It’s official; this week marks the end of the one-year reign of Apple’s 2015 MacBook as the thinnest notebook in the world. All thanks to HP’s new Spectre 13.3.
On this one, HP has moved away from its traditional plain silver notebooks to jewelry- or artistically-inspired design with the Spectre 13.3 laptop. This notebook is 10.4mm thick, about the size of the AAA battery, making it both the slimmest notebook in HP’s portfolio and still the slimmest in the world; unseating Apple’s 2015 MacBook.
In other words, if you enjoyed the smallness that came with Apple’s 12-inch MacBook that came out last year, HP Spectre 13.3 is its bigger screen version, with more horsepower and some bling-bling on it.
HP Spectre 13.3 Review
The Spectre is currently the thinnest notebook in town, but it is not the lightest as it weighs 2.45 pounds. However, it is quite the eye catcher with tapered copper accents inspired by jewelry or perhaps women’s handbag. You might dismiss it for being designed to appeal to the fairer sex, but HP says the rose gold color is more of a gender neutral color than a feminine color. One thing is for certain, if you pulled this notebook out of your bag and placed in on a coffee table, it will catch many eyes.
The 13.3-inch display looks like it is floating above the keyboard thanks to a piston-style hinge designed using upscale cabinetry technology. The notebook has a carbon fiber body with a full-sized backlit keyboard and the display rotates on a curved aluminum hinge (making the display look like it is floating over the keyboard).
The 13.3-inch 1080p full HD IPS screen comes with Corning Gorilla Glass layered on top. The display is a non-touchscreen, probably why HP was able to achieve such incredible thinness.
The notebook runs on the powerful Intel’s 6th Gen Core i5 or Core i7 processors, unlike Apple’s 12-inch laptop that runs on a Core M processor. That means the Spectre is not only the thinnest laptop but also the most powerful. HP has met that processing power with an 8GB RAM and a 512GB PCIe SSD.
That being said, it would be safe to say the HP Spectre 13.3 delivers both ultra-portability without sacrificing any performing power. The company also says the notebook can give you up to nine hours of work on a single full charge.
It also comes with three USB Type-C ports; all can be used to transfer data and to charge the battery. Two of these ports support Thunderbolt.
From a purely hardware point of view, I doubt if it is debatable that the Spectre is ahead of Apple’s 12-inch MacBook in competition. It has outshined Apple’s notebook in not just the specs but also innovation. Pre-order on the HP Spectre 13.3 will begin on April 25 with a starting price of $1,170.