HP Envy 14 Spectre

The latest news and reviews from Las Vegas: CES 2012 Special Report

[Update: We’ve had an extended hands-on session with the Spectre since we first saw it at CES for this preview, so check out page 3 for the extra info and new photos.]

By: David Gilbert

The first wave of Ultrabooks threw up a lot of laptops that aimed to replicate the MacBook Air look and feel with "unibody aluminium" type chassis and ultra thin edges. However we are now beginning to see some laptops striving to do something different and, like the Lenovo ThinkPad Ultrabook, the HP Envy 14 Spectre stands apart from the crowd.

On first viewing the HP Spectre doesn't even look like an Ultrabook. Clad in "Midnight Black" glass, the lid is symmetrical and the overall design is not like the wedge shape we have become accustomed to with other Ultrabooks. It is squarer and therefore more like a conventional laptop.



The elegant black surface is only disturbed by a backlit white HP logo in the bottom left hand corner. While the shiny lid is certainly attractive, in our short time with the unit, it attracted more fingerprints than the FBI database.

The single piece of glass on the lid is replicated on the inside where a single piece of glass covers the 14in screen. HP has managed to cram a 14in screen into the 13.3in form factor, and that extra screen space helps boost the media credentials of the laptop.



The screen itself is a 1600x900 backlit LED display, which has superb viewing angles, appeared very bright and sharp - though it did suffer from the issue of contrast shift that affects most laptops.

Above the screen sits an HD webcam, which features auto zoom to follow you should you move away from the screen while chatting on Skype. This is thanks to a proximity sensor that sits next to the camera, also used to dim the screen when you move away from the laptop.



The laptop comes with a felt carrying case and a second carrying case for the cables, which is always welcome. Another nice touch comes in the form of the slimmed down A/C power adapter that allows you to charge your smartphone or tablet through a separate USB port on the power brick.