Top 5 laptops of 2014
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Laptops are facing a lot of competition from tablets and even large smartphones, but they’re still the mainstay device for getting work done. Here are the best of 2014.
13-inch MacBook Air
The MacBook Air hasn’t changed much over the past few years, but that’s a testament to its design, which was introduced more than four years ago. The 13-inch MacBook Air has always been one of the lightest (just under 3 pounds) and thinnest laptops, and it has incredible battery life. Its most recent iteration packs Intel’s latest silicon and can run for 12 hours or more in common usage scenarios.
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And let’s not forget its 11-inch sibling, which is probably the closest a laptop can get to the size and weight of a tablet like Apple’s iPad Air. The 11-incher’s battery life is comparable to the 13’s, but it’s even lighter at 2.4 pounds. And it starts at $899, a hundred bucks less than the 13.
The only notable drawback of both models is the screen. The MacBook Air 13 offers a modest 1,440 x 900 resolution display, a bit of a throwback to the days when screens were almost an afterthought in laptop design. But that’s easy to overlook when you have a design this good.
Surface Pro 3
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This could be considered a controversial top pick because the Surface Pro 3 is not a laptop per se, and many business laptop users insist on a tried-and-true, traditional clamshell design. But Microsoft has reached a high degree of refinement with its third-generation Surface Pro after two generations of more or less experimental designs.
The Pro 3 is offered as a standalone 12-inch tablet, but almost no one would buy it without its Type Cover, the stellar detachable keyboard that essentially turns it into a laptop.
The design is impressive: At only 1.8 pounds (2.3 pounds with the keyboard) and 0.3-inches thick, it’s about the same weight (with the keyboard) as the uber-svelte 11-inch MacBook Air and packs all the power of a typical laptop, including the option for Intel Core i7 processors. And the gorgeous 12-inch, 2,160 x 1,440 resolution touch screen is icing on the cake.
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Toshiba Chromebook 2
Chromebooks run Google’s Chrome operating system, and that’s just fine if you spend most of your time in the Chrome browser anyway, especially when the hardware comes cheap (below $400).
Topping the list is Toshiba’s latest entry, the 13-inch Chromebook 2, which goes above and beyond the typical stripped-to-the-bone hardware of this category and delivers a brilliant 1,920 x 1,080 display (high-end model), a plenty-fast Intel “Bay Trail” processor and a chassis with an easy-to-hold textured material.
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The Toshiba offers probably the best experience you can have on a Chromebook, though it’s a minimalist one because of the limitations of the Chrome OS and the Chrome store.
Dell XPS 15
With the XPS 15, Dell has designed a laptop that might make you think twice about buying its Apple rival, the revered 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina.
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For starters, it has a mind-blowing display with plenty of real estate. The 3,200 x 1,800 edge-to-edge screen is not only beautiful, it’s touch capable. Inside are a quad-core Intel processor and Nvidia graphics to push around those 5.7 million pixels. It’s reasonably light (4.4 pounds) for its size (a 15.6-inch diagonal display), and it’s only 0.7-inches thick at its widest point. The chassis is made of brushed aluminum with a carbon fiber bottom. It’s quality all around.
HP Stream laptops
The HP Stream laptops are exceptional for one reason only: price. The HP Stream 11 is available at the Microsoft Store for $199, a good deal considering that you get a full Windows 8.1 laptop with a one-year subscription of Office 365 Personal, to boot. The Stream 13 sells for $229. Think of it this way … based on pricing at the Microsoft Store, you could buy four Stream 11s for the price of one MacBook Air.