by Dan Moren
HP’s Spectre laptop is an attempt to out-Apple Apple
The Verge’s Jacob Kastrenakes on HP’s new, thin and shiny Spectre 13 laptop:
… at just 10.4mm thick – it’s supposed to be the thinnest any major laptop manufacturer has ever made. That’s thinner than both Apple’s MacBook (13.2mm thick) and Dell’s XPS 13 (15.2mm thick). And while you might wonder how much difference a few millimeters can make, seeing the Spectre 13 in person makes it pretty clear: it’s the difference between looking really thin and looking uniquely eye catching.
The Spectre 13 is in many ways HP’s attempt at a modern MacBook Air. There are no gimmicks: no 4K display, no touchscreen, no detachable or twisting body. It’s just trying to be a really solid, stylish laptop.
To its credit, HP has managed to pack a Core i chip in there, instead of the slower Core M used in the MacBook, and hasn’t skimped on the ports–there are three USB-C ports plus a headphone jack.
But the gold styling on the model showed off in The Verge’s story just makes me think of the late ’90s, when every PC vendor figured that the way to capitalize on the success of the iMac was to make their computer blue, too. Ask eMachines how well that worked out for them.