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.
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.