The 10 Best Laptops

FEATURED IN THIS ROUNDUP

Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2014)

$1099.00
£694.00 at Amazon The latest 13-inch Apple MacBook Air updates one of the best ultraportables around making it faster and more powerful, while proving that some things don't need to change at all. Read the full review ››

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Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch Retina Display (2014)

$1999.00
$1,849.00 at Amazon Apple's latest 15-inch MacBook Pro represents a slight upgrade to the best system mobile Mac power users can buy. And while the Windows competition is breathing down its figurative neck, it's still our top choice for high-end desktop-replacement laptops. Read the full review ››

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Asus ROG G751JY-DH72X

$2999.00
$2,798.00 at Amazon It may not have absolute top gaming benchmark scores, but the Asus ROG G751JY-DH72X is a competitive high-end gaming laptop that outclasses its rivals on features and price. Read the full review ››

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Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147)

$449.99
$429.99 at Dell The entry-level Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) proves that you don't have to compromise if you want a convertible-hybrid laptop that lasts all day and fully utilizes its touch screen. Read the full review ››

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Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series Non-Touch

$449.99
$449.99 at Dell The Dell Inspiron 17 5000 is a nice-looking desktop-replacement laptop that offers good productivity performance and decent battery life for a very affordable price. Read the full review ››

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HP Spectre x360 13t (13-4003)

$999.99
$999.99 at Best Buy The HP Spectre x360 13t midrange convertible-hybrid laptop combines premium, all-metal construction, a refined portable design, and solid performance that matches that of more expensive systems. Read the full review ››

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HP Stream 13 (13-c020nr)

$229.99
Best Price at HP The HP Stream 13 is a very inexpensive full Windows 8.1 ultraportable laptop, but its long battery life, looks, and speed resemble that of a much pricier system. Read the full review ››

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Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro

$1299.99
£979.97 at Laptops Direct The Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro is a premium convertible-hybrid laptop that revamps the familiar Yoga line with a new hinge design, an efficient Intel Core M processor, and a super-slim new chassis. Read the full review ››

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Razer Blade (2015)

$2399.99
$2,199.99 at Razer Online Store The newest Razer Blade boasts impressive features and great performance, making it the ultraportable gaming machine to beat. Read the full review ››

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Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503

$699.99
$674.35 at Amazon The Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503 is a simple, business-focused laptop with good battery life, plenty of features, and a nice price. Read the full review ››

Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503

• Processor
  Affordable. Good battery life. Windows 7 Pro with Windows 8.1 Pro license. 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Numeric keypad. Very little bloatware.
• Cons Modest 1,366-by-768 screen doesn't support touch. Somewhat slick keys. Short space bar.
• Bottom Line
  The Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503 is a simple, business-focused laptop with good battery life, plenty of features, and a nice price.
  
  
  The Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503 ($699.99) is an SMB laptop with solid components and practical looks at reasonable price. Sometimes you just need a laptop to do the job, and that's what you've got here. It's not too expensive, and it has the power and battery life to suit many office workers, and for that we award it our Editors' Choice for laptops for small-to-medium-size business.
  
  
  Design and Features
  The Tecra C50-B1503's$674.35 at WalMart chassis is a very dark gray, almost-black polycarbonate, with a ridged pattern molded into the lid for extra grip. While a bit utilitarian, the look of the laptop is still modern, with some tapering to the front edge. You'll find a good selection of I/O ports on the sides, including an Ethernet jack, an SD card reader, one USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 ports, and a VGA port. There's also a built-in DVD burner. Wireless connectivity comes by way of 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, letting you connect to a wide variety of the latest wireless hotspots and smart devices.
  
  
  The 15.6-inch, 1,366-by-768-resolution LCD is LED-backlit for even lighting, and it has an anti-reflective coating. The resolution might seem limited if you're setting up a Web development business, but it's perfectly fine for clerical work in Word and PowerPoint. You won't find a touch screen on this system, but it ships with Windows 7 Professional pre-loaded, so that's not too much of an issue. Its Microsoft license covers an install of Windows 8.1 Pro on the same machine, and Toshiba includes a restore DVD if you want to use the newer OS.
  
  The non-backlit keyboard is comfortable, but has keys that are flatter and more slippery than the one on the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431$599.99 at Amazon. The space bar is also a bit narrow in proportion to the wide keyboard deck. That deficiency is balanced by the extra convenience of a full 10-key numeric keypad, which the Lenovo E431 and other competitors like the Acer Aspire E5-471G-53XG$582.56 at Amazon and Lenovo Z40 lack.
  The system has 4GB of memory and a 500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive. That means it's slower when you launch programs and reboot the system than newer ultrabooks with solid-state drives (SSDs), but it is plenty fast when everything is loaded and active. The hard drive is free of bloatware, and the only extras are a 30-day trial subscription to Norton Internet Security and a one-month trial for Office 365. The removable battery is a good throwback. It will let you replace the battery with a fresh one once it no longer holds a charge. The system comes with a one-year warranty.
  
  Performance
  An Intel Core i5-4210U processor with Intel HD Graphics 4400 helps the Tecra C50-B1503 achieve a score of 2,587 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, well within striking range of the 2,854 points scored by the Lenovo Z40. Likewise, its multimedia scores are good: 3 minutes 43 seconds on the Handbrake video encoder test, and 5:48 on the Adobe Photoshop CS6 test. This was within a minute of the systems to which we compared the Tecra C50-B1503.
  
  The system trumps the Lenovo E431 in battery life. The Tecra C50-B15043 lasted an excellent 7 hours 20 minutes on our battery rundown test, while the Lenovo E431 lasted 3:55. The Tecra C50-B15043's battery life is just about enough to last a full 8-hour workday, and certainly enough to last on a cross-country flight.
  Sometimes a well-priced, competent laptop is more attractive than, say, a flashier all-metal ultrabook, particularly if you're buying several for a small startup. With all-day battery life, a newer processor, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and business-friendly features like a numeric keypad, the Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503 trumps our former Editors' Choice, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431. It gives small to medium business a reliable utility player.
   

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Razer Blade (2015)

• Processor
  Sleek, light design. Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) display with 3,200-by-1,800 resolution and touch capability. Intel Core i7-4720HQ CPU and 16GB memory. Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M GPU. Improved performance and battery life over previous iteration.
• Cons Gets very hot. Discrepancy between graphics and display capability.
• Bottom Line
  The newest Razer Blade boasts impressive features and great performance, making it the ultraportable gaming machine to beat.
  
  
  The 2015 version of the Razer Blade ($2,199.99) is the latest in the company's highly influential ultraportable gaming laptop line. The previous model, the Razer Blade (2014)$1,899.00 at Amazon left us feeling a bit disappointed, with a short battery life and despite an impressive high-resolution display—which actually outstripped the capabilities of the graphics hardware. As such, the ultraportable Editors' Choice has been the 2013 Razer Blade$1,699.00 at Amazon for the last two years, as nothing has quite matched the portability and overall value of that model. Well, the Blade is back for 2015, with new hardware that promises to polish out these rough spots and return the Razer to its preeminent place among other ultraportable gaming systems, like the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K$1,974.99 at Amazon. But does the new Blade live up to the hype? Let's find out.
  
  
  Design
  The slim and sleek design of the Razer Blade is unchanged, looking very much like a MacBook Pro dressed in black. The aluminum chassis measures 0.7 by 13.6 by 9.3 inches (HWD) and the laptop weighs just 4.47 pounds, making it light enough to carry in a laptop bag. The aluminum is anodized a matte black, which is accented with bright-green touches—the USB ports, a glowing Razer logo on the lid, and the backlight of the keyboard all have the same verdant glow.
  
  
  
  The display is just as impressive as the one on last year's Razer Blade (2014), with QHD+ (3,200-by-1,800) resolution, with an Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) panel that offers stunning color quality and excellent viewing angles. That resolution is actually higher than those seen on systems like the MSI GS60, and it's one of the most impressive aspects of the previous iteration. The screen also boasts 10-point touch capability, which is still relatively rare on gaming systems. Whether or not that higher resolution is the best choice for an ultraportable is still up for debate. If you want avoid the issues of better-than-HD altogether, Razer also sells a version of the Blade equipped with a 1,920-by-1,080, non-touch display ($1,999.99).
  The chiclet-style keyboard is
  (predictably) quite good, as Razer's bread and butter has long been gaming peripherals. It's optimized for gaming, with full anti-ghosting, meaning you can press any number of keys without the input locking up or slowing down. The keys have a solid feel to them, and the key travel is deeper than you'll get with most chiclet-style keyboards, which I greatly prefer. It's also programmable, letting you remap keys or assign macro commands in Razer's Synapse control dashboard.
  The mouse is similarly optimized, with its size and touch calibration set to require less lifting of fingers for smooth tracking across the display, and separate right and left buttons with firm feedback. On either side of the keyboard are built-in speakers, providing stereo sound with enough volume to fill a room, and even a bit more bass than we expected. Razer also bolsters the sound with its own audio software, Razer Surround, which offers 7.1 surround sound for both speaker systems and gaming headsets.
  Heat is a significant problem, and it's little wonder with high-performance components packed into such a narrow space. Though Razer does tout its thermal management, I still felt the heat, with temperatures hitting 128 degrees during testing (as measured with a Fluke IR thermometer). Fan noise doesn't seem to be as big a problem this time around, but it's still quite noticeable.
  Features
  The connector options are unchanged from the previous model, with one USB 3.0 port and an HDMI-out port on the right side of the system, and two USB 3.0 ports and a headset jack on the left. For connectivity, there are dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. For improved portability, the power adapter also has a compact design, with the 150-watt brick measuring just 0.87 by 2.36 by 5.9 inches (HWD), and weighing less than a pound, significantly smaller and lighter than the power bricks included even with competing ultraportable gaming systems.
  Our review unit is configured
  with a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), though Razer also offers the Blade with 128GB or 512GB SSDs (for $2,199.99 and $2,699.99, respectively). That solid-state memory promises fast performance, but can't match the overall capacity of a standard hard drive, or multiple drives, like the 1TB drives with additional SSD storage found in the MSI GS60, the Maingear Pulse 15$2,299.00 at Microsoft Store, and the Maingear Pulse 14, all of which combine a 1TB hard drive with dual 128GB SSDs.
  The system doesn't have anything we'd classify as bloatware, though there are a few preinstalled programs. Several of these are Razer-branded utilities: Razer Synapse 2.0, which manages settings and customization for all of your Razer products, like the Ouroboros$125.26 at Amazon mouse or the Tartarus$66.99 at Amazon gaming keypad; Razer Comms, a gaming-friendly messenger and voice chat platform; Razer Cortex, a unified game launcher that collects all of your games from Steam, Origin, and the like; and Razer Surround, a surround-sound utility that Razer normally sells separately for $19.99. The system also has Nvidia's GeForce Experience, which serves as a dashboard for managing driver updates and GPU settings, but also includes features like Battery Boost, which offers dramatically improved gaming performance when the system is on battery power, ShadowPlay, which lets you record in-game video, and Game Stream (for streaming your games to an Nvidia Shield). Razer covers the Blade (2015) with a one-year warranty.
  Performance
    Razer has outfitted the new Blade with a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-4720HQ quad-core processor, along with 16GB of RAM—doubling the 8GB allotment of the previous model. This combination makes for some excellent general-use performance, leading in Photoshop CS6 with 3 minutes 25 seconds, and topping Cinebench with 675 points. In terms of productivity it was good—well ahead of most consumer laptops—but landed in the middle of the pack for ultraportable gaming systems. It completed PCMark 8 Work Conventional with 2,955 points, ahead of the 2014 Razer Blade (2,787 points), but behind the MSI GS60 (2,988 points) and the Maingear Pulse 15 (3,047 points).
  With an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M and 3GB of dedicated memory, the graphics performance is very good, and does a lot to fix some of the problems seen in the previous iteration. On 3DMark CloudGate it scored 19,454 points, and on Fire Strike Extreme it scored 3,270 points, beating out all of the comparable systems. This isn't a huge surprise, since the GTX 970M is Nvidia's latest mobile graphics card.
  Gaming performance is also significantly improved, and baseline gaming tests (run at 1,366-by-768 resolution) are the best we've seen. Unfortunately, the improvements in graphics processing aren't quite good enough to fix all of the problems seen with the display/GPU disparity. There are still some scaling issues when playing at a lower resolution, and the GPU still doesn't have the oomph to really match the 3,200-by-1,800 resolution of the display with playable performance. That said, if you back off on the resolution, and do some tweaking of graphics settings, you can play demanding current titles at better-than-full-HD resolutions, though not a lot better.
  
  
  
  The system also showed significant improvement in battery life, lasting 4 hours 52 minutes in our battery rundown test. This isn't just an improvement—though it does add more than a half hour of usable time over the 2014 Blade (4:15)—it also leads the current crop of gaming ultraportables, tying the Maingear Pulse 14 (4:52). The previous Editors' Choice, the Razer Blade (2013), still holds the record with 6:52, but it's a two-year-old system that didn't have the extra power demands of a 350-nit, QHD+ display.
  Conclusion
  With a new processor and graphics card, the Razer Blade (2015) delivers better graphics performance and longer battery life than its predecessor, fixing two of the bigger problems I had with the 2014 Blade. Heat is still a big concern, but that's a problem endemic to the category. As it stands, the Razer Blade 2015 not only outshines the 2014 model, it also offers a better overall value than the previous Editors' Choice, the Razer Blade (2013). If you still aren't sold on the new Razer Blade, the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K is a great alternative (and our top pick for midpriced gaming laptops), but the Razer Blade (2015) is our Editors' Choice for ultraportable gaming.
   

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Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro

• Processor
  Extremely thin, fanless design. All-day battery life. Better-than-1,080p display looks excellent. New watchband-style hinge looks great and offers better support for touch. New 180-degree option adds to multimode uses.
• Cons Performance of Core M CPU can't match standard Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Very shallow keyboard. Micro HDMI port requires adapter for use with standard HDMI.
• Bottom Line
  The Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro is a premium convertible-hybrid laptop that revamps the familiar Yoga line with a new hinge design, an efficient Intel Core M processor, and a super-slim new chassis.
  
  
  Lenovo basically defines the 2-in-1 category with its Yoga line. Just look at the convertible-hybrid laptops coming out of competing companies like Dell, HP, and Toshiba, which all use some variation on the basic multimode design introduced with the first Yoga laptop back in 2012. Now, with the Yoga 3 Pro ($1,299.99), Lenovo has come out with a new design that completely revamps the multimode hinge, swaps out the processor for Intel's new hyper-efficient Core M CPU, and packages it all in a very thin, very luxurious new chassis. It's a step forward in 2-in-1 design, and it's worth the high-end price, making the Yoga 3 Pro £1,048.97 at Laptops Direct our Editors' Choice for high-end convertible-hybrid laptops.
  
  
  Design
  The Yoga 3 Pro is an evolutionary jump forward from the previous iteration. The biggest change is the hinge, which leaves behind the dual-axle design seen on the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro$899.00 at Amazon and the Lenovo Yoga 2 13$938.22 at Amazon, and instead uses a watchband-inspired hinge that runs the length of the device. You can still flip and fold the laptop as before, with different usage modes, like Stand, Tent, and Display, but now you can also lay the laptop out flat, 180 degrees, which you could not do on previous models. More importantly, the new hinge gives Lenovo a few more millimeters to shave off the device, and that makes the Yoga 3 Pro the thinnest Yoga yet. In the past, I've felt that the 13 inches is simply too large for tablet use, but the lighter, thinner Yoga 3 Pro has changed my mind.
  
  
  
  There may also be some desire on Lenovo's part to further differentiate the Yoga line from other 2-in-1 offerings, especially now that several other manufacturers have offered systems that are very similar to the original Yoga folding design. The new watchband design will certainly be harder to copy, with more than 800 individual pieces in the hinge alone. The new design also makes for a sturdier hinge which holds up better to taps and touches. Regardless of the reasoning behind the watchband hinge, it's distinctive.
  The laptop measures 0.5 by 12.99
  by 8.98 inches (HWD), and weighs just 2.6 pounds. The chassis is molded plastic, with anodized aluminum on the lid and underside of the chassis, but the palm rest gets a soft-touch finish with a polka-dot texture. The laptop slims down even further with the new fanless chassis design, thanks to an Intel Core M processor, which doesn't need the cooling fans required by Intel's usual laptop CPUs.
  The keyboard is also a bit thinner, but Lenovo has managed to retain most of the comfortable depth and smooth key movement seen on past iterations of the Yoga. That said, this might be as thin as a laptop can get while still having a regular keyboard, and even this one won't please all users—I know I was irritated by how shallow the key travel was. The keyboard does have backlighting, so typing in a dark room will be a little less difficult. The touchpad is also quite good, with all of the gesture controls and accurate tracking you might expect from a Lenovo product.
  The 13.3-inch display, with its Quad-
  HD (3,200-by-1,800) resolution, features Gorilla Glass, which should protect it from scratches and cracks. The edge-to-edge glass only enhances the gesture controls and the touch-capable display offers full 10-finger tracking. We've seen other laptops with better-than-HD resolution, like the Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch, Retina Display (2014)$1,170.49 at Amazon, which has a 2,560-by-1,600-resolution Retina display, and the Toshiba Kirabook 13 i7s Touch$1,889.99 at Amazon, which has a 2,560-by-1,440 touch screen, but we haven't seen many in convertible systems. It's a gorgeous display, and it definitely helps justify the Yoga's premium price.
  Features
  In addition to the new look, Lenovo throws a couple of unexpected curveballs in terms of the port selection, like a power connector that doubles as a USB port. The standard USB port is modified with a slight bump on one side that makes sure the power cord is plugged in properly, and the port reverts back to standard USB whenever the DC power cable is disconnected. This has the dual effect of reducing by one the number of ports needed on the system without reducing total connectivity, and adds a new proprietary charger that you'll need to purchase through Lenovo. Additionally, the laptop offers micro HDMI for display output instead of the more commonly used full-size HDMI. The smaller port doesn't require the extra chassis thickness that a standard HDMI port does, but it will require some sort of adapter dongle or micro-to-full-size HDMI cable to run a connection out to a TV or projector.
  
  
  Aside from these two quirks, the port selection is fairly standard, with two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and a headset jack. Along the right side of the laptop are several physical buttons for Power, Volume, and Screen Rotation. Inside, the system is equipped with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Given the extremely slim chassis, it's not a bad selection of features at all. The sleek design also dictates the storage options, as the Yoga 3 Pro comes with a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD).
  The system comes with a few things preinstalled, like a free 30-day trial of McAfee LiveSafe, a 30-day trial of Microsoft Office 365, along with apps like Skype, Zinio, Amazon, Evernote, and others. Lenovo includes several proprietary apps, such as cloud storage through Hightail, Lenovo Phone Connection, and Lenovo Photo Master. There's also something called Yoga Chef, which includes a selection of recipes (regularly updated) presented in a series of full-screen cards that let you swipe through the steps of cooking as you go, with the option to use Lenovo's Webcam-enabled gestures to swipe through without touching the display. To better tie it all together and make everything work best with the Yoga's multimode design there's another app called Lenovo Harmony, which serves as a custom dashboard for your favorite apps and also serves as a bridge between the Metro interface and the desktop. Lenovo covers the Yoga 3 Pro with a one-year warranty that includes free depot and carry-in repairs.
  Performance
    The slim design of the Yoga 3 Pro is owed largely to the use of the new Intel Core M 5Y70 processor, paired with 8GB of RAM. That 8GB is all you get, by the way, because it's soldered directly to the motherboard, instead of the usual So-DIMM slots, so there's no opportunity to upgrade the memory. And while that processor is far more powerful than the Intel Atom CPUs used on many Windows tablets, it doesn't favorably compare to the Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors used in other convertible hybrids.
  In the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, the Yoga 3 Pro scored 2,094 points. The considerably-less-expensive Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W-B5224$872.99 at Best Buy, on the other hand, scored 2,757 points, thanks mostly to its Core i7 processor, while the Lenovo Flex 2$584.99 at Amazon (2,693 points) and the HP Envy x360 15t£529.97 at PC World (2,682 points) both have Core i5 CPUs. Similar differences in performance were seen in the Photoshop CS6 and Handbrake tests.
  The graphics processing is all done by the Intel HD Graphics 5300, the Core M chip's integrated solution. While integrated graphics are as a rule no competition for a discrete graphics processor, the performance is, again, lower overall than you would see with that of a standard Core i5 or Core i7 processor. For example, the Yoga 3 Pro scored 2,977 points in 3DMark Cloud Gate, and 202 points in Fire Strike Extreme. By comparison, the HP Envy x360 scored 4,012 points (Cloud Gate) and 227 points (Fire Strike), while the Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W-B5224 scored 5,089 points (Cloud Gate) and 295 points (Fire Strike). The graphics performance seen in the Yoga 3 Pro isn't bad, and will certainly be sufficient in tasks like Web browsing and streaming media, but if put side-by-side with one of these other systems, you would see it running a bit slower.
  
  
  
  The Core M CPU is essentially running at a lower clock speed to reduce power consumption and generate less heat. As a result, the Yoga 3 Pro has an edge when it comes to battery life, lasting an impressive 8 hours 19 minutes on our battery rundown test. That's almost 30 minutes longer than the closest competitor, the Toshiba P55W-B5224 (7:51), and is all the more impressive when you note that other competing convertible systems didn't even reach the 6-hour mark.
  Conclusion
  If picking out the best system were purely about performance, I'd recommend that you opt for a much-less-expensive system with a full-size laptop CPU, like the Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W-B5224, our Editors' Choice for midrange convertible-hybrid laptops. The Toshiba offers much better performance, and it is far more affordable. However, if portability and battery life are primary concerns, the Yoga 3 Pro is well ahead, thanks to the Core M and the slimmer design it allows. Combine this with an excellent display, a solid feature set, and a striking design, and this is one of the best ultraportables we've seen. It's our Editors' Choice for high-end convertible-hybrid laptops.
   

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HP Stream 13 (13-c020nr)

• Processor
  Inexpensive. Very good battery life. eMMC solid-state drive (SSD) speeds up operations. Good selection of ports. Has OneDrive storage and Office 365 free for a year.
• Cons Narrow viewing angles. Somewhat tinny speakers.
• Bottom Line
  The HP Stream 13 is a very inexpensive full Windows 8.1 ultraportable laptop, but its long battery life, looks, and speed resemble that of a much pricier system.
  
  
  The HP Stream 13 ($229.99) is an attractive ultraportable laptop priced to compete with inexpensive Chromebooks, as well as closeout specials in Sunday papers and on deals websites. It's a full Windows 8.1 PC for users who can't bring themselves to use a browser-based laptop, and it's attractive and speedy enough to hold its own with more expensive notebooks. It's a versatile PC for just under $230, and our first Editors' Choice for budget ultraportable laptops.  
  
  
  Design and Features
  The Stream 13$229.99 at HP is thinner and lighter than the desktop replacement Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch (3531)$305.99 at Amazon it's priced to compete with. It measures about 0.77 by 13.25 by 9 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.33 pounds, so it's easy to carry around. It'll fit perfectly on an airline tray table or on your lap at the local Starbucks while you write your latest TPS report or term paper.
  
  
  
  The system comes in a bright blue, which HP calls Horizon Blue, with a dark-blue to light-cyan gradient on the keyboard deck. (The system is also available in Orchid Magenta.) It's quite handsome, and looks like it has higher quality plastic than some of the inexpensive entry-level laptops and Chromebooks we've seen. The white chiclet-style keyboard, a nice contrast to the chassis hue, is full size and easy to type on, and the one-piece touchpad is responsive. The keyboard isn't backlit, but that's to be expected at this price level.
  
  The 13.3-inch, 1,366-by-768-resolution screen is bright enough for use in a dimly lit room. Naturally, text and user elements display larger than on 11-inch screens with the same resolution like on the Acer Aspire E3-111-C1BW$303.99 at Walmart and the HP Stream 11 (11-d020nr)$199.99 at Amazon. The 13-inch screen on the Toshiba CB35-A3120 Chromebook$239.99 at Amazon is full HD (1,920-by-1,080 resolution), but that system is more than $100 more expensive and isn't Windows-compatible.
  If there's any minor flaw in the Stream 13's screen, it's that it has somewhat narrow viewing angles. If you are looking at the display while situated too far to the sides or vertically, images will look washed out or dark. In-Plane Switching (IPS) screens like the one on the HP Chromebook 11 (Verizon LTE)$299.00 at Best Buy have better viewing angles and display smoother text, but the Stream 13's LCD is certainly fine for a budget laptop. The speakers are capable of playing loud enough for a small room, but they are a little tinny.
  Storage is on the light side: 32GB on an eMMC solid-state drive (SSD) and 2GB of system memory. After the initial setup, only 17GB on the drive is free. The 32GB still doubles the 16GB total we've seen on most of the current Chromebooks. You can supplement storage locally with either a USB drive or by using the system's microSD slot. HP includes a one-year subscription to 1TB of online cloud storage on Microsoft OneDrive and use of Office 365 Personal with the system. Note that if want to continue with both services you'll have to pay $69.99 a year or $6.99 a month after the first year. Still, for that first year, you'll have fully functional copies of Access, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word. The license also includes one install of Office on your phone and on one tablet as well. Wireless connectivity is standard 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
  In addition to the microSD card slot, the system's HDMI port, headset jack, two USB 2.0 ports, and single USB 3.0 port are all on the sides of the system. The three-cell, 36-watt battery is non-removable. The system comes with a one-year warranty.
  
  Performance
  The Stream 13 uses a 2.16GHz Intel Celeron N2480 processor with integrated Intel HD graphics. That doesn't sound too impressive, but remember that the system's SSD helps speed things along. Reboots are quick, and launching most programs only takes seconds. The Stream 13 returned a respectable 1,771 points on PCMark 8 Work Conventional, thanks to the combo of the Intel processor and eMMC SSD. That's better than most budget laptops with traditional spinning hard drives, including the Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch (3531) (1,554 points) and the Lenovo G40$639.99 at Amazon (1,581). 3D gaming scores aren't worth talking about: Suffice to say any sub-$500 laptop returned single-digit frame rates on our game tests and are best suited to playing basic browser games like Angry Birds.
  Multimedia scores are good for the category: 9 minutes 50 seconds on the Handbrake video encoder test and 13:31 for the Adobe Photoshop CS6 test. The Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch (3531) lagged behind by a couple of minutes (11:00 Handbrake; 14:21 CS6), and the Lenovo G40 took much longer than 15 minutes on both multimedia tests. Since they have identical internal components, the HP Stream 11 performed within a few percentage points of the Stream 13 on most of the benchmark tests. Essentially, the Stream 13 is best at day-to-day tasks, but can handle the occasional photo or video edit, as long as you have some time to finish each task.
  
  
  
  Battery life is where the HP Stream 13 shines. It lasted 9 hours 9 minutes on our battery rundown test. That's hours better than the Acer C720P-2600 (7:20), Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch (3531) (6:19), the HP Pavilion 10z (6:38), the Lenovo G40 (5:56), and the Toshiba CB35-A3120 Chromebook (7:04). The only system that beat it in this price category is the HP Stream 11 (9:23), and that's by only by a scant 14 minutes.
  The HP Stream 13 is a great laptop for the money. It reverses the conventional wisdom that you have to pay a premium for an ultraportable laptop, and it undercuts the pricing of most of our recent Chromebook review units by anywhere from $20 to $100. It's quicker than other Windows PCs at or above its $230 price tag, thanks to a relatively speedy eMMC SSD. If you have constant Internet access or a spare $12 to $40 for a 64GB microSD card, you won't have to worry about running out of room on the 32GB SSD. Competitors include the Editors' Choice for entry-level detachable tablets Asus Transformer Book T100TA£294.98 at Amazon, which has double the SSD space and a few more hours of battery life, but is $170 more expensive and has a much smaller 10-inch screen. The Editors' Choice for budget laptops Dell Inspiron 15 (I15RV-6190 BLK), also is an alternate choice with a larger 15-inch screen and quicker performance, but it is also more expensive (by $120) and has much worse battery life. Overall, the HP Stream 13 is the all-day portable PC I'd pick for under $250, and is our first Editors' Choice budget ultraportable laptop.
   

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HP Spectre x360 13t (13-4003)

• Processor
  Slim, stylish design. Smooth geared hinge. Fifth-generation Intel Core i5 processor. All-day battery life. Extra-wide touchpad. Minimal bloatware.
• Cons Full HD resolution is relatively low.
• Bottom Line
  The HP Spectre x360 13t midrange convertible-hybrid laptop combines premium, all-metal construction, a refined portable design, and solid performance that matches that of more expensive systems.
  
  
  When HP wants to impress people, it turns loose its top designers on its Spectre premium model line of laptops and ultrabooks. The latest offering is the HP Spectre x360 13t (13-4003) ($999.99 as tested), a convertible-hybrid laptop that combines some of the best elements of competitors into a slick and polished system. It's clearly built to take on the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2014)$860.00 at Amazon, but it adds a touch screen and a convertible design that gives you laptop and tablet functionality in one machine, similar to the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro£1,048.97 at Laptops Direct. The best part, however, is how HP has priced the Spectre x360 13t $999.99 at Best Buy to compete with the likes of the Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W-B5224$872.99 at Best Buy. It's our Editors' Choice midrange convertible-hybrid laptop.  
  
  
  Design
  The Spectre x360 takes some of the best design elements from both the MacBook Air and the Lenovo Yoga and combines them into a premium convertible system. It has the same basic multimode design, with a 360-degree hinge that allows four different use modes: Notebook, Stand, Tent, and Tablet. This isn't HP's first convertible-hybrid (the HP Envy x360 15t£529.97 at PC World came out last year), and it's not the first Spectre laptop to so closely mimic the look of the Apple MacBook Air (the HP Spectre 13T-3000 did that, too), but it is the best combination of the two I've seen. The aluminum chassis has a unibody design, and has a minimalist aesthetic that you'd probably mistake for an MacBook were it not for the lack of a glowing Apple logo on the lid. But the bare-metal chassis still looks and feels exquisite. The main surfaces have a soft, matte finish, while the narrow edges of the laptop are jewel cut with polished metal that glints in the light.
  
  The slim design measures just 0.63 by 12.79 by 8.6 inches (HWD), and weighs only 3.26 pounds. Compared with HP's other convertible—the 15-inch, 5.29-pound Envy x360—it's a featherweight, but the size difference isn't really comparable. Looking at more similar systems, it's slightly heavier than the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2014) (2.91 pounds), but a full pound heavier than the 2.6-pound Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. As a laptop, that weight is barely an issue—even a full pound is hard to notice when tucked into a laptop bag—but it's a big difference for a tablet.
  The decision to use milled aluminum instead of the plastic and carbon fiber you see on other systems means that the narrow chassis is still very sturdy. And unlike some convertible laptops, the Spectre x360 keeps the same thickness whether it's closed or in Tablet mode. There's still a bit of a gap around the edges due to the tapered chassis, but not much.
  The hinge edges on both the lid and
  chassis are rounded, allowing them to be set closer together, and to rotate smoothly on the geared hinges in what HP calls a "synchronous orbit" motion. The curved edges also make a comfortable handhold, whether carrying the closed laptop or using the tablet. But the real magic is the hinge itself. Instead of sticking two basic friction hinges together, as they did on the HP Envy x360, the Spectre x360 has a different mechanism altogether, a geared cam linkage that makes for an extremely sturdy hinge, no noticeable flexing when opening or re-positioning the display, and an extremely fluid motion as you move from one mode to the next. To top it all off, even with a more complicated geared hinge, there's less bulk associated with the hinge hardware than you'll see on other multimode laptops, with the possible exception of the Lenovo Yoga Pro 3's watchband hinge.
  The 13.3-inch display is only available with full HD resolution (1,920-by-1,080 pixels) right now, although a Quad HD (3,200-by-1,800) model will begin selling next month. That resolution isn't bad at all—and it's higher than the 1,440-by-900 resolution of the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2014)—but when compared with the Quad HD displays on the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro and the Dell XPS 13 Touch$1,349.00 at Dell, it still seems low. The display is bonded directly to the glass that covers it, so the color quality and brightness is as good as a full HD In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel can display. The 10-point capacitive touch sensing on the screen worked well throughout our hands on and testing.
  The sound is also very good. While past HP products have featured Beats Audio sound, the Spectre x360 does not, largely due to Apple's purchase of Beats. But the lack of Beats branding doesn't mean the audio is worse off. In fact, since HP's engineering team was doing the actual designing of the speakers in those past Beats-labeled systems, there's no dip in quality at all. When tested, the speakers offered clear, crisp sound and a fair amount of bass. Additionally, the downward-firing speakers offer good sound quality in every use mode, including Tablet mode.
  The full-size keyboard has metal keycaps, which feel more luxurious than the plastic keycaps seen on the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2014) and the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. More importantly, the keyboard feels great to type on, with solid feedback, a full 1.5mm of key travel, and backlight for visibility in low-light environments. In normal lighting, the lettering on the keys is plainly visible, and the backlit keys look great in a darkened room, but you might want to turn off the backlight in some dim lighting, because the glowing letters can blend into the silver of the keycaps in certain instances.
  
  
  
  What really stands out is the touchpad, an extra-wide HP ImagePad sensor that measures 5.6 by 2.6 inches. It's similar to the ControlZone touchpads seen on the HP Envy x360 15t and the HP Spectre 13T-3000, but HP has done away with the textured zones to the right and left sides of the touchpad—used exclusively for edge-swiping gestures in Windows 8—and has instead simply extended the touch surface. One potential pitfall with a 5.5-inch-wide touchpad is that a larger sensor means a greater possibility of accidental brushes as you type and adjust your hands on the palm rest. Thankfully, HP has stepped up its game, with significantly improved palm rejection on the touchpad, enough so that I didn't run into any issues while using the laptop. In fact the only issue I had was that the wider clickable sensor sets the left and right button zones farther apart than is comfortable to use. But even then, I ran into very few false positives or unregistered clicks.
  
  Features
  The Spectre x360 13t has a full selection of ports, with a full-size HDMI port, a mini DisplayPort, an SD card slot, and three USB 3.0 ports. In a welcome move, all three of the USB 3.0 ports also offer Sleep-and-Charge, so you won't need to remember which is which, or hunt for the right port to plug into when the laptop is in a bag or backpack. For a wider array of port availability, HP also includes two USB adapter dongles: One provides an Ethernet port, while the other offers VGA output. On the right-hand side of the laptop, you will also find physical volume controls and a Windows button.
  HP has also taken pains to offer a better Wi-Fi experience to customers, and our testing seems to bear this out. The laptop has dual-band 802.11AC with a 2x2 MIMO antenna for better throughput even over longer distances. Using the Wi-Fi in the Labs, in my apartment, and around Manhattan, the experience was always solid. Other wireless technologies include Bluetooth 4.0 and WiDi.
  For storage, our review unit is outfitted with a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), though the laptop is also sold with 128GB and 512GB drives. Using a SATA interface, the drive performance may not be quite as fast as the PCIe-based storage found in the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch, but the differences won't be noticeable in everyday use. It's also a big step up in speed from the traditional hard drives used in the Toshiba P55W-B5224 or the HP Envy x360 15t, though these systems do boast more storage space (1TB and 500GB, respectively).
  
  
  
  In order to optimize performance and battery life, HP teamed with Microsoft to tweak several aspects of the system, most notably the software load. The result is one of the cleanest consumer laptops we've seen in that regard. Outside of a 12-month trial offer for Microsoft Office and a 12-month trial of McAfee LiveSafe security, you'll find apps from Netflix, The Weather Channel, and Skype. HP covers the Spectre x360 13t with a one-year warranty, and also offers a free year of online support, and 90 days of phone support.
  
  Performance
   The Spectre x360 doesn't skimp in processing power, with an Intel Core i5-5200U CPU and 8GB of RAM. This low-voltage processor is built for use in ultrabooks, but unlike the power-sipping, passive-cooling Intel Core M line, which is used in tablets and ultra-slim laptops, the Core i5 doesn't trade power for a better thermal profile. The result is a laptop that easily outperforms Core M-equipped systems like the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro.
  Graphics are handled with Intel HD Graphics 5500, an integrated graphics solution. It should be more than enough for browsing the Web and for streaming media, and even some photo and video editing, judging by its performance in 3DMark. The Spectre x360 scored 5,213 points in 3DMark Cloud Gate, and 341 points in Fire Strike Extreme. Don't look to this laptop for gaming, though; it managed only 14 frames per second (fps) in Heaven and 15fps in Valley, both at Medium-quality settings and 1,366-by-768 resolution, far from playable performance.
  
  
  
  In PCMark 8 Work Conventional, the system scored 2,707 points, well ahead of the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro (2,094 points) and right in line with the Toshiba P55W-B5224 (2,757 points) and the HP Envy x360 15t (2,682 points). Cinebench R15 scores showed a similar story, with the Spectre x360's score of 258 points leading the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro (147 points) by a large margin, and offering performance nearer to other top-performing laptops, like the Dell XPS 13 Touch (249 points) and the HP Envy x360 15t (241 points).
  On our battery rundown test, the Spectre x360 scored an impressive 8 hours 45 minutes. It outlasted nearly all competitors, like the Toshiba P55W-B5224 (7:51) and the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro (8:19). The only comparison system that lasted longer in testing is the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch, which lasted a record-setting 15:51.
  
  Conclusion
  The HP Spectre x360 13t (13-4003) is a superb mix of design, function, and performance, with premium touches, like a versatile convertible design, a unique geared hinge, a spacious touchpad, and enhanced Wi-Fi. The fact that it delivers all of this at a midrange price is just icing on the cake. Compared with the Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W-B5224, the Spectre x360 offers similar performance, a more compact and portable design, and better battery life, making it our Editors' Choice midrange convertible-hybrid laptop.
  

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Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series Non-Touch

• Processor
  Affordable. Solid productivity and multimedia performance. Relatively long battery life.
• Cons 1,600-by-900-resolution screen. Integrated graphics. Noisy clickpad.
• Bottom Line
  The Dell Inspiron 17 5000 is a nice-looking desktop-replacement laptop that offers good productivity performance and decent battery life for a very affordable price.
  
  
  Designed for multimedia enthusiasts on a tight budget, the Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series Non-Touch ($449.99) is a sprawling 17-inch desktop-replacement laptop that looks more expensive than it is. You get reasonably good Pentium-powered performance, a large, brightly lit 17.3-inch screen, and everything you'll need to tackle your multimedia projects, including a DVD burner and an SD card reader. A more powerful graphics engine and a 1080p screen would be nice, but neither omission prevents the Dell Inspiron 17 $449.99 at Dell from becoming our newest Editors' Choice for budget desktop-replacement laptops.  
  
  
  Design and Features
  Budget-class laptops rarely offer niceties like metal finishes but the Inspiron 17 bucks that trend with a silver, brushed-aluminum lid that gives it the look and feel of a more expensive system. As with most 17-inch notebooks, the chassis is big and fairly heavy, measuring 1.1 by 16.2 by 10.6 inches (HWD) and weighing 6.6 pounds. Still, it's a bit more manageable than the Acer Aspire V3-772G-9460$3,409.07 at Amazon, which weighs 7.1 pounds and measures 1.4 by 16.3 by 10.8 inches (HWD).
  Under the lid is a 17.3-inch display with a 1,600-by-900 (HD+) resolution and a glossy, somewhat reflective coating. You don't get 1080p at this resolution, but the panel delivers a sharp, highly detailed 720p picture, as well as bright, well-saturated colors. Viewing angles are typical of a Twisted Nematic (TN) panel; you'll experience some color shifting when you view the screen from any 55-degree (from center) angle.
  
  The matte-black keyboard deck holds a full-size, chiclet-style keyboard with a number pad on the right and a large 4-by-3 inch clickpad at the bottom. The keyboard is spacious and firm, and the keys are responsive. The clickpad is also responsive, but its click is fairly loud and can be annoying to others close by. However, its large surface area provides plenty of room for swiping, zooming, and scrolling.
  The left side of the laptop holds two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI video output, headphone and power jacks, and an Ethernet LAN port. Over on the right side are a tray-loading DVD burner, a USB 3.0 port, and a 3-in-1 SD card reader. There are two moderately loud speakers mounted in the bottom of the chassis that offer a smattering of bass, but could use some help from a subwoofer, and there's a 720p webcam and microphone embedded in the display's upper bezel. The Inspiron 17 offers wireless networking via built-in Wireless-N 1705 and Bluetooth 4.0 circuitry.
  
  
  The Inspiron 17 has Windows 8.1 with Bing installed on its 500GB hard drive. It also comes with Cyberlink's Media Suite software and several Dell applications, including PC Checkup diagnostic software, Backup and Recovery, and My Dell, a portal for accessing the above-mentioned apps, as well as drivers and updates. As is usually the case with Dell consumer systems, you also get the typical trialware and bloatware from eBay, Amazon, McAfee, and Microsoft. The Inspiron 17 is covered by a one-year warranty.
    Performance
  The Inspiron 17 is equipped with a 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 3558U ultra-low-voltage (ULV), dual-core processor, 4GB of DDR3 system memory, and Intel's HD Graphics 4400. Although this configuration is not what you would call powerful, it does provide ample horsepower for running multimedia and everyday home and home office tasks. Its score of 2,097 on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional benchmark test beats the Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch (3531) (1,554) and the Acer Aspire E3-111-C1BW $300.99 at Walmart (1,605), as does its Cinebench R15 score of 129 (the Dell Inspiron 15 scored 71, and the Acer E3-111-C1BW scored 125). The Inspiron 17 completed the Photoshop test in 8 minutes 35 seconds, besting a former Editors' Choice, the Dell Inspiron 15 (I15RV-6190 BLK)$359.99 at Amazon, by 29 seconds. It also completed the test faster than the newer Celeron-based Dell Inspiron 15 (14:21) and the AMD-powered Gateway NE72206U (11:34), and whipped the competition with a Handbrake video encoding time of 5:48. The Inspiron 17's HD Graphics 4400 solution fared a little better on our gaming tests than the laptops using Intel's HD Graphics, but it still doesn't have the graphics horsepower required for smooth game play.
  
  
  
  
  With its 4-cell, 40-watt battery, the Inspiron 17 lasted 5 hours 20 minutes on our battery rundown test. That's only 1 minute shy of the Gateway NE72206U and is quite good for a 17-inch laptop. It outlasted the Dell I15RV-6190BLK (4:10) and the Acer E3-111-C1BW (5:06), both of which have smaller screens and Celeron processors.
  Conclusion
  With the Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series Non-Touch, you get a lot of laptop for $450. Granted, its 17.3-inch screen won't display high-definition content at 1080p, but it displays 720p with aplomb and delivers vibrant colors. At this price you don't get a high-end processor and a blazing graphics solution, but you do get a fourth-generation Pentium CPU that can handle your multimedia tasks without a problem, and a nice feature set that includes a DVD burner, an HDMI output, a multi-SD card reader, decent speakers, and a webcam. You also get over 5 hours of battery life. As such, the Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series is our Editors' Choice for budget desktop-replacement laptops.
    

 

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Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147)

• Processor
  More than 8 hours of battery life. Thin and compact. Feels sturdy. Comfortable to hold. Full-size HDMI port and three USB ports.
• Cons Aggressive screen dimming. Has a little keyboard flex. USB 3.0 ports are same color as USB 2.0 ports.
• Bottom Line
  The entry-level Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) proves that you don't have to compromise if you want a convertible-hybrid laptop that lasts all day and fully utilizes its touch screen.
  
  
  A convertible-hybrid laptop like the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) ($449 as tested) bridges the gap between a traditional clamshell laptop and a slate tablet. The screen flips around to give you the functionality of both types of devices, but it doesn't detach from the keyboard. The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 $429.99 at Dell takes the concept and refines it while still delivering a sub-$500 price tag. With its long battery life, sturdy hinge, and a chassis that's comfortable to use, it earns our first Editors' Choice award for entry-level, convertible-hybrid laptops.
  
  
  Design and Features
  The compact Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 is built around an 11.6-inch, 1,366-by-768 resolution, 10-point touch screen. The laptop chassis measures about 0.83 by 12 by 8 inches (HWD), and weighs a relatively light 2.99 pounds. That's smaller and about a quarter-pound lighter than the HP Pavilion 11t-n000 x360$398.99 at Amazon, but a smidge heavier and larger than the Lenovo Yoga 2 11$460.36 at Amazon. It feels fine in the hand, and is balanced for one-handed use in slate-tablet mode. The system will fit fine in most commuter bags, including messenger bags and backpacks made to hold full-size tablets and compact laptops.
  
  
  The In-Plane Switching (IPS) screen is bright and clear, but you'll have to disable the somewhat aggressive screen dimming. Thankfully, the dimming isn't as dark as it is on the business-oriented Dell Venue 11 Pro (7139)$1,102.00 at Dell tablet, since you can still see what's on the screen in a typically lit room. The 1,366-by-768 resolution is common for sub-$500 laptops and is capable of displaying 720p HD videos at full resolution, but 1080p HD videos will have to be scaled down. Screen taps and swipes register quickly, and there is a multipoint touchpad below the full-size keyboard. Key feel is average for a compact laptop, but there's a hint of keyboard flex.
  
  You can flip the screen around into four modes: Laptop, Stand, Tablet, and Tent. Laptop and Tablet modes are exactly what you think they are. Stand mode has the screen facing you with the keyboard upside down on the table, while Tent mode has the screen facing you with the keyboard facing up and away from you. With both Stand and Tent mode, you use the touch screen without access to the physical keyboard, but Tent mode may work better when you have limited desk space, like when you're working on an airplane tray table.
  
  Though the chassis is slim, it has a good selection of I/O ports, including an HDMI port, an SD card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, and a USB 3.0 port. Note that the USB ports are all the same black color, so you'll have to figure out which one is the USB 3.0 port by searching for the tiny USB SS icon (hint, it's on the left, next to the HDMI port). The full-size HDMI port is more convenient than the micro-HDMI port you get with the Lenovo Yoga 2 11.
  The system comes with 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive. The hard drive is slower than the flash memory or solid-state-drives (SSDs) found in slate tablets, but there's a lot more space for your files. While very few users will do so, Dell offers instructions on how to replace the hard drive and memory with a speedier SSD or higher-capacity memory, respectively. The hard drive has lots of free space on it, and the Start screen has relatively few pre-loaded apps: Adobe Revel (for photo sharing), Amazon, Dell Shop, Dropbox, eBay, Kindle, Office Trial, OneNote, and Pocket Cloud. The system comes with a one-year warranty.
  Performance
    The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1's components include a 2.16GHz Intel Pentium N3530 quad-core processor with Intel HD Graphics, built on the Bay Trail-M platform. The system managed a passable 1,712 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, which measures performance while working on office documents, video conferencing, and Web browsing. We don't have a lot of comparison PCMark 8 scores yet, but the Dell system's score is higher than the 1,576 points earned by the Atom-equipped Acer Aspire Switch 10$289.99 at Amazon.
  It also did comparatively well on the multimedia tests: 5 minutes 54 seconds on the Handbrake video encoding test and 12:35 on the Adobe Photoshop CS6 test. While these scores can't hold a candle to those of ultrabooks with Core i5 processors, they are better than the scores we've seen on other systems with Atom, Celeron, and Pentium CPUs.
  
   
  The 3D scores were par for the category: single-digit frame rates that show the system is better suited for casual games. The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 has good speed for an entry-level system, and will be sufficient for day-to-day general use.
  The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 lasted 8 hours 24 minutes on our battery rundown test. For comparison, the Asus Transformer Book T100TA (64GB)$320.00 at Amazon, our Editors' Choice for entry-level, detachable-hybrid tablets, lasted 11:20, but the Lenovo Yoga 2 11 only managed 6:53. The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 will get you through a typical work day, and its battery life is exceptional for a convertible-hybrid laptop.
  The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) proves that you don't have to endure a stripped-down laptop when you only have $450 to spend. It combines a well-designed flipping hinge with all-day battery life and a relatively full feature set. All this earns the Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 our first Editors' Choice for entry-level, convertible-hybrid laptops.
   

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