Best Ultrabooks in 2019: Complete Buying Guide & Reviews

From well-known brands like Dell and Apple to new competitors like Huawei, there is a little bit of everything on this list. The best lightweight ultrabooks made this list by being uncompromising in terms of speed and features while remaining small and versatile.

Looking for the thinnest and lightest laptop to be one of your essentials in your bag?

Or

Are you ready to add a few extra grams for an unprecedented battery life?

When thinking about what you need in a travel notebook, think about the following.

Some of these laptops will be better for photography, others for videography and others for research and work when traveling. Determine what your long-term use of this ultrabook will be the key before you buy.

So, get ready to dive into the best ultrabooks in 2019.

1. Huawei MateBook X Pro: The Best Ultrabook

• BENEFITS – The Huawei MateBook X Pro is compact and lightweight, with a stunning sRGB display, a great sound system and solid performance for its size.

• DISADVANTAGES – The worst webcam placement of all time.

Sometimes we encounter an Ultrabook that completely destroys everything that happened before. The Huawei Matebook X Pro is one of these Ultrabooks. This beautiful laptop brings high-end components into a stylishly designed case that even puts the MacBook Pro to the grave.

And with its 3K touch screen, the Huawei MateBook X Pro has a screen as pleasant to watch as the case. It’s really the best Ultrabook in 2019.

2. Dell XPS 13: A Laptop Capable of Any

• BENEFITS – The new body of the XPS 13 is smaller, with better internal cooling and a white interior. The almost borderless screen is still beautiful and there is a fingerprint reader hidden under the power button.

• DISADVANTAGES – The biggest quirk of the system, a webcam under the screen. Touch is not standard, and most ports have been replaced by USB-C.

Weighing just 1.21 kg and measuring just 0.3 inches at its narrowest point, the Dell XPS 13 is the essence of the best Ultrabooks. It’s not the most affordable option, but the Dell XPS 13 is a perfect example of what the best Ultrabooks can do. It has 8th generation Kaby Lake Refresh processors, of course, but it also has three USB Type C ports and the option of a beautiful alpine white finish.

With a new design that catches up with the competition, the Dell XPS 13 remains one of the best 13-inch laptops in 2019.

3. Laptop Surface 2: High-End Ultrabook from Microsoft

• BENEFITS – The Laptop 2 Surface increases the default RAM and switches to much faster processors. The new matte black color option is superb.

• THE INCONVENIENT – Aside from a CPU / RAM increase, there is not much new about it. The black color option is only available for more expensive configurations. No USB-C, a rarity for high-end laptops.

The original Laptop Surface was one of the best Ultrabooks when it appeared for the first time, although it was hampered by its relatively weak hardware and Windows 10 S. However, in 2018, the Surface Laptop 2 came back with a rematch, bringing more powerful quad-core processors and the full version of Windows 10.

It is thanks to these basic improvements that the Surface Laptop 2 is able to bring the purest Windows 10 experience to a laptop, at a price that will not make you suffocate with horror.

4. Lenovo Yoga 920: The Art of Hybrid Notebooks

• BENEFITS –  The Lenovo Yoga 920 enhances the company’s high-end two-in-one ultraportable business by adding active pen support and 3 USB-C Thunderbolt ports, making some design enhancements and adding an Intel Core i processor -series eighth generation for better performance and a very long battery life.

• THE DISADVANTAGES – The pen holder blocks its only full size USB port as well as the power button when the pen is tidy and overall design has not changed much. At 1.4 kg, it is heavy for its size.

Few Ultrabooks are as brilliantly designed as the Lenovo Yoga 920, a 2-in-1 notebook that is as good at looking at as it is in use. Unlike its closest competitors, like Microsoft’s Surface Book 2, it’s also a much less expensive business.

For the modest price you pay, you get a great all-metal finish that can be turned upside down for added functionality. It also houses the latest Intel 8th generation processors, just in case speed is a problem.

The Lenovo Yoga 920 boasts a host of enhancements and additional features, including a pen display and eighth generation Intel processors that make it one of the best two in one you can find.

5. HP Specter 13: Between Beauty & Performance

• THE BENEFITS – HP updates the Super Thin Spectrum with a new fast processor, an indispensable touchscreen and a new refreshing white and gold design.

• THE DISADVANTAGES – The battery life is not in the upper level, and the touchpad seems a bit off. The hinges do not allow to tilt the screen very far back.

From the moment your eyes meet the HP Specter 13, you will be impressed by its sheer beauty. HP took the already luxurious Specter and composed the design up to eleven with gold trim and packed it with internal specifications that blew the competition.

One of the first Ultrabooks with an 8th generation Kaby Lake Refresh chip, the 2017 Specter 13 is twice as powerful as most of its competitors. This extra performance is at the expense of the battery life, but in just under 6 hours – the battery life is still passable.

The new version of the HP Spectrum reduces compromises, adding a touch screen and great power, while remaining as thin.

6. Razer Blade Stealth: Ultrabook is more than a Simple Portable Gamer

• BENEFITS – The Razer Stealth Blade gets a bigger screen in the same slim body. The new design is more sophisticated and less playful. Abandoning the 4K resolution means better battery life. Good price for a high-end Core i7 laptop.

• THE DISADVANTAGES – The keyboard loses its multicolored backlight fun and becomes only white. Access to many system options requires opening a Razer account with your email. Limited configuration options.

For years, Razer had to face the misconception that it was only a laptop gamer – but those days are gone now that the Razer Blade Stealth is there. And, if you’re not convinced, the latest version of the Razer Stealth Blade can make you change your mind by becoming a 13.3-inch QHD + beauty. There is no option for 4K, but the performance this Ultrabook is capable of is well worth the compromise.

7. HP Spectrum x360: Versatile 

• BENEFITS – Beautifully designed and lightweight, the HP Specter x360 13 features an exceptional keyboard and trackpad, precise HD display, and a superior audio system. The battery life of this ultrabook is excellent and its performance is exceptional.

• THE DISADVANTAGES – The system heats up a bit and the new fingerprint sensor is in a difficult to access location.

It’s rare for a company to think of everything when designing a laptop, but for what it’s worth, the HP Specter x360 is surprisingly close. This is a 2-in-1 convertible ultrabook, which by default is not suitable for everyone. However, for savvy fans, it comes with a Windows Ink compatible pen, unlike the vast majority of hybrids. That would not mean much if the HP Specter x360 did not have a good sound and image, even if it’s obvious.

The HP Specter x360 13 remains a super small convertible ultrabook, and now it is faster with a long battery life.

The Best Ultrabooks 2019: The Buying Guide

The quest for ultimate power and portability

The evolution of laptops has always been motivated by the desire to design thinner, lighter and more energy-efficient computers, but in recent years these requirements have come together in what might be the perfect expression of notebook design: the utrabook.

What exactly defines this category? In general, ultraportables weighing 1.3 kg or less, have screens of 14 inches or less, use more powerful processors than the Intel Atom, and offer enough battery life to survive most of the day off work. These systems are now faster than ever, are well-suited for travel, and offer a variety of display features and resolutions large enough to meet the needs of everyone. You may have seen laptops in this category called ultrabooks or streambooks, but these are mostly attempts to attach a brand to the same basic model of ultraportables. Design always comes down to the same basic elements: thin, lightweight and durable.

How much should you spend on an ultrabook?

Although all ultra-portable laptops may look elegant, there are some important differences between the models. The first to consider is the price. There is a huge difference between a system that costs $300 and another that costs $1,300, even if it has the same brand name, with similar appearance and features.

At the bottom of the scale are entry-level systems, which typically cost $500 or less. For many casual users, this is the only price range worth considering, but there are some caveats to keep in mind. Computing power, display resolution, and storage capacity are generally lower on inexpensive notebooks because they are designed for basic Web browsing, word processing and media viewing, and materials of construction can be on the fragile side.

At the top of the price scale are top-quality systems, which we classify as anything that costs $1,250 or more. These high-end systems feature premium materials, advanced components and features, and advanced performance to speed up photo processing and other productivity tasks. You’ll also see 3K or 4K resolution displays, quality audio equipment (often from well-known brands like Bang & Olufsen), a spacious and fast storage system, and other cool features in a slim, compact form factor. . This price level offers the best overall user experience, the greatest number of functions and port options and the fastest internal hardware, but not all premium systems are created equal, and when you spend so much money, do you really want the second best? If you have the budget and spend a lot of time on your laptop, it can be very profitable to invest in quality.

Choose wisely your power

For smooth performance and a good user experience, you’ll want to be very selective about your processor. Even in a less expensive system, the average processor is more capable than ever of handling routine tasks, but if you need speed, choose carefully.

The Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors are at the top of the list, which can be found in mid-range and high-end models. Most ultra-portable processors currently on the market use the 8th generation of Intel processors (codename “Kaby Lake-R”), usually paired with 8GB of memory, although some premium systems have 16GB of RAM.

Ultra-portable processors are generally classified as U Series CPUs, designed for low-power laptops.

Pay attention to graphics

Also important: the graphics processor. Ultra-portable systems rely almost exclusively on integrated graphics, such as Intel’s HD Graphics 620. This power level is usually enough for media streaming and maybe photo editing, but not for substantial games.

If you want to do more with multimedia and maybe some gaming, you’ll need a discrete graphics chip, like the mobile version of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070. These cards require more power and cooling, and as such are usually only seen in larger gaming notebooks or desktop replacement laptops. There are a growing number of exceptions that are both portable and ready to play, such as the Razer Blade, but overall the most travel-friendly systems are not geared to the game. Do not expect integrated graphics are enough to play more than a few less demanding games with less detailed settings.

Space is essential

The fast material is fine, but you also need a place to store all your digital equipment. For almost all current ultraportables, we are talking about a Solid State Drive (SSD). These compact flash-based storage devices are lighter and less prone to data loss due to their lack of moving parts, which is ideal for systems that travel a lot. Increasingly, SSDs use a connection standard called M.2, which is smaller than traditional SATA connections – and smaller connectors allow smaller designs – but both are usable. Some (but not all) of these M.2 connected drives use a PCI Express (PCIe) bus connection for faster data transfer, and therefore faster overall performance.

A 256 GB SSD storage capacity is widespread on mid-range and high-end ultraportables. While it would be nice to have a little more space than that, increasing the SSD capacity still tends to be quite expensive, so the cost can increase quickly if you opt for a larger option. 512 GB or 1 TB if the manufacturer offers it. A 256GB hard drive will do the trick for many users, especially since you probably will not stock large gaming installations or multimedia projects on this type of computer.

Choose your pixels

As for a more visible part of the laptop, the screen, the ultraportables are available with a wide range of display options. These include an increasingly varied range of resolutions, ranging from standard high definition (1,366 x 768) in economy models to full HD (1,920 x 1,080) and even Ultra HD or 4K (3840 x 2160). Low-resolution displays are most often used in entry-level systems simply because they are the least expensive option. They work well enough to read and type text, and YouTube typically offers something less than full HD by default, so less demanding users can do very well.

Full HD displays (often referred to as 1080p) are expected on mid-range systems, and they are still used in a smaller number of high-end ultraportables. The 1080p display is becoming fairly standard so that even some cheaper options now offer them, far from the situation of a few years ago when 1,366 by 768 was the norm. These screens support 1080p video and are better equipped for multitasking, since you can insert more readable text and two windows side by side on a 13-inch screen. This is a crisp and true HD resolution, usually ideal for most everyday uses.

Ultra HD is currently the resolution of choice for high-end ultraportables. Since 4K displays have a resolution four times that of a Full HD display, you can put a lot of things into it. However, the number of pixels requires more power, and systems with 4K technology typically experience a significant drop in battery life compared to similar Full HD systems. There is also the question of content. Although 4K TVs and screens are becoming more common, there are still not many places to stream 4K video continuously (it is slowly improving on some streaming services), and the game in 4K is certainly more than anything ultraportable can handle. At present,

Many high-end notebooks now use QHD or QHD + displays, which are resolutions between HD and 4K. They represent a good compromise between costly and energy-consuming 4K resolutions and sharp and superior image quality than HD, so you should be happy to see QHD or QHD + on a laptop you plan to buy.

Two in One Laptops

Convertible “, or 2 in 1. Some 2 in 1 revolve around the hinge, while others have a separate keyboard base that detaches from the screen. In the first case, these mash-up devices allow you to enjoy both the laptop and tablet functionality, thanks to hinges and swivel joints that allow you to fold the screen for use without a keyboard. These systems do not disintegrate in the same way that they are removable. More and more manufacturers are adopting the non-detachable rotating design.

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Best Ultrabooks in 2019: Complete Buying Guide & Reviews

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The best lightweight ultrabooks made this list by being uncompromising in terms of speed and features while remaining small and versatile.

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Tech Reviews

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Free Tech Media Ltd.

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