Laptops, Netbooks, Notebooks, NetTops, Eee PC, SmartTops, Mobile PC, Tablet PC

Anyone in any doubt that Ultrabooks are anything other than the spotlight device for 2012 will have to take stock after a slew of new machines were revealed at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. One of CES’ brightest lights was undoubtedly the Dell XPS13 Ultrabook (price TBA) which should hit the shelves by the end of March.

We couldn’t wait that long to get the lowdown on the Dell XPS 13, so we’ve nabbed a pre-production model for review. And, from the Ultrabooks are anything other than the spotlight device for 2012 will have to take stock after a slew of new machines were revealed at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. One of CES’ brightest lights was undoubtedly the Dell XPS13 Ultrabook (price TBA) which should hit the shelves by the end of March.

We couldn’t wait that long to get the lowdown on the Dell XPS 13, so we’ve nabbed a pre-production model for review. And, from the looks of things, we reckon it could rival the Asus Zenbook for the top Ultrabook title.

Like all Ultrabooks, the XPS 13 certainly turns heads. From the outside, it looks like a smaller version of the Dell XPS 15z and 14z – which is no bad thing.

A curvaceous silver aluminum shell at a feather-weight 1.4kg means when you pick the XPS 13 up, it’s akin to holding a tablet. Conforming to the design restrictions laid out by Intel for the Ultrabook format, the XPS 13 measures 7mm at its thinnest point and 18mm at its thickest.

Once you lift the lid and peer inside, the craftsmanship of the device becomes apparent. Unlike the silver interiors of the Zenbook UX31 or the Acer Aspire S3, the XPS 13 is jet black and devoid of any stickers or markings. The interior of the chassis is coated with a soft rubber surface that feels comfortably like the interior of an expensive sports car.

The exception to the rubber coating is the centrally-placed glass multi-gesture touchpad.

The touchpad features integrated mouse buttons, similar to the Aspire S3. While we feel that this doesn’t offer the best usability, we will concede that these buttons are aesthetically more appealing.

Similarly, the isolation-style keyboard is a joy to use. Because of the thinness of the chassis the keyboard here – like other Ultrabooks – has a very shallow travel. This isn’t much of an issue though, and the spacing of the keys is well proportioned – as is the slightly curving design of the keys themselves. Dell has also given the keyboard a backlight that works very well with the all-black interior.

The Asus Zenbook UX31E ‘Ultrabook’ is one of the most positive, groundbreaking portables we’ve seen for years. Ultrabook is the new wave of laptop: incredibly light, incredibly thin, and promising almost instant boot times at affordable prices. It sounds like Apple’s MacBook Air has a new rival…

Intel reckons that by the end of 2012 four out of 10 new laptops will be Ultrabooks. And if the Zenbook UX31E is the shape of things to come, the future is indeed bright.

The similarities between the Zenbook and Apple’s MacBook Air are obvious. Both come with solid aluminum chassis and impressive build quality; both are curved underneath to give the impression of being even thinner than they actually are (no mean feat) and both could fit inside a manila envelope if you wish. Most importantly, thanks to the Core i7 processors, both are fully capable of acting as your main day-to-day desktop, even for heavy users. Unlike ultra-light machines of days gone by, there’s no performance penalty to pay for keeping things small. Read the rest of this entry »

The Acer Aspire S3 is one of Acer’s dinkiest laptops yet, and the price is appealing considering the impressive specs list. With a thickness of 18mm at its widest point, the Aspire S3 may not be as ‘size zero’ slender as the Toshiba or Asus, but it’s certainly thin enough to slide into an oversized handbag. The lid is impressively slim – and also tough enough to take a pounding. There’s almost no flex in the center either, so the display remains protected even when the laptop is bumping around in a bag.

The reduced chassis space means a compact keyboard, the nemesis of anyone with sausage fingers. Thankfully most keys are well sized, and although the arrow keys are almost comically tiny, touch typing is still a breeze. The touchpad is also a decent size, but cursed with integrated mouse buttons. You need to push the left and right corners of the pad down to simulate mouse clicks. The cursor often skips across the screen when the corners are pushed, leading to incorrect menu selections – after a couple of hours, we came close to busting out the power tools and giving the Aspire S3 a few new air vents. Thankfully you can tap the touchpad’s surface for left mouse clicks instead. Read the rest of this entry »

Asus may have invented the original netbook with the Eee PC, but it was Acer who took the bull by the horns with its Aspire One series. This latest-generation Aspire One 522 weighs in at 1.2Kg is the cheapest in our test and features a dual-core AMD C-60 1GHz processor.

Like our other models, it also sports Windows 7 Home Starter. There’s a decently-sized hard drive at 320GB, for plenty of photos and music, and the screen size is the now-standard 10.1-inches but is bright and crisp.

The latest-gen AMD chips support output to an HD display, such as your flat screen TV or newer monitor, so there’s an HDMI port on the side. Graphics is a really strong suite for the Acer; it’s easily the most capable here in terms of media playback and will reel off Full HD video with its 1,080 x 720 resolution display and is great at web video. Read the rest of this entry »

As much as we loved the Asus U36JC, we can’t say the same for the U46SV. It may be the spiritual successor to the U36JC, but we were surprised by the chunky build and rather uninspired design.

The chassis is 38mm thick, which is rather bulky for a laptop this size. It also weighs a lot more than the U36JC at 2.3kg. The U46SV won’t exactly weigh you down, but we expected something a lot slimmer and lighter. Compared to the likes of the Sony Vaio S and Samsung 9003X, this is a boxy beast.

We also aren’t massive fans of the U46SV’s aluminum build, which feels strangely plasticky. The lid is especially weak, bending in the center under light pressure, and looks rather low-rent, with a basic circular design. Still, we can’t complain when it comes to the keyboard. The popular isolation-style design means keys are well spaced, which makes it perfect for touch-typists. The keys are a great size, with no tiny Shift or Return; even the arrows get plenty of space. Read the rest of this entry »

Hot on the heels of Samsung’s Series 7 and Series 9 laptops comes the more budget-friendly Series 3 selection. The Samsung Series 3 NP305V5A uses less powerful components than Series 7 and 9, but comes in at half the cost.

As usual, the isolation-style keyboard is comfortable for all-day typing. Keys are firmly mounted and spaced apart – even the arrow keys are given generous space. Spreadsheet lovers rejoice, for the Series 3 also has a numeric keypad for those number crunching sessions. We did find the very center of the board a little spongy, but this doesn’t impair your typing.

The touchpad is similarly well-endowed, covering the full width of the palmrests. The surface is responsive, and supports multitouch for zooming in and out. Read the rest of this entry »

For business users, Lenovos well-equipped B570 is the best budget choice in this group test, but for someone who wants to use their laptop for play, as well as work, there are more relevant choices.

The plain black chassis design puts function firmly before form. The tough, ridged plastics easily withstand scuffs and scratches and the firm lid protects the screen from damage. Although this is not the heaviest laptop we’ve seen, at 2.4kg it’s also not ideal for working on the move. The 157-minute battery life is average and can keep you working on short journeys. Read the rest of this entry »

The Envy is HP’s high-performance range and is constantly improving, especially since the arrival of the Beats audio editions. With a 17.3-inch screen, the Envy 17 is the big brother of the family and has the features and performance to prove it.

While the plain black lid of the Envy 17 doesn’t scream desirability, the inside more than makes up for it. A sleek, brushed-aluminum design stands out against a black isolation-style keyboard that bears an uncanny resemblance to something you might find on a MacBook. To the far right is a large circular button that calls up the Beats audio control panel for playback and recording options. Read the rest of this entry »

If you wanted a stylishly light and powerful Toshiba laptop, you would immediately look to the Japanese company’s Portege range of powerful ultraportable. That is, until you came across the Satellite Z830-10U, Toshiba’s entry into the Ultrabook market.

At 16mm of breadth it’s a little on the chunky side, but it weighs a light and airy 1.1kg – the lightest of all the Ultrabooks.

Toshiba has shunned any kind of reflective coating for the screen. The trade-off is a slight lack of richness when watching a movie or looking at pictures. It’s not a major cause for concern though, as the 1,366 x 768 pixel resolution is still detailed enough to play 720p high-definition movies. Read the rest of this entry »

The HP Envy 14 Spectre is the latest and best-named Ultrabook to hit the shelves and with the combined draw of HP’s premium Envy range, and Dr Dre’s Beats brand, it’s going to be very’ hard to ignore.

Less concerned with a size-zero frame, the Spectre measures 20mm which is the maximum allowed for an Ultrabook, and weighs 1.8kg -hefty for an Ultrabook. But the slight bulk allows it to throw around some extra connectivity and features that other Ultrabooks can’t match.

Shunning the aluminium silver outer design favoured by other Ultrabooks like the Deli XPS13 or the Acer Aspire S3, the Spectre boasts a black Gorilla Glass lid with a slick, glossy finish. Adding the final touch is the bright HP logo nestled in the corner. Although it looks great, the inevitable downside is that the surface of the Spectre will quickly attract dust and smudgy fingerprints – more so than any other Ultrabook we’ve seen.

By slashing the size of its Ultrabook and retaining some top class technology, Asus managed to create the best netbook ever made. The diminutive keyboard won’t suit everyone, but if you need to stay portable, there’s no better laptop on the market right now.

The Zenbook UX21 matches the 11.6-inch MacBook Air in every respect, and is the perfect laptop for anyone looking for style and portability. It’s just as well-built, at 1.2 kg it’s just as light, and oozes just as much style and class. It also has the same Intel Core i5 low voltage 1.6GHz processor, the same 128GB solid state hard drive, which helps to keep the system responsive.

The Zenbook UX21 also manages to eclipse the MacBook Air in two key areas – storage and price. The UX21 comes with 4GB of RAM, and it’s £150 cheaper, pleasingly. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s being a fantastic ultraportable laptop – with a comfortable keyboard, lightweight design and decent amount of power – it does little to stand out from rivals like the Asus Zenbook.

Its brushed metal body feels solid, and there’s little flex. There are contours and lines which add detail, making it more interesting than the Apple MacBook Air clones we’ve seen elsewhere.

An Intel Core i5 processor is under the hood, which we were a bit disappointed to find when other manufacturers have added Intel Core i7 processors into a smaller chassis. There’s also 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD drive.

The less powerful Intel Core i5 processor showed through in our lab tests and the 7244 score in Cinebench is on the low side, when compared with the Asus Zenbook UX31 and Acer Aspire S3. These are much more powerful systems, and the Lenovo has little in reply to make it a real winner. Read the rest of this entry »

Metal might be associated with brown, but it can also be stylish, in a macho sort of way. The Asus UX31 Zenbook is all about style with a metallic edge, quite literally. The edge comes from the taper towards the front, making this ultrathin Ultrabook look even thinner. The sharp features are accentuated by the taper coming in from the bottom too—the front thickness is just 3 mm, while it is 9 mm at the rear giving this device a clamshell kind of feel.

Asus says it was aiming for an angular harmony with the design, and we must agree that they have been successful. Despite the all-aluminum body, the etched concentric circles on the cover and the linear brushed deck blend into each other seamlessly. Even the keypad is embedded with the metal keys looking lib they were a part of the body. There are no other buttons beyond the keypad into which even the power button has been added. The trackpad below is large and very responsive, though there is no multi-touch. You can, however, swipe through pictures. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest TravelMate from Acer doesn’t just look good in its metallic matte-black exterior, it also has a thin bezel that allows for a 14-inch screen in a body that normally holds 13.3-inches of screen real-estate. It has the biggest screen among all the notebooks in this line-up, except its resolution is only 1366×768 pixels. Acer also managed to get the TravelMate 8481G into a nice and slim shell, with a thickness measuring only 22.3mm. This little black machine also features an Nvidia discrete graphics card for added gaming performance. The solid construction of the entire machine is only let down by the incredible amount of flex in its island-style keyboard.

Dell reckons the Alienware M18x is the most powerful gaming laptop on the planet. This 5.4kg beast runs Windows 7 Home Premium and has an I8.4in screen, 8GB of DDR3 RAM (although you get only 4GB with the base £1,699 model), an Intel Core i7-2630M processor, either a terabyte (TB) or 1.5TB of storage and an nVidia GeForce GTX 460M with 1.5GB of video RAM.

The M18x’s huge screen supports a top resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, while an HDMI port makes this laptop ideal for general entertainment duties such as DVD playback as well as frantic gaming sessions. There are two USB 3.0 ports, so you can very quickly archive off everything to a high-speed external drive and free up some space, should the need ever arise. The 1.3Mp webcam is one of few standard specifications on this extraordinary Alienware laptop.

Dell has created a following for its ultraportable Inspiron Z laptops. The 14z has a 1366×768-pixel screen, a choice of Core i3 and i5 processors and focuses on connectedness on the go. In a home Wi-Fi environment, Dell Stage kicks in to automatically synchronize music, photos and messages.

Content can be called up on any Dell Stage-supported device. Bluetooth, USB 3.0, a webcam and a multiformat card reader mark out the Dell as a high-quality home laptop.

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Most of the time, a Fujitsu laptop means a no-nonsense portable computer that gets the job done no matter what. The glossy black Fujitsu SH761 is no different. It looks professional and its build is extremely solid, with no creaking parts whatsoever. It’s small and lightweight at a respectable 1.6Kg, and even then, has space for an optical drive. This slinky little machine also features an Nvidia 520M discrete graphics card for a slight improvement in gaming performance. Another feature which we really like is the touch-enabled scrolling pad that lets you scroll in all directions.

We’re not surprised to see the Lenovo IdeaPad G570 here – only a few issues ago; it earned a thoroughly deserved Best Value award. But whereas last time we reviewed a basic, no-frills model, this time Lenovo has sent us something tastier.

The familiar Core i3-2310M processor takes center-stage, but Lenovo has pushed up the price and added a few extras. There’s now a generous 6GB of memory, and the 640GB hard disk is a welcome sight for the more download-hungry user. Even more impressive, though, is the fact that Lenovo has squeezed in a Blu-ray reader and dedicated ATI graphics.

As well as these additions, all the best features remain intact. The keyboard remains one of the best you’ll find on any budget model: concave Scrabble-tile keys grip the fingers nicely, and the positive action makes for responsive typing. The touchpad is similarly fuss-free, with discrete, clicky buttons, and a wide multitouch surface that makes for accurate cursor control. Read the rest of this entry »

Given its specification, it’s a surprise that the Acer Aspire Ethos 5943G is so affordable. With a Core i5 processor, Blu-ray drive and dedicated graphics, it easily looks the best on paper of all the laptops here. The reason it’s so cheap is simple: unlike the competition, this one’s from Acer’s last-season range.

The first giveaway is the Core i5-460M, one of the first-generation Intel Core processors. Still, that’s no bad thing. While the latest Core i3 chips have come on leaps and bounds, this is still a more powerful chip than the lot of them – as a result of 0.63 in our Real World Benchmarks shows. Read the rest of this entry »

The black-brushed, 1.35Kg-light, Duralumin-clad Samsung Series 9 definitely strikes us as thin, light and sexy from the moment we laid eyes on it. Duralumin is an alloy used primarily on fighter jets to keep them light and tough, just like on the Series 9. Out of all the Windows-powered notebooks tested, its trackpad is also the biggest and the most comfortable to use. Like the MacBook Air it is competing with, it also sports an SSD that supercharges performance. However it’s a pity it only comes in black. Ports are hidden and can easily be accessed on the side of the machine. The one odd addition to this machine: A Micro-SD card slot.

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