HP ENVY 14 Spectre – Review

HP ENVY 14 Spectre

Overview:

The HP Envy 14 Spectre is by far the biggest and heaviest ultrabook currently in existence. The Envy 14 Spectre can even be mistaken as a bulky laptop as compared to an ultrabook. Although maybe that is a better category to fit this bulky glass box into.

The release of the Envy 14 is said to happen around February and is priced at a whopping $1400. The price seems to be too steep for most ultrabook fanatics but HP defends this by saying that the Envy 14 has a body that is well protected by glass that is said to be very durable. Does the price really fit in with the new glass shield?

There are a lot of issues coming from the price but this still is a HP product and HP products really are top notch all the time right? Well, no use asking silly questions, let’s just talk about the unreleased ultrabook.

Features:

The HP Envy 14 Spectre is an ultrabook that has a huge 14 inch screen and has a thickness of 20mm. The Envy 14 also weighs in at 3.79 pounds which makes it a definite contender for the heavyweight champion of the ultrabook world.

Everything about the Envy 14 screams bigger which basically contradicts a feature that a lot of people look for in an ultrabook which is what else but small sizes. If you’re looking for power then the Envy 14 may be a good choice despite it being huge.

The Envy 14 Spectre may come in either Core i5 or Core i7 which simply screams power. The Envy 14 really loves to scream out a lot of things doesn’t it? The Envy 14 also screams 4GB of RAM, Beats audio, 1600×900 Radiance display, NFC technology, CoolSense technology and a lot of other included software such as Photoshop and Premiere Elements. Okay enough with the screaming thing.

Performance:

The Core i5 or Core i7 is a definite plus since it’s obvious that this will operate without any problems; add the 4GB of RAM into the mix and you really do have a lot of power. The size and resolution does show clear graphics which is a good thing when playing tetris, yes tetris.

The Beats audio is really something because the Envy 14 Spectre may turn out to be a boombox rather than an ultrabook with speakers. The CoolSense technology as a HP innovation which is definitely one of my favourites because this keeps the laptop from burning up by just changing a few settings; however there is the slight issue of the noisy fan.

The keyboard is easy to use and is comfortable on each key press. There is also a backlight for each key which is definitely an aesthetic bonus for most and a useful add-on for those people that can’t type in the dark without looking at the screen.

The NFC chip that’s implanted by the palm rest is a good idea for me because this allows you to transfer URLs from your mobile phone to the Envy 14. If this is the only function then HP needs to work on this and now because this is a really great feature. Hopefully there will be a lot of other functions that the NFC chip will be able to do.

As for the software there are no problems in running it although there are still a lot of things that needs to be seen regarding the Envy 14. The battery though is a different issue. HP claims that the Envy 14 has a battery that will last for around 9 hours. The problem here is that the 9 hours is a theoretical value and may only mean that the Envy 14 runs for 9 hours under light use; we can’t assume that though because assuming would be wrong.

Verdict:

All in all the HP Envy 14 Spectre will get a grade of 4 out of 5. The advantages would be the great processor available and the amount of RAM given. The backlight on the keyboard as well as the Beats audio, NFC chip and the hopefully 9 hour long batter is certainly listed as pros.

The problem comes from the bulky size and the steep price. It’s hard to pay $1400 for glass shielding that just loves to take in fingerprints.

The Envy 14 is a definite buy if you’re looking for a bulky laptop that’s labelled as an ultrabook or if you want to capture someone’s fingerprints for analysis, but if you’re worried about the price then this might not be the one for you.