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Hewlett-Packard has been on the forefront of the technological advancements for 77 years and has firmly positioned itself as a trusted manufacturer of durable and cutting-edge laptops. Recently HP reveled its new, awe-inspiring masterpiece, which according to the company’s representatives is the “world’s thinnest” notebook - Spectre. The new laptop is truly amazing, sporting elite finish and most importantly impressive components. It’s fair to say that at this point of time it’ll probably be within reach of the chosen few, who can afford the hefty price tag of around $1200, nevertheless, there is hope for the rest of us, that within a year the cost of this magnificent notebook will drop, so that more people can enjoy it.

Tech Specs of HP’s Spectre

The first thing that must be mentioned is certainly the dimensions of this gorgeous laptop: it’s 10.4 mm thick and weighs only 1.1 kg. The ultra-thin notebook can also boast 13.3-inch IPS screen, although it’s not 2K or 4K, Full HD suits it just right, considering the size of the screen. Spectre’s screen is protected by a super-sturdy and reliable Gorilla Glass 4 barrier and is only 2 mm thick, while the barrier itself takes also very modest 0.44 mm, allowing Spectre to be amazingly slim. This enables laptop to use significantly less power for the claimed 300 nits brightness (very impressive, especially since not even all professional UHD monitors can reach this high mark).



Nevertheless, one might argue that such brightness is an overkill, as it might blind you if you happen to open your laptop in the middle of the night and forgot to tune the brightness down a notch. But the sheer fact that it capable of generating this amount of brightness is worth mentioning. In regards to the color gamut, this notebook will not be suitable for graphic designers; nevertheless, it can provide decent 72% of the Adobe RGB color gamut, which is quite enough if you use it for work or entertainment purposes.

In regards to audio, Spectre is nothing short of great, considering that the company collaborated with a well-known audio systems manufacturer Bang & Olufsen to create deep audio effect thanks to HP’s Audio Boost technology.

Spectre can boast of 3 USB ports,two of which are Thunderbolt 3 compatible. All three ports can be used to charge the laptop and are capable of supporting sleep-and-charge technology.

By the way, HP went all in to make its masterpiece not only lightweight, but also extremely durable. It’s made of carbon fiber and machined aluminum. As for cooling, Hewlett-Packard used hyperbaric chamber, which channels air to create high pressure and eliminate hot air from the laptop’s components.

Two Variants of HP’s Spectre

HP will offer Spectre in two variants. They will come either with Intel i7-6500U or Core i5-6200U processor, 8GB of RAM and either 250GB or 512GB SSDs. Both come with batteries, capable of offering around 10 hours of work on a single charge, due to the hybrid 4-cell2-piece battery and a glass touchpad. Needless to say that company though of the peripherals for its masterpiece as well.



One will be able to additionally purchase notebook bag, wireless mouse and notebook sleeve. All peripherals were created in collaboration with well-known designers, which assures the style and high quality.

Release Date and Price

HP offered the possibility of pre-orders on April 25th, 2016. If you prefer to take a good look before purchasing something – Spectre will appear in retail stores on May 22. As to the price tag - Intel Core i5 processor version with 250GB SSD will cost $1,170, while Intel Core i7 with the same storage capacity will cost slightly more - $1,250

Conclusion:
HP’s Spectre is a remarkable masterpiece that can truly be called “world’s thinnest” notebook. HP went an extra mile to assure its durability, light weight, excellent audio system and ability to work for up to 10 hours on a single charge. This notebook will come in handy for those, who travel a lot and want to enjoy the notebook possibilities, instead of a tablet. Nevertheless, the screen itself could have at least 2K resolution and more storage capacity, considering the price tag.

Possibility of 4K gaming appeared not so long ago and hard-core gamers are already all over it. Why wouldn’t they be, considering that UHD allows experiencing your favorite games in much more details, revealing elements that weren’t previously noticeable. Apart from that, the very possibility to enjoy eye-candy graphics was a longtime dream for the majority of gamers, however all GPUs that previously existed were capable of producing only disappointingly low refresh rates that rendered gaming in 4K resolution impossible at that period of time.

Everything changed with the appearance of GPUs that are powerful enough to provide 60 fps or even more if you tweak some of your game settings from “ultra” to “high”. Absolute leaders among GPUs for 4K gaming are currently GeForce GTX 980 Ti and Radeon FURY X, which is why we will compare the two to find out which one is the best. It must also be noted that we’re talking about 4K gaming on UHD monitors that are connected to GPUs through DisplayPort. The majority of 4K TVs simply don’t have this type of input, which is why you’ll be stuck with only option of using HDMI that is unable to provide refresh rates over 30 fps even if you’re using the updated HDMI 2.0 version.

GeForce GTX 980 Ti

Which manufacturer to choose?
At the moment you can find multitude of GTX 980Ti modifications, however all of them are manufactured by three companies: MSI, EVGA and NVidia. For US players it makes sense to buy the EVGA versions as the manufacturer offers an abundance of perks(for example free games) if you make up your mind to shell out around $650 -$700 for its product. For the rest of the world – there actually isn’t much difference.


Depending on modification, one model can be better than another by a hair. Some gamers consider Nvidia to be more efficient (for instance WINDFORCE 3X cooling system modification),but others are practically in love with liquid cooling models. So if by the end of this article you decide that GTX 980 Ti is the one for you – just grab the best deal you’ll find, all three manufacturers are reliable and provide excellent customer support.

GTX 980 Ti Specs

GTX 980 Ti can boast the impressive 6 GB of memory. Of course, some may argue that AMD RadeonR9 295X2 has 8 GB of memory, but keep in mind that it’s a dual-GPU, while 980Ti is a single GPU. Its memory clock speed can reach up to 7100 MHz, it has 8 billion transistors and a superb cooling system, whether its air or in-build water-cooling. Another benefit of GTX 980Ti is an abundance of the necessary connectors: 3 DisplayPorts1.2, HDMI and Dual Link DVI-I. One card can support up to 4 displays and that’s no wonder, considering that its maximum digital resolution is 5120x3200 if you use dual DisplayPort connectors.

Radeon FURY X

AMD entrance to high-end GPUs market
Previous couple of years have been a period of relevant stagnation for AMD. Company mainly focused on affordable GPUs production, not willing to compete for the high-end market with its main rival NVidia. Nevertheless, the recently developed Fiji GPU company got a real shot at soaring to the top in one leap. AMD has always inspired gamers with its ability to make technological wonders with very little, which why Radeon cooling systems FURY X can truly be considered a marvelous and decent claim at the top of high-end GPUs market. Considering that Fury X appeared at the time when the only real competitor was unbelievably expensive NVidia’s Titan X, Fury X would have fitted quite nicely in the 4K and virtual reality niche being the obvious choice in terms of capacity and price.


Alas, NVidia released its 980 Ti just a couple of weeks after Fury X release and placed a price tag, equal to Fury X. Nevertheless, AMD has its devoted following and the amazingly fast Fury X is still considered one of the primary choices of high-end GPUs for 4K gaming and virtual reality rigs.

Radeon FURY X Specs

The obvious gem of Fury X is the innovative water-cooled design that most likely attracted attention of modders. Apart from that, it has even more transistors that GTX980 Ti – 8.9 billion. However, in terms of memory it loses, as it has only 4GB. Fury X can also boast 4096 stream processors and shows more than decent results during benchmark testing. Just like GTX 98 Ti is has 3 DisplayPort connectors and one HDMI, however it’s HDMI 1.4, not 2.0 version like in 980 Ti. It also lacks DVI-I.


Bottom line:
Despite the fact that both GPUs show great results during benchmark testing, GTX 980 Ti wins due to the larger memory capacity and ability to consistently support UHD gaming at 60 fps. Nevertheless, if the games you’re playing in 4K do not require constant 60 fps or more, or in case you scale to 1080 – Fury X does its job perfectly.