Nowadays there are laptops suited for different functions and much as this list excludes some brands, I agree with this article to some extent. I am yet to own a MacBook and the review here gives it a lot of strong points.
Computer geeks have been trying to find out how to make PC gaming more portable ever since LAN parties became a thing. Who can blame them? It’s just way too fun to watch the look on the faces your enemies when you’ve stopped them in their tracks for the 63rd time in a row.
Back then, desktops were king. They’re the only ones powerful enough to run the latest games. The only problem was that they were too bulky to carry. Nowadays, LAN parties are a thing of the past but portability remains as a requirement for some gamers especially for those who both work and play on their machines.
Gaming laptops were supposed to be the answer but those things come at a premium that doesn’t really give gamers a decent return on investment. Its longevity takes a massive hit mostly because of its lack of upgradeability. Each year triple-A titles upgrade their spec requirements, gamers have had to upgrade their laptops as well. If you don't have the cash to burn, then you're stuck playing last year's games or this year’s game at minimum settings. No serious gamer wants that.
Some enterprising gamers turned to DIY eGPUs to upgrade their GPUs when they’ve become outdated. It’s a great invention that gives new life to aging systems. It also comes at a minimal cost, especially when compared to the inflated costs of a new gaming laptop. Pretty soon, manufacturers caught up and made their own. It’s now a booming segment for the gaming community. The industry is quite honestly coming to its own in 2019 because even some of the biggest names in tech such Apple with their Blackmagic have started to come aboard. Their prices have started to come down and luckily, after the Bitcoin meltdown, even GPU prices came down as well. This makes eGPUs all the more in-demand for gamers looking to play the latest games.
There’s just one problem; it defeats a laptop’s purpose. It’s no longer in a form factor that you can fit in a single laptop bag. Upgradeability, it seems, comes at the price of portability.
The Area 51m strikes a balance between portability and upgradeability by through the power of modules. It's got the upgradeability of a desktop in the form-factor of a laptop. It's a gamer's dream laptop albeit for some caveats.
Form-Factor
It is a laptop through and through. It has the familiar hinge at the base that reveals the built-in monitor. Below that monitor are excellent keyboards with RGB backlighting. There are ports at the back and on the sides of the base where you can plug in your gaming peripherals.
You can find massive air intakes at the bottom and the sides of the device for proper cooling. That’s something gamers should take into consideration when buying a laptop because gaming is notorious for burning up your system. The equally massive vents at the back are also great for gamers as the hot air isn’t blown into their faces like other laptops.
Hardware
It's a full-specced laptop with a Core i9 processor and an RTX graphics chip which are both overclockable. You can rest assured that you can play the latest games with any of the configurations of the system. Furthermore, knowing that you can upgrade them later on when newer chips can be even more comforting to a lot of gamers.
The screen is a 17.3-inch FHD screen clocked at 60Hz. All of this would be a bit underwhelming for gamers who are used to 4K and 120Hz. Going for the top end model would get you the ultra-quick 144Hz monitor that’ll definitely get you more kills on fast-paced FPS games. For what it’s worth, the 1080p rendering would only help the GPU and CPU combo to perform at their best at native resolution. The beefier GPU and CPU combo that the 144Hz version, on the other hand, can definitely cope with the additional load.
When it comes to storage options, the options are pretty standard. For the most inexpensive model, you have a 1TB HDD with an 8GB SSD cache. You can opt for faster and bigger storage that goes all the way up to 2TB SSD.
It’s perhaps only in the battery department that the Area 51m lags behind its competitors. Whichever version you get, Dell is only rating the battery to only 45 minutes of gaming use. You’d definitely have to bring a charger everywhere with you.
I/O
Even against other gaming laptops, the Area 51m is at the top of its game when it comes to connectivity.
For wireless connectivity, it’s got a Killer Wireless 1550 2x2 AC that ensures a great stable Wi-Fi connection. The Bluetooth 5.0, on the other hand, is compatible with the best speakers and gaming headphones out in the market today. It’s even able to connect to multiple devices at the same time so you can get surround sound Bluetooth audio by using a few speakers paired to the laptop.
The port selection is excellent too. It’s got a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C, 3 USB-A ports, 1 gigabit RJ-45 ethernet, 1 HDMI 2.0, and a proprietary Alienware Graphics Amplifier port. All of these ensures that you can plug in all your peripherals and more without the need for a dongle.
Upgradeability
There’s no doubt that it’s a great gaming PC out of the box but the upgradeability factor is something that will make sure that that statement holds true even after a few years.
The only problem with that is that Dell is making the modular upgrades to it proprietary. In essence, you wouldn't be able to buy graphics cards for it from other manufacturers. This is because, in order to fit the desktop-level GPU, the company has had to make a few tweaks to the form-factor.
A Well-Balanced Gaming Laptop for Years to Come
Some gaming laptops sacrifice GPU power for portability, some compromise screen quality, but all of them sacrifice upgradeability. The Alienware Area 51m is the only one that doesn’t. It’s the only truly future-proof laptop that can ensure that you can game on max settings for years to come.
When Microsoft launched the Surface Studio a couple of years ago, it easily became the most eye-catching All-in-One in the market. It enticed even creatives who traditionally went for Apple’s iMacs. Why not? It’s got everything, from form to function, that a creative would want. Microsoft’s pricing, however, leaves a lot to be desired.
Even today pricing is still a problem for Microsoft. The Surface Studio 2, comes at a pioneer’s premium at a $3,000 entry-level price. Released last year with an outdated 7th gen processor and an ageing GPU, it doesn’t look well for future proofing. If you want to go all-out, you’re going to have to cough up more than $4,500. That’s excluding the new Surface Dial, a peripheral aimed to make life easier for creatives.
Since it’s such a desirable device, other manufacturers naturally found a way to copy it. Lenovo is the first one to come out with their own version. In this year’s CES, they’ve just unveiled the Yoga A940, a Surface Studio-inspired device at a fraction of the cost while offering a whole lot more.
Hinge Copycat
Like the Studio, it’s got a hinge design that users can use to adjust the tilt of the screen itself. There’s another hinge at the base of the device that lets you manipulate the pitch. Essentially, you can bring it all the way down at an angle to table level and use it similarly to how you would a drafting table. It’s a copycat of the Surface Studio in this regard to be sure, but it does it so well that you won’t even care. It also feels rigid and seems like won’t give in for years to come.
You’ll definitely want to draw on the 27-inch 4K and QHD screen options because they’re vibrant and colour accurate. They’re both equipped with Dolby Vision HDR so you’ll get great contrasts. It’s not quite as outstanding as the Surface Studio, but it’s still excellent to draw on. There’s a bit of an air gap between the screen and the digitizer so it doesn’t quite feel like you’re writing on paper. At the very least you’ll be certain that your output wouldn’t be compromised by your hardware.
Current Gen Hardware
Speaking of hardware, the A940 shines in this regard especially when compared to the Surface Studio 2.
Lenovo’s top All-in-One comes with an 8th generation Core i7 processor, AMD Radeon RX560 GPU, and storage options that range from 128GB – 512GB SSDs with a combination of HDDs with either 1TB or 2TB. The Surface Studio comes equipped with slightly outdated yet still powerful processors and GPUs.
Upgradeable
While those specs are already better than the Surface Studio 2, there’s an even more important area where A940 completely dominates the Surface Studio 2 – upgradeability. You can open up the base with a few tools and swap out the storage and RAM. You can even upgrade the GPU if you want. You’re going to have to do it over the USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port though.
Plenty of Ports
Speaking of ports, it’s also got a healthy helping of ports. It's got another standard USB-C port and 6 USB-A ports making it easy to connect a cacophony of peripherals. Other than that, it's got an SD card reader, RJ 45 ethernet, and the endangered 3.5mm headphone jack.
Improvements Over the Original
All of these are standard All-in-One things though. The true meat of the product is in what it offers beyond the call of duty.
For one thing, the A940 comes with a wireless charging pad. It’s mainly for the Lenovo Active Pen 1 but it also works for other wireless devices such as your smartphone or earphones. That’s important if you’re going to be working for extended periods of time illustrating and designing. For a professional, this is a big thing that you no longer have to even bring your charger to the office. You can just come in, go straight to the A940, put your gadgets on the built-in charging pad and get to work.
The Precision Dial also comes out of the box. It’s Lenovo’s answer to the Surface Dial. The difference is that it doesn’t go on the screen. It connects to one of the USB-A ports to the side of the screen. This enables you to still see everything on the screen when using the peripheral. It lets you easily access app specific settings like brush size so that you can focus on your creation.
The speakers on this thing are also something to marvel at. It's a Dolby Atmos speaker system that looks and functions like a high-end soundbar. It's front firing so the user gets the best experience. For personal media consumption, it's truly outstanding. If you're sharing content with the entire room, it still gives you excellent sound quality.
There's also space on top of the speakers for you to rest the keyboard and the mouse when you're in drafting mode. This is not as significant a difference as the others but some creatives like to work in a neat environment so this is a plus in my book.
I’ve saved the best for last – the price. For something that offers so much more than the Surface Studio, you’d be forgiven to think that the A940 is more expensive than its Microsoft counterpart. The incredible truth is that it has a whopping entry-level price of $2,350.
Functional Master but Not Quite A Masterpiece
Microsoft had hit gold with the Surface Studio design. It's become a desirable product that could quite possibly pose a threat to iMac dominance. The A940, on the other hand, copied some of the best features of the Surface Studio which was the dual hinge design. In fairness to Microsoft, Lenovo couldn’t out innovate them on this end. The screen is also an area of improvement for the A940. It’s still not quite on the level of the Surface Studio in that regard. Design-wise, the Surface Studio is still the superior device. It’s slimmer and with a trendier grey paint job. Overall, it’s just the sexier device that you’d want to show off in the middle of a room.
However, the few additions such as the wireless charging pad, space to put the keyboard when in drafting mode, and the vast choices when it comes to ports make the A940 the more functional device. It does this all at a price point that doesn’t require you to break the bank.
When Steve Jobs pulled out the MacBook Air from a thin Manila envelope back in 2008, computer fans went nuts at its revolutionary thinness. But that didn’t translate to automatic sales. It remained as one of those things that are perennially in people’s wish lists but only found their home on the extremely rich’s everyday carry. However, as the years passed, it dropped its price. It has become a well-priced thin and light machine that could handle light workloads for a long period of time.
But more than its battery life and lightweight yet sturdy construction, the relatively inexpensive price point at just under $999 is what made its previous iteration such a well-loved device. Now that it’s past the $1,000 mark, some of those who only got the MacBook Air when they became cheaper find themselves in the same predicament as 10 years ago. Luckily, the combination that made the previous version of MacBook Air a success had been successfully replicated by other companies.
Asus is one of them. Their Zenbook UX333FA is their flagship 13-inch laptop contender. Its main draw is that it’s a full $350 cheaper than its Apple counterpart at an $850 entry-level price. The lightweight and sturdy construction and the great battery life comes only second. Even at the middle of the park price point of $999 with an onboard MX150 dedicated graphics card and a soldered on 16GB of RAM version, it’s still one of the best value laptops there is.
In this review, we’ll see if their newest release warrants a shift in loyalty from previous MacBook Air owners. The Zenbook 13 should be a great contender and even an excellent leader in the ultraportables segment of the laptop market as it offers more for a lot less.
Build and Screen Quality
Zenbooks of old are known for their excellent but not necessarily luxurious build quality. They’re functional but not elegant, especially when put next to an XPS or a Matebook X Pro. But this late 2018 release of the Zenbook 13 has definitely bridged the gap between the other top ultraportables in the market.
The most obvious upgrade is the screen. The bezels have definitely shrunk. Those bezels were one of the few gripes people had with the 2017 iteration. This new Zenbook line looks like it went on a bezel diet and the result is just this extremely immersive 1080p screen that’s perfect for content consumption.
The real engineering marvel here is that it’s not truly bezel-less. It still has a humungous bottom bezel. Asus just uses an excellent misdirection technique by hiding it under the keyboard base while showing only the side and top bezels which are certainly in contention as the smallest in the market.
Other than the screen, the material has also undergone quite the upgrade. It’s now on par with the feeling of luxury you get when you hold the carbon fibre XPS in your hand. The signature Asus concentric circles design is just a cut above the rest of the durable metal laptops – even against the class-leading Huawei Matebook X Pro.
I/O
The keyboard is also one of the biggest upgrades from 2017 to 2018 Zenbooks. It’s now backlit and feels great to type on. The key travel is also one of the best in the genre. The clickiness is also on par with the best of them like the XPS. However, the layout is a bit off as the arrow keys seem crammed to the bottom right area making navigating through Windows with it a bit difficult. With the power button also having a weird placement under the delete and above the backspace buttons, you’re sure to accidentally put the device on sleep accidentally numerous occasions before you get used to the layout. There’s a learning curve to be sure. The size of the right shift and control keys have also been sacrificed in order to fit a full-sized keyboard on such a small frame.
Sacrifice is a theme that occurs a lot in the Zenbook. But, at least it tries to compensate for it (Looking at you 2017 MacBook with just one USB-C port). The trackpad, for example, is tiny. But on the other hand, it runs on Windows precision drivers so it’s precise. It has something up its sleeves that aren’t trackpad related though. It doubles as a num pad with just a click of a button at the upper right corner of it. In a way, the trackpad compensates for what the keyboard compromises. Whether it’s successful in doing that though, will be for users to judge.
When it comes to ports though, the Zenbook doesn’t compromise. All the basics are present. From a charge-capable USB-C, a USB-A 3.1 and 2.0, HDMI, to an ethernet port, the Zenbook 13 has one of each.
Furthermore, the wireless connectivity also shouldn’t be a problem because the 802.11ac has it taken care of. Data transfers, therefore, is an absolute pleasure. With the addition of a Bluetooth 5.0, you’re sure that wireless connectivity should be great.
Performance
The Zenbook 13, like most of the laptops that came in 2018 had a significant performance upgrade because of the new generation of Intel chips that they come with. They’re now all quad-core processors with enough juice to supplement even a tiny amount of RAM.
But the RAM itself shouldn’t be a problem because the base model comes with 8GBs of it. Coupled with the CPU, it should handle multi-tab internet browsing fairly well even if you are a bit ADHD. All of these are at the base entry-level of the spectrum. Spend a little bit more and you’ll get an absolute beast of a mainstream laptop at a fraction of the price of the top two laptops in the same category.
Is The Zenbook The One To Get?
For most consumers, the Zenbook 13 is definitely the one to get. However, there are more premium laptops out there that deserve your attention if you’re truly looking for the best of the best. The Matebook X Pro, for example, offers a 3K screen that looks absolutely stunning to watch videos or work on. The carbon fibre XPS 13, on the other hand, has a premium feel to it that is unrivalled by anything else on the market.
The Zenbook, compared to those two laptops comes a close third and maybe even in close contention to for a tie at second with the XPS. It’s a laptop with very little compromise and a whole lot of punch.
I found this interesting rumor from Dell. One of the screens you see on the image can be turned to face another side. I can already imagine the situations in which we can use this feature, but do you think it's actually possible to make one?
Dell's new Latitude is a 2-in-1 device with a battery that can last for a full day. It automatically shuts off the screen when the user has left the room which enhances battery life. What do you think of Dell's new laptop?
If ever I have the budget, then I would choose MSI or Asus. These two brands normally produce computer parts so they know how they make good gaming laptops compared to the other three that don't manufacture their own hardware.
Does anyone remember the bending controversy surrounding the iPhone 6? Seems they didn't learn their lesson as the same issue is now affecting their new iPad.
Perhaps we do not frequently do the cleaning and even when doing so, it is so easy to do this the wrong way. I had no idea that pushing directly on the screen could cause the pixels to burn out.
As we come near the end of the year, many websites write down their version of best lists. Let's come up with our own! When it comes to laptops, which ones do you think make the highlight of 2018? Do you agree with what you see on T3's list?
Laptop buying has become a practice in SWOT analysis. Aside from the traditional decision points like processor and GPU, we now have laptop form-factor to decide on. But when it comes to laptops for most people, regular clamshell bodies are the best. They're no-frills computers that can get the job done quickly so you can live your life AFK.
But the recent releases have all been so good that it's become difficult to choose between them as well. The form-factor, after all, have been in the market for decades now. The resulting releases of today, therefore, have become so well-refined that choosing between them has become a practice in splitting hairs.
So, to help you out in choosing your next digital workhorse, I've made a list of three of the best clamshells out there. Since the strengths are almost all the same, I’ll focus on the cons rather than the pros because let's face it, the pros are identical in these laptops. They're all made of premium materials with a performance that can replace a desktop workstation if you really wanted to. The real difference between them lies in how their manufacturers decided to cut some corners in order to keep the price down.
Huawei Matebook X Pro
The sophomore laptop maker Huawei gives us what a lot of reviewers are calling the best laptop overall of 2018 beating even more expensive MacBooks. It’s an excellent ultrabook that has all the bells and whistles such as battery life and performance.
It does a fair bit of copying from its more expensive counterparts but it does so more as a homage rather than as a robbery. It has a beautiful 13.9-inch 3K display that could put others in this list to shame. It’s also almost bezel-less much like its closest competitor the XPS 13. It’s also often likened to the MacBook Pro with its aluminium unibody design.
It offers an excellent value proposition in their top-tier model. At $1,199, it offers a decent MX150 GPU at a considerably lower price point than the others. New age MacBook Airs, for example, comes with a dual-core i5 without discrete at the same price. The XPS 13, on the other hand, keeps the quad-core i5 but leaves out the GPU for the same price. Either way, the Huawei Matebook X Pro still shines as a value laptop king.
One striking gripe that people have with this is that the webcam sits hidden on the keyboard which makes it difficult to use as a video calling machine. If you’re going to purchase this a something to do conference calls with, prepare to trim those nose hairs more often because the camera will be pointing directly at it.
Dell XPS 13
The perennial champ may have been dethroned but Dell’s XPS 13 is still in the running for the best laptop of the year. It comes at a close second of the Matebook X Pro and it's only losing out because the Huawei offering comes at a much lower price point. Value for money, then, has become its main weakness in this iteration.
What it’s banking in is the premium carbon fibre construction of the body that shaves off a little bit of weight while greatly increasing durability. It’s an excellent material that should be used in more ultrabooks in the future.
It still has the DNA of an excellent laptop and is still worth a look if the Huawei Matebook X Pro is somehow unavailable to you. But buying at the same $1,200USD price tag, pulling the trigger on the GPU-less XPS 13 can feel like a huge compromise.
Asus Zenbook 13
When it comes to budget flagship options in laptops, there's no one better than Asus. Their Zenbook 13 is the most inexpensive out of everything on this list. However, it sacrifices a little bit by having an underclocked version of the MX150 GPU.
You won't feel the compromise in the performance though. When closed, it's still a solid metal finish with flagship-level quad-core i5 CPUs.
When you open it up and start using it is when you’d feel where the corners have been cut. For one thing, the interior panel where the keyboard sits is made out of plastic which has some flex to it. When you start to use the IO, you’ll find the keyboard, aside from the flex, is also lacking key travel while the touchpad, although it has a precision driver installed, isn’t on par with the rest on this list. The outdated HDMI port is also a bit of a disappointment as the new USB-C standard is at the bleeding edge of ports. Especially if you're future-proofing, this might not be the best flagship option. It’s also important to note that the bezels on this thing are huge by modern laptop standards.
However, the $999USD price tag on is still a compelling reason to buy this thing. For the price, it’s doesn’t have any competition.
The Wildcard: Surface Laptop 2
I couldn’t leave out the Microsoft’s own iteration of a pure laptop out of this list. The Windows experience on their Surface Laptop 2 is just so darn smooth.
Also a second-generation laptop manufacturer, Microsoft did a great job refining their first foray into the scene. The Surface Laptop 2 serves as a great all-around performer. However, the graphics capabilities on this one are lacking because there are no options for discrete cards. While you can technically do some graphics work on this, the integrated graphics just isn’t as powerful as the MX150s, even the underpowered one on the Zenbook. So for video and photo editing work, this might not be the best solution. For everything else such as movie watching, word processing, spreadsheet number crunching, and web browsing, you’ve got a definite winner here.
The starting price of $799USD for the i5 should alleviate some of the fears about this laptop though. You wouldn’t have to pay top dollars for a computer that couldn’t perform in the big leagues like the 3 other laptops on this list.