HP Envy 14 Spectre

Overview

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 32 expert reviews

Excellent:

6
Good:

19
Average:

5
Bad:

2

Pros:

Durable Gorilla Glass covered design.
Superb build quality.
Excellent keyboard.

Cons:

Expensive for its specs.
Heavier than similar Ultrabooks in its class.

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Last revision on December 28, 2013

Reviewers Liked

Durable Gorilla Glass covered design
Superb build quality
Excellent keyboard
Great audio
Superb, color-accurate, high resolution display
Excellent touchpad
Softtouch magnesium alloy base gives grip to the underside
Stable, with solid performance
Outstanding audio quality
Slim power brick includes a USB charging port
IPS display

Reviewers Didn't Like

Expensive for its specs
Heavier than similar Ultrabooks in its class
Not quite as thin and light as it could be
Slow CPU and no graphics card
Design is difficult to open and even pick up single handedly
Feels awfully heavy in the MacBook Air era
Serious fingerprint magnet
Mediocre graphics
Runs a bit warm on bottom
Relatively expensive
A little heavy and costly for an ultrabook
Display not bright

Expert reviews and ratings

It's a little on the chunky side for an Ultrabook, but HP's new Spectre is still a striking piece of laptop design.We have to admit that at first glance we didn't realise that the Spectre was classed as an Ultrabook. It doesn't have the...

By tech.uk.msn.com on December 27, 2013

Fourteen inch laptops are hard to come by - and thin and light ones that are worth your money even more so. As we find out though in our Ultrabook group test, the HP Envy 14 Spectre is one such...

By 5FWD on December 17, 2012

A big and sharp screen with good viewing angles, plenty of ports, and a great keyboard and...

By AsiaOne on October 03, 2012

So how does the Envy 14 Spectre stack up? It’s certainly a premium Ultrabook that’s reflected in the price tag. But past the looks, it has to be said that it’s one of the more heavier Ultrabooks I’ve tested, which doesn’t...

By Tbreak.com on September 09, 2012

Despite my concern that the HP Envy 14 Spectre is perhaps a little chunky compared with other Ultrabooks on the market, it compares very favourably with the competition in terms of what you get within those two centimetres: connectivity, performance,...

By theregister.co.uk on May 15, 2012

The HP Envy Spectre is a high-end Ultrabook equipped with expensive hardware. HP has tried to create the perfect package - everything from the amazing workmanship to the high-quality Beats Audio speakers is designed to be and look as attractive as...

By NotebookCheck on May 10, 2012

With Intel's recent announcement of the third generation Core processors (codenamed Ivy Bridge) for high-end laptops and desktops, we would see more notebook PCs coming to the market, but do note that these would be the quad-core version. The...

By VR-Zone on May 07, 2012

The HP Envy 14 Spectre is a very good looking machine, that's a little different. However, it costs a bundle, is a quite heavy and is one that requires you to clean fingerprints off it every ten...

By laptops.co.uk on May 01, 2012

None of the competitors mentioned above is as drop-dead sexy as the Spectre, they all have smaller displays (with the exception of the Ultra M3), and none have integrated media-streaming features. On the other hand, each one of them is less expensive...

By Digital Trends on April 30, 2012

This is, without doubt, one of the most stylish laptops we've seen. While it might technically qualify as an Ultrabook, we don't really see it in that category. What it is on the other hand, is a brilliant laptop that we'd love to own....

By Pocket-lint on April 23, 2012

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