This review is from: HP ENVY 14-3010NR Spectre 14-Inch Ultrabook (Silver/Black) (Personal Computers)
Bottom line:
This is a very nice high quality machine. HP calls this zero sacrifice, I am about 90% agree with that. Yes, every component is premium quality, but the construction gets maybe 95 out of 100, due to the trackpad installation and the opening problem I note below. Most importantly, they can’t make its price competitive enough, but street price should come down later.
Full review:
- look & design
HP copied ideas from Macbook, but have enough of their own. The glowing logo on the back made me laugh. Well, whatever they need to do to gain market share. However, once you go pass the black island keyboard on silver, that’s where the similarity on look stops. They did put in a lot of thoughts and effort at being different and unique. Like the Gorilla glass covers that give it a much polished and shiny look. If you like shiny, you will like this. The back cover is separated from the aluminum body made with quality plastic you can easily open without tools. The sides has more curves and ridges around the ports etc. The black color of the cover and the thin borders around the display are very nice, making this 14″ just slightly larger than a 13″ physically overall. The palm rest is a piece of gorilla glass that looks and feels good, it also helps protecting the keys from the screen when closed.
- opening it & the distance the cover opens up
This is where HP fell short. They have a very short ridge on the cover that’s suppose to give you an anchor to hold on to to open the screen, but it’s too short, and there’s not an indention on the body for you to put your finger into to grab the screen. So opening it is a slight struggle. Also, when the screen’s open all the way it still doesn’t go as far as I feel it should so it could be a very minor inconvenience at times. For example, when I am sitting up with it on my lap, I wish I could push the screen back just a tiny bit more.
- display
It’s a premium display, but not IPS. Colors are vivid and accurate. Even at lowest brightness it’s still very visible. At highest it’s very bright. The viewing angle is not as limited as some cheap ones, but still nothing compare to the near 180 degree of IPS. At about 40-50 degree and the image begins to change and become unclear. If I am sitting up with it on my lap, the image quality degrades slightly due to the view angle, that’s why I wish the screen could open further back. The premium full HD 15″ LCD on my 3 year old Dell feels slightly better.
Personally, I think 14″ at 1600×900 is the sweet spot for laptop display. 13″ would start to feel cramp, and 15″ would start to feel cumbersome, especially when using in bed. The icon and text sizes at 1600×900 on 14″ is just the right size, yet giving you much more pixel real estate. I stare at 5 24″ monitors every day and this 14″ still feels plenty big enough.
- size & weight
Size is very nice. Slightly larger than a 13″, but due to the thin display borders, you get a 14″ LED screen. Once you’ve tried the thinner 3lb laptops, this 4lb feels heavy and thick, but still, very manageable.
- battery
An informal test, just normal browsing (amazon, google, yahoo), writing this review, leaving it sitting around but not going to sleep with display eventually turning off, never turned off keyboard backlight, I barely got more than 5 hours out of it. Nothing near the 9.5 hrs in the spec. Slightly disappointed, but still happy, since I turned the display brightness near max most of the time. I guess to get 9.5 hours you have to turn off a bunch of things and run at lowest brightness or something. I might do a more precise and controlled test on it later.
- speed
Having used machines with the fastest i7 and extreme xeon, I definitely noticed the ever so slight slower this machine’s i5 CPU shows, but you could just call it my imagination. For doing normal browsing, email, word processing, and watching videos, there’re ample power to spare. The built in HD3000 graphic chip is fairly limited, but it handles the normal operations and video playback admirably. I even managed to run Skyrim on it, at lowest settings and sluggish of course.
- camera
I am so sick of the useless camera most PCs throw in I almost forgot about it on this, but when I tried it, I was pleasantly surprised. It produced smooth motion images that’s very resilient to light changes. With an overhead lamp above me, the camera performed perfectly and produced a very clear image, unlike the typical washed out images cheap webcams make. With the lights off and only the light from the display, the camera adapted almost immediately, and gave smooth images that’s very respectable: it’s grainy, but at least color and the picture are fairly accurate and viewable. This is one quality webcam. HP spec says it’s HD,…
This review is from: HP ENVY 14-3010NR Spectre 14-Inch Ultrabook (Silver/Black) (Personal Computers)
After doing research on most of the ultrabooks in the market I finally settled with HP Envy Spectre 14. I already own Macbook Air and I am happy with it. Just wanted another Windows native machine for work and travel purpose. Let me tell you this is the most attractive laptop I have ever seen. But the Glass on top is hard to keep clean, its a finger print magnet. I found the boot time slow as other ultrabooks. But wake up time from sleep is instant. So if you can shell out couple of extra hundred bucks for good looking laptop this is for you. Pros - Stunning Display - 14 inch screen (text is better on 14 inch than on 13inch with 1600×900 resolution) - All the ports you need - Beats Audio - AC Adapter comes with extra USB port which you can use to charge other devices. I really like that. - 2 year warranty - SD card slot Cons - 128 GB SDD on $1400 laptop (You will get only 70 GB free. Rest is all OS and recovery). - Glass Panel (Gives you a feel that you may break it someday) - Overpriced.(1 start knocked out for this) - Slow boot time from shutdown (approx 24 seconds). Dell XPS 13 was on 13 seconds
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: HP ENVY 14-3010NR Spectre 14-Inch Ultrabook (Silver/Black) (Personal Computers)
I purchased this laptop even though it far exceeded my budget. I just wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. Honestly, I had planned on returning it if I found any fault with it in any whatsoever. I had read that the battery cannot be replaced, RAM could not be upgraded and the SSD was not replaceable by users. Well, I have not returned it and have absolutely no plans on returning it whatsoever.
The battery can be replaced as well as the RAM can be expanded and the SSD can also be upgraded. Albeit, not as easily as one would hope but easy enough as the manual walks you through it step by step. I’ve even found a battery replacement online that costs $120.00. Since there is only one Memory slot you can upgrade to 8GB and Amazon has a 8GB SODIMM that works for $51.99. Again, this takes some work and as the memory is not easily accessible. You can easily download the “Maintenance and Service Guide” from the HP website. There is even a link in the “Help and Support” link in the Start Menu.
This little laptop has far exceeded my expectations and is simply the best laptop I’ve ever purchased or received from an employer. It easily gets 5 stars. I could go into all the finer details but others here have taken care of that.
As far as the cost… After using this computer the cost is justified and when you really compare it to other Ultrabooks the price is a little more expensive but very competitive.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Authors bio is coming up shortly. 
It deserves the best of ces 2012 award,
Bottom line:
This is a very nice high quality machine. HP calls this zero sacrifice, I am about 90% agree with that. Yes, every component is premium quality, but the construction gets maybe 95 out of 100, due to the trackpad installation and the opening problem I note below. Most importantly, they can’t make its price competitive enough, but street price should come down later.
Full review:
- look & design
HP copied ideas from Macbook, but have enough of their own. The glowing logo on the back made me laugh. Well, whatever they need to do to gain market share. However, once you go pass the black island keyboard on silver, that’s where the similarity on look stops. They did put in a lot of thoughts and effort at being different and unique. Like the Gorilla glass covers that give it a much polished and shiny look. If you like shiny, you will like this. The back cover is separated from the aluminum body made with quality plastic you can easily open without tools. The sides has more curves and ridges around the ports etc. The black color of the cover and the thin borders around the display are very nice, making this 14″ just slightly larger than a 13″ physically overall. The palm rest is a piece of gorilla glass that looks and feels good, it also helps protecting the keys from the screen when closed.
- opening it & the distance the cover opens up
This is where HP fell short. They have a very short ridge on the cover that’s suppose to give you an anchor to hold on to to open the screen, but it’s too short, and there’s not an indention on the body for you to put your finger into to grab the screen. So opening it is a slight struggle. Also, when the screen’s open all the way it still doesn’t go as far as I feel it should so it could be a very minor inconvenience at times. For example, when I am sitting up with it on my lap, I wish I could push the screen back just a tiny bit more.
- display
It’s a premium display, but not IPS. Colors are vivid and accurate. Even at lowest brightness it’s still very visible. At highest it’s very bright. The viewing angle is not as limited as some cheap ones, but still nothing compare to the near 180 degree of IPS. At about 40-50 degree and the image begins to change and become unclear. If I am sitting up with it on my lap, the image quality degrades slightly due to the view angle, that’s why I wish the screen could open further back. The premium full HD 15″ LCD on my 3 year old Dell feels slightly better.
Personally, I think 14″ at 1600×900 is the sweet spot for laptop display. 13″ would start to feel cramp, and 15″ would start to feel cumbersome, especially when using in bed. The icon and text sizes at 1600×900 on 14″ is just the right size, yet giving you much more pixel real estate. I stare at 5 24″ monitors every day and this 14″ still feels plenty big enough.
- size & weight
Size is very nice. Slightly larger than a 13″, but due to the thin display borders, you get a 14″ LED screen. Once you’ve tried the thinner 3lb laptops, this 4lb feels heavy and thick, but still, very manageable.
- battery
An informal test, just normal browsing (amazon, google, yahoo), writing this review, leaving it sitting around but not going to sleep with display eventually turning off, never turned off keyboard backlight, I barely got more than 5 hours out of it. Nothing near the 9.5 hrs in the spec. Slightly disappointed, but still happy, since I turned the display brightness near max most of the time. I guess to get 9.5 hours you have to turn off a bunch of things and run at lowest brightness or something. I might do a more precise and controlled test on it later.
- speed
Having used machines with the fastest i7 and extreme xeon, I definitely noticed the ever so slight slower this machine’s i5 CPU shows, but you could just call it my imagination. For doing normal browsing, email, word processing, and watching videos, there’re ample power to spare. The built in HD3000 graphic chip is fairly limited, but it handles the normal operations and video playback admirably. I even managed to run Skyrim on it, at lowest settings and sluggish of course.
- camera
I am so sick of the useless camera most PCs throw in I almost forgot about it on this, but when I tried it, I was pleasantly surprised. It produced smooth motion images that’s very resilient to light changes. With an overhead lamp above me, the camera performed perfectly and produced a very clear image, unlike the typical washed out images cheap webcams make. With the lights off and only the light from the display, the camera adapted almost immediately, and gave smooth images that’s very respectable: it’s grainy, but at least color and the picture are fairly accurate and viewable. This is one quality webcam. HP spec says it’s HD,…
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|Nice looking laptop – Overpriced,
After doing research on most of the ultrabooks in the market I finally settled with HP Envy Spectre 14. I already own Macbook Air and I am happy with it. Just wanted another Windows native machine for work and travel purpose. Let me tell you this is the most attractive laptop I have ever seen. But the Glass on top is hard to keep clean, its a finger print magnet. I found the boot time slow as other ultrabooks. But wake up time from sleep is instant. So if you can shell out couple of extra hundred bucks for good looking laptop this is for you.
Pros
- Stunning Display
- 14 inch screen (text is better on 14 inch than on 13inch with 1600×900 resolution)
- All the ports you need
- Beats Audio
- AC Adapter comes with extra USB port which you can use to charge other devices.
I really like that.
- 2 year warranty
- SD card slot
Cons
- 128 GB SDD on $1400 laptop (You will get only 70 GB free. Rest is all OS and recovery).
- Glass Panel (Gives you a feel that you may break it someday)
- Overpriced.(1 start knocked out for this)
- Slow boot time from shutdown (approx 24 seconds). Dell XPS 13 was on 13 seconds
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|Easily 5 Stars,
I purchased this laptop even though it far exceeded my budget. I just wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. Honestly, I had planned on returning it if I found any fault with it in any whatsoever. I had read that the battery cannot be replaced, RAM could not be upgraded and the SSD was not replaceable by users. Well, I have not returned it and have absolutely no plans on returning it whatsoever.
The battery can be replaced as well as the RAM can be expanded and the SSD can also be upgraded. Albeit, not as easily as one would hope but easy enough as the manual walks you through it step by step. I’ve even found a battery replacement online that costs $120.00. Since there is only one Memory slot you can upgrade to 8GB and Amazon has a 8GB SODIMM that works for $51.99. Again, this takes some work and as the memory is not easily accessible. You can easily download the “Maintenance and Service Guide” from the HP website. There is even a link in the “Help and Support” link in the Start Menu.
This little laptop has far exceeded my expectations and is simply the best laptop I’ve ever purchased or received from an employer. It easily gets 5 stars. I could go into all the finer details but others here have taken care of that.
As far as the cost… After using this computer the cost is justified and when you really compare it to other Ultrabooks the price is a little more expensive but very competitive.
Was this review helpful to you?
|