Step into a German newsagents, look at the magazine rack and you’ll find more testing notes than in a NASA launch sequence. That’s why I pay attention to the German tech press – they know how to analyse a product. Chip.de is one of the more well-know computer magazines in Germany and as you’d expect, they’ve got early hands-on with the HP Envy 14 Spectre that will be available in Germany in March for about €1400. It’s a sample unit rather than a final retail build but it’s unlikely to be very different to the final retail version. The article is obviously in German and you can read it via Google Translate but let me highlight a few things for you.
Firstly, we see a 4.1ah battery. It must be a 4-cell series pack as Chip.de are quoting 58Wh, great sizing for an Ultrabook (although you’d expect it on a 1.8KG heavy device.) Update: It states 4-cell in the report. It looks like the battery is easily replaceable too. Although it’s not a quick swap-out job, it looks like it’s set-up to be done by the owner.
HP are only planning one model of the Envy 14 Spectre in Germany which, in my opinion, isn’t a major disadvantage although there’s an indication that other models will be available if you read HP’s specification page. Core i5 with 128GB storage is a good average though. I don’t see too much advantage with the Core i7 over the i5 given the Turbo gets restricted based on thermals. You might have expected more storage for the price though. Storage is based on the good Samsung 128GB SSD that we’ve seen in the Series 9.
On one side you’ve got a smart looking device with a 1600×900 display, a big battery and a lot of ports. On the other you’ve got one of the heaviest, most-expensive Ultrabooks there is.
You had me worried about the battery life of Ultrabooks, so this could be a solution, allthough i don’t think its a real Ultrabook anymore.
I need an ultrabook in June, so it wont be ivy bridge for me. Allthough, if ivy bridge doesn’t got a huge graphical advantage (rumors say just 20% which isn’t enough), it wont be that important for me.
The battery is really important for me, but i only got 1000 euros to spend, so if the price doesn’t drop, it wont be the ultrabook for me. I’ve mailed Samsung about their old series 9 ( I like the matte screen, screen quality and design), which now is just 1000 euros, and asked them if they had somekind of battery replacement service like the macbook air has after 2 years, when they still are able to replace the battery for 129 euros.
However, if this one, or the new series 9 could just drop 200-300 euros, I may be able to get the money together to buy one of them. The series 9 got a huge advantage, te design is way more esthetical pleasing. Matte screen, Wheights less. And doesn’t has that fragile gorilla glass lid.
Watch out for poor wifi performance on the Series 9. New models have an improved, Intel, Wifi setup.
I am warming up to the spectre i like the nice battery life ect. the downside is the weight, i am also looking forward to the updated samsung series 9 … it will be interesting to read about the dell too … i might go with the 15 inch for the samsung series 9 which would come somewhat closer in weight to the HP sepctre. Cant wait to have all these devices on the shelf.