Hi-Tech Review

The Lay of the Laptop Land: The market has undergone major changes in the past few years, and there's likely to be more confusion in the notebook aisle now than at any other time. Today's models encompass everything from featherweight, business-savvy ultraportables that barely tip the scales at less than 2 pounds, to lap-crushing gaming behemoths of 10 pounds or more. Your standard laptop doesn't look the way it once did, either, with dozens of convertible designs that rethink the standard clamshell to take advantage of touch interfaces. Some laptops double as tablets, with hinges that bend and fold, while other touch-enabled PCs are actually slate tablets that come with hardware keyboards for notebook-style use. There's simply too much variety in the laptop space for one size or style to fit every person's needs. That's where this buying guide comes in. We'll brief you on all the latest designs and specs, and parse the current trends, helping you figure...

It is not particularly easy to shine at an event like the New York Times International Luxury Conference, but this year HP managed to turn some heads with what it claims to be the thinnest laptop in the world. At this year's event, hel in Versailles, France, HP showcased the Spectre 13.3, which measures the razor-thin 10.4mm! If you can't put that into perspective, imagine the girth of an AAA battery, or better yet, a stack of eight Pennys. By comparison, the new MacBook is about 13.1mm thick and the 14-inch LG gram is about 12.7 mm. Speaking of the latter, the HP Spectre 13.3 is just as incredibly light, tipping the scale at just 1.1 kg thanks to a carbon fiber chassis. What seems to be eve more impressive, however, is that HP managed to cram a lot of computing power into the ultra-portable. It is offered with a 13.3-inch 1080p edge-to-edge display, an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and up to 512GB of flash storage. RAM is capped at 8GB and there was enough room...

Pros:   USB 3.0   Generous RAM   Decent battery life Cons   Mediocre keyboard   Drab looks   Poor internal speakers Key Features: Review Price: £439.99 500GB 5400rpm hard drive 6GB DDR3 RAM Intel Core i3-2350M CPU 2.3kg weight 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 1x USB 3.0 The Toshiba Satellite C855 is a no-nonsense 15.6in laptop selling at a reasonably affordable price. We took a look at one of its lower-end iterations, packing a Core i3-2350M processor, 500GB hard drive and a chunky 6GB of RAM. Of course, man cannot live by specs alone and there’s more to using a laptop than counting the numbers. Design The Toshiba Satellite C855 has a pretty sober and practical design. It comes in grey, white, black and red finishes, and we got hold of the nattier colourful version. Its lid is lightly-curved high-gloss plastic, with a subtle cross-hatched pattern on top that helps to temper the otherwise-provocative finish. Plastic throughou...

HP is also at the Mobile World Congress and it has its own understanding of what mobile stands for. The company has launched a Windows 10 device named HP Pro X2 with a detachable keyboard and a stylus. HP Pro x2 was launched today at MWC in Barcelona. The device is a convertible laptop/tablet that has a 12” display with FullHD resolution. It is developed to work with a detachable keyboard and a stylus, much like a Surface device or the Android-powered Galaxy Tab S3. It is also extremely tough - the Pro x2 is designed to withstand MIL-STD-810G tests. And if this isn’t enough, you can buy an extra case for further protection because why not. The Pro x2 is powered by Intel’s latest Kaby Lake CPU ranging from the Core i7 to the Core M3 and there’s even an option for you to pick a Pentium chipset. RAM is 8GB LPDDR3 RAM and 512 GB SSD storage. The GPU is unimpressive though - it has the okayish Intel HD Graphics 615. It supports both 4G LTE and Wi-Fi, has a microSD slot and a smar...

Dell has refreshed its Windows-powered XPS 13 laptop. The latest version comes with Intel's 7th generation  Kaby Lake  processors - you can choose from Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 CPUs. While RAM options include 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB, storage options include 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. As far as display is concerned, the device comes in Quad HD + and full HD options - the former also offers an optional touchscreen SKU. Dell claims that the model with 1080p display has 22 hours of battery life. When solely used for video and Web browsing, the new laptop can last for 13 hours. As for price, the new, rose gold variant carries a tag of $1,499.99, while the silver aluminum model will start at $799. The refreshed XPS 13 ships.

CPU 2.7-GHz Intel Core i7-6820HK Quad-Core CPU Operating System Windows 10 RAM 32GB RAM Upgradable to Hard Drive Size 512GB SSD Hard Drive Speed n/a Hard Drive Type Dual SSDs Secondary Hard Drive Size 16GB Secondary Hard Drive Speed 7200 Secondary Hard Drive Type HDD Display Size 17.3 Native Resolution 1920x1080 Optical Drive None Optical Drive Speed Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 with 8GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM Video Memory 8GB Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wi-Fi Model Killer Wireless-AC 1535 802.11a/c WiFi featuring 2x2 MU-MIMO technology (Dual-Band 2.4GHz and 5GHz) Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.1 Mobile Broadband Touchpad Size 4.0 x 2.4-inches Ports (excluding USB) USB 3.1 Ports (excluding USB) Microphone Ports (excluding USB) Headphone Ports (excluding USB) Ethernet Ports (excluding USB) USB Type-C USB Ports 5 Card Slots SD memory reader Warranty/Support two-y...