Hands On with the New HP Envy 14 Spectre Ultrabook
January 10, 2012 by Andrew Edney 
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Yesterday we told you about HP’s new Envy 14 Spectre Ultrabook. We had a private session with HP yesterday afternoon where we got all hands-on with the new ultrabook.
The Spectre, at first glance, may not look as thin as Samsung’s Series 9 ultrabook, but it really packs a punch in the look and feel department.
The packaging and power supply are cool looking (HP want you to feel proud walking around with it).
The power supply is quite small, and light weight, and also has a USB port for connecting another device to for charging purposes. That’s a nice move on the part of HP, because you are bound to have something that needs charging via USB – we all do!
The audio is provided by Beats Audio and there are dedicated audio controls on the right hand side of the ultrabook.
For volume controls, there is actually a dial you can use – which feels strange when using, but only because you are not used to using a dial on a laptop! There is also a mute button for quick access!
There is also quite detailed and in-depth software for controlling the audio. The sound was really good – and that was without really adjusting it much from the default settings, so audiophile out there will like it.
You can even beam your music to a compatible device using an adaptor, very nice!
The ultrabook has three separate glass panels that make it up. This gives a very cool looking bit of kit, however as you can see, it really picks up fingerprints, so you may want to carry a cloth with you! It’s actually Gorilla Glass to make sure it’s nice and tough, and doesn’t scratch. There is nothing worse that the feeling you get when you see your beloved kit scratched.
Unfortunately HP wouldn’t let me drop it to test out how tough it was, but I think it will be fine!
