That's where this buying guide comes in. We'll brief you on the latest buzzwords and trends, help you decide which features matter most, and get you ready to buy the right portable for you, whether it's a super-slim ultrabook or heavy-duty desktop replacement.
Netbook Successors
The netbook category, distinguished by low prices and tiny clamshell designs, has all but disappeared—but smaller, inexpensive systems are still in high demand. Newer 10 to 12-inch ultraportables have fully embraced Windows 8, and resurrected the netbook concept with dockable Windows tablets. These slim and portable tablets feature the same Atom processors and small screens seen in the netbooks of yesteryear, but that small screen is now a detachable tablet, offering a level of portability and convenience that netbooks never could. The Acer C7 Chromebook (C710-2847) and the HP Envy X2 (11-g012nr) $469.99 at Sears weigh about 3 pounds when docked laptop-style with a keyboard, and drop to 1.5 pounds when used as a tablet alone.
There's another newcomer offering small, inexpensive laptops, as well, though it may come from an unexpected source—Google. Chromebooks leverage Google's free Chrome operating system to put all of your internet connectivity needs into a small laptop, and by forgoing Windows, these systems can be sold for significantly less than competing systems. The Samsung Chromebook Series 3 (XE303C12) $257.30 at shippedin24hours, for example, sells for $249, and the Acer C7 Chromebook (C710-2847) is even cheaper than that. This web-centric notebooks aren't for everybody, but they are definitely worth checking out if you want a portable laptop primarily for browsing the Web and working online.
Ultrabooks
A year ago, ultrabooks were the newest thing in the laptop world, taking inspiration from the likes of the Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2012) $928.00 at Datavision. Ultrabooks took the ultraportable category and refined it with industry wide standards governing everything from boot times to chassis thickness—no more than 18mm (0.71 inch) thick for units with screens smaller than 14 inches. Dubbed ultrabooks, these wafer-thin systems represent a new vision for portable computing, a no-compromises laptop light enough that you'll forget it's in your briefcase, whose battery and storage let it resume work in seconds after being idle or asleep for days. Solid-state drives (SSD)—whether a full 128GB or 256GB SSD or, more affordably, a small one used as a cache with a traditional hard drive—give ultrabooks their quick start and resume capability. In the last year, these slim portable systems have gone from being the exception to the rule, with dozens of new ultrabooks, offered by every major PC manufacturer.
For a basic laptop that offers ultrabook-style portability, there are plenty of thin and light laptops available, like the 13-inch Dell XPS 13-MLK $1,199.99 at Dell or the larger Acer Aspire M5-581T-6405 £749.99 at amazon.co.uk and Asus ZenBook UX51Vz-DH71 $1,979.95 at OfficeDepot. Intel's competition hasn't taken this shift lying-down, however. HP has an entire line of AMD-powered laptops with ultrabook-like proportions, such as the HP Pavilion Sleekbook 15z-b000 $449.00 at Microsoft Store. All offer full-sized keyboards and enough horsepower for desktop applications. Right now, the hottest part of the ultraportable segment falls under an Intel-trademarked term called ultrabook; more on ultrabooks in a minute.
With the arrival of Windows 8, which makes an aggressive push towards touch interfaces and tablet-like designs, the ultrabook category has morphed from merely thin and light to offering all manner of touch-enabled models, like the Sony VAIO T15 Touch (SVT15112CXS) $994.00 at Amazon. Touch has also come to the AMD-powered Sleekbooks, with systems like the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 15z-b000 Sleekbook $589.95 at Amazon.
With thin designs offering more mobility than past laptops and touch-enabled displays becoming the norm, the ultrabook is being shaken up yet again with the introduction of convertible designs that offer both laptop and tablet functionality. Whether it's the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 $1,099.00 at Lenovo that folds around to change from laptop to tablet and back, or the Asus Taichi 21 $1,299.00 at Microsoft Store, which puts a touch-display in the lid of an otherwise standard ultrabook, the lines between laptop and tablet have been bent and blurred considerably in recent months.
Mainstream and Premium
While ultrabooks and their ilk now make up the majority of laptops on the market, a few mainstream notebooks you're used to can still be found. These 14- and 15-inch laptops aren't as portable as the new crop of slim systems, but offer everything you need for a day-to-day PC. Systems like the HP Envy X2 (11-g012nr) $469.99 at Sears or the Sony VAIO E15 (SVE15116FXS) may not be as portable, but without the size constraints introduced by the ultrabook design, they offer larger storage capacity and a broader selection of features. And while many PC manufacturers have moved en masse to the Ultrabook category, Apple hasn't abandoned the desktop replacement, with the updated MacBook Pro 15-inch (Mid 2012) $1,699.00 at Datavision and the ultra-high-resolution display of the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Retina Display) $1,849.00 at B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio. These sorts of 1080p+ displays will soon be showing up in Windows laptops, but can already be found on the premium Google Chromebook Pixel (64GB, LTE) $1,599.00 at Amazon.
Media and Gaming
For something outside of the mainstream, there are still large 17-inch media centers available, like the Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition (7720) , which caters to elite audio and video buffs with large 1080p displays, excellent audio, and Blu-ray drives. While there are a few systems made specifically with media-lovers in mind, most are made for gamers. The gaming laptop—distinguished by powerful discrete graphics processors and features the offer a competitive edge online—has seen a dramatic expansion in the number of designs and variations available. While there are still high-end systems, like the Origin EON17-SLX , for those who want the very best, budget-friendly gaming systems are offering better capabilities for more affordable prices, as seen in the Asus G75VW-DH72 . Portability has become a bigger focus as well, shifting from the stereotypical back-breaking 10-pound systems to smaller and lighter laptops, like the Razer Blade (2012) $2,499.99 at Razer Online Store | North America/Europe or the Maingear Pulse 11 , which let you take your games on the road.
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