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December 03, 2015

TOSHIBA Satellite E205 Battery

This is another model that I was lucky enough to review this year, and ASUS, like Dell, has refreshed their UX305 with Skylake. ASUS is the company that wants to give you more for less, and for that reason they made the 2015 list. The UX305 is amazingly thin and light, at just 0.48-inches (12.3 mm) thick and 2.6 lbs (1.2kg), itâ€™s one of the thinnest and lightest Ultrabooks around. Itâ€™s not quite the class leader, but itâ€™s very close. ASUS powers the UX305 with Intelâ€™s Core m3-6Y30 processor which is completely fanless. Performance is not quite up to par with the higher wattage Core parts, but itâ€™s no slouch either. ASUS aced our Core M performance comparison despite being the lowest binned chip in the test, because it offered the best cooling of any of the devices tested. ASUS also gives 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD for just $699, which is quite a bit more than any other device in this price range. The 1920x1080 IPS display offers great viewing angles, but ASUS doesnâ€™t do any sort of calibration at the factory, so it didnâ€™t perform as well as some of the other devices weâ€™ve tested. ASUS also didnâ€™t offer this model with a backlit keyboard, which is kind of a shame, but they made up for it in other areas. The aluminum chassis feels great, even though I didnâ€™t love the hinge that lifts the back of the notebook up. Still, if you are looking for a great Ultrabook on a tighter budget, ASUS really delivers. If you need a bit more performance, a higher resolution display, and a 512 GB SSD, ASUS also offers the UX305CA with a Core m-6Y75 processor with a 3200x1800 display, although the price does jump to $1099, which is still great value.

If you are looking for an Ultrabook in the OS X flavor, there really is just one choice. Apple released the MacBook earlier this year, and Ryan put it through itâ€™s paces in April. This 12-inch notebook is incredibly light, with it being just over 2 lbs (0.92 kg), and itâ€™s very thin as well. This is Appleâ€™s first Core M powered device, so itâ€™s fanless, just like the ASUS. You pay a premium for the MacBook, but on top of getting one of the lightest notebooks around, you also get a Retina display which at 2304x1440, offers a 16:10 aspect ratio as well. Apple has gone all-in on PCIe NVMe storage, and the MacBook features either 256 GB or 512 GB options, to go with the 8 GB of system memory. They also designed a new keyboard switch with a butterfly mechanism to offer a more stable typing experience, and the MacBook was the first device to feature the Force Touch trackpad. Not all is perfect with the MacBook, such as the less than amazing battery life, just a single USB-C port which doubles are the charging port, and a processor which hits its thermal limits much sooner than the ASUS Core M, but the great display coupled with an incredibly thin and light chassis means that the MacBook is certainly worth a look.

The ThinkPad T450s diverges from the traditional Ultrabook form factor somewhat. It is a 14-inch device, and Lenovo only made it as thin as they could to fit a RJ-45 network connector into it. What you lose in thickness and weight to the rest of the devices listed, you make up for in features. This notebook is powered by 15-Watt Intel Core processors, and comes with 4 GB of RAM soldered inside. There is enough room though for a SODIMM slot where you can add up to 16 GB more, either from Lenovo, or after the purchase. The really cool feature of the T450s though is the Power Bridge technology. Lenovo has split the battery into two sections, and the rear battery is removable. They offer a 23 Wh rear battery as standard, but you can add on up to a 72 Wh battery too which gives the T450s pretty remarkable battery life. But regardless of which battery you go for, you can switch the battery out without powering down the computer, because the rear battery is depleted first. Itâ€™s a great trick, and for someone who needs the ultimate mobility, itâ€™s tough to compete against this. The base model comes with a 1600x900 TN display, but you can upgrade to a 1920x1080 IPS panel for only $60 more, which makes me question why the lower resolution TN offering even exists since the upgrade is so much better. For me though, the standout feature was the keyboard. Lenovo has outfitted the T450s with one of the best notebook keyboards I have ever used, and as a bonus you get the ThinkPad TrackPoint as well which I enjoy having. It may not be as sleek looking as some of the competition, but the T450s was one of my favorite notebooks that I got a chance to use this year. It starts at just $950, or $1010 with the IPS display (so really it starts at $1010 don't get TN).

Larger Display All-Purpose Notebooks
If you need more performance, stepping up to a larger notebook will add a lot more power to the mix. With larger chassis, they can accommodate quad-core processors rather than the dual-core models found in Ultrabooks, and they can also house discrete video cards as well to give some more compute. Although not as portable, sometimes there is no substitute for more display real estate, as well as the increased performance of the quad-core processors.

Dell has taken the same formula used on the XPS 13, and applied it to the XPS 15 as well. This results in a much smaller overall design, but with the same 15.6-inch display. For performance, Dell offers the Core i3-6100H as the baseline, and you can upgrade to a Core i5-6300HQ and a Core i7-6700HQ. You can also outfit it with a GTX 960M graphics card, which should offer decent performance for gaming or compute workloads. You can also upgrade from the 1920x1080 display to a UHD 3840x2160 which results in 282 pixels per inch. Despite the smaller overall size, you can still get up to 84 Wh of battery, although the base model is just 56 Wh, and Dell offers a 3x3 802.11ac wireless card as well which should significantly improve performance if you have a router that can drive it. Iâ€™ve not yet had a chance to use the new XPS 15, but there are some drawbacks that are apparent. The webcam placement is in the same poor position as the XPS 13, down near the keyboard, so if you are a heavy user of the webcam this is going to work poorly. Still, itâ€™s a great looking laptop and is a great replacement for the outgoing XPS 15 9530 that came before it. At a starting price of just $999, this is a solid choice for those that want a larger display. If you ramp up the options, with the 4K display with the 1920x1080 display, 16 GB of memory, a Core i5, and 512 GB of PCIe SSD storage, it still comes in at only $1700 which is pretty reasonable. Jumping to the UHD panel adds another $400.

If you prefer OS X, Appleâ€™s 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro is always a solid choice. Surprisingly, Apple didnâ€™t update the CPU for 2015, so itâ€™s still using Intelâ€™s 22nm Haswell quad-core parts, but Apple is one of the few companies to leverage Intelâ€™s Iris graphics. This is coupled with a move to AMD Radeon R9 M370X, which is a Cape Verde based GPU. Itâ€™s all packaged in one of the nicest chassis around, with the MacBook Pro being made out of a single piece of milled aluminum. Coupled to that is the Retina display, which is a 2880x1800 16:10 version. Apple has proven to be very capable at producing accurate displays, and although weâ€™ve not tested the 2015 version of this, there is no reason to suspect that would change. New to the 2015 model is Appleâ€™s Force Touch trackpad, which debuted with the MacBook, but otherwise the rest of the design has been left the same. Thatâ€™s not necessarily a bad thing. The prices start at $2000 for the base model with 256 GB of storage and just Iris graphics, or $2500 for the upgraded processor, 512 GB of storage, and the AMD graphics card.

It's not possible to look at every single laptop around, but these are the ones that have caught my attention this year. It's been a fantastic year for the notebook, and 2016 is shaping up to only improve the offerings again. Check back soon for our gaming notebook holiday guide.If your loved one uses a laptop, you can make their computer time more enjoyable with a Mini Laptop Riser. Lift the base of the laptop off the desk at an angle to make typing easier.

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