HP Elite Dragonfly Review: A Super Stylish 2-In-1 Laptop

The high end 2-in-1 notebook market is pretty crowded with entrants from Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, HP, ASUS and others. As a result, it's pretty tough to make a convertible laptop that stands out from the rest. HP's doing its best, however, with its new Elite Dragonfly line of lightweight, 2-in-1 hybrid PCs.  What we have on hand today is the currently-shipping edition of the Elite Dragonfly. That means this notebook carries an eighth-generation Intel Core processor. No doubt that right now is a transitional period, where the previous generation is being phased out, and new Intel 10th Gen CPUs,...

HP Omen 17 Review: A Value-Priced Mobile Gaming Beast

by Paul Lilly - Thu, Jan 23, 2020

For the longest time, replicating a desktop-class gaming experience on a laptop meant spending a hefty premium on a comparable mobile configuration, and to some extent, that still holds true today. The situation is much improved, however, as the cost of entry into PC gaming territory in general has continuously fallen on the hardware side, for both desktops and laptops. Simply put, the bang-for-buck proposition on a gaming PC has never been higher than it is right now. HP's newest model Omen 17 gaming laptop highlights this. It also accentuates the shrinking divide between desktops and laptops,...

Microsoft Surface Pro X And Pro 7 Review: Snapdragon And x86 Experience

by Ben Funk - Wed, Jan 15, 2020

Microsoft Surface Pro X (left) and Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (right) - Similar But Very Different Beasts Microsoft's Surface Pro line of convertible tablets has long been one of the standards by which premium Windows hybrid convertibles are judged. The Surface Pro family has been around for years, but these latest tablet 2-in-1 devices come with a twist. First is the tried-and-true Surface Pro 7 with an Intel Core processor and a surprising amount of power for the form factor. However, the Surface Pro is now available with an Arm 64 system-on-a-chip (SoC) and platform from Qualcomm, to boost battery...

Dell XPS 13 (2019) Review: A Refined 6-Core Ultrabook

by Ben Funk - Fri, Dec 27, 2019

Dell's XPS 13 family is split into two main product lines; 2-in-1 convertible notebooks and traditional clamshell-style laptops. It wasn't too long ago that we looked at the latest 2-in-1 with Intel's 10th-generation Core i7-1065G7. That machine was a thin, light, flexible beauty and a great performer, thanks in no small part to its improved graphics capability with the Intel 10th Gen Core series of CPUs. So when Dell offered up the latest XPS 13 clamshell version with a bright 4K display and Intel's Comet Lake 6-core 10th Gen CPU on tap, we just had to kick the tires a bit.  For those not...

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 Review: Powerful Portability

by Ben Funk - Thu, Dec 19, 2019

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 family has long been synonymous with excellent build quality and premium features. Over the summer, we were extremely impressed with the 7th-generation ThinkPad X1 Carbon's build quality, performance, and its bright 4K IPS display. This time around we're looking at the larger ThinkPad X1 Extreme, which shares a design aesthetic with its smaller sibling. However, this model trades the smaller notebook's ultrabook specs for a larger 15.6" chassis and higher-powered components.  Much like the Carbon, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme starts out with a 1080p IPS display and has several...

Google Pixelbook Go Review: A Premium Chromebook Experience

by Rod Scher - Thu, Nov 21, 2019

Google's new Pixelbook Go is a bit of an anomaly in the company's line of Chromebooks. Neither a folding, swiveling ultra-premium device like the original Google Pixelbook, nor a tablet like the Pixel Slate, the company's newest release is a traditional clamshell design, although one that features a touch-enabled display. It looks, feels, and behaves like a conventional laptop, but with its magnesium chassis, 1080p touchscreen, and quiet "Hush Keys," one that's small, light, feature-rich and well-made. That said, though its premium mobile laptop is fairly conventional, Google's Pixelbook line...

Alienware m15 R2 Review: Beautiful OLED, Beastly Performance

by Ben Funk - Wed, Nov 06, 2019

Alienware may just be the most well-known gaming desktop and notebook brand on the planet. The company's gray alien logo graces everything from proper, upgradeable desktops like the Aurora R9 to the huge desktop-replacement Area-51m notebook complete with actual desktop hardware. What we have on hand today isn't quite so big and bulky, however: the new 2019 edition of the company's workhorse m15 gaming notebook, the m15 R2. We had a chance to spend some one-on-one time with this sweet portable machine back at Computex, but now it's come through our labs from the alien mothership for an extended...

HP Omen X 2S Review: A Sleek, Dual-Screen RTX Gaming Beast

by Tuan Huynh - Fri, Nov 01, 2019

In the last 5 years, gaming notebooks have essentially reached performance parity with desktop systems and made it easier for gamers to experience their favorite PC games virtually anywhere, without losing out on image quality or performance. However, because most components perform similarly in any given form factor, manufacturers are constantly striving to predict what the next hot desirable feature may be, to help their devices stand out from the crowd. HP’s 15-inch Omen X 2S banks on dual screens being the next big feature and packs an innovative, two-display setup into a sleek, lightweight...

Dell XPS 13 2-In-1 (2019) Review: A Near-Perfect Intel 10th Gen Laptop

by Ben Funk - Wed, Oct 16, 2019

Dell's XPS family of premium laptops has long been synonymous with excellent performance and build quality. In particular, the XPS 13 lineup has included some of the most highly awarded ultraportable PCs on the market today. Today, we have Dell's latest XPS 13 on hand: model 7390, which is a 2-in-1 model with a 360 degree hinge and a 13.3-inch multi-touch IPS display that converts what looks like an otherwise-traditional laptop into a tablet. Perhaps more importantly, this is the first retail notebook we've gotten our mitts on with Intel's 10nm CPUs, codenamed Ice Lake, in tow. In fact, Dell...

Intel Gen 11 Graphics Takes Fight To AMD In Dell XPS 13 2-In-1

by Ben Funk - Thu, Oct 10, 2019

It's no secret that Intel has a lot riding on its "Ice Lake" 10th generation Core CPUs manufactured on its 10-nanometer fabrication process. The chipmaker got by on squeezing more power and efficiency out of its 14-nm node for what seemed like an eternity, but we're talking about a mobile sector that relentlessly demands more performance and longer battery life. This oft-delayed Intel process node promises to reduce power consumption and increase performance by a wide margin over the Kaby Lake Refresh processors that previously served as the brains for thin and light PCs. Dell's XPS 13 2-In-1 Gets...

Microsoft Unveils Surface Neo Dual Display Foldable PC Powered By Intel Lakefield Foveros Tech

by Brandon Hill - Wed, Oct 02, 2019

Remember the Courier concept that leaked from Microsoft over a decade ago? It has finally manifested itself into a real product that Surface Chief Panos Panay announced today called the Surface Neo. The Surface Neo features dual 9-inch displays covered in Gorilla Glass that are joined together with a central 360-degree hinge. That hinge, which features micro-gears with an innovative torque system, allows the device to contort into a number of various positions based on what your current workload is like. You can use it as a dual-screen device; you can it with just a single display; you can use...

HP Zbook 14u G6 Review: A Thin, Powerful Mobile Workstation

by Ben Funk - Tue, Sep 17, 2019

The modern work place is everywhere. Thanks to the need to attract top talent, many employers have generous work-from-home policies that allow employees who would normally be stuck in an office, to work from almost anywhere. Without the advent of fast portable PCs to do that work, however, this wouldn't be as easy as folding up a laptop and taking it with you. There are also plenty of road warriors who spend more than half their working lives traveling, and those folks need (or want) good-looking, fast laptop PCs like the HP Zbook 14u G6 we'll be showing you here, to take with them. ...

Dell XPS 15 (2019) Review: OLED Display Beauty, 8-Core Beast

by Paul Lilly - Tue, Sep 03, 2019

Dell often rides the bleeding edge, as it wastes little time arming its laptops and desktops with the latest hardware platforms available. At minimum, this means yearly refreshes of its popular product categories. So, right on cue, Dell has begun rolling out updated variants of its XPS 15 laptop with some nifty upgrades compared to the version we reviewed last September. One of the biggest changes is the addition of an OLED display option. Just as we have been enamored by Samsung's display panels on its mobile phones, we hold Dell's InfinityEdge displays in similar regard, as being among the...

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Review: Lenovo's 7th Gen Flagship Impresses

by Ben Funk - Tue, Aug 20, 2019

New year, new ThinkPad X1 Carbon—it's easy to think that yearly laptop iterations would be mundane. However, today we're looking at one of our most heavily-awarded line of laptops here at HotHardware, so expectations run high. Last year's Lenovo flagship really impressed us, with power under the hood combined with its well-designed and lightweight body, impressive 2560x1440 Dolby HDR IPS display, and great battery life. That model earned an Editor's Choice award and still stands tall as one of our favorite business-oriented ultraportables. How could the 2019 variant be made even...