HP’s newest laptop, the 10.4-mm-thin Spectre 13.3, is the company’s attempt at building a MacBook beater — complete with slimmer profile, larger screen and more horsepower.
The HP Spectre, introduced today, boasts an eye-catching “Ash Silver” color inspired by the “tapered copper” shade used in the jewelry world. HP is clearly borrowing from Apple’s fashion-conscious approach to design, as epitomized by the introduction of the rose gold color option for Apple Watch and the latest iPhones.
HP Spectre specs
The HP Spectre sports a 13.3-inch Gorilla Glass screen (compared to the 12 inches of Apple’s ultra-thin Retina MacBook) and your choice of sixth-gen Core i5 or i7 processors, with a maximum of 8GB of RAM and 512 gigs of solid-state PCIe storage. Finally, the new HP notebook features three USB Type-C connections, two of them supporting Thunderbolt.
The Spectre 13.3 will be available for preorder April 25 starting at $1,170.
As I noted yesterday, the ultra-slim notebook market is a small one, but HP is clearly seeking design cred bragging rights with its new laptop.
“For years, Apple has been seen as the innovator and the driver of innovation,” Ron Coughlin, president of HP’s personal systems group, said. “HP is really taking over that mantle.”
Having seen its revenue fall by 12 percent in the fiscal quarter ending in January, HP obviously hopes that borrowing a bit of Jony Ive’s design fairy dust will help it succeed in a shrinking PC market.
Of course, while HP may have beaten Apple on the slimness of its new notebook, customers will still be stuck with a machine that runs Windows. Whether that’s a worthwhile tradeoff that makes the HP Spectre a good option is up to you!
Source: Engadget
