The Best Laptops: Ultraportables, Workstations & Gaming

The laptop business has gone through very major changes in the last few years, and there is likely more confusion expected in the notebook aisle now more than at any other time. Modern models include everything from featherweight to business-savvy ultraportables that hardly tilt the scales at less than 2 pounds, to lap-crushing gaming behemoths of 10 or more pounds

Your typical laptop does not appear the way it did once, either, with dozens of adaptable designs that alter the usual clamshell to take benefit of touch interfaces. While some laptops serve dual features as tablets, with hinges that bend and fold, other PCs which are touch-enabled are slate tablets that appear with hardware keyboards for notebook-style use. There is clearly too much diversity in the laptop space for one particular size or style to fit every person’s needs.

That is where this buying guide becomes needed. You’ll be briefed on all the recent designs and specs, and parse the contemporary trends, assisting you in figuring out which features you need and how to find the laptop you want.

Windows and Touch Input
Microsoft’s Windows 8 was believed to make computing further touch-centric, however, universal discontent with its interface made in inevitable that Microsoft made the next edition of its operating system easier to use with a keyboard and touchpad. These days, Windows 10 is more than probable to be the OS on your newly acquired laptop. Window 10 combines features from the Windows 8 touch-based UI with more conventional elements that don’t rely on a touch screen. There is more to Windows 10 than can be mentioned here. However, the conclusion is that it brings the touch interface to the vanguard. As a result of this, most new laptops include the touch-screen feature, while those that don’t have features in place to present related functionality.

Ultraportables
If you walk down any laptop aisle, you will perceive that the choice of laptops has become considerably sleeker and thinner. Each of these wafer-thin computers represents an innovative idea for ultraportable computing: no-compromises laptop sleek enough so that you will forget it’s even in your briefcase coupled with a long-lasting battery life that will keep you at work even when no power outlet is available. Either by way of a full 128GB or 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) or, even more affordable, 32GB to 64GB of eMMC flash; fast storage provides these ultraportables the capability to continue work in seconds after being idle or asleep for days.

Either you’re looking at mainstream PCs, sliver-thin ultraportables, laptops or even gaming machines of every flavor today are thinner, lighter, and better suitable for life on the go.

The finest of these models will still cost you a sizable penny, most especially if you are on the look-out for a business structure that will not weigh you down when you travel for work, yet they proffer outstanding performance and most often than not come with numerous high-end features as well.

Hybrid Laptop Designs
Parallel development of powerful tablets and laptops’ prominence on touch capability have not just buoyed the expansion of those individual categories—they have fashioned a new one that combines the both of them. Hybrid systems, also known as the “2-in-1s”, are competent of performing either as a laptop or a tablet, depending on what you need (or want) at any specified moment. This provides you with a lot more liberty when interacting with the device, and makes it more efficient in more places.

There are two types of Hybrids. The first type is the convertible-hybrid, which changes from a laptop to tablet and back again by turning all the way around on the display’s axis. Furthermore, you can stop at a variety of positions along the way, if you want to balance it on its edges so you can use just the touch screen in very little space or if you want to stand the screen up on the keyboard like a kiosk display. This particular design is best if you are fascinated by a tablet, but also expect to require a good keyboard with some frequency.

Media and Gaming Machines
While laptop and desktop sales may have begun to decline in recent times, with tablet sales escalating to fill in the gap, gaming PC sales have essentially been on the increase. For anyone who desires top-of-the-line performance for PC games, the mixture of a potent discrete graphics card, a high-end processor, and a large, high-resolution display is well worth the superior prices such gaming rigs often command. And these prices really run high—while an entry-level gaming laptop normally starts out at about $799, you may well look forward to paying $3,000 or more for a system with a strong processor, tons of memory, and one or more high-end GPUs complete with the horsepower required to play your games with all the graphical details maxed out.

Before you pay a grand or two on a gaming laptop, you should be familiar with what you’re receiving for your money’s worth. Strong quad-core processors are par for the course, with Intel Core i7 chips pushing strong performance even for the non-gaming apps. Discrete GPUs from Nvidia and AMD present sleek graphics and remarkable frame rates; some high-end rigs come with two GPUs, which help to validate their high prices. Extra features to watch for comprising of high-resolution display and hard drives that proffer 1TB or more of local storage space so that you can stock up your whole game library on the device.