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<p align="center"></p><p><p>Back in the fall we took a look at a wide variety of laptops, covering standard productivity devices, convertibles, and gaming laptops. There hasn&rsquo;t been a huge wave of new devices since then, but there have been some interesting devices launched, and some updates to existing devices. CES saw the release of several noteworthy computers, so this makes a good time to refresh our recommendations.</p>

<h2>Ultrabooks</h2>

<p>The Ultrabook has come a long way since it was first introduced, and now it is full of some amazing devices by several manufacturers. The Ultrabook form factor is sleek, thin, and light, and unlike convertible machines these computers have no surprises up their sleeves, but they also don&rsquo;t have any of the compromise of a convertible either.</p>

<h3>Dell XPS 13 9350</h3>

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<p>Ever since Dell launched the XPS 13 back in January of last year, it has been the Ultrabook to beat, and nothing has really changed here. Dell has refreshed it to have Skylake in late 2015, but the overall design and feel has been kept the same. The latest version, model 9350, can be had with Intel Iris graphics now, as well as Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. It&rsquo;s not a flawless laptop, but with great looks, superior battery life, good performance, and a solid build, it&rsquo;s a great machine. The XPS 13 starts at $799 with a Core i3, 4 GB of memory, a 1920x1080 display, and 128 GB of storage, and goes up to $1999 with Core i7, a 3200x1800 display, 16 GB of memory, and 512 GB of storage.</p>

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<h3>Razer Blade Stealth</h3>

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<p>This is a new entry to the Ultrabook lineup from a company that has, until now, focused solely on gaming systems and peripherals. The 14-inch Razer Blade is one of the nicest Windows PCs around, with a CNC aluminum body, beautiful and accurate 3200x1800 display, and powerful internals. The Razer Blade Stealth mimics it in the looks department, but sheds a lot of the bulk, resulting in a slim 0.52&rdquo; thick chassis that weighs just 2.75 lbs. The base model comes with a 2560x1440 display, and higher end versions are offered with a 3840x2160 display with 100% Adobe RGB color space coverage. The Razer Blade Stealth is also the first laptop to feature a fully backlit keyboard with customizable color per key, with 16.8 million color combinations available. Possibly the best part is that the Razer Blade Stealth comes standard with a Core i7 CPU and 8 GB of memory, for just $999 with 128 GB of storage. The top end model with the UHD display and 512 GB of storage is a respectable $1599. Razer has not been known to swoop in with the value offerings, and a laptop that starts at $999 isn&rsquo;t really a value play, but compared to other Ultrabooks in its price range, it offers a lot of performance for the price.</p>

<p>This isn&rsquo;t a gaming laptop, but Razer will also be selling the Razer Core, which is an external graphics card adapter that connects to the Stealth over Thunderbolt. It can hold a full sized GPU, and will also power the laptop over the USB Type-C connector. This should be available in the May timeframe.</p>

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<h3>ASUS UX305CA</h3>

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<p>If you want a thin and light Ultrabook, but don&rsquo;t want to pay for something as expensive as the other systems, the Zenbook UX305CA offers a great computing experience for the money. This is the new Skylake powered Core m3 system, which is fully fanless for silent operation. The 13.3-inch system has a 1920x1080 IPS display, with 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of SSD storage. It&rsquo;s incredibly thin and light at 0.48-inches thick and 2.6 lbs. The body is all aluminum and gives the laptop a much better look and feel than what you would expect in this price range. Speaking of price, the UX305CA costs just $699 with the m3 and 256 GB of storage. ASUS also sells a model with the Core m7-6Y75, a 3200x1800 display, and 512 GB of storage, and that will set you back a bit more if you can find it.</p>

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<h2>Convertibles</h2>

<p>Convertibles fall into two categories. There are those with detachable keyboards, and others where the keyboard rotates around on a 360&deg; hinge. The former make better tablets, and the latter make better laptops, but both can pull double duty in a pinch. There&rsquo;s been a lot of new devices in these segments, and over the last six months there has been a big spike in the number of OEMs creating competitors to the Surface Pro line. The biggest advantage there is the 3:2 aspect ratio that many are shipping with, which works much better as a tablet and gives you more vertical space when used as a laptop. It&rsquo;s far better than 16:9 or 16:10 for these systems.</p>

<h3>Microsoft Surface Pro 4</h3>

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<p>The class leader, and the system that everyone is trying to catch, is the Surface Pro 4. As I just said, many OEMs created competitors to this device in the last few months, but all of them targeted the Surface Pro 3, but in the mean time Microsoft was creating the latest and greatest Surface Pro 4. It has a fantastic high resolution 12.3-inch display, which has an odd number of pixels at 2736x1824, but enough DPI to make text and rendering look amazing. The Surface Pro 4 ships with Skylake processors, starting with the base model which is a fanless Core m3-6Y30, but if you need more performance you can opt for the Core i5-6300U, or the Core i7-6650U which has Intel&rsquo;s Iris graphics with eDRAM. Both the Core i5 and i7 have a fan, but the new cooling design of the Surface Pro 4 means that it can dissipate a lot of heat without running the fans at all, and throttling seems to have been eliminated. Microsoft also outfitted the Surface Pro 4 with a Windows Hello compatible facial recognition camera for instant login, and the new and improved keyboard is light years beyond the old model. The Surface Pro 4 improves on the Surface Pro 3 in pretty much every way, and this is still the benchmark for this category. The Surface Pro 4 starts at $899 with Core m3, and goes all the way up to $2699 with Core i7 and 1 TB of PCIe SSD storage.</p>

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<h3>Lenovo Yoga 900</h3>

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<p>I&rsquo;m a big fan of the Yoga lineup from Lenovo. They basically pioneered this entire category, and they continue to iterate and improve constantly. The Yoga 900 is a fantastic update to the Yoga 3 Pro, and moves away from the Core M processors back to the 15-Watt U series for better performance. The Yoga 900 still comes with the 3200x1800 display, however it needs an update to stay competitive in this category since they still use a RGBW pentile panel, and much of the competition is now using standard RGB stripe with IGZO transistors. Despite being a convertible, it is still only 0.59&rdquo; thick and weighs 2.8 lbs, so it is very portable. Lenovo has also moved back to a 5 row keyboard for the Yoga 900, which is a welcome change. It can be had with a Core i7, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage. The Yoga 900 starts at $1199 with a Core i7-6500U, 8 GB of memory, and 256 GB of storage, and goes up to $1449 with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.</p>

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<h3>HP Spectre x360</h3>

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<p>I think HP has a stunning laptop in the Spectre x360. The aluminum design is beautifully machined, and they have done a wonderful job on the geared hinge. You can get the Spectre in the standard natural silver color, or an amazing ash silver and copper combination. This latter color also fixes one of the few issues I have with the x360, which is the white key lighting on silver keys, which makes the keyboard very difficult to use. The standard display is a 1920x1080 IPS panel, and they also offer a 2560x1440 version. The trackpad on the x360 is absurdly wide, giving you plenty of room for gestures, although it does take some time to get used to. At just 0.62&rdquo; thick and 3.2 lbs, it&rsquo;s pretty easy to tote around too. And if you really would prefer a larger laptop than a 13.3-inch version, HP is now selling a 15.6-inch model now as well which can have a 3840x2160 resolution. The 13.3-inch version starts at $899 with a Core i5-6200U, 4 GB of memory, and 128 GB of storage, and you can outfit it with up to a Core i7-6560U with Intel Iris graphics and 1 TB of SSD storage. The 15.6-inch model starts at $1149 with a Core i5-6200U, 8 GB of memory, a 1920x1080 display, and 256 GB of storage, and it can also be had with a Core i7-6560U with Intel Iris, 16 GB of memory, a 3840x2160 display, and 512 GB of storage.</p>

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<h3>Microsoft Surface Book</h3>

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<p>It&rsquo;s taken longer than I would have expected, meaning the bug was much harder to squash than anyone would have anticipated, but recently Microsoft patched the biggest issue I had with the Surface Book, which was its inability to go to sleep. I now feel more comfortable recommending this system, despite the huge price tag. What you get with the Surface Book is pretty unique. The keyboard latches on with memory wire, and it really makes it feel like a true notebook for most use cases. There is still some of the top heavy issues that plague all detachable convertibles, but the Surface Book&rsquo;s unique hinge helps mitigate this more than other systems. When the screen is detached, you get decent battery life, or at least enough to use it as a tablet for several hours at a time, but when docked, the battery life is excellent thanks to the massive 72 Wh of total capacity. You can also get an optional GPU in the keyboard base, which is very unique in the tablet world. The custom NVIDIA GPU is roughly a GT 940M, but with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory rather than 2 GB of DDR3 which is common with that GPU. It is roughly double the speed of the integrated graphics, and can make the Surface Book a decent system for light gaming. The 3000x2000 display is one of the nicest ones I&rsquo;ve seen on a notebook, with excellent contrast and accurate colors. The one thing that stops me recommending the Surface Book to more people is the price, which starts at $1499 with a Core i5-6300U, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage, and goes up to a staggering $3199 with Core i7, 16 GB of memory, NVIDIA graphics, and 1 TB of storage.</p>

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<h2>Gaming Laptops</h2>

<p>There hasn&rsquo;t been a big shift in the gaming segment since we last took a look at systems in our gaming laptops guide. The quad-core Skylake parts have been out for some time, and there hasn&rsquo;t been any GPU updates yet either. For today, refer back to the previous gaming laptops guide for this category.</p>

<h2>Large Form Factor Laptops</h2>

<p>As with the gaming laptops, there hasn't been a lot of movement here either, so I'm going to stick with the two recommendations from the previous guide too, especially now that I've had some more hands-on time with the first.</p>

<h3>Dell XPS 15 9550</h3>

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<p>We just got done the full review on the XPS 15 9550, and at this point it's hard to not recommend it. The one downside of the review unit was less than amazing battery life, but a lot of that would have been due to the 3840x2160 resolution screen. But if you use it plugged in a lot of the time, that display is pretty fantastic with full Adobe RGB color gamut and some nifty software to pick your color space. You can outfit it with up to a quad-core i7-6700HQ processor, 16 GB of memory, and 1 TB of SSD, along with a NVIDIA GTX 960M graphics card which gives a lot more compute and gaming power than integrated. It's a great package that, while ocasionally loud, keeps the thermals under control despite the small size.</p>

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<h3>Apple MacBook Pro 15</h3>

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<p>If you are a fan of OS X, Apple's MacBook Pro line is tough to beat. The Retina displays are fantastic, and the MacBook Pro is known for a great keyboard and amazing trackpad. It's likely that Apple will be refreshing these soon, since they are still Haswell based laptops, but they do have the Intel Iris graphics, and that's the graphics option in the $2000 model. A couple PC makers are now starting to offer this as well, but it's been a staple of the MacBook Pro for some time. If you opt for the $2500 version, it also gets the AMD&nbsp;Radeon R9 M370X graphics, which is Cape Verde.</p>

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Source: AnandTech
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