HP Spectre XT TouchSmart Ultrabook Review
by Dustin Sklavos on May 27, 2013 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- HP
- Ivy Bridge
- Spectre
- Ultrabook
System Performance
Whether the result of bloat, the result of HP's software being almost impossible to disable, the result of the slow storage subsystem, or the result of an underlying BIOS setting, the HP Spectre XT produces performance that is behind the curve of competing notebooks virtually across the board. I've checked clocks, run tests multiple times, but in the end still been left with a notebook that's just slower than it should be.
Futuremark test results range from competitive to slightly behind the curve. When we hit the CPU itself more aggressively, things take a turn.
The benchmarks that hit the CPU hardest also leave the Spectre XT looking the worst. Results continue to range from competitive to bottom of the pack, and it's difficult to pin down exactly where HP's system is going wrong. This isn't performance so terrible as to render the computer unusable, it's just failing the sanity check and not where it should be.
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protomech - Monday, May 27, 2013 - link
The non-retina MBPs aren't terribly interesting, nor are they terribly competitive.Anandtech did review the non-retina MBP 15", and struggled to find anything to write about it.
"It’s pretty difficult to find things to write about the 2012 MacBook Pro hardware. You can essentially sum it up in one paragraph, or even one sentence if you try hard enough. The 2012 MBP looks exactly like the 2011 MBP, which looked exactly like the 2010 MBP, which looked exactly like the post-April 2009 MBP."
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6037/the-2012-macboo...
stephenv2 - Monday, May 27, 2013 - link
I really am going to stop reading any reviews by this author. Just like the case reviews, his personal opinions and biases are so strong and often things I don't agree with, it's impossible to get much useful information out his reviews.Commodus - Monday, May 27, 2013 - link
What exactly do you think is an unfair bias here? Gotta elaborate a little more than that.Besides, the benchmarks don't lie. It IS slower than most of the pack. It DOES have terrible battery life. Those aspects matter quite a bit. Is he going to pretend those problems don't exist just to humour you?
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - link
Bias towards or against what? If you don't like my work, that's fine, I can't please everybody, but you have to give me some kind of feedback I can actually use. Otherwise your post serves no purpose other than to publicly decry someone.Remember there are actual people producing this work, so when you go off and just post something like this it really serves no purpose other than to offend.
seapeople - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
I'm pretty sure he was auto-replying, as in, replying to himself. It makes much more sense that way.SirPerro - Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - link
Why $170/$370 upgrades are "exhorbitant", "staggering" and "offensive" in this review and not even a "miserly decision" in the MBP one, taking into account that the same upgrades in the apple store are exactly $200/$400 for the MBP whose lack of SSD seems to be much more palatable?Please be consistent with the reviews. People out there have brains.
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - link
If I were the one handling Apple reviews, I think you'd find I'd gripe about those, too. ;)SirPerro - Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - link
Good to know. I agree with all the adjectives in either case.andrewaggb - Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - link
I agree with the crazy upgrade prices. I've often ordered stuff without upgrades and just bought the upgraded parts myself cheaper. Which is pretty ridiculous considering now I have two drives and two sets of ram....APPL - Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - link
I own this laptop.It is excellent save the usb 3 hd disconnect issues. I use it as a desktop replacement and am about to upgrade the HD to a Crucial M500 960GB in a monthish.
What is with all the haters?