HP Spectre 13-4002dx

Intro

First of all I want everyone to know I didn’t buy this laptop. I got it from work and decided, well since I have access to it I may as well review it. I’m really enjoying using this laptop for just about everything and am finding myself looking for a reason to use it, even if I just pull it out and don’t do anything with it. So let’s get into it.

First Impressions

So I’ll get into the technical stuff in a minute. I have a Yoga 12 that I reviewed before and you can check out that review here, if you would like. If you would like to see me put these 2 ultrabooks head to head let me know. ANYWAY there’s 2 things that jump out to me when I first used this thing, 1. Damn this thing is slippery. I love the build, and it’s insanely sleek, but being made out of aluminum it is also very slick. Everytime I pull it outta my backpack I’m seriously afraid I’m gonna drop it. 2. This keyboard is nice! I know the Lenovo’s have won real awards for their keyboards and this one can easily rival any Lenovo keyboard I’ve used. Don’t worry I’ll get into more detail on this in a bit…

Screen

The easy is this is a 1080p touchscreen. Outside of that this screen is really nice, although I do have a few gripes. The screen is glossy. Now I honestly wouldn’t care about that, I have an HP 2-in-1 that has a glossy touchscreen and I thought that’s just the way it was. That is until I used the Yoga which has a very nice matte finish touchscreen. I will say this screen is much sharper than that one is though. It might just be me but it doesn’t seem like this screen gets very bright. I very rarely use my laptops outside so that isn’t a very big deal to me but it is worth noting. All that said I really do like this screen, watching videos and whatnot look really good and the touchscreen is very responsive and even though it is glossy it does resist fingerprints fairly well. I can’t leave my microfiber cloth behind when I take this with me, but I never do anyway…

Keyboard

I know I said I really like this keyboard and that is very true, it is a pleasure to type on. The key travel is nice and there is a decent tactile feedback. It’s definitely not a mechanical keyboard but it’s better than most laptops that I’ve used. If I can pick on it a bit though the keys are very flat, which makes them feel a bit slippery. Part of what makes the Lenovo keyboards so nice is the concave keys, your fingers have a seat when they are being used and it does actually make the typing experience a bit better. One place this one has the Lenovo beat though is the backlighting. The key that turns the backlight on and off is always lit up when the rest of the backlight is off, which annoyed me a bit at first, that is until I wanted to turn on the backlighting with no other lights in the room besides the light from my tv. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to either get an inch away from the keyboard to turn the lights on, or get frustrated and grab my phone and use the light from that. I don’t have that problem with this, if it’s dark boom that light is staring you right in the face. I will take that in lieu of concave keys.

Trackpad

Normally I hate trackpads and to be honest this one isn’t much different. Clicking on a link or around the desktop normally takes 2 tries. I’m sorry but there’s no excuse for that on a laptop that is around $1000. The one thing I like a bit about it is the sheer size of this damn thing, there is a lot of real estate on the trackpad. I still hate it and will use a mouse whenever possible, but that’s not a detriment to this particular laptop. The only ‘mice’ I can use on a laptop are the ones with that little ‘button’ between the G, H, and B keys.

General Specs

I’m not sure of all the configurations this particular model comes in, but here’s what I do know. Mine has a 2.2Ghz Core i5, 8GB RAM which is soldered to the motherboard, and a 250GB M.2 SSD. I honestly don’t like not being able to upgrade the RAM although I understand the tradeoff for something being so thin. If you’re looking at the laptop head on, on your left side you will see (from back to front); charger port, intake vents, USB 3, power button, and SD Card slot. On the right side we got; headphone/mic jack, 2 USB 3’s, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, volume rocker, and Windows button. Quick note on the charger port when it’s plugged in and your battery needs charged the light is orange, when it’s done charging it changes to white.

Thoughts

I really like this computer. I haven’t had any problems with it at all. There’s still a few things I would like to try out, like the Windows Ink Workspace, but that won’t be any time soon because this computer doesn’t come with a stylus or anything like that. I’ve been thinking of buying one of these for myself for quite some time, after using it for a while now there’s only one thing holding me back. It’s really damn slippery. I haven’t decided if that is make or break for me. If someone (Slickwraps) made a skin for this then it would be a no brainer. So basically what I’m saying, at least for right now, everything I like about this computer does not outweigh how much I don’t like how slippery it is. I will be keeping this laptop as my daily driver for the foreseeable future. If there is anything to add between now and the time I have to give it up, I will update this review.

If you are looking for a great laptop with a great looking touchscreen and don’t mind it feeling like it’s gonna slip outta your hand every time you pick it up, I would definitely recommend this laptop. It’s been a real pleasure to use and everything works smoothly. I would still like to edit some videos and whatnot on it. The reason I’m not including that in my video is because I don’t do it all that often so that would postpone this review even longer.

Long story short yes I would definitely recommend this laptop to anyone seeking a very thin, moderately powerful machine to get you by while on the go.