HP Envy 14 Spectre review

We had no trouble typing on the LED backlit keyboard, which has firm yet springy keys spaced comfortably apart. Almost all the punctuation keys were in the right places, with just the arrow keys cramped into the corner of the keyboard tray. The function keys are set to multimedia shortcuts by default and you have to press the fn modifier key to use them normally, but you can change this behaviour in the BIOS if you prefer.

The large glass touchpad is well-matched to the 16:9 screen, with minimal friction to make moving the mouse cursor around the desktop a breeze. It also works incredibly well with multi-touch gestures, but the integrated buttons are a real let-down. They are stiff and difficult to press down at the edge because they are completely surrounded by the glass wrist rest. This isn’t enough to spoil the experience of using the Spectre, but it’s definitely frustrating in an otherwise very good laptop.

With its unique design, fantastic screen and surprisingly good software bundle, including full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, the Spectre looks great on the surface, but dig a little deeper and it doesn’t look like great value. It’s significantly more expensive than the competition, including the Asus ZenBook UX31, which weighs less and has a faster processor. The Spectre is a great-looking laptop with a superb screen, but the UX31 remains our favourite Ultrabook.