Items tagged with Ultrabook
We love premium laptops and convertibles. A meticulously engineered build, finely-tuned performance, and solid battery life comprise the three primary tenets we look for when reviewing new machines. Checking these boxes does come at a cost, leaving many of our favorite laptops with hefty price tags. Unfortunately, most of us cannot justify dropping a stack of cash for the latest and greatest. Instead, mainstream consumers turn to the thriving midrange market. Here, manufacturer’s compete for our hard earned dollar with a wide range of solutions, each of which caters to a slightly different slice of end user usage models. When you cannot have it all, compromises must be made. In recent years,...
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Huawei is perhaps best known as the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. The Chinese company recently surpassed Apple's marketshare despite difficulties cracking the U.S. market. The company has enjoyed strong demand for their products internationally, thanks to competitive pricing and premium designs. We have previously reviewed Huawei's MateBook X Pro and Matebook D notebooks and found both to be solid values and worthy of recommendation. At CES this year, Huawei introduced its newest ultrabook, the Matebook 13. We took it for a spin to see how it compares to Huawei's other offerings, and the competition. The MateBook 13 comes standard with a Intel Core i5-8265U clocked...
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The ThinkPad line of notebooks has a long, storied history, from its beginnings as an IBM product, to Lenovo's continued refinements and improvements, generation over generation. ThinkPads are well known, often sought after products, especially by business-class road warriors, due to their no-nonsense design language, excellent keyboards, and reputation for reliability. In addition, ThinkPads have had one other thing remain consistent over the years -- a glorious little red nub, called a TrackPoint or pointing stick, that remains faithfully nestled between the G and H keys. For some it's a love it or hate it sort of feature but Lenovo has maintained it generation after generation, so it's...
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When Lenovo launched the Yoga 910, it was beautifully styled, powerful enough for most mobile users, and it offered reasonably good battery life. However, the public reception of the 2-in-1 convertible was a bit mixed and perhaps not quite what the company had hoped for. Some critics took issue with the Yoga 910's thermal characteristics, fan noise, and its awkwardly-placed upward-facing web cam. However, Lenovo took this feedback into consideration and developed the new Yoga 920 we'll be showing you here. From the outside, the Yoga 910 and 920 look similar at first glance, but there are a multitude of significant updates that improve the machine in a number of ways. Nestled inside an all-aluminum...
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We could have predicted that HP would refresh its laptop lineup after Intel introduced its 8th Generation Core processor family in mobile form (Kaby Lake Refresh, or Kaby Lake-R, not to be confused with Coffee Lake on the desktop). By extension, our crystal ball, if we had one, would have also told us the new lineup would be faster than the previous generation, especially in multi-threaded applications where upgrading from a dual-core 7th Generation CPU to a quad-core 8th Generation chip would pay the biggest dividends. But what we could not have foreseen is that subtle changes beyond swapping out the engine that drives its systems would add up to an appreciably superior experience. Spoiler—it...
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Anyone that has worked with laptops for a while might recall the ThinkPad brand from back in the day before Lenovo purchased the client PC division from IBM. One of the most notable things about the old-school ThinkPads was the keyboard, complete with a blue enter key and a red trackpoint nub smack dab in the center. After Lenovo took over the ThinkPad line, some of the beloved industrial styling cues from those workhorse machines left along with the IBM logo. However, Lenovo is now celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ThinkPad brand with a unique ThinkPad 25 Anniversary Edition notebook that combines some aspects of IBM's retro-style circa 1992 with the features and performance...
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Dell has not done much to tweak the physical design of its XPS 13 laptop over the past couple years, though it's not out of laziness or complacency. The past few models have exemplified excellence in engineering, with the size and weight of the XPS 13 belying what lays in wait when you crack open the lid. Its InfinityEdge display all but eliminates bezel and delivers a larger-than-expected viewing area based on the laptop's overall dimensions, and the hardware powering it has, for the most part, been cutting edge. In keeping with that latter theme, Dell upgraded its XPS 13 for late 2017 with a new 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor, specifically the Core i7-8550U, effectively doubling the...
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The slim, sleek Razer Blade gaming laptop we'll be looking at here is an interesting beast that does its best to perform a balancing act of sorts. The gaming laptop arena is a landscape full of compromises. Gamers generally crave the most powerful technologies on the market, but until we can cram 8K displays into a fanless 13-inch form factor with dual Titan X GPUs and physics-defying thermal headroom, sacrifices obviously must be made. And we love high-end, 10 pound gaming battle stations, don't get us wrong, but sometimes situations and use cases call for something actually portable. Now, there are a plethora of gaming notebooks to rival even the best desktops, though many...
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Lenovo has carved out quite a business for itself in the laptop space over the years, led more recently by premium machines like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. However, there are obviously many more models in the ThinkPad family of products, beyond just the top-shelf X1 Carbon line. In the more affordable ThinkPad T470s (starting price of $959), you will find a thin, light ultrabook with many of the features Lenovo is known for, including the usual fantastic keyboard setup and solid performance. At just 2.9 pounds, you’d be forgiven for thinking it doesn’t pack much punch, but this Kaby Lake powered ultrabook can get the job done. The T470s is available with a 14-inch 1920x1080 (HD) screen...
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Lately, Dell has been able to deliver notebooks that bring a smile to our faces, especially when a new XPS laptop slides across our desk. It hasn't always been that way, but since revamping the XPS line, starting with the XPS 13 back in 2015, Dell’s premium laptops have been leaders in the ultrabook market, especially in the 15 and 13-inch formats. The XPS 13 and its new 2-in-1 variant make great and highly portable workstations to tote around, but their smaller frames and relative horsepower may not be for everybody. That’s where the crossover to a 15-inch machine might make for a worthy trade-off. For a little more heft, the XPS 15 of yesteryear boasted a discrete GTX 960M onboard with...
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At Microsoft's WinHEC 2016 conference, which took place in December in Shenzhen, the company outlined suggestions of what the hottest devices in 2017 should include. The company has finally made its presentation public, so we can get a feel for what's coming this year. Admittedly, not much should be a surprise, but it's good to see it laid out neatly. At the forefront, Microsoft wants to see a focus on cutting-edge designs, which includes ultraportables and convertibles. At the same time, vendors need to figure out how to make these same designs pack in as much functionality as possible, which ultimately takes a lot of real-estate on our ever-shrinking devices. Under "Cool Designs", Microsoft...
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Acer has consistently expanded and refined its mobile product offerings, to include everything from affordable mainstream notebooks, to sleek ultrabooks that use premium materials. The veteran PC maker has developed a sense of style and is putting real effort into creating thin, functional laptops, that also happen to look good. The Swift 7 is one of the thinnest laptops on the market, and it has some interesting hardware squeezed inside, too. But going ultra-thin often results with performance or functionality compromises, so we were taken aback that Acer dubbed its thinnest laptop “Swift.” We brought one in to see just how fast (and how fun) this Kaby Lake-powered laptop really is. Acer’s Swift...
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Acer's bringing sexy back to the laptop landscape with its previously announced Swift 7, a svelte system billed as the world's thinnest with a waistline that measures a mere 0.39 inches. It's also staggeringly light at just 2.48 pounds, and if you've been waiting for this beauty to show up, we have good news—the Swift 7 is now available to order in the U.S. starting at $1,099.The Swift 7 owes its ultra-thin and featherweight status to its aluminum unibody design. Acer didn't stop there, though, giving the Swift 7 a fantastic looking gold inner surface that contrasts nicely with its matte black exterior, at least from what we can tell from the press photos (we've yet to spy one of these systems...
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Although they were initially announced all the way back at Computex, ASUS held a casual event in NYC this past Wednesday (Oct. 5) to officially launch an array of new products, including the ZenBook 3, ZenWatch 3, ZenPhone 3, and Transformer Pro 3 and Mini. We’ve got some initial coverage of all of those products here at HotHardware if you’d like some additional background on the full line-up, including hands-on video of the latest ZenBook and smartwatch. However, we couldn’t wait to dive in a little deeper with the ZenBook 3 for a couple of reasons. First off, the ZenBook 3 is the first Ultrabook to hit the lab built around Intel’s brand-new Kaby Lake-based 7th Generation Core series processors....
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The race to build the world's thinnest laptop hasn't always resulted in quality design innovation or utility over more full-figured machines. For example, comparatively, Apple's MacBook Air line looks a little plain-Jane versus some of the nicer thin and light laptops on the market these days, and certainly HP's Spectre line as well. HP recently saw fit to fully revamp its Spectre series across multiple sizes and formats, the latest of which is simply branded Spectre. The HP Spectre is actually a 13-inch machine, so you might refer to it as such (Spectre 13), if it helps you make the distinction. There's also the Spectre X360, HP's 15-inch convertible machine that we reviewed recently, and though...
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The ultrabook market shows no signs of cooling off any time soon. We've recently explored different flavors from all the top vendors including HP's Spectre x360 15t, Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Yoga, ASUS's Zenbook UX-305CA and our reigning Editor's Choice in Dell's XPS 13. There's a lot to love about these premium thin and light machines. And though each offers its own careful balance of tradeoffs, it's tough to have it all in such a slim package. Most ultrabooks these days offer the likes of Intel's U Series processors or even Intel Core M chips when they really want to push boundaries and sack an onboard cooling fan altogether. These packages also usually lack a dedicated graphics chip so high end...
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CES is a distant memory now, but we’re still seeing new products arrive that were announced in Las Vegas at the beginning of the year. One of those is the Dell Latitude 13 7000 series, the latest in the company's line of business laptops. The 13-inch ultrabook landed several awards at CES for its sleek design and promised to add some spice to the staid business laptop market. At long last, the Latitude 13 7370 is here.Dell clearly pulled some key features from its popular XPS consumer series when designing its latest Latitude. Carbon fiber makes an appearance on certain models and all Latitude 13 7370s feature Dell’s nearly-bezel-free InfinityEdge displays. But the new ultrabook has a style that...
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HP is due to reveal on April 5th what may be the thinnest notebook on the market. The HP Spectre is claimed to be 11mm- thick with a 13.3-inch display, and would beat Apple’s claims to having the slimmest products on the market. The HP Spectre will be announced in Versailles, France at a New York Times event. HP Headquarters in Palo Alto, California This announcement comes on the heels of falling PC sales. Last year, 289 million PCs were sold worldwide, an 8% drop from 2014. Many people have turned to smartphones and tablets instead of PCs to fulfill their computer wants and needs. HP’s fiscal numbers also reflect this decline. HP was able to increase its global shipments in 2015 from 18.4% to...
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Update 4/26/2016: We've updated our battery life test suite for this review and have new more real-world metrics to share on page 6. It was just about this time last year that HP first took the wraps off its chic, convertible ultrabook, the original Spectre x360. Although the Spectre name wasn’t new, HP’s approach to the ultrabook’s design language had been completely revamped, and it showed in the quality of the then all-new Spectre. Now, HP is releasing another revamped version of its slick ultrabook, making promises of an even better experience for users who want something just a bit larger in a 15-inch format. The craftsmanship that made the original Spectre x360 such a hit is clearly...
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Dell recently refreshed its popular XPS 13 with new hardware to bring it up to date with current CPU and storage offerings. The updated model now sports a Skylake-based Intel processor and a Samsung PM951 NVMe solid state drive, plus a few minor tweaks to its already impressive design. When the current iteration of the Dell XPS 13 debuted back in January of last year, it was nearly unrivaled in terms of its power to size ratio, and overall value in the space. The ultrabook market has heated-up a lot since then though, and the XPS 13 has some stiff competition at the moment. In addition to checking out Dell's tiny powerhouse, we should also mention Intel's SpeedShift technology, available...
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We had good things to say about Asus’ super-slim ZenBook UX305 when we evaluated it early last year. Attractive, sturdy, and downright tiny, the UX305 was a good value for the price, and it had good looks too. A year later, the ZenBook is back with the updated UX305CA, so we got one in to see if the newer version is as balanced a machine as last year’s model. The Zenbook UX305CA we will be showing you here has Windows 10 and an updated Core M processor, along with improved graphics, but many things haven’t changed: it’s still tiny, it has the same wedge design and the lid still props the keyboard up at angle when opened. If you liked the UX305, you’ll be happy to know that many of its best features...
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Choosing a laptop usually involves a series of compromises, one of those being power versus portability. On one hand, Ultrabooks offer the convenience of thin and light designs that make toting them around easy, but if you want powerful graphics and gaming performance, a chunky desktop replacement is in order. Or is it? Razer is challenging that notion with its new Blade Stealth laptop and external "Core" graphics accessory. Let's start with the Blade Stealth. This latest model measures a scant 0.52 inches at the waistline and checks in at a mere 2.75 pounds. It's CNC milled out of aircraft grade aluminum for a premium yet solid feel, resulting in a sleek and travel friendly chassis that won't...
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