Consumers have seen glass-covered smartphones, but are they ready for a glass-covered ultrabook?
Glass —scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass, to be precise— is what Hewlett-Packard hopes will set its new HP Spectre apart from other devices in its class, tech site CNET reported at the product's unveiling at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the US.
"While having glass all over the display, lid, palm rest, and touch pad might seem to invite danger, HP boasts that using Gorilla Glass will make the laptop more scratch-resistant," the CNET report said.
Still, CNET cited concerns about shattering if the laptop is dropped on a hard surface.
The new device fits within the size guidelines for the newer class of 14-inch ultrabooks but is "heavier and thicker" than other ultrabooks, including HP's Folio 13.
CNET said the Spectre is HP's first consumer-oriented ultrabook, emphasizing flash and gloss with its all-glass lid and palm rest.
It added the Spectre is lighter and thinner than mainstream laptops like Apple Inc.'s MacBook Pro.
The Spectre has Beats Audio and an inset analog wheel for volume control.
A LED-lid HP Radiance backlit keyboard and 1,600x900-pixel HP Radiance LED display offers extremely bright and viewable from any angle, CNET said.
Under the hood are Intel Core i-series processors, and a 128-GB SSD drive with an option to add a second SSD to double the storage.
The Spectre will set consumers back $1,399 for the entry-level configuration, which will include an Intel Core i5-2467M processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD drive.
"Full versions of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements are preinstalled, a perk that's becoming more common to HP laptops," it said.
Another possible feature is near-field communication (NFC), which may allow maps, Web pages, or other information exchanged between the ultrabook and other devices like smartphones. — TJD, GMA News
source:gmanetwork.com
