This category is all about what we can call the “standard” ultrabook, thin-and-light laptops with 13.3-inch screens. These notebooks provide the ideal mix of power, features and size, and most manufacturers offer several 13 inch models these days. The offer is vast, from thin and very light devices, to powerful laptops with dedicated graphics, from business units with classic designs and matte screens, to multimedia ultrabooks with touchscreens and fancy shells.
I’ve spent a few days with the Zenbook Flip UX360CA, one of the most popular ultraportable laptops with a convertible screen on websites like Amazon or BestBuy, and I’m going to tell you what I think about this device in the following paragraphs. Before...
The Dell XPS 13 9350 is one of the most popular 13-inch ultraportables available out there. It’s been out for a while, Derek reviewed it here on the site and Doug told you how to tweak its performance and thermals. However, many of you...
It’s been a while since Asus actually released completely new ultraportables. Their Skylake models to date were actually upgrades of Broadwell and even Haswell chassis, but that’s going to change in the second part of 2016 with the newly announced Zenbook 3 and the...
I’ve bought the Dell XPS 13 back in January 2015 and I’ve been using it as my daily-driver notebook ever since. If you’ve read my initial review of the laptop (I suggest you check it out if you haven’t already, and then come back...
About a year ago, I got the opportunity to try out Dell’s Broadwell XPS 13. In fact, Andrei also got it and still uses it today. I really liked it, but the unit I received had a few bugs in it, including a sluggish...
If you’re in the market for a premium 13-inch convertible with Skylake hardware and don’t have an unlimited budget to spend, the Lenovo Yoga 900 and the HP Spectre x360 are pretty much the only viable option to consider right now. Otherwise, there’s also...
While the offer for well-priced ultraportables that make little to no compromises hasn’t been fruitful over the years, the tides have changed during late 2015 and the first half of 2016, with devices like the Asus Zenbook UX305LA, the UX305UA, the HP Envy 13...
If you’ve read some of my other articles here on the site, you probably know I’m a big fan of compact laptops with matte screens, that’s why my main-driver in the last months has been the Dell XPS 13 with the matte FHD display....
The Samsung ATIV BOOK 9 Spin is a recent entry in the premium tier of 2-in-1 ultraportables and a direct competitor for the HP Spectre X360 and the Lenovo Yoga 900. The ATIV Book 9 Spin is not available worldwide, but for those of...
I have to admit, the XPS 13 2015 9343 is one of the few ultraportables that caught my attention at CES. And since it was one of the first Broadwell U laptops available to buy, I took the plunge and got one early, in...
The Yoga 900 is Lenovo’s top-of-the-line consumer ultraportable for the end of 2015 and the first part of 2016. It’s a premium device, selling for $1200 and up at the time of this post (more about this further down, in the Pricing and Availability...
If you’re looking for a sleek and light 13-inch laptop with Broadwell U hardware and a matte IPS display, the Asus Zenbook UX305LA should definitely be on your list. It’s available in stores around the world and I’ve got to spend some time with...
This is my detailed review of the Asus Zenbook UX305 series (UX305FA model), one of the few available ultraportables built on Intel’s Core M platform that you can buy at the time of this article There are several reasons why this laptop should spark...
The Asus Zenbook UX303LN was one of the the few 13-inch ultraportables that could handle games well in the last year and while Asus has updated the series to Broadwell hardware, they also quietly launched a new model earlier in 2015: the Zenbook UX303LB,...
Dell’s XPS 13 is still the undisputed king of Windows (and now even Linux) ultrabooks, delivering more power, style, and portability than any other competitor. With a price range from $800 to $2130, there are plenty of configuration options for every price point. The...
Acer haven’t been too creative with their ultrabooks in the last years. While other manufacturers have been pushing out several new models each year, they mostly stuck with a single one: the Aspire S7. The beginning of 2015 brings a “new” iteration of the...
In this post we’re going to talk about the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, Lenovo’s thinnest and lightest 13 inch ultrabook to-date and at the same time, the first Intel Core M device I got my hands-on. The article is a review, a collection of...
We’ve seen several different 2-in-1 form factors in the last years, and among them, the “Yoga” format, with the 360 degree convertible screen, has gotten the most traction. The Aspire R 13, code name R7-371T, is not like any of the other 2-in-1s. In...
Asus quietly updated their lines of ultrabooks with Broadwell hardware and these devices are already starting to pop-out in stores around the world. They also launched a few new devices, sleeker than ever before, like the Zenbook UX305 or the Chi T300. Broadwell is...
The Asus Zenbook UX305 is one of the hottest ultraportables of the moment. It’s built on a Core M platform, it’s sleek and nicely crafted and it’s cheaper than most of its peers. In the US the base version starts at $699 and for...
Hey guys, this is my detailed review of the Dell Inspiron 13 7000 series. We have the retail version of the Inspiron 13 7347 model for tests and it is a 13 inch 2-in-1 convertible laptop, Dell’s alternative to the Lenovo Yoga 2 13...
On my never ending quest to find the “perfect” high-end ultrabook, I was able to get my hands on the new Aorus X3 Plus. I’ve never used an Aorus product before and I’ve read a few not-so-stellar reviews on Gigabyte laptops as well, so...
Some of you requested a head-to-head between the Asus Zenbook UX303LN and the MacBook Pro 13 with retina display and I finally managed to get them side by side this week. I don’t have any pictures though, I did not have my camera with...
With Intel Broadwell hardware just a few months from hitting the stores, Asus announced the Zenbook UX305 line at IFA Berlin, a device that promises to be one of the slimmest 13.3 inch laptops ever created and at the same time, one of the...
Got my hands on another Core M ultraportable in the last few days, the Asus Transformer Book T300FA, and this post is my collection of initial impressions on it. Just to be clear, this is not the ultra-sleek T300 Chi tablet showcased at Computex...
For many, the Macbook Air might well be the best ultra-portable available these days. It doesn’t pack as many features as some of the top ultrabooks you can find in stores, but it does provide a well balanced experience for an attractive price. And...
Ultrabooks are sleek and snappy, but graphics performances are not exactly their strong point. However, if you were looking for a 13 inch ultrabook with dedicated graphics in the last years, Asus got you cover, with devices like the Zenbook UX32VD back in 2012,...
If you’ve been following ultrabooks in these last years, Asus’s Zenbooks should definitely sound familiar. The UX303 is their flagship line for the second part of 2014 and probably for the first half of 2015 as well and there will be at least two...
I have to admit, I fancied the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro from the moment I’ve got my eyes on it, back in September 2013 at IFA Berlin. But there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to a laptop, so in this post...
The HP Specte 13t-3000 has all the right tools to tackle pretty much any other 13 inch ultrabook of the moment. And it has the more affordable price tag on its side (starts at $999, while a similar config from its direct competitors will...