Looks are subjective, but we think it’s safe to say that the MacBook’s simpler appearance is more classically appealing. The rear case a considerable “bump” that houses the USB-C ports and the cooling mechanism, allowing the screen and body to be squashed down into a tiny amount of vertical space. HP’s Spectre is more unique, with a a gold-on-black color scheme that combines matte and shiny finishes for the carbon fiber and aluminum materials. The MacBook comes in four colors: standard aluminum, a darker “space grey,” a gold finish, and “rose gold” (read: light pink). Its aluminum-clad body is barely wider than its keyboard, which is impressive, since it’s still “full sized” by laptop standards (which means that the letter, number, and modifier keys aren’t squashed). The MacBook’s design is timeless, taking Apple’s minimal aesthetics to the extreme. But since the Spectre can charge and use accessories at the same time without an expensive adapter, it wins out here. Neither laptop is especially ideal for extended work sessions, since they both require adapters for video-out (unless you happen to have a Thunderbolt 3 display) and standard USB ports, as well as anything more specialized like an SD card reader. The Spectre comes with three Type-C ports, two of which use the newer and faster 3.1 Gen 2 standard. But Apple’s almost fanatical dedication to minimalism makes its MacBook somewhat weak: the laptop comes with only one Type-C port (which must be filled by the power adapter when charging) and a headphone jack. Connectivityīoth Apple and HP seem to be diving into USB Type-C support with both feet. Neither design is particularly well-suited to extended time away from a power outlet, but the MacBook should do slightly better in that regard. It’s also almost half a pound lighter, and though both are on the extreme edge of the ultraportable curve, lighter is still lighter. The larger screen makes up for it, but if you want the tiniest possible computer, the MacBook wins out. 42 inches, the Spectre is also more than an inch longer in both width and depth. Things might be a bit closer if you plan to run Windows on the MacBook, but it should still edge out the Spectre by at least an hour. All things being equal, the MacBook and its lower-power hardware should last a bit longer than the HP laptop, especially considering the generally more efficient OS X software. The MacBook’s integrated battery has a capacity of 41.4 watt-hours, while the Spectre offers slightly less at 38 watt-hours. Neither laptop offers a touchscreen option those looking for a high-resolution touchscreen in this form factor should check out the Dell XPS 13. The MacBook screen is also more dense, since it’s smaller at 12 inches versus 13.3. That said, the MacBook has a definite advantage over the Spectre: the former’s screen has a generous 2304 x 1440 resolution, while the latter has a more pedestrian 1920 x 1080 panel. Neither the MacBook nor the Spectre boast industry-leading screens, now that 4K laptops are available. Both laptops offer similar integrated Intel graphics, and so are not particularly well-suited to intense games or graphical applications. Likewise, buyers have the option of either 256GB or 512GB SSDs for storage on both machines, but the Spectre offers a higher capacity at a smaller price. Even though the Core M processor offers a faster “turbo” speed and consumes less energy, the Spectre offers much more power at a lower cost.īoth laptops include 8GB of RAM, but the Spectre’s memory is slightly faster. The base model of the Spectre uses a Core i5-6200U, which has a base clock of 2.3GHz. Even the most expensive version of the Apple laptop tops out with the Core M7-6Y75, a dual-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz. Primarily, the MacBook uses processors based on Intel’s Core M platform, while the Spectre offers the more powerful Core i-series. Though the MacBook and the Spectre have similar sizes and form factors, their hardware has some important differences. USB 3.0, USB Type-C/Thunderbolt (2), headset jack Intel Core i5-6200U (3M Cache, up to 2.80 GHz)ġ2-inch LED-backlit display with IPS technologyġ3.3-inch LED-backlit display with IPS technology
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