Ultrabook reviews
Intel's seen the future of the laptop, and it's called the ultrabook. Designed to compete head-to-head with the MacBook Air, these new machines are extremely thin, promise over five hours of battery life, and boot / resume from sleep very quickly. Every major laptop manufacturer now has an ultrabook on its product list, so whether you favor Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, or Toshiba, there's a review here for you.
HP Spectre XT TouchSmart review
Last September, HP introduced one of the most credible MacBook Air competitors we’d yet seen: the 13-inch Envy Spectre XT was thin, light, strong, and yet still comfortable to use, a rarity in a Windows ultrabook. Yet it also had a low-quality, low-resolution 1366 x 768 display that had no place in a premium $1,000 laptop, and it arrived without a touchscreen, which quickly limited its utility with Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system.
On paper, the new Envy Spectre XT TouchSmart...
Asus Taichi review (11.6-inch)
Since Windows 8's debut last October, PC manufacturers have all followed pretty much the same playbook. Build a laptop with a touchscreen? Check. A docking laptop / tablet hybrid? Check. A strange, hinged device that twists and turns from tablet to laptop modes? Check. The PC market as a whole may look very different than it did a year ago, but the currently available devices don't vary much. Except for this one Asus device that crossed my desk a couple of weeks ago, that is.
It's called the...
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch review
When I reviewed the X1 Carbon, Lenovo's flagship ThinkPad laptop, I found few faults. It's an eye-catching computer that combines everything good about ThinkPads – great keyboard, sturdy design, solid performance — with a fit and finish I didn't expect from the company's "black box" line of laptops. Its price was a little high and its bloatware portion was heaping, but it was (and still is) one of my favorite Windows 7 ultrabooks.
Now that Windows 8 is here, in all its touch-friendly,...
Lenovo ThinkPad Twist review
In ten years, it seems like everything's changed — but maybe things aren't so different after all.
In 2002, Acer revealed a PC that was also a tablet, the TravelMate 100. The convertible device used a swiveling central hinge, allowing the screen to rotate 180 degrees and fold down on top of the keyboard so you could hold it in two hands like a tablet. The concept never caught on in a truly mainstream way, but has occupied a niche ever since the TravelMate's introduction.
Now, a full...
Acer Aspire M5 review: the affordable all-purpose ultrabook
Battlefield 3 on a power-sipping ultrabook? They said it couldn't be done. In March, however, Acer and Nvidia proved them wrong. Behind closed doors at the 2012 Game Developer's Conference, the sleek black 15.6-inch Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 ran the demanding game, thanks to a brand-new Nvidia GeForce GT 640M graphics chip with more bang per watt than anything else we'd seen. Unfortunately for the world, most every other part of that laptop was sorely lacking in quality, and the Timeline...
Acer Aspire S7 and Dell XPS 12 review: battle of the transforming 1080p touchscreen ultrabooks
The Dell XPS 12 and Acer Aspire S7 aren’t your average laptops. They’re premium, and unique.
One is a razor-thin, Gorilla Glass-infused attempt to transform Acer’s reputation, the other Dell’s carbon fiber-laced realization of an idea that was ahead of its time. Both start at $1,199 for a Core i5 processor, 4GB of memory, 128GB of solid state storage, and a brilliant 1080p touchscreen display, but each has its own special way of running Windows 8. The Acer Aspire S7’s screen bends...
HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 review
To prepare for the Windows 8 onslaught, laptop manufacturers are trying all sorts of inventive touchscreen notebook designs. Some screens flip, some spin, some twist, and some can actually be detached from their keyboards so you can have a tablet for the road. However, the craziest new laptop design may be the simplest of all: simply graft a touchscreen onto an existing clamshell.
The $799.99 HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 is one such touchscreen notebook, and it also just so happens to be...
HP Envy Spectre XT review
Three years ago, HP introduced the Envy 13. This week, we’re reviewing its spiritual successor, the Envy Spectre XT. Oh, how times have changed. Then, as now, the Envy was accused of cribbing from Apple's MacBook playbook. Then, as now, it's a shiny silver machine, with an ultra-low-voltage processor, a single-button clickpad, no optical drive, few ports, and a 13-inch screen.
So, what's new? HP's latest Envy sheds weight, girth, and adds a solid state drive to compete with the MacBook...
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review
Lenovo's made the most of the time since Intel defined the "ultrabook" last fall, releasing a number of different models designed for different users. By and large, the company's done good work, too: we called the ThinkPad U300s the best ultrabook on the market back in November, and the IdeaPad U310 delivers pretty solid value for $799.
But Lenovo saved its best for its latest, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The Carbon is the successor to last year's X1, and ticks all the ultrabook boxes, but it...
Toshiba Satellite U845W and U845 review
Laptops in 2012 may be thinner and lighter than ever, but the form factor's otherwise been largely untouched. You get a keyboard, a trackpad, a 16:9 widescreen display, and some ports. One of Toshiba's latest Satellite ultrabooks looks like that: the U845 is thin, light, and overwhelmingly laptop-y. But the other new Satellite is a bit different: the U845W's 14.4-inch display is "ultra-widescreen," with a 21:9 aspect ratio that is far wider and shorter than most displays its size. The U845W...
Microsoft
Vizio 15.6-inch Thin + Light ultrabook review
Vizio makes laptops? Yes, it does. This year, the TV company revealed a grand plan to shake up the Windows PC industry by creating its own computers. It began with a mysterious Super Bowl ad, but it wasn't long before the world got a glimpse of Vizio's first machines: an iconic series of three slim silver notebooks and two all-in-one PCs. Well-known for producing decent televisions at fantastic bargains, Vizio was expected to keep up that bang-for-the-buck trend in the laptop realm, and the...
Samsung Series 9 review (13-inch, mid-2012)
Samsung's Series 9 laptops have a lot to prove. Since the day Samsung showed the first one off at CES last year, they've consistently been priced higher than the equivalent MacBook Air, and that can be a pretty hard sell. If you want a premium Windows machine, though, a MacBook Air just won't do. So when I reviewed the 15-inch Samsung Series 9, I was hopeful that its $1,500 price tag meant it would be the Windows ultrabook of choice going forward.
If you read my review, though, you already...
Microsoft
Dell XPS 14 review (2012)
Since the day the chunky XPS M1210 notebook morphed into the XPS M1330's sleek frame, Dell has almost always had a stylish laptop lineup to its name. Back in 2007, they were defined by brushed aluminum surfaces and ultra-thin LED backlit screens, and in 2010, they went to a black-and-silver design with distinctive port-filled corners and magnesium alloy decks. In 2011, the XPS 15z took a page from Apple's playbook before that was cool, and this year's XPS 13 could practically have sprung from...
Acer Aspire S5 review
When Acer introduced the Aspire S5 ultrabook at CES in January, it did so to considerable fanfare. The company said it was the thinnest ultrabook yet, and that it didn't cut corners to get there: the S5 has a Thunderbolt port (good luck finding one on another ultrabook), a huge 256GB SSD, and a bizarre ports panel called MagicFlip. Thin, light, fast, and Thunderbolt sounded like a gang not to be trifled with.
More details rolled out over the last few months, leading up to the S5’s release....
Lenovo IdeaPad U310 review
The deluge of competitors to the MacBook Air’s throne shows no sign of slowing, and while the jury’s still out on whether an ultrabook has yet to truly best Apple’s wunder-device there have been a number of attractive options. Consider the IdeaPad U310, successor to the IdeaPad U300s we checked out (and enjoyed) in November — albeit with new hardware and a few budget-minded compromises.
The U310 is powered by a dual-core Ivy Bridge processor, 4GB of RAM and equipped with a 500GB...
Microsoft
Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A review
Eight months ago, Asus was one of the first to build a credible MacBook Air alternative with a similar look and feel. The 13-inch Asus Zenbook UX31 and 11-inch UX21 delivered extremely rigid all-metal frames, power-sipping Intel Sandy Bridge processors, speedy solid state storage, and unfortunately, an incredibly frustrating trackpad. Ultimately, we couldn't recommend them over their Apple competitors in any particular way, and that trackpad threw a wrench in the formula.
In March, however, w...
Microsoft
Samsung Series 9 review (15-inch, early 2012)
One year ago, Samsung released the Series 9 laptop, and at the time, we'd never seen a more premium Windows machine. It was thin, light, visually striking, and choice components filled the svelte machine, including a comfortable backlit keyboard, a fast SSD, an aluminum alloy chassis, and a wonderful matte screen. If it weren't for the 13-inch computer's $1,649 price tag (which admittedly fell to $1,399 after a few months), it might have been a roaring success.
As is, it was good enough for...
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3-581TG review
What is an ultrabook? Intel has a pretty loose definition: as long as your laptop is less than 0.8 inches thin, has five hours of battery life, rapidly wakes from sleep, and has a second-generation Intel Core processor, you're basically part of the club. What "ultrabook" stands for, though, is an entirely different matter. The first wave of ultrabooks were designed specifically to compete with Apple's MacBook Air, and it showed: a teardrop-shaped wedge design, a metal frame, a 13-inch screen,...
HP Envy 14 Spectre review
Can you believe that just six months ago, HP was thinking of ditching the PC business? It seems far fetched today, now that we know the company had laptops like the lightweight, long-lasting Folio 13 and the powerful yet relatively inexpensive Envy series up its sleeves. And of course, that's before we consider the HP Envy 14 Spectre, too. First revealed to us in an FCC filing and then again in a video tease, the Spectre turned out to be a 14-inch ultrabook practically bathed in Gorilla...
Dell XPS 13 review
Acer Aspire S3. Asus Zenbook UX31. Lenovo IdeaPad U300S. Toshiba Portege Z835. HP Folio 13. And now, Dell's XPS. Since Intel and its OEM partners set out to beat the Apple MacBook Air on price and match its exceptionally thin, superbly solid build, six Windows laptops have risen to the challenge... and while a few have come close, none have quite done the job. The XPS 13 is Dell's entry into the ultrabook arena, and while it's got the same basic specs as most of the other thin-and-lights...
MacBook Air with Windows 7 review: the ultrabook to rule them all?
Let’s be honest: The ultrabook phenomenon is by and large Intel's and the rest of the PC industry's reaction to Apple’s MacBook Air. Just take a look at a lot of the designs and the features: the influence (and in some places the outright imitation) is obvious. However, while the ultrabooks on the market today have all tried to mimic and beat the Air on one thing or another — price, more storage, and so on — none have managed to pull it off.
In fact, I’ve concluded in almost all...
Microsoft
HP Folio 13 review
“I hardly think that we're too late, the work we're doing with Microsoft is extraordinarily compelling — ultraportables are compelling," HP’s Todd Bradley said during the call where Meg Whitman, the company’s new CEO, declared her decision to keep its PC business. Of course, Bradley wasn’t only defending HP’s role in the computer and mobile market, but he was hinting at HP’s intention to jump into the new crowded ultrabook pool. And the HP Folio 13 is just that entry.
I...
Microsoft
Toshiba Portege Z835 ultrabook review
In the last couple of weeks, ultrabooks — Intel’s new category of ultrathin and ultralight laptops — have been arriving one by one, each aiming to derail the MacBook Air’s lead with a mix of competitive pricing and new features. But none of them have been successful; each has had its own set of compromises which just haven’t been worth the savings. To recap: the Acer Aspire S3 had a slower hard drive / SSD combo and atrocious keyboard, the Asus Zenbook UX31 had unforgivable trackpad...
Microsoft
Lenovo IdeaPad U300s ultrabook review
Months before Intel decided to jump-start its new ultrabook category, Lenovo made an extremely thin laptop which essentially fit 95 percent of Intel’s vision: the IdeaPad U260. The aluminum-wrapped laptop, which came out last December, was just 0.7 inches thick and was one of the best Windows ultraportables ever created in terms of performance and overall build. However, it couldn’t take on its closest competitor — the MacBook Air — for one major reason: battery life. An incredibly...
Asus Zenbook UX31 review
When Intel unveiled its notion of the ultrabook in June, Asus could hardly contain its excitement. Just moments after Intel’s Sean Maloney announced the newly-named laptop category, which promised fast boot times and great battery life, Asus’ Chairman Jonney Shih took the stage in his always-entertaining, yet transcendent style to show off his company’s future UX ultrabooks. The laptops had more than just a few things in common with Apple's MacBook Air – aluminum chassis,...
Microsoft
Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook review
Back in June, Intel laid out its plan for the future of the laptop. These "ultrabooks," as Intel thought it would be more appropriate to call them, had to become more like phones and tablets — more portable, more nimble, and unlike the ultraportables of past, more affordable. They had to be, well, more like Apple’s MacBook Air. However, Chipzilla did more than just present its vision: it provided a guiding light for those non-Apple manufacturers with a set of guidelines on how to create...
