15. Chillblast Messiah 17 GTX780M
- Rating:
It's a shame that Chillblast can't manage some more interesting designs for its gaming laptops. However, the Messiah's gaming performance does justify the price, while its healthy memory and storage, along with features such as the Blu-ray writer and FireWire port ensure that it can handle demanding productivity tasks too.
14. Dell Precision M3800
- Rating:
We have mixed feelings about the Dell M3800. It squeezes incredible performance into a thin and light chassis, with superb build quality. But its poor battery life is unacceptable, and there's no easy fix for the DPI issues in some Windows desktop software. There are also a few niggling issues such as slow 802.11ac wireless performance. We'd recommend trying it out first with older desktop software before making your mind up whether this is the mobile workstation for you.
13. Toshiba Qosmio X70-A
- Rating:
The Toshiba Qosmio X70-A is expensive, but not over-priced when compared to many rival gaming laptops. And, in addition to its strong gaming performance the X70-A also provides an attractive screen and speakers that make it a great all-round entertainment machine.
12. Toshiba Kirabook
- Rating:
The audience Toshiba is pursuing with the Kirabook is the well-to-do professional who is willing to pay extra for high-end hardware and services. The Kirabook is the most beautiful Ultrabook to pass through our Test Centre, but its inability to drive a large external monitor at native resolution, a lid that flexes like a contortionist, a Wi-Fi adapter restricted to 2.4GHz networks, and a display that doesn't deliver as much contrast as the Retina display Toshiba wants consumers to compare it to make this machine's sky-high price tag hard to swallow.
11. Schenker XMG C703
- Rating:
A laptop of this size is still likely to spend most of its time indoors, but it's undeniably impressive to see a 17-inch laptop that is genuinely light enough to carry around in a backpack without spending six months training in the gym first. It's not cheap, but it does provide gaming performance that would previously have cost £1500 or more, and is a great option for any gamer who wants a powerful laptop that they can take round to a friend's house for an evening of hard-core gaming action.
10. Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus
- Rating:
The Samsung Ativ Book 9 is one of the nicer Windows Ultrabooks around at the moment with stylish design and impressive-looking specifications. But it comes at a high price and has disappointing battery life. Unless you specifically want Windows 8 and that super high-res display, you should bear in mind that the equivalent MacBook Air has better overall performance and is cheaper.
9. Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2
- Rating:
In some respects the Yoga 2 is a real bargain, as it provides good screen quality, battery life and lightweight design at a very competitive price. Performance is below-par, although it will still handle routine web browsing, streaming video and wordprocessing perfectly well. And, with its lightweight, convertible design, it's a far more attractive device than the big, heavy 15-inch laptops that most manufacturers offer as their low-cost option.
8. HP EliteBook 840 G1
- Rating:
It's a shame that the EliteBook doesn't include a solid-state drive that can really make the most of its powerful processor and GPU, but this is still a well-designed and versatile laptop that will appeal to many business users. The high-quality display is particularly suitable for presentations, while its sturdy design, security features and battery life will appeal to anyone that spends a lot of time out on the road.
7. Dell Latitude 14 7000 Series
- Rating:
The sturdy Dell Latitude 14 7000 Series is generally excellent, with rapid components, extensive connectivity, a good screen and comfortable keyboard, but it can’t quite become the ultimate office Ultrabook: the battery life can’t match the MacBook Air’s longevity, and its £1522 price makes it pricier too.
6. Asus ZenBook Prime Touch
- Rating:
The ZenBook Prime Touch still looks great, and combines desktop-level performance with a slimline design that is extremely portable. However, the failure to provide a battery-efficient Haswell update is a missed opportunity, and means that the ZenBook isn’t quite the leader that it used to be.
5. Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, Retina, Late 2013)
- Rating:
There’s something subjectively ‘right’ about the shape and size of the 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina. It’s not as quick as the 15-inch but for many people in most scenarios, in really doesn’t need to be – yet it still challenges the speed of last year’s quad-core 15-inch Retina in some respects. It is marginally lighter than before, faster in every direction and still with the main attraction working well – the eye-wateringly gorgeous Retina-class IPS display.
4. Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, Retina, Late 2013) 2.3GHz nVidia
- Rating:
Apple’s ‘best’ configuration MacBook Pro with Retina display of late 2013 sees the reintroduction of a discrete graphics processor, now removed from the entry-level model. This will be useful for some OpenCL-based professional applications as well as when connecting multiple monitors. For more modest requirements, including gameplay, there’s less pressure to go discrete though. To save some cost, and potentially benefit from longer battery life, you can always split the difference in price and configure the entry model with the memory or storage of the nVidia MacBook.
3. Apple MacBook Air 13in (Mid-2013)
- Rating:
The Apple MacBook Air (Mid-2013) really does provide all-day battery life. For that alone, it fully deserves to be top of the list for anyone looking for a workaday laptop, one that can reduce one of modern life’s stresses: that of wondering whether your computer will still be functional just when you need it. It’s just as fast as the previous model, more so actually in real-world use, and seals the deal with future-proofed faster Wi-Fi, more storage and a lower price than last year’s model. It’s an outstanding ultraportable among a mass of me-too ultrabook mediocrity.
2. Alienware 18
- Rating:
It's big, heavy and outrageously expensive – and at this price the display could offer better-than-HD resolution. However, the dual GPUs of the Alienware 18 really do provide the strongest performance we've yet seen from a gaming laptop. The only question now is whether the forthcoming GeForce 800M series can outdo that performance, in either single or dual-GPU configurations.
1. Acer Aspire S3-392G
- Rating:
The Acer Aspire S3 has a lot going for it, including an attractive, slimline design and high-quality IPS display. It also provides good performance for an Ultrabook in this price range, thanks to its hybrid storage drive and nVidia graphics. Battery life was respectable rather than outstanding, and some people might prefer to trade features such as the touch-screen and nVidia GPU for a longer-lasting battery.