HP unveils Spectre photo gallery

Brian Ambrozy 10 Jan, 2012 at 12:01am ET Article published in Tech

Today at CES 2012, HP unveiled the photo gallery for their Spectre, which is an almost all-glass ultrabook that features glass on every surface except the bottom and the keyboard.

Here are the specs culled from the Google Plus gallery captions:

HP exclusive features include Beats Audio, CoolSense technology, HP ImagePad and HP TrueVision HD Webcam
Fits a 14-inch screen inside a 13.3-inch body
Beats Audio aluminum analog volume dial allows you to precisely and easily control volume
Intel Rapid Start Technology and support for two ultrafast mSATA solid state drive
20-mm-thin, weighs less than 4 pounds
Features full array of input and output options – Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, HDMI and Mini DisplayPort
Built-in HP Wireless Audio lets you stream audio to any compatible wireless speaker within your home plus NFC technology: One of the first notebooks to offer the technology
Comes with full versions of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements, two years of preinstalled Norton Internet Security and dedicated ENVY concierge phone line for premium support
The HP ENVY 14 Spectre notebook PC is expected to be available in the United States on Feb. 8 2012 with a starting price of $1,399.99.

The fact that they’re bundling it with Premiere and Photoshop Elements is pretty interesting in and of itself. We’ll try to get more info from HP at CES.

Comments

10 Jan 2012 ~ 12:08am Thrax SPECS PLX
10 Jan 2012 ~ 12:15am UPSLynx http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/envy14-spectre/specifications.html
10 Jan 2012 ~ 12:30am Thrax Another ultrabook. No GPU mentioned.
10 Jan 2012 ~ 10:59am Garg $1400 and no discrete graphics? That's bullshit.

And this doesn't look like any of the ultrabooks out there. Heavier, chunkier, more ports. They're just trying to cash in on the latest craze.
10 Jan 2012 ~ 11:54am GHoosdum I agree - the lack of discrete graphics in these supposedly "high end" laptops is really ridiculous.
10 Jan 2012 ~ 2:56pm djmeph As much as I love my Envy, and this looks really tits, I'm still dismayed that there is no Firewire. Why bundle any version of Adobe Premiere with it if you can't even capture video in the industry standard way?
10 Jan 2012 ~ 2:59pm djmeph By discrete graphics, do you mean a professional GPU for rendering, or does a gaming GPU count? The current Envy series right now comes with a Radeon GPU that is capable of handling BF3 and Skyrim. This will likely come with a next gen Radeon GPU.
10 Jan 2012 ~ 3:14pm GHoosdum Personally I mean a gaming-capable GPU on a consumer laptop. If this really does have a next-gen Radeon GPU then I'll eat my words, but the current spec list does not state GPU. Usually this means the manufacturer considers the Intel HD 3000 graphics "good enough" for that laptop's target market.
11 Jan 2012 ~ 2:02am PC HardwareGuy Its a new Discrete Graphics card called ATI HD Radeon 6630 swichable graphics with 1GB of DDR3 Ram.
11 Jan 2012 ~ 2:07am Thrax Ah, Whistler-LP.

Everyone else:
It's basically a Radeon 5670 desktop card with ~20% more shaders.
11 Jan 2012 ~ 2:17am UPSLynx Firewire isn't really an industry standard when it comes to video capturing. It's more of a legacy thing, if anything. Hi-8 and Mini-DV were the kings of passing video data via FireWire (and greatly supported on Macintosh platforms as a front runner as well), but these days, Firewire 1394 just can't hold a card to the speeds of USB 3 or the alternatives. Most major digital camera manufacturers today are utilizing HDMI/SDI output unless otherwise stated (in the film space, anyways.)
11 Jan 2012 ~ 2:20am Thrax FireWire still has the advantage of low-latency audio processing, because it's a bus of its own. I imagine that's why Norm wants it.
11 Jan 2012 ~ 12:07pm GHoosdum
Its a new Discrete Graphics card called ATI HD Radeon 6630 swichable graphics with 1GB of DDR3 Ram.
That's a new card? I've had a Dell with the 1GB 6630M switchable graphics solution since Q1 2011.

Frankly I've been quite impressed with it. If that's what the Spectre is going to feature, it will be a good solid laptop.

The only problem with the "switchable" graphics is that any utility that works from the desktop to auto-detect your GPU in order to update drivers (such as the driver update in Steam) doesn't recognize the Radeon, only the Intel HD.

//edit: I just tried the AMD auto-detect and it successfully detected my GPU. Unfortunately, the 64-Bit Catalyst suite won't install on the switchable. I get a "product incompatible" message.
11 Jan 2012 ~ 12:31pm Tushon Maybe go to BIOS to force-on discrete, update Catalyst, back to BIOS to allow switchable. Clunky, but should work.
11 Jan 2012 ~ 12:42pm GHoosdum Thanks for the suggestion, Tushon. The manufacturer download works just fine, only problem is the driver is six months out of date. Anyway, I don't want to hijack the thread...

I looked at the HP product page and the rest of the ENVY line seems to sport the 6630, but those PCs specifically mention the GPU. The ENVY Spectre does not, though I just noticed that the spec page has a tickler about ULV processors. It seems the ENVY Spectre might be trying to compete in the MacBook air segment, while the rest of the ENVY line competes with the MacBook Pro.