Slim and attractive notebooks that aren’t just easy to carry around but have some serious firepower.

Computers have been a household commodity for more than a decade now. Since the start of the new millennium, computers started making appearances in living rooms and even workstations beyond heavy computing facilities and offices. What started out as room full of punch cards and transistors over half a century ago has gradually shrunk in physical size and multiplied in potential over time.  Coming towards the end of the 90’s the PC revolution broke the stride virtually engulfing the corporate sector with its universal adoption. The evolution and bolstering of the Internet meant that the future of IT seemed brighter than ever.

As laptops came popping out of bag packs during seminars and IT conferences, it grew common as truly the “personal computer”. Mid way through the 2000s, officers, teachers, students, all started owning their laptops. Demand escalated quickly as prices dropped down and more manufacturers joined the party. A time warp to present day, most of us carry laptops alongside smartphones as dexterous computing units streamlined for portability. As everything gets smaller and convenient to carry, we look at the state of the art notebooks that will keep you drooling.

 

HP Spectre Series

Hewlett Packard has been a front-runner in the IT sector with network solutions, large scale corporate setups and office accessories beyond personal computers. The claims one of the spots of this list for its recent developments in the notebook and ultrabook sections. Playing big on high end portable PCs, HP comes with great success from its Envy series which was appreciated for integrating high performance specifications under sleekly designed metal chassis. The sheer power of these PCs was enough to lure audiences in but its beautiful design simply makes it one of the most irresistible notebooks that you could get your hands on. They accentuated the focus on ultrabooks even more with its latest release – Spectre Series. At a time when smartphones had been chipping dimensions and challenging every other manufacturer with super slim designs, HP came up with a PC that was only as thick as a pen. Making a bold statement with its aesthetic appeal, HP announces some serious potential in this latest release of theirs.

Highlights

  • World’s thinnest laptop.
  • Premium looks with glass keypad, unique hinge and gorilla glass screen.

The Spectre series starts its bid at $999.99  and goes higher up with variants in processors and SSD variants. We can’t seem to say enough about the design. This for me is the most beautiful laptop in the list. However, so many changes make the model susceptible to new kinds of hardware or design bugs which might not have been encountered. Since we are looking at the upper tier, the laptop is suited for processing and/ or graphics intensive users. Besides all this, the company does claim upto 9 hrs worth in battery backup.

Dell XPS 13: Dell notebooks are popular and more truly so in the Nepalese context. With devices designed for all requirements and a vast range of prices, Dell has stayed consistent and strong. Although most of its models are utility based and don’t attempt to excel in the aesthetics avenue, the XPS 13 has been a game-changer. The XPS notebooks have popular as the high end notebooks by Dell for a while now. But this time, Dell has concentrated to design an ultrabook that is impressive all way round.

Highlights

  • Infinity Edge Display with qHD resolution.
  • Tankiest battery claimed to last upto 18 hours.

The XPS 13, suggestive of the series sports 13 inch ultrabooks fitted with the state of the art components and a lot of configurations. From touch options to graphics, RAM and SSD size variants, the official Dell website (US) lets you add tons of software licensing hereby fluctuating your total cost. The most rudimentary build starts quite cheaply at $799.99 with a non-touch interface with 4GB RAM 128 GB SSD and a 6th Gen core I3 processor respectively.

Apple MacBook Air: Leaving out Apple amidst the big bucks would be a crime. Revolutionizing notebooks with the MacBook for a decade plus, Apple set the bar so high that it took ages for the rest of the manufacturers to catch up to them. Now it seems like other manufactures have pulled the right strings giving stiff competition to Apple. Despite that, the Macbook Air, the lighter version of the MacBook Pro both in terms of size and weight as well as computing abilities has found joy in sales as an easy pick amongst users with medium computing demands or everyday haulers especially students.

Highlights

  • Retina Display
  • Proprietary Operating System

Till date, the Mac has been selling primarily because of its OS which is fluid and very ergonomic once you’ve gotten the hang of it. Also, iPhone users are more inclined to investing on Apple devices to remain within their ecosystem. Besides that, the Air sells because of its ultra-portable size that you can find in 11 inch models too. Most of the time, it doesn’t even demand a backpack. You can enclose it in a sleeve if you have your concerns. Battery backups revolve around the 9 hour mark which isn’t the most astounding but will last your entire work day.

Firing up your PCs in under 15 seconds and getting to work on the fly is now a reality with PCs like these. Available in various sizes and many customization options to keep it under your budget, these notebooks make work, fun and play all ready to go. With ultrabooks getting reliable and giving out a full day, you might just ditch paper altogether. The energy efficiency adds to the appeal of these devices. These devices are among the smartest choices currently if you are in the market looking for a new machine.

Weight

Spectre - 1.48 kg

XPS 13 - 1.33 kg

Macbook Air - 1.34 kg