Andrei Girbea, author at Ultrabookreview.com

Andrei Girbea

Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com. I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.

  • Andrei Girbea - October 17, 2022

    We’ve reviewed a couple of different laptops built on Intel’s Tiger Lake Core hardware in the last weeks, but most of those were high-tier products with matching price-tags. This article is, however, about a budget Tiger Lake laptop from Acer, the Aspire 5 late-2020...

  • Andrei Girbea - December 11, 2020

    The LarkBook is Chuwi’s latest ultraportable, scheduled for online availability on December 15th, 2020. We’ve covered Chuwi products here on the site before, most of them computers and tablets meant for those of you shopping on limited budgets, but without compromising on most features...

  • Andrei Girbea - May 16, 2022

    Huawei offer a couple of compelling portable laptops these days, and the MateBook 14 that we’re discussing here greatly sparked my interest when announced, as one of the very few compact 14-inch laptops built on a full-power AMD Ryzen H 4000 hardware platform. We’ve...

  • Andrei Girbea - November 27, 2021

    Tiger Lake is Intel’s 11th-gen Core hardware designed for ultrabooks and portable laptops, and their most recent platform at the time of this article, available in stores from Q4-2020. Higher-power Tiger Lake H35 and H45 series have also been released after the initial low-power...

  • Andrei Girbea - April 23, 2024

    I’ve had several Zephyrus G14 models on my desk during these last two months, and have been using them both as daily drivers and while running our various tests. I’ve also used both pre-production and retail models in several different configurations: both the White...

  • Andrei Girbea - September 2, 2022

    This is one of the most anticipated affordable gaming laptops of the moment, the AMD Ryzen 4000 version of the Lenovo Legion 5. I’ve bought this locally about two weeks ago and have been using it since, and you’ll find my thoughts and impressions...

  • Andrei Girbea - December 20, 2023

    For years, Asus ROG laptops have been a standard for full-size performance and gaming computers with beefy specs and cooling solutions to match. However, with the technology progressing and people looking into more portable options, the big-boy ROG laptops have recently got into a...

  • Andrei Girbea - May 21, 2024

    The ZenBook S is Asus’s premium lineup of ultrabooks, and has been updated as of late-2020 with a brand-new product, code name ZenBook S UX393EA. This is a major revamp of the previous ZenBook S UX392 from 2019, now including a 3:2 wide-gamut touchscreen,...

  • Andrei Girbea - May 21, 2024

    For the last years, Acer’s Predator Helios 300s have been among the best selling and most recommended performance/gaming/all-purpose laptops on the market, and for good reason. We’ve reviewed all the available Helios 300s over time, and this article gathers our thoughts on the most...

  • Andrei Girbea - January 24, 2023

    This article is a detailed list of all the important laptops with small bezels available in stores these days. We’re constantly updating it and adding new units are they’re released. By reducing the size of the bezels around the screens, manufacturers are able to...

  • Andrei Girbea - January 27, 2023

    The 14-inch Acer Swift 3 series includes some of the best-value affordable ultrabooks on the market, and I’ve recently spent time with their latest update as of late-2020, the Swift 3 14 SF314-59 model with Intel Tiger Lake hardware. Update: Acer also offer an...

  • Andrei Girbea - April 9, 2021

    Among the multitude of ASUS ZenBooks available in stores these days, the ZenBook 14 Ultralight UX435 series steps-out of the crowd with its sub-one-kilo lightweight magnesium construction, good-quality matte screen, uncompromised IO, and long battery life. Most lightweight ultrabooks sacrifice on some of those...

  • Andrei Girbea - January 27, 2023

    The ZenBook S Flip UX371 is the premium 2-in-1 convertible offered by ASUS in stores as of late-2020, and their first ultrabook certified as an Intel Evo platform. Only the highest-tier of portable laptops built on Intel Tiger Lake hardware get the Evo badge,...

  • Andrei Girbea - December 12, 2022

    I finally got to use the Lenovo Ideapad Slim 7 for a while, and gathered my thoughts on it in this article. Lenovo also sell this as the Yoga Slim 7 in some markets, but it’s the same product, so I’ll refer it as...

  • Andrei Girbea - March 30, 2023

    Earlier in the year, MSI announced their updated GE66 Raider 15-inch performance laptop, and I’ve been impatiently waiting to get my hands on it for many months now. This GE66 Raider had big shoes to fill-up, following on the competent GE65 Raider model from...

  • Andrei Girbea - November 4, 2022

    Asus have recently revamped their entire lineups of ZenBook ultrabooks, and while I’ve tested most of their clamshell models in recent months, I was yet to touch their updated 2-in-1 convertible models till now. Not anymore, though, this article is our detailed review of...

  • Andrei Girbea - January 27, 2023

    After reviewing the highly-competitive AMD Ryzen based versions of the IdeaPad 5 and Slim 7 earlier this year, we’ve finally got our hands on the ThinkPad T14s business ultrabook based on AMD’s Ryzen Pro hardware series, the 2020 follow-up of the popular ThinkPad T490s...

  • Andrei Girbea - July 18, 2023

    Chuwi, a smaller company specialized in offering affordable computing options, have recently announced the launch of their latest 10-inch Windows tablet, the H10 XR. This is based on an Intel Gemini Lake R hardware platform, namely the Intel Celeron N4120 processor with 4Cores, 4...

  • Andrei Girbea - September 18, 2021

    Earlier this year I’ve reviewed the 13-inch Swift 3 ultraportable with Intel IceLake hardware, an interesting and fairly affordable portable laptop with a productivity-focused 3:2 display. Several months later, Acer updated the series with the newer Intel Tiger Lake hardware, updated the thermal design...

  • Andrei Girbea - January 27, 2023

    Nitros are Acer’s entry-level performance laptops, devices meant to offer the best specs, performance and features for as little money as possible. However, Acer offers two Nitro versions, the all-plastic Nitro 5 which we’ve reviewed a while ago, and the more premium Nitro 7,...

  • Andrei Girbea - April 7, 2021

    Chuwi, a company specialized in offering affordable computing options, will be holding their periodical Brand Fest sale-event on Aliexpress on September 15th and 16th 2020. That means most of their products will be available at up to 40% OFF, including their most recent launches...

  • Andrei Girbea - May 20, 2022

    After dabbling with the dual-screen design in the ZenBook Pro Duo last year, Asus are finally updating their standard all-round ZenBook Pro 15 lineup that has been neglected over the last year. As of late-2020, the ZenBook Pro UX535 is their latest model in...

  • Andrei Girbea - September 18, 2021

    The late-2020 ZenBook lineup looks like a solid leap in the right direction for Asus, and a step-up from the mid-2020 ZenBook series. This article is all about the ZenBook 14 UX435 series, a quick revamp of the ZenBook 14 UX425 line that we’re...

  • Andrei Girbea - December 20, 2023

    Asus premium-line of ultrabooks hasn’t been updated in more than a year, and that’s changing as of late-2020 with the introduction of two new models: the clamshell ZenBook S UX392 and the convertible ZenBook S Flip UX371. These are not just a hardware update...

  • Andrei Girbea - December 20, 2023

    This is our detailed article of the Asus ROG Strix G15, in the higher-end G512LV configuration with an Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia RTX 2060 graphics, in the updated and overclocked 115W variant. Right now, the Strix G15 is the most affordable ROG...

  • Andrei Girbea - February 17, 2021

    This here is our detailed review of the 2020 update of the Asus VivoBook S15 M533, in the M533IA configuration based on AMD Ryzen 4000 hardware. VivoBooks are Asus’s line of mid-level ultrabooks, the more affordable alternative for their premium ZenBooks. While in the...

  • Andrei Girbea - October 8, 2021

    This here is the Asus ZenBook 14 UM425, in its UM425IA configuration based on the AMD Ryzen + Radeon Vega hardware platform. Right now, this ZenBook is one of the most interesting ultrabooks available for less than 1000 EUR here in Europe (and probably...

  • Andrei Girbea - January 2, 2022

    The Nitro 5s are Acer’s entry-level gaming notebooks, their most affordable options meant for buyers on a budget. However, Acer does offer the Nitro 5s in a multitude of configurations. This article is about the updated 2020 15-inch Nitro 5, code-name Nitro 5 AN515-55,...

  • Andrei Girbea - January 24, 2023

    The MSI Creator 17 is the first notebook to ship with this new generation mini LED IPS display, and I finally got to spend time with it in these last weeks. This is 17-inch mobile workstation built on the latest 2020 Intel and Nvidia...

  • Andrei Girbea - November 18, 2022

    This here is the compact 13-inch ZenBook 13 UX325JA, the mid-2020 update of the popular Asus ZenBook ultrabook series. It’s been slightly redesigned from the previous 13-inch ZenBook UX331 and UX333 models, but more importantly, it features updated hardware (Intel IceLake), updated connectivity with...