Gadgetory

hey how's it going Dave QD here and this is a very comprehensive comparison of ultrabooks and like last year's video in order for a device to be included into this video it had to be three pounds or less and it also has to have a real keyboard like an actual fold-out dedicated keyboard no attachment covers or any kind of like gimmicky stuff has to be a keyboard that's built in because a lot of people that purchase altar books need to be able to use it on their lap or just in areas that don't have tables so three pounds or less dedicated keyboard okay so no particular order we have the Dell XPS 13 the 9360 I think this is one of the best-selling ultra books on the market right now this is their second generation of this device we also have the LG Graham this is one of the lightest 13-inch ultra books available the whole LG Graham lineup was nicely updated for 2017 with bigger batteries better components and just better build quality all around we have the Lenovo carbon x1 this is one of the best-built devices that Lenovo makes it has that classic Lenovo keyboard that everyone loves and that nipple thing that some people love we have the HP Spectre x-360 this is the only tuned one device on this list I think it's the best tuned one flip device on the market it's an amazing laptop and for people that want to use it as a tablet as well you can do that we also have the razor board itself so this was the device that surprised everyone last year with the individually lip keys great performance external GPU support and strangely good value the KB Lake update just made it even better we also have a Samsung notebook 9 so this is a device that isn't super popular in North America but it's incredibly lightweight it does this by packing a smaller battery but the overall hardware is good this one is the Asus Zenbook 3 this is a more premium device it's one of the more expensive laptops on this comparison but it delivers solid performance in an extremely compact package and then we have another issues the UX 330 this is the cheapest of the devices here so ACS makes a ton of Ultrabook options this one just has really good specs for the money ok we have the 12 inch macbook it has the weakest processor here and it has that single port that so many people love to hate you're obviously paying a huge premium to have something this thin and light from Apple but it is good hardware and it's still a good fit for users lastly we have the 13-inch MacBook Pro it's nice but again it's expensive the base model is quite a bit more than most devices here but despite that heavy Apple premium the hardware's nice now there are some devices that didn't make the cut and here's why this is the 13-inch MacBook Air it's not that it's a bad device it's under three pounds and it's got a dedicated keyboard but at this point in time it's just getting super old the CPU in here several generations old it's not as efficient and I just think there are better ways to spend your money if you're looking for a thin and light Ultrabook secondly the surface pro 4 great device but like I mentioned to make this video you need to have a built-in keyboard and there's also no surface book because it's just too heavy a really cool device but I just wouldn't consider it an ultrabook I also didn't include the XPS 13 2 + 1 so this is also a pretty good device but if you like the regular XPS 13 just does everything this does but better for the same price except for the flip I mean if you're really into that flip thing I would consider a different device instead of this okay let's talk about build with ultrabooks weight can be a very important factor when choosing one and I think a lot of people just choose these things for portability but build quality and device weight tend to be like conflicting things the better you build it the heavier it often is and just vice versa so it's kind of hard to find the balance between the two especially when you're trying to find something that's as light as possible amongst these I'd say that the MacBooks are built the best they look I'm beating a dead horse but they're just really well built for the Windows laptops the XPS 13 is probably the best built it's still an ultralight device but it's not the lightest of the bunch the lenovo x1 and the razor blade stealth are also really well built and so is the HP Spectre the lightest with really good build quality is the Zen book 3 it does have a 12 and a half inch screen though but my favorite in terms just overall build quality to weight ratio is actually the LG gram this thing is super lightweight but the chassis is surprisingly strong for its size and weight the screen has some flex but the keyboard area is super solid in terms of displays a lot of these have really nice screens the two Mac books have great screens but as usual they're expensive in terms of the Windows machines my favorite is the XPS 13 but it's close so many of these panels just look awesome the self has a quad HD screen but see I feel like in this particular category to display quality you can't go wrong with them take any one of these and you'll be happy with the screen a few of them have the option to upgrade to higher quality and higher resolution displays it's just a little bit more expensive if you're looking for a good webcam so if you do like a lot of Skype calls or videoconferencing the one other razorblade stuff is pretty good keyboards and trackpads are usually a personal preference thing and my personal favorite is the lenovo x1 i think it's a keyboard that most people will get used to quickly the XPS 13 and HP are also nice to type on but none of these are bad I think manufacturers recognized the importance of having a good keyboard on these ultrabooks except for maybe the 12-inch MacBook I don't love that one as for trackpad the macbook force track pads are awesome the XPS 13 the LG gram and Lenovo also has a nice track size these ultra books have a bunch of processors to choose from but for regular use like watching videos browsing the web or technical documents these feel really similar to each other I wouldn't worry too much about CPU choice you can play some lighter games on these ultra books with the HD 620 they're obviously not amazing for 3d stuff but with the i7 frame rates can be playable now you're going to dive into all if we look at drive speeds there's a spread again and depending on what you do the faster drives can make it feel a little bit faster but even the slower SATA drives will feel sufficiently fast for most Ultrabook stuff but if you frequently transfer large files or lots of files or if you're a heavier photo editor I would pick up a faster drive for the most part they're all properly cooled when it comes to regular use put user chart for reference the new cabling chips are very efficient and the fans usually don't spin when you're doing regular tasks or even watching videos the most quiet is the fanless 12-inch MacBook that thing is silent but aside from that most of these are really quiet if audio is important to you the two MacBooks have phenomenal speakers I still have no idea how to push in this kind of volume and or clarity they're just really solid speakers for Windows devices the spectre x360 is probably my pick the razor blade stealth is a distant second and everything else is an even more distant third running my battery loop at 215 it's the Mac books always have good battery life but in terms of Windows machines the winner here is actually the LG Graham the XPS 13 and a razor blade stealth are close and they have similar battery sizes but this thing just has better software optimization with this battery something because I'm consistently getting better battery life with this in terms of i/o there's a huge variation in port selection among these devices some of them are comically bad but the winner to me is the Lenovo x1 for use reports two of them being sent about three and as always if it has a benefit three connection you can connect it to an external GPU for gaming the razor core works nicely for the stealth and some windows laptops but the Bison box three will work for all Thunderbolt 3 equipped laptops including MacBooks alright in terms of pricing and value here's a list of their current pricing the one that sticks out is the asus ux305 up for that kind of money runner up is the razor blade stealth it's a bit more expensive where you're getting better performance both of these give fantastic value for the money and the XPS also has some cheaper configurations as well ok before I wrap it up there's two wild card laptops that I haven't talked about yet first is something made by a company called Xiaomi it's their Xiaomi air-12 it's a Chinese company and they be we mimic national I should rephrase they basically completely ripoff apples MacBooks and to be completely honest they're actually really good value for the hardware the thing is they're very difficult to purchase outside of Asia and if you get one and when you get it if anything goes wrong you're totally screwed you can't get it repaired you can have to send it back to China and I mean that just sounds like a nightmare for most people if anything goes wrong so if you have big balls and you want good value there's an option the second wild card is the surface laptop now I don't have my review unit yet but my early impressions of it that despite that relatively high price tag it is possibly the best built Windows device in this market segment and as really good battery life so if you're looking for something with a really premium build take a look at that one now if I had to choose a winner amongst these laptops it would probably be the two Mac books I'm kidding all the laptops on those lists have strengths and weaknesses but as of today there's still no universally perfect Ultrabook you don't have to pick one based on the features that are most important to you all of these are really good but my top picks this year is a three-way tie if you want something with good build quality and a nice screen the XPS 13 is still going strong if you want something that looks a little better in my opinion and you want a little better value the razor blade stealth is the winner there it looks extra awesome with some of the new D brand skins but the new guy this year with three-way tie in first place is the LG gram this thing is a really light device with great battery life it's what a lot of people are looking for in an ultrabook hope you guys enjoyed this video thumbs of you liked it subs you loved it see you guys next time you