HP Spectre 13 - 2016

In short, the HP Spectre is a pleasure to work with and a real beauty to behold. It's a premium machine at its $1249 price point as configured for us, (starting at $1169 for the Core i5 variant which might deliver better battery life) but you get a lot of both style and substance for the dollar with this new HP gem of a laptop.

The HP Spectre 13 is thin, light and impressively powerful – but it's a compromised experience.

In the pursuit of building the world's thinnest laptop, HP both improved on its rivals while also introducing a different set of trade-offs.

"Most appealing" certainly doesn’t mean "best," though. If you are a normal person who doesn’t care about thinness and style above all else, there are better options. The XPS 13 is still the de-facto laptop for Windows, and if you want more power, Microsoft’s own Surface Book is a good option. But if you want to make a statement and are willing to take a few compromises, the Spectre 13 is a very thin stick of a laptop that speaks loudly.

The Spectre is excellent if you’re looking for a very thin and very portable high quality barebones experience with more power than a Core M. What you see is what you get with the HP as there are very few configurable options. If you want something with longer runtimes and a bit more features, however, then there are plenty of 13-inch alternatives so long as thicker and heavier designs aren’t an issue.

If you can work with USB-C ports and a nontouch display, the HP Spectre offers a great design and excellent performance in the world's thinnest full-power laptop body.

The HP Spectre 13 combines a thin-as-you-can-get build with top-notch performance, all at a reasonable cost. Connectivity is limited to USB-C, but there's still a lot to like about this well-rounded, well-designed ultraportable.

In the end, I have to give HP credit for accomplishing its goal of making the thinnest laptop possible without compromises. You’re truly getting Core i7 performance in a body most manufacturers would outfit with a low-power Core m. And let’s not forget that the Spectre 13.3 gives you not one, but two Thunderbolt 3 ports and a USB-C port.