HP’s Spectre is the world’s thinnest laptop – and cheaper than the MacBook

Apple has led the high-end laptop market for years now, often delivering the ideal combination of style, performance, and usability. However, HP took a shot at Apple this week, saying it was the new innovator – and may have just delivered on that claim.

The new HP Spectre is a daringly slim Windows 10 device, with a thickness of just 10.4mm – which HP claims makes it the thinnest laptop on the market to date. As you’ll see in the photos and video, the Spectre has an absurdly skinny aluminium and carbon fibre base and 13.3in screen panel, and weighs just 1.1kg.

It also has a super-cool new piston-style hinge design, which HP says is inspired by details on high-end furniture. Whatever the case, it’s one of the most distinctive hinges we’ve seen on a notebook, even rivalling the watchband hinges on Lenovo’s Yoga convertible laptops. The copper accents are a nice design touch to the Spectre, as well.

The Spectre can be pretty capable, too, letting you choose between Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, with up to 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage. While the MacBook infamously has just one USB Type-C port, the Spectre offers three of them, two of which also support Thunderbolt.

HP’s Spectre also has Bang & Olufsen-provided stereo speakers and promises upwards of 9.5 hours of battery life between split cells, but there is one notable downside to the specs: the IPS display is only available at 1080p resolution, which is pretty underwhelming for such an otherwise premium laptop. Compare that to the 2,304×1,440 resolution of the 12in MacBook.

At least the Spectre has a price advantage on the entry-level model: at $1,170 (about R17,800), it’s exactly 10% less expensive than Apple’s base MacBook in the States. That’s the starting price through HP.com and Best Buy’s website in the U.S., where it will be available for pre-orders from 25 April, while it’ll hit Best Buy retail stores on 22 May for $1,250 (about R19,000) – presumably with some sort of upgrade for the added cost.

No word yet on a wider release for the HP Spectre, but given that it was announced in Versailles, we imagine HP won’t keep this one Stateside for too long.

Source: HP