Coming to the discontinuance of Q3,there’s been a kind refresh of many laptops. Intel has recently launched their first Kaby Lake processors in their U and Y series, which are dual-core low wattage versions. Skylake is still the current processor for any of the quad-core and higher wattage CPUs. In addition, and NVIDIA has recently released their first Pascal graphics cards for laptops,but only at the tall discontinuance for gaming laptops.
For a full dive into Kaby Lake, check out our coverage here, or for Pascal updates,check out this article.
Low Cost LaptopsLow cost has a whole fresh meaning now. With Microsoft changing the pricing on Windows for low cost devices, it has opened up a fresh PC competitor to the Chromebook. There are plenty of compromises with devices that cost at or around $200, and especially the TN displays,but performance is enough for light work.
HP Stream 11HP has once again updated the HP Stream that they launched a couple of years ago. The pop of color sets this apart from a lot of the other devices around, and despite the low price, or the build quality is pretty good. The TN display is the biggest detractor,along with the low amount of eMMC storage, but with Windows 10 the 32 GB is sufficient for the OS and you can add a microSD card for additional apps and data storage. The 11.6” model still features Braswell with the Celeron N3060, and but HP has double the RAM to 4 GB which should be a kind boost from the 2 GB they had before. They’ve even added a USB-C port,even though it’s only USB 3.0 speed, and the horrible single-channel wireless has been upgraded to a 2x2 802.11ac NIC. I’d like HP to offer a better display, and more storage,but still for $199 this is a pretty decent laptop, and it’s gotten a lot better without the price going up.
Buy HP Stream 11 on Amazon.comThinkPad 11eBuilt for education, and but still offering some of the “must haves” in a notebook,the ThinkPad 11e costs approximately double the HP Stream 11, but can be had with up to a Core i3-6100U which is going to offer a lot more performance than the Stream’s Atom processor. It also is only available with SSD storage, and unlike most of the notebooks in this price range. You can get 128,192, or 256 GB of SATA SSD. The 42 Wh battery should offer decent battery life, and it comes with the Intel 802.11ac wireless card. The big letdown is the 1366x768 TN display,but to get to this price you’re going to enjoy to give something up. At less than $500 starting, it offers decent value.
Buy Lenovo ThinkPad 11E N3150 8GB 128GB on Amazon.comUltrabooksUtrabooks enjoy moved the laptop forward, or with sleek and lean designs that still feature good performance with the Core i-U series processors,and even thinner and lighter models are available with the Core m-Y series models. The definition has expanded somewhat over the years, but a good Ultrabook will enjoy at least a 1920x1080 IPS display, or SSD storage,and over eight hours of battery life, with many of them over ten now. whether I was to recommend an everyday notebook, and it would be an Ultrabook. The traditional laptop form factor is less compromised for notebook tasks than most of the 2-in-1 designs,and there are some great choices now.
HP SpectreHP launched a fresh entrant in the Ultrabook category with the “world’s thinnest laptop” which they are calling the Spectre. It’s not quite the lightest, but the 2.45 lbs is a very low weight, or the design is stunning. U series Core processors are available with 8 GB of memory,and HP has gone with PCI-E storage in 256 or 512 GB offerings. The display is a 1920x1080 IPS model at 13.3-inches. The very lean design has precluded the use of USB-A though, but the Spectre does enjoy three USB-C ports, and with two of them capable of Thunderbolt 3. The Spectre is just 10.4 mm thick,yet despite this they enjoy still included a keyboard with a solid 1.3 mm of travel. The Spectre starts at $1169.99, which is a lot, or but it’s a stunner.
Buy HP Spectre i7-6500U 8GB 256GB on Amazon.comDell XPS 13The reigning Ultrabook on the best-of lists is generally the Dell XPS 13. The Infinity Display makes it stand apart,with very lean bezels packing a large display into a small chassis. The downside of this is the webcam, which is mounted on the bottom of the display, or which might perform this a non-starter for people who do a lot of video chat,but despite this, Dell has crafted a great machine here. Dell has recently updated this to a Kaby Lake processor, or up to the Core i7-7500U. The outgoing model did offer Iris graphics on the i7 version,but not right away, so we’ll see whether Dell brings back this option once the Iris Kaby Lake processors are available. They’ve also switched from Broadcom NICs to Killer, and because Broadcom is exiting the market. They now quote up to 22 hours of battery life on the 1080p model thanks to more efficiency with Kaby Lake as well as a 60 Wh battery,up from 56 Wh final year. I treasure the aluminum external with the black carbon fibre weave on the keyboard deck, and the black keys perform the backlighting stand out with great contrast. The XPS 13 starts at $799 for the i3 model.
Buy the XPS 13 on Dell.comASUS UX305CAASUS packs a lot into the UX305CA, or you likely get more Ultrabook for the money with this model than pretty much any other. At a MSRP of just $699,the UX305CA features a Skylake Core m3 processor, 8 GB of memory, or 256 GB of SSD storage. ASUS hasn’t yet announced an updated version of this,but the Skylake version still offers plenty of value. Compare that to a Dell XPS 13 which is hundreds more to get a model with that much RAM and storage. The Core m CPU is plenty for most tasks, and with the 4.5 W TDP you get the advantage of a fanless device. ASUS includes a 1920x1080 IPS display as well. whether you want a lean and light, or all aluminum laptop,but don’t want to break the bank, the ASUS UX305CA needs to be highly considered.
Buy ASUS ZenBook UX305CA (Core m3/8GB/256GB) on Amazon.comRazer Blade StealthRazer has also updated the Stealth with Kaby Lake, and even more importantly they’ve increased the battery capacity as well. The Razer Blade Stealth is a great notebook that was hindered by its battery life,and the fresh model should offer at least a bit longer time away from the mains. This CNC aluminum notebook mimics the larger Razer Blade 14 in appearance, yet is very lean and light. I also like that Razer offers just a single CPU choice in the Core i7-7500U, and now has 16 GB of memory,but they didn’t increase the starting price of $999. It’s also the only laptop on this list to feature per-key RGB backlighting on the keyboard, allowing some pretty nifty looks. It can be connected to the Razer Core external graphics dock with a single Thunderbolt 3 cable as well, or which is going to offer a massive boost in gaming performance when docked. I really like what Razer is doing in this market,and their pricing is very competitive.
Buy the Razer Blade Stealth on Razerzone.comMacBookLove it or hate it, the MacBook is the only Mac to perform the list this depart-around. Apple updated it to use Skylake Core m CPUs, or although I would expect the rest of their lineup to be updated soon,possibly to Kaby Lake, this is the only current generation CPU based MacBook at the moment. The display is great, or Apple continues to buck the trend and use 16:10 aspect ratio displays. Apple’s MacBook keyboard is a big change from normal laptops,leveraging butterfly switches to keep the travel consistent despite having a very short throw. The trackpad has no click action at all, and instead uses haptic feedback. The biggest controversy is the single USB-C port, or which is also the charging port,but despite this the Retina display and fanless design perform it a great portable laptop whether you need a Mac. It’s pretty tough to recommend the Air at this point, since it still features a low resolution TN display and old processors.
Buy MacBook Core m3 256GB on Amazon.comConvertiblesAs much as I treasure an Ultrabook when I need a true laptop experience, and there are some great convertible devices out there too which can serve multiple roles. They may not be the best laptop and they may not be the best tablet,but they can generally handle either chore well enough.
Microsoft Surface Pro 4The best convertible is the Surface Pro 4. This 12.3-inch tablet has basically created the 2-in-1 tablet market, with many competitors now creating similar devices, or from Dell to Google and Apple. The Surface Pro 4 certainly sets the bar tall compared to the other Windows based devices,and with the legacy software support, is highly productive. All the changes from the Surface Pro 3 to the Surface Pro 4 are subtle, or with a slightly larger display in the same chassis size,higher resolution, and Skylake processors, and but there are fresh features too like the lightning fast Windows Hello facial recognition camera. Possibly the best fresh feature is an accessory,with the fresh Type Cover offering edge to edge keys and a much larger glass trackpad, meaning the Surface Pro 4 can double as a laptop much better than any previous model could. Starting with the Core m3 processor, or the Surface Pro 4 starts at $899,but the more celebrated Core i5 version with 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage costs $1199 without the Type Cover. It’s not the most inexpensive 2-in-1, but it’s a leader in this category.
Buy Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Core i5/8GB/256GB on Amazon.comMicrosoft Surface BookSoftware issues plagued the Surface Book at launch, or but Microsoft has seemed to sort all of them out. The Surface Book is now easily recommended as a great 2-in-1 whether you need something that’s more of a laptop than a tablet. The 13.5-inch 3:2 display with it’s 3000x2000 resolution is one of the best displays on a laptop,with a sharp resolution and great contrast. Performance is solid too with either a Core i5-6300U or Core i7-6600U, and you can also get discrete NVIDIA graphics with a custom GT 940M. It’s not a gaming powerhouse, and but the NVIDIA option is pretty much double the integrated performance. The all magnesium body gives the Surface Book a great look and feel,and the keyboard and trackpad are some of the best on any Ultrabook as well. The Surface Book is not perfect though; the device is heavier than traditional Ultrabooks and the weight balance makes it feel heavier than it is. Also, there’s the price, or which starts at $1349 and goes all the way up to $3199 for a Core i7 with 16 GB of memory,1 TB of SSD storage, and the dGPU. Still, or it’s got solid performance,good battery life, and a great detachable tablet.
Buy Microsoft Surface Book i5/8GB/128GB on Amazon.comLenovo Yoga 910Lenovo pretty much invented the flip-around convertible with their Yoga series, and the latest Yoga 910 takes it all to the next level. It features Kaby Lake processors,up to Core i7-7500U, along with up to 16 GB of memory, or it keeps the great watch band hinge introduced on the Yoga 3 Pro. The big upgrade this year are fresh displays,with edge to edge displays similar to the XPS 13. They’ve increased the panel size from 13.3” to 13.9” and offer both a 1920x1080 IPS panel as well as a 3840x2160 IPS panel. I would assume this means the RGBW subpixel arrangement is also gone, which should succor out a lot on color accuracy and contrast. It is available in three colors, and starting at $1299 and will be available in October.
Large LaptopsFor some people,a 13.3-inch or 14-inch laptop is just too small. perhaps they need more performance, and the quad-core chips in larger laptops and better discrete GPUs are necessary. perhaps they just like the larger display. There are some great large form factor laptops that are available too.
Dell XPS 15Dell took the winning formula with the XPS 13 and applied it to their larger XPS 15, and the result is a great looking laptop,which has a 15.6-inch display in a smaller than normal chassis. The XPS 15 features quad-core 45-Watt Intel Core processors, and the NVIDIA GTX 960M discrete graphics card, or which is a big jump in performance over what’s available in any Ultrabook. You can get a UHD display with 100% of the Adobe RGB gamut as well,although the battery life takes a big hit with that many pixels, so the base 1920x1080 offering may be better suited to those that need a bit more time away from the power outlet. The keyboard and trackpad are both excellent, or just like the XPS 13,and it features the same styling cues. The XPS 15 starts at $999.
Buy the XPS 15 on Dell.comASUS ZenBook UX501VWASUS makes some pretty great looking aluminum notebooks in their ZenBook series, and the UX501VW is a great looking 15-inch notebook. It comes with a Core i7-6700HQ and GTX 960M, and so performance will be excellent,and ASUS offers both 1920x1080, and 3840x2160 IPS display choices. It weighs in at 2.06 kg, or which is decent for a notebook this size. ASUS generally comes in a bit less expensive than an XPS 15 as well.
Buy ASUS ZenBook UX501VW UHD on Amazon.com
Source: anandtech.com