Computer Shopper - UK (2019-10)

ISSUE 380|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2019 49

01

Abasic laptop costing around £300

will run everydayoffice,multimedia

and education software,but it won’t be

suitable for3Dgaming or processor-intensive

tasks such as video editing. Many laptops at

this price have a15.6in screen and weigh over

2kg, so they’re best used around the house

and foroccasional journeys.

02

If you want to playmodern games,

you’ll need alaptop with adedicated

graphics chip such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX

1060M. Good gaming laptops tend to have

large 15.6 or 17in screens and weigh around

3kg, so they’re best suited to use at home.

03

If you want alaptop that you can

take everywhere,look foramodel

that weighs less than 2kg. Forthe best

Choosinga... Laptop

portability,buy one that has a13.3in or 14in

screen. In general, the smaller and lighter the

laptop,the more expensive it is, especially if

it has plenty of processing power.

04

Battery lifeisextremely important

foralaptop,particularly if you’ll be

carrying it around. We’d expect all but the

biggest and heaviest to last foratleast

five hours on asingle charge,but foran

ultraportable that you carry everywhere,

eight hours and above is more desirable.

05

Laptops use mobile versions of

processors to conserve power,

and these lag behind desktop chips

when it comes to performance.For a

budget Windows laptop,anIntel Core i3

processor will do the job,but if you

want better performance,you should

look foranIntel Core i5 or Core i7

model instead. We recommend a

minimum of 4GB of RAM, although 8GB

is better formultitasking.

06

Most budget and mid-range laptops

use amechanical hard disk for

storage.You’ll want at least 500GB, but

1TB or more is better.Solid-statedrives

(SSDs) have faster performance,making

your computer quicker to boot and more

responsive.Theyhavelower capacities,

though. You’ll need at least 128GB.

07

Convertibles and 2-in-1 laptops can

change from laptop mode to tablet

mode.We’ve listed our favouritemodels later

on in this guide in the Tablets section.

LAPTOPS

HPEnvy13

★★★★★

£790•www.currys.co.uk

There are

plenty of great

ultraportables

available these days, but most

of them cost well over £1,000.

The Envy 13 is an extremely attractive alternative: it’s slim and light,

weighing just 1.2kg, but it has plenty of power and high-end features

including afingerprint reader and dedicated graphics, and what’s

more,it’s relatively affordable.

PROCESSORQuad-core1.6GHzIntelCorei5-8250U•RAM8GB•DIMENSIONS307x212x14.9mm

• WEIGHT1.2kg•SCREENSIZE13.3in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,920x1,080•GRAPHICS
  ADAPTORNvidiaGeForceMX150•TOTALSTORAGE256GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEM
  Windows10Home•PARTSANDLABOURWARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.hp.com•
  PARTNUMBERah0001na•FULLREVIEWSep2019

The Aspire 5isthe

epitome of the

sensible mid-range

laptop.It’s not ultra-stylish

and it doesn’t have a

professional-quality

display, but forthe

price it offers reliable performance in a

variety of workloads, and it will last afull dayonbattery power

without much trouble.

PROCESSORQuad-core1.6GHzIntelCorei5-8250U•RAM8GB•DIMENSIONS382x263x21mm•

WEIGHT2.2kg•SCREENSIZE15.6in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,920x1,080•TOTALSTORAGE

256GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows10Home•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•

DETAILSwww.acer.com•PARTCODEA515-51-50YS•FULLREVIEWOct2018

HUAWEIMateBook14

★★★★★

£1,500•consumer.huawei.com

The MateBook 14

is the biggest and

best of Huawei’s

2019 ultraportables. Like the more

expensive MateBook XPro,it

can be equipped with a

Core i7 processor,but an

airier chassis means that

performance isn’t compromised to prevent heat build-up.Other

highlights include long battery lifeand Nvidia’s updated MX250 GPU.

PROCESSORQuad-core1.8GHzIntelCorei7-8565U•RAM16GB•DIMENSIONS308x224x15.9mm

• WEIGHT1.5kg•SCREENSIZE14in•SCREENRESOLUTION2,160x1,440•GRAPHICSADAPTOR
  NvidiaGeForceMX250•TOTALSTORAGE512GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows10Home•
  PARTSANDLABOURWARRANTYTwoyearsRTB•DETAILSconsumer.huawei.com•PARTCODE
  KLV-W29•FULLREVIEWJun2019

DELLXPS152-in-1

★★★★★

£1,699•www.currys.co.uk

This is everything

that’s great about

the XPS series –

the massive power,the lengthy

battery life, the sleek design –given

even more flexibility with afully

rotatable hinge and touchscreen.

That’s not the only improvement, either: this is the first XPS laptop

with Dell’s ‘maglev’ keyboard design, which gives the keys alovely

pseudo-mechanical feel.

PROCESSORQuad-core2.8GHzIntelCorei5-8305G•RAM8GB•DIMENSIONS354x235x16mm•

WEIGHT2kg•SCREENSIZE15.6in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,920x1,080•GRAPHICSADAPTOR

RadeonRXVegaMGLGraphics•TOTALSTORAGE256GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows

10Home•PARTSANDLABOURWARRANTYOneyearonsite•DETAILSwww.dell.com/uk•

PARTCODEXPS159575•FULLREVIEWOct2018

ACERAspire5

★★★★★

£528•www.amzn.to/2MS5lqc

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