch gestures.
Scrolling with two fingers for example works perfectly.
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Test setup
Regarding our notebook reviews we use a practical approach. To get a detailed impresson of the device the tester uses it to work with. In case of gaming notebooks it replaces the testers gaming PC during the time of the test. These methods allow us to provide detailed user experience to you.Regarding performance benchmarks - which are listed below - we don't go very deep. What we do, is that we use benchmarking software which over the years have established as standards for reviewing purposes. Furthermore the specific game benchmarks give insight to the playability of recent games.
Benchmarking Suite
- Futuremark PCMark 7
- Total Score
- Video playback and transcoding / Video playback Score
- Video playback and transcoding / Video transcoding - downscaling Score
- System storage - gaming / System storage - gaming Score
- Graphics - DirectX 9 / Graphics - DirectX 9 Score
- Image manipulation / Image manipulation Score
- System storage - importing pictures / System storage - importing pictures Score
- Web browsing and decrypting / Web browsing Score
- Web browsing and decrypting / Data decrypting Score
- System storage - Windows Defender / System storage - Windows Defender Score
- Total Score
- Cinebench
- 1 Core
- Multicore
- WinRAR
- Benchmarktest
- Battery Life
- Load
- WLAN and Browser
- Idle
- Noise Level
- Load
- Idle
- Temperature
- Load
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PCMark 7 - Video Playback / Downscaling / Transcoding / Storage
PCMark 7 is a benchmark suite which consists of 20 different workloads. The following results reflect the PCMark 7's standard selection, which provides a good insight regarding overall system performance. For a comfortable presentation we chose to split the results onto three different sites.| Futuremark PCMark 7 | Score |
| HP Envy Spectre XT | 4'183 |
| ASUS UX21E | 3'450 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 3'297 |
| MSI GT 780 | 3'805 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 3'720 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 3'162 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 3'074 |
| HP Folio 13 | 3'072 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 3'015 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 2'966 |
| ASUS G74SX | 2'500 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 2'261 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 1'693 |
| Video playback and transcoding / Video playback | fps |
| HP Envy Spectre XT | 23.14 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 23.18 |
| ASUS UX21E | 23.17 |
| HP Folio 13 | 23.13 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 23.08 |
| MSI GT 780 | 23.14 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 23.13 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 23.12 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 23.11 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 23.10 |
| ASUS G74SX | 23.04 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 23.01 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 22.62 |
| Video playback and transcoding / Video transcoding - downscaling | KByte/s |
| HP Envy Spectre XT | 27'558 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 16'353 |
| ASUS UX21E | 15'227 |
| HP Folio 13 | 11'258 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 11'017 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 5'285 |
| ASUS G74SX | 5'251 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4'948 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 4'912 |
| MSI GT 780 | 4'905 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 4'923 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 4'870 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 2'472 |
| System storage - gaming / System storage - gaming | MByte/s |
| ASUS UX21E | 16.51 |
| HP Envy Spectre XT | 15.95 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 13.51 |
| HP Folio 13 | 13.35 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 12.56 |
| MSI GT 780 | 14.40 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 13.83 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 7.93 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 7.21 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 7.09 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4.46 |
| ASUS G74SX | 4.34 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 3.23 |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
DirectX 9 / Image Manipulation / Importing Pictures
| Graphics - DirectX 9 / Graphics - DirectX 9 | fps |
| MSI GT 780 | 50.55 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 50.37 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 49.74 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 47.51 |
| ASUS G74SX | 48.96 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 32.92 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 30.67 |
| HP Spectre XT | 16.77 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 16.51 |
| ASUS UX21E | 14.00 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 12.61 |
| HP Folio 13 | 11.96 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 11.94 |
| Image manipulation / Image manipulation | Mpx/s |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 9.13 |
| MSI GT 780 | 9.04 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 8.88 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 8.86 |
| ASUS G74SX | 8.80 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 8.72 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 8.72 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 8.66 |
| HP Spectre XT | 8.47 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 8.19 |
| ASUS UX21E | 6.63 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 6.62 |
| HP Folio 13 | 5.07 |
| System storage - importing pictures / System storage - importing pictures | MByte/s |
| ASUS UX21E | 29.39 |
| HP Spectre XT | 26.90 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 23.94 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 22.05 |
| HP Folio 13 | 21.98 |
| MSI GT 780 | 21.06 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 11.08 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 10.50 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 9.75 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 9.55 |
| ASUS G74SX | 6.30 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 5.96 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 4.74 |
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Web browsing / Data decryption / Windows Defender
| Web browsing and decrypting / Web browsing | Pages/s |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 14.82 |
| MSI GT 780 | 14.08 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 13.36 |
| ASUS G74SX | 10.66 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 10.63 |
| HP Spectre XT | 10.44 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 10.26 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 10.21 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 9.80 |
| HP Folio 13 | 8.33 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 8.23 |
| ASUS UX21E | 7.94 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 7.30 |
| Web browsing and decrypting / Data decryption | MByte/s |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 59.06 |
| ASUS G74SX | 55.94 |
| HP Spectre XT | 55.90 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 54.14 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 48.14 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 47.63 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 47.22 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 47.20 |
| MSI GT 780 | 46.27 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 40.32 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 39.96 |
| HP Folio 13 | 39.58 |
| ASUS UX21E | 31.34 |
| System storage - Windows Defender / System storage - Windows Defender | MByte/s |
| HP Spectre XT | 5.41 |
| ASUS UX21E | 5.38 |
| MSI GT 780 | 5.12 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 5.06 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 5.00 |
| HP Folio 13 | 4.99 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 4.65 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 3.29 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 3.22 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 3.11 |
| ASUS G74SX | 1.40 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 1.20 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 0.99 |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Cinebench R10
| 1 CPU | sec |
| Intel Core i7 990X | 170 |
| Intel Core i7 2600K | 145 |
| Intel Core i5 2410M | 195 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w, Core i7 2630QM | 193 |
| Intel Core i7 2630QM | 199 |
| HP Spectre XT | 201 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 205 |
| ASUS UX21E | 246 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 248 |
| HP Folio 13 | 253 |
| X CPU | sec |
| Intel Core i7 990X | 30 |
| Intel Core i7 2600K | 37 |
| Intel Core i5 2410M | 94 |
| HP Spectre XT | 98 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w, Core i7 2630QM | 52 |
| Intel Core i7 2630QM | 52 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 105 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 121 |
| ASUS UX21E | 121 |
| HP Folio 13 | 123 |
WinRAR
| Integer Test | KByte/sec |
| Intel Core i7 990X | 4'131 |
| Intel Core i7 2600K | 4'108 |
| Intel Core i7 2630QM | 3'656 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w, Core i7 2630QM | 3'638 |
| Intel Core i5 2410M | 2'318 |
| HP Spectre XT | 2'306 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 2'152 |
| HP Folio 13 | 1'981 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 1'955 |
| ASUS UX21E | 1'907 |
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Battery Life / Power Consumption
| Battery life in load | Time |
| HP Folio 13 | 2h 48min |
| ASUS UX21E | 2h 26min |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 2h 03min |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 2h 00min |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 1h 50min |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 1h 48min |
| HP Spectre XT | 1h 41min |
| MSI GT 780 | 1h 04min |
| ASUS G74SX | 1h 02min |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 1h 02min |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 1h 01min |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 0h 37min |
| Battery life browsing web on the WLAN | [en]Time |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 5h 19min |
| HP Folio 13 | 5h 14min |
| HP Spectre XT | 5h 12min |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 4h 32min |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 4h 41min |
| ASUS UX21E | 3h 41min |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 3h 11min |
| MSI GT 780 | 2h 46min |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 2h 24min |
| ASUS G74SX | 2h 12min |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 2h 08min |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 1h 39min |
| Battery life when idle | Time |
| HP Spectre XT | 10h 02min |
| HP Folio 13 | 9h 42min |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 9h 17min |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 9h 12min |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 8h 46min |
| ASUS UX21E | 6h 40min |
| MSI GT 780 | 5h 26min |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 4h 33min |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 3h 35min |
| ASUS G74SX | 3h 33min |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 2h 51min |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 2h 13min |
| Power Consumption Load | Watt |
| HP Folio 13 | 39 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 40 |
| HP Spectre XT | 61 |
| ASUS UX21E | 64 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 76 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 81 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 116 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 128 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 139 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 143 |
| ASUS G74SX | 145 |
| MSI GT 780 | 148 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 150 |
| Power Consumption Idle | Watt |
| HP Spectre XT | 11 |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 12 |
| HP Folio 13 | 14 |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 15 |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 17 |
| ASUS UX21E | 19 |
| Toshiba Qosmio F750-10L | 20 |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 30 |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 37 |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 40 |
| ASUS G74SX | 42 |
| MSI GT 780 | 46 |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 55 |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Noise Level
| Load | dBa |
| ASUS G74SX | 39.2 dBa |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 40.0 dBa |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 40.1 dBa |
| HP Spectre XT | 40.2 dBa |
| HP Folio 13 | 40.9 dBa |
| MSI GT 780 | 41.0 dBa |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 42.1 dBa |
| ASUS UX21E | 43.6 dBa |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 44.1 dBa |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 45.3 dBa |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 45.9 dBa |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 49.0 dBa |
| Idle | dBa |
| HP Envy 14 Spectre | 30.5 dBa |
| HP Spectre XT | 30.9 dBa |
| ASUS UX21E | 31.7 dBa |
| MSI GT 780 | 31.9 dBa |
| HP Folio 13 | 32.6 dBa |
| Sony Vaio F-Serie VPC-F22S1E/B | 33.2 dBa |
| Toshiba Portégé Z830 | 33.4 dBa |
| Sony Vaio S-Serie VPC-SB1S1EW | 33.5 dBa |
| Toshiba Qosmio X770 - 107 | 34.0 dBa |
| ASUS Lamborghini VX7 | 35.3 dBa |
| HP EliteBook 8760w | 35.4 dBa |
| ASUS G74SX | 36.4 dBa |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| An elegant case, good battery life and decent design. Those are the three things the HP Envy Spectre XT excels. Furthermore there is a very low noise level. On the contra side there is a display that simply should have made it's way into the chassis of this product. We highly recommend HP to consider using another display, since the competition manges to equip similarly priced devices with much better panels. | - Case
- Design - SSD |
- Display | |
| Display / Input devices | + | - | |
| HP equipped its 13 inch Spectre XT
with a disappointing display. There is standard resolution panel that doens't offer enough
brightness to use the device outside when the sun is shining.
There isn't even good viewing angle stability and furthermore the
contrast as well as the black are bad. Luckily HP decided to go for a very good keayboard. Writing longer texts is very comfortable and not exhausting. Also for the touchpad HP made a good choice. It isn't on the same level as the keyboard but it still, it is accurate and the multitouch gestures work fine. |
- Keyboard - Touchpad |
- Display Brightness - Display contrast - Display viewing angle - Display black value | |
| Performance / Battery Life | + | - | |
| Equipped with a Core i5-3317U
dual core CPU that has four threads, clocked at 1.7 GHz and Intels
integrated graphics chip, the Spectre XT isn't the fastest notebook
we've ever tested. But that's also not what it's been built
for. Thanks to a quick SSD it feels very responsive. Looking at battery life shows that the Spectre XT really has shows stamina. It takes way more than five hours until the device is going to shut down when you browse the web via using the integrated WiFi module. |
-
Desktop-Performance - SSD - Battery Life |
||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| Writing a recommendation for the Spectre XT is quite difficult, since the display, one of the very most important components with an Ultrabook is simply not suitable. For about 1'280 Swiss Francs (est. 1'067 Euro) you can get products from competitors, which do not have such an issue. Nevertheless, if you looking for a very nice design and if you don't care about image quality, then you might consider the Spectre XT from HP. | - Ultra portable | ||
| Rating | |||
| We give the Spectre XT from HP sufficient three out of five stars. | |||
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Authors: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch,