HP Spectre swings at the Macbook with three USB Type-C ports, swanky exterior

HP’s calling its latest Macbook challenger the “world’s thinnest laptop,” and its hard to argue against that.

The company’s new HP Spectre 13 is just 10.4mm at its thickest point and weighs a mere 1.11kg. It’s quite the ultraportable then, and as a result, it’s aimed squarely at Apple‘s range of in-flight friendly machines.

The HP Spectre might be an older name in the laptop fraternity, but the new version is quite a step forward in terms of design. Aesthetically, it’s about as flash as a hip hop video, with the company also offering designer finishes courtesy of Tord Boontje (above) and Jess Hannah.

Beyond aesthetics, the big news is the lack of Intel’s Core M processors — underpowered, undervolted silicon usually employed in ultrabooks to keep things cool, but compromises on speed. The Spectre boasts Intel Core-i5 or Core-i7 chips, which means that users can actually get a few things, beyond email, done. The chips are cooled by Intel’s hyperbaric cooling system, which was first employed on the Dell Vostro back in 2011.

The screen is a 13.3-inch 1080p panel, which GP claims helps eke out 9.5-hours of battery life on a single charge. Backing up the hardware is a PCIe SSD with up to 512GB on tap, as well as 8GB of RAM.

And to further rub it in Apple’s face, the Spectre comes with three USB Type-C ports, instead of the single unit employed on the Macbook. Two of these support Thunderbolt too.

The real kicker though is the price. It’ll debut at US$1169, which is remarkably pricey for a laptop, but considering that it’s appealing to Macbook fans, its biggest drawback might actually be Windows 10.

The Spectre will be available from May in the US, but there’s currently no release date for South Africa just yet.