With a glass design so extraordinary that this geek might actually be afraid to use one for fear of its fragility, HP’s Ultrabook (that won CNET’s Best of CES 2012) will debut in Singapore on March 24, 2012.
Good thing this beautiful machine wasn’t as delicate as I thought and uses lightweight, scratch-resistant glass on the lid, display, palmrest and HP ImagePad trackpad. The notebook fits a full 14-inch diagonal screen inside a body typically made for 13.3-inch screens. The high-definition (HD) display also offers wider viewing angles than traditional notebook displays.
The HP Radiance Backlit keyboard uses individual LEDs dedicated to each keycap and works with a proximity sensor to sense a user’s presence, lighting up when a user approaches and dimming down after he or she leaves. It’s so sleek you won’t even realise it’s that smart.
Equipped with audio-grade speaker mesh and Beats Audio, you can turn this machine’s aluminum analog volume knob and use its built-in wireless audio to stream uncompressed audio to up to four external devices or directly to any KleerNet-compatible device.
The HP Envy 14 Spectre is also one of the first notebooks to feature near-field communications (NFC) technology, called HP Touch to Share, which allows you to share data (such as this interview where Howard Stern gave good advice to the world’s richest artist) with NFC-enabled smartphones.
With an estimated 9.5 hours of battery life, the 20mm-thin HP Envy 14 Spectre weighs less than 1.8 kgs and will come with an ultrafast mSata solid state drive. The Spectre comes with HP CoolSense technology and will include a Gigabit Ethernet port, USB 3.0, HDMI and Mini DisplayPort.
At S$1,999 (US$2,510), the HP Envy 14 Spectre also comes with full versions of Adobe Photoshop® Elements 10 and Adobe Premiere Elements 10, two years of pre-installed Norton Internet Security (6) and a concierge phone line for technical support that is dedicated exclusively to HP Envy laptop users. This means that if your machine ever breaks down, and you need to use the concierge hotline, all your friends will be oh so envious.
