Many new laptops will demonstrate the power-saving elements of Intel's new fourth-generation Core parts, but not the new, $1,579 CyberPower FangBook Evo HX7-200. This sharp-toothed monster is designed for performance, shredding older competitors with Intel's latest mobile CPU and Nvidia's newest mobile GPU.

Yes, Intel's taken the wraps off the CPUs code-named Haswell, addressing everything from desktops to gaming notebooks, business notebooks, and ultrabooks, and even down into tablets. Inside the new HX7-200 lies the Intel Core i7-4700MQ, a quad-core chip with hyperthreading support that runs at a base clock speed of 2.4 GHz. Intel's M-series mobile processors are a step down from the top-of-the-line H-series, where you get Intel’s new Iris Pro graphics. But if you're a dyed-in-the-wool gamer, you want a discrete GPU anyway. CyberPower obliges by putting an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M to help drive this beast's 17.3-inch, 1920-by-1080-pixel display.

ROBERT CARDIN

Our Worldbench 8.1 benchmark suite is still relatively new, so we haven't amassed a large collection of scores that we can compare to the FangBook EVO, but a Notebook Worldbench 8.1 score of 417 indicates the Fangbook is clearly in a different league. The next best score of 284 belongs to the Toshiba Kirabook, which is powered by a third-gen Core i7-3537U and 8GB of memory.

Although PCWorld’s Worldbench suite includes games such as Crysis 3 and DiRT Showdown, I also tried two slightly older action games— Saints Row: The Third and Metro 2033—to get a more subjective opinion. Both played superbly at high resolutions and detail: 1600 by 900 for Saints Row, using “high” settings, and 1650 by 1,050 while using DirectX 11 “high” settings for Metro 2033. I noticed no slowdown with either game, although there was some slight tearing in spots while playing Saints Row. Fan noise increased as the notebook took on the heavier processing load, but it never reached bothersome levels.

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The VAIO Fit 15 has had a makeover, emerging from Sony’s design studio with a brushed-aluminum case and an excellent touchscreen. But shiny new looks don't distract from lackluster battery life and so-so performance.

This is certainly no Ultrabook, weighing in at 5.7 pounds sans power adapter, but the Fit does pack 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory; a large, 750GB hard drive; a DVD burner; and an HD touchscreen. The Vaio Fit 15 Touch lineup ranges in price from $849 to $1699. Our review unit was priced at $949.

Running at a native resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, the 15-inch display is bright (we measured it at 274 lumens). Like most touchscreens, this display has a distractingly glossy finish: It shows reflections very clearly, so you can easily see if someone is sneaking up behind you. Its oleophobic coating keeps greasy fingerprints away, which is important for a computer running a touch-centric OS like Windows 8.

ROBERT CARDIN

This model uses Intel’s 1.8GHz i5-3337U (Ivy Bridge) processor. The Intel HD Graphics 4000 processor integrated into that chip drives the display but delivered relatively poor gaming performance. Serious gamers will want to opt for an upgraded model that offers one of Nvidia’s discrete GPUs. The stereo speakers in the Fit’s hinge delivered plenty of volume, but sound bounces off the display, resulting in a lack of separation, very little presence, and poor bass response. The recording of Beethoven's 9th symphony that I used to audition the audio system sounded as though it had been recorded in a dingy cellar.

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Attractive, touchscreen-equipped laptops running a full version of Windows 8 are getting cheaper than you might think. Some newly announced Sony touchscreen-equipped laptops start around $600 for 14-inch and 15-inch models. But for just a little more money, Asus’ 15.6-inch VivoBook S550CA has an MSRP of $750—and you can find our review model online for as low as $630.

Touchscreen laptop with Windows 8 costs less than a high-end iPad

That’s right—the VivoBook S550CA costs just as much as a souped-up 16GB iPad, but it’s also got a full-size keyboard, an optical drive, and the touchscreen. If you’re looking for a deal, this is a pretty good one.

The VivoBook S550CA is the largest of Asus’ low-cost VivoBook line. It’s 0.86 inches thick, and it weighs 5.7 pounds. Asus calls it an Ultrabook, but, as we’ve already determined, Asus seems to be bandying that term about recklessly. The VivoBook S550CA isn’t even technically an Ultrabook—while it does have a 24GB SSD boot drive (alongside a 500GB hard drive), and it does start up in just under 15 seconds, the S550CA is 0.04 inches too thick to be an Ultrabook. Intel’s guidelines do state, after all, that Ultrabooks with screens larger than 14 inches have to be under 0.82 inches thick.

Plentiful features in fairly compact profile

That said, the S550CA cuts a slim profile for a 15.6-inch machine. Our review model is housed in a black and silver chassis, with brushed-aluminum detailing on the cover and wrist-rest and cheaper matte plastic on the bottom. The black cover is unfortunately prone to fingerprints, which sort of messes with the sleekness of the look.

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When a vendor sends us a demo system, it typically take great care to ensure that we experience the system exactly as the maker intends us to. So when VESA, the trade group responsible for the DisplayPort standard, said that it was sending PCWorld a multiple-monitor demo system similar to the one it exhibited at CES in January, I expected it to arrive bundled with a detailed guide and all the software needed to present DisplayPort in its best light.

Imagine my surprise when an MSI GX60 gaming laptop, two 24-inch Dell U2413 displays, and a 21.5-inch HP Elite L2201x showed up in the PCWorld Labs without so much as a user manual for any of the four devices. “Wow,” I thought. “They must be pretty confident that setting all this up will be self-evident.”

Robert Cardin

As things turned out, setup was pretty much self-evident. The GX60 has HDMI and VGA video outputs, but obviously I was more interested in its Mini DisplayPort. Both of the Dell monitors have full complements of digital video inputs (HDMI, DVI, and full-size DisplayPort, along with ports labeled ‘DisplayPort In’ and ‘DisplayPort Out’), but the HP display has only a DisplayPort input.

I connected the full-size DisplayPort on the first Dell to the notebook, plugged a second cable to that monitor’s DisplayPort Out, and connected that to the other Dell’s DisplayPort In. Then I attached a third cable to the second Dell’s DisplayPort Out and plugged it into the HP display to complete the chain.

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Microsoft’s vice president of Windows planning may be confident that Windows RT is destined for great things, but I—and the rest of the world—have some doubts. The ARM-based operating system has limits (such as the inability to install legacy apps, or apps from outside the Windows Store) that just don’t belong on laptops.

A laptop you'll flip over

And while Lenovo’s $799 IdeaPad Yoga 11 may be trending toward tablet status, it’s still very much a laptop. In fact, the Yoga 11 is much more of a laptop than some of its competitors, such as the Dell XPS 10 and the Asus VivoTab RT. The XPS 10 and the VivoTab RT have detachable keyboard docks, while the Yoga 11 has a more unique form factor: Its keyboard doesn’t detach, but you can flip the entire screen around 360 degrees to have a slate-like experience.

So for all intents and purposes, the Yoga 11 is a laptop, not a tablet, but it’s running a tablet’s operating system. As you can imagine, this creates a few issues: You can’t download a third-party browser, for example, nor can you install some of the older applications you’re used to working with. You’re limited to apps that you can download in the Windows Store, which might not be a great thing considering Windows 8 app development has slowed in recent months. All of this is pretty unfortunate, because the Yoga 11 is an otherwise well-made product with potential as a replacement for your 15-incher and your tablet.

Stylish design, easy to use, and yes, very convertible

The Yoga 11 is the younger, lesser-equipped brother of Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga 13, which, as you may remember, I liked…a lot. The Yoga 11 features the same silver-gray rubbery finish, black chiclet-style keyboard, and moderately thick bezel surrounding its smooth glass touchscreen, as its predecessor. Its 11.6-inch capacitive touchscreen has a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels, and features bright, crisp colors. It’s a great touchscreen to use, too: accurate, smooth, and as similar to a tablet experience as you’ll get on a laptop. The touch sensitivity appears to extend just beyond the bezel, which makes certain Windows RT gestures (such as swiping from the right side to see the menu) very easy and intuitive.

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At first glance, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 doesn’t look like anything special.

This thick, heavy (6.2-pound), 15.6-inch laptop is encased in a plain, sturdy chassis with a brushed-aluminum cover. It’s sleek-looking, though strangely prone to fingerprints. Lenovo’s logo is subtly appliquéd in the upper left corner, and the edges of the corner taper ever so slightly.

Beneath this mild-mannered design lies a surprisingly good gaming machine

Nothing would indicate that this is actually a rather powerful—and surprisingly affordable—gaming-oriented machine with a third-generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and not one but two Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics cards under the hood. (The second graphics card is wedged into the laptop’s “Ultrabay,” which is Lenovo’s term for the swappable drive bay that replaces the DVD drive.)

Of course, our review model, in all its spec’d out glory—it’s also got a 1TB hard drive, a 16GB SSD boot drive, a glossy full HD display, and a full-sized backlit keyboard with a 10-key numberpad—starts at around $1150. That’s a bit pricier than the $800 base model of the Y500, but it’s still a great price for a gaming laptop.

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Vintage: 1982

Original price: $595

Sold on eBay: From $49 for a specimen with damage to $545 for a machine in like-new condition with the original box, cables, and manuals still wrapped

The best-selling PC of all time featured an 8-bit MOS Technology microprocessor, 64KB of RAM, and a 16-color video palette. You could hook one up to a TV and skip buying a monitor. At the C64's peak, 40,000 of these were rolling off assembly lines each month. The C64 maintains a cult following as fans revive the machines for a round of Centipede or Platoon. Old Commodores, however, are among the items the Computer History Museum does not need donated. Don’t expect your old Commodore to pay for your kid's college, unless it’s rare (like this Commodore 65 prototype that recently sold for $7625).

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I was a big fan of Ultrabooks—or at least the concept of Ultrabooks—when they first debuted in 2012. After all, who doesn’t like the idea of sliver-thin laptops that run Windows?

Unfortunately, it seems like the definition of an Ultrabook has since expanded to include any relatively sleek-looking ultraportable laptop—other specs be darned. HP’s latest Spectre XT TouchSmart shows how the definition can stretch in awkward ways. It’s got the look of an ultrabook—and it’s a great look. The touchscreen display is awesome. But the weight puts it closer to a mainstream notebook computer, and it suffers from the shorter battery life (but not the higher performance) of a desktop replacement. It's a luxe-looking laptop for your living room, which may be all some people want, but it's not really an Ultrabook.

Ultrabook look with laptop heft

The Spectre XT TouchSmart still (barely) meets Ultrabook standards. It’s under 0.9-inch thick, it’s got an Intel Core i7 processor and an SSD boot drive, and so on. But it weighs in at almost five pounds--4.96, to be precise, which is a half-pound heavier than a 15-inch MacBook Pro. It’s trying hard to be an Ultrabook, but it’s too heavy to qualify.

It sure looks good, though. HP may have dropped the “Envy” moniker from its Spectre line, but this is still an eye-catching computer. The Spectre XT TouchSmart (we reviewed the 15-4010nr model, which starts at $1400) has a brushed-aluminum cover with lightly tapered edges and a soft-touch, rubbery bottom. Inside, the keyboard deck sports the cover’s same brushed-aluminum pattern. The backlit, island-style keyboard sits behind a large glass trackpad.

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Whatever happens to Dell in the near future, let’s hope that the company keeps making notebooks as nice as the Latitude 6430u. In a world of cheap-feeling merchandise, it stands apart. It’s sedately handsome, ruggedized, remarkably stable in your hand and on the table, and a tactile joy to use. It’s also fast and available with a wide variety of warranty and support options, as a good corporate computer should be.

Why on earth would anyone start a review by talking about a laptop’s physical stability and feel? Partly because it’s better than talking about the 6430u’s 4-pound bulk, but also because there’s palpable pleasure in handling a well-balanced unit sporting a silky, soft-to-the-touch feel. The unusually uniform weight distribution comes courtesy of the flat battery pack that occupies the lower front quarter of the unit. That balance makes the unit feel lighter than it actually is.

The 6430u’s heft also makes it a very stable typing platform, which accentuates the already nice feel of the Chiclet-style keyboard. The keyboard response is a little lighter than a Lenovo’s, but combined with the solidity of the 6430u, the overall experience might actually be a wee bit better—high praise in my book. The keyboard is backlit, and you can control the lighting intensity via a function-key combination. The unit’s touchpad has silky-smooth response, and buttons on the top and bottom reduce hand travel when clicks are required. Even the eraserhead pointing device is well adjusted. Someone at Dell obviously spent considerable time designing the ergonomics.

Our test configuration of the 6430u sported an Intel Core i5-3427u processor, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a 128GB Samsung PM830 solid-state drive, which helped the unit earn a very capable score of 78 on PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 test suite. The integrated Intel HD 4000 GPU’s game play is mediocre but doable at 800 by 600 or so. There’s no discrete-GPU option, but this is a business machine first and foremost.

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Samsung’s latest Chromebook – the Series 3 XE303C12-A01US – is small, slim, and speedy. This little laptop weighs less than 2.5 pounds and packs a decent performance punch, assuming you’re comparing it to the right machines.

A laptop-shaped improvement to a tablet or smartphone

Google

Our review model, which costs $249.99 as configured, sports a 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core ARM processor, which is the same mobile system-on-a-chip found in the Google Nexus 10 tablet. Like the Nexus 10, the Chromebook pairs the Exynos 5 with 2GB of memory and 16GB of hard drive space.

The Chromebook also sports built-in Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, two USB ports (one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0), a 3-in-1 card reader, and a headphone/microphone combination port. There’s also an HDMI-out port on the back of the machine. Samsung offers USB dongles for VGA-out and Ethernet (sold separately).

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Google’s Chromebook Pixel is an idea. It describes Google’s vision of a high-end laptop for citizens of a future world, freed from the encumbrances of old-style computer operating systems, existing entirely on the Web.

The Chromebook Pixel is also a product, starting at $1299 (I reviewed the $1449 version, with 4G networking). It’s as solidly built and generously appointed as any laptop you’ll find, but it runs only the Chrome web browser, not Apple's Mac OS X or Microsoft's Windows.

Reigniting the Chromebook debate

As an idea sprung from Google’s view of the future of technology, the Chromebook Pixel is intriguing, even intoxicating. But it’s hard to fathom how it works as a real-world product.

If nothing else, it's reignited the Chromebook debate. Within the editorial team here, some editors wonder what the Chromebook’s point is, while others say that Chromebook’s critics are missing the point. Meanwhile, tech legend Linus Torvalds came out in favor of the Chromebook Pixel. Reasonable people are disagreeing, and thanks to the Pixel, Chromebooks are suddenly getting a lot of attention again.

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Even the untrained eye can spot a Digital Storm laptop from across the room, thanks to the company’s insistence on slapping its huge logo across the lid of each system. The overbranded, gaming-oriented x17 is no different: There’s also a large logo on the wrist rest. That said, at just 8.8 pounds sans accessories, it is actually one of the lightest 17.3-inch gaming laptops we’ve seen.

Our review model, which costs $1777 as configured, packs a third-generation Intel Core i7-3610QM processor, 16GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon HD7970M graphics card. The system also features a 750GB hard drive, built-in Bluetooth, an 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter, and a DVD-RW optical drive. The x17 runs a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium.

Performance

In PCWorld’s WorldBench 7 benchmark tests, it scored 99 out of 100. This means it’s only one percent slower than our reference machine, a desktop PC with a second-generation Intel Core i5-2500K processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. While this is an acceptable score for a desktop replacement—the Dell Inspiron 17R-1316MRB scored just 86 on WB7—it’s a little low for a gaming-oriented desktop replacement. The Alienware M17x R4 and the Samsung Series 7 Gamer both scored decently higher on WB7, with scores of 146 and 123, respectively.

The x17’s performance is just about what you’d expect on individual tests. It starts up in 35.6 seconds, which is about 10 seconds slower than the aforementioned gaming laptops. It manages 15.6 frames per second in our Web Performance tests (just a little slower than the Alienware and the Samsung), and it scores only 2006 in the PCMark 7 Office Productivity tests, compared with the Alienware’s 4549 and the Samsung’s 2513.

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It's a tough time to be a Windows 8 RT tablet. Sales seem to be slow, or even negative, for products using this 'lite' version of Windows 8. If Samsung's recent withdrawal of Windows RT products from the European market is any indication, these products are competing with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner for rockiest maiden flight.

What, if anything, can the Dell XPS 10 tablet do to sell itself when its category could be dying? Its saving grace could be its innovative design, which features batteries in both the tablet and dock. When the two halves are married, the XPS 10 delivers a stellar 16 hours of run time--a major selling point if you're commuting internationally. The unit is also handsome in a conservative way, and tactilely appealing thanks to Dell's soft touch paint on the exterior.

On the down side, the performance is just average compared to other RT tablets. The display's 16:9 aspect ratio is less than optimal for reading, and the keyboard and touchpad could be a lot better than they are.

From great battery life to sensational battery life

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Anyone who thinks the Chromebook Pixel is a ludicrous idea hasn’t actually tried one—or at least that’s my theory after using the high-end Chrome OS laptop over the past few days.

In fairness, the $1300 Chromebook Pixel does seem pretty crazy on the surface. You can get many of the same specs in a Windows PC for a lot less money, and without sacrificing the ability to install desktop software. You can also spend $200 more and get a Macbook Pro with Retina display. And for the same money as the Pixel, you could buy no fewer than five Series 3 Chromebooks from Samsung and still have $50 left over.

But none of those options would give you quite the same experience as the Chromebook Pixel, with its 12.85-inch touchscreen and Retina display-esque 2560-by-1700 resolution. You’d also have a hard time finding anything with this build quality. The Pixel is one of very few laptops that stands toe-to-toe with a MacBook in fit and finish.

Now, I'm not entirely sold on the Chromebook Pixel. Despite its many alluring qualities, it's still a bit too pricey for what it does, and its battery life—discussed below—is a deal-breaker for me. But after living with a Pixel on loan from Google, the idea of a luxury Chromebook doesn’t seem so misguided.

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I’ve been reviewing laptops—especially huge, hulking, desktop replacement laptops—for several years now, the term “gaming laptop” still seems like a paradox. After all, is it still a “laptop” if it’s got a 17.3-inch screen and weighs 9.2 pounds (sans accessories)? Not really.

But it is Origin’s latest Extreme Gaming Laptop: the Origin EON17-SLX. This monster of a desktop replacement, which costs $3785 as configured, sports a third-generation Intel i7-3940XM Extreme Edition processor, 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M discrete graphics card.

It’s also got a 1TB hard drive (spinning at 5400rpm) located in the system’s optical bay and two 120GB Intel 520 Series SSDs in Raid 0. The EON17-SLX has built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Onkyo speakers, and a customizable color-changing backlit keyboard with a 10-key numberpad. The laptop runs a 64-bit version of Windows 8, but it does not have a touchscreen (nor is there the option for a touchscreen on Origin’s website).

Performance

The Origin EON17-SLX may be a hulk of a machine, but at least its size translates to power. In our WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the EON17-SLX scores an impressive 115 out of 100, which means it’s 15 percent faster than our testing model—a desktop with a third-generation Intel i5 processor. It’s also the fastest laptop we’ve tested on WB8 by a long shot (second place is a tie at 76: the HP EliteBook 9470m and the Vizio CT15-A4).

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Asus’ VivoBook x202E-DH31T is a curious beast. It’s a small, cheap-ish touchscreen notebook with an Intel Core i3 processor. This 11.6-inch laptop’s performance scores are somewhere in between regular all-purpose laptops and wannabe tablets—in other words, it’s a netbook with a touchscreen.

The VivoBook x202E-DH31T, which costs $500, sports a third-generation Intel Core i3-3217U processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive spinning at 5400rpm. The VivoBook also has built-in Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and an 11.6-inch touchscreen. It runs a 64-bit version of Windows 8.

Performance

The VivoBook x202E-DH31T is on its own little island when it comes to performance. In our WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the VivoBook scored 33 out of 100, which means it’s 67 percent slower than our baseline testing model (which sports a desktop-class i5 processor). Compared with similarly-sized tablet-laptop hybrids such as the HP Envy x2 (18), the Acer Iconia W510-1422 (17), and the Samsung XE500T1C-A01 (17), the VivoBook’s score is very good.

Then again, the VivoBook is 100 percent laptop—it’s not using an Intel Atom processor, but an actual Core i3 CPU. It’s also not a tablet with a dock, like the aforementioned systems.

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Surface RT was a broken promise. When it launched in October, it showed the world a vision of a revolutionary tablet-laptop hybrid, but it couldn’t close the deal. But now we have Surface with Windows 8 Pro, part two of Microsoft’s always fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking Surface saga. This is the hardware everyone has been waiting for. Surface RT was the warm-up act, the proof-of-concept, but the good money has always been on Surface Pro, the Surface sibling with PC-caliber specs and a fully functioning desktop.

image: robert cardin

The good news: Surface Pro is a marked improvement over Surface RT. It has a vastly better display and Ultrabook-caliber components. And thanks to Windows 8 Pro, it can run all the legacy desktop applications that we need for serious productivity. Surface Pro comes much closer than Microsoft’s ARM-based RT offering to fulfilling that elusive promise of uniting a tablet and a PC in a single, uncompromised package.

The bad news: Surface Pro doesn’t run away with the Windows 8 hybrid crown. And based on your needs, it might not be the best Windows 8 portable you can buy in the neighborhood of $1000. This is a problem because Surface Pro needs to stand out as a kick-ass reference design, and not be just another interesting-but-imperfect hardware option for anyone taking the Windows 8 plunge.

Microsoft is Microsoft, damn it! It owns Windows. Its war chest is huge. If it can’t conceive, manufacture, and market the hands-down best Windows 8 hybrid in the world, it’s got unfinished business.

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It's not often that I'm taken with a laptop before even touching it, but I was with the $899 Vizio CT15-A4. Then again, I'm a sucker for minimalist design and that's the CT15-A4 in a nutshell: streamlined and elegant. It's also one of the thinner 15.6-inch laptops you'll run across. There are some imperfections, but when all is said and done, I wish I could keep it. 

Appearance and Ergonomics

I've already tipped my hand about my appreciation for the CT15-A4's streamlined appearance, but let's get specific: the logo is cool, the beveled edges on both the bottom and top halves of the unit look nifty, and the pewter color makes the laptop look classy. I even like the fact that the bezel surrounding the 15.6-inch, 1920 by 1080 display is matte black rather than shiny. Nothing about this laptop shouts at you or demands your attention; it's very cool. I do have a minor nit to pick with the slim design: if you have short fingernails it is a bit difficult to open the unit. The indent on the lower half could be a bit deeper to ameliorate that condition.

It took me a while to get used to the placement of the CT15-A4's keyboard. There's a rather broad expanse of deck between the front lip and the keyboard, but it was easy enough to adjust once I realized I needed to cozy up a bit closer to the laptop than normal. The keyboard itself has short throw with a rather light feel. You will never mistake it for a Lenovo, but it's funcrional. The rocking touchpad has a better feel, with a nice median sensitivity to tapping.

The CT15-A4's display delivers crisp, sharp text, and 1080p movies look magnificent on it. Sound is about average for today's laptops: great through headphones, loud but not so great through the speakers at the top of the keyboard deck. The 1.3MP Webcam is top-notch and color fidelity is better than with most I've used.

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The Acer Aspire V5 isn’t a bad-looking machine, considering its price point. It’s heavier than it looks, but that heaviness translates into denseness, which translates into the machine feeling sturdy and stable. It almost looks like an Ultrabook – it’s relatively slim, it has a simple, sleek overall design, and an edge-to-edge glass display. But does this laptop’s performance live up to its prettiness? Read on to find out.

Our review model, which costs $729.99 as configured, sports a third-generation Intel Core i5-3317U mobile processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. This V5 also has a 15-inch touchscreen, built-in Wi-Fi 802.11a/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and a DVD-RW optical drive. The V5 runs Windows 8.

Performance

In PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the Aspire V5 scores just 42 out of 100. This means that the V5 is 58 percent slower than our testing model, which sports a third-generation i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. This is quite a low score, and even similarly-equipped laptops, such as the HP Envy TouchSmart 4-1102xx (which has the same processor as the V5), perform better. The Envy TouchSmart scored 57 on our WB8 tests.

The V5 doesn’t do much better in individual performance tests. It’s not an Ultrabook, and it has no SSD boot drive, so it takes a good 21.3 seconds to start up. In the PCMark 7 office productivity test, the V5 scores 751 – only the half laptop, half tablet Samsung Xe500T1C-A01 performed worse on that test, with a score of 608.

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Have you picked up your laptop lately? If it's getting long in the tooth, it's probably as heavy as it is slow. Fortunately there's no better time to look for a more portable and modern machine than during the holidays. Even if you can't find a year-end deal on the particular model that interests you, you'll be able to impress family and friends when you whip out your new laptop at holiday gatherings.

Thanks to the performance and efficiency of Intel's Core-branded processor platform, Ultrabooks are gradually gaining in popularity. These machines provide great performance and long battery life, despite weighing less than 4 pounds. They're also a traveler's best friend—slim and light, with quick boot times owing to built-in solid-state memory drives.

That said, if you need more raw power and are willing to compromise on portability, you can find plenty of great traditional laptops. These machines may weigh more, but they also carry larger screens, which are helpful in countless multitasking scenarios.

To help you with your purchasing decision, we've compiled a list of the best Ultrabooks and laptops available right now. PCWorld staffers test as many models as possible—and then we pass our experiences on to you.

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A number of high-powered computers made it onto our Top 100 list this year, but what surprised us even more was that an all-in-one PC had become our overall favorite in the desktops category. And while you'll see plenty of the usual suspects on our list, you'll also encounter a newcomer that wowed us with its first efforts at building both an all-in-one desktop and a laptop.

Maingear Alpha All-in-One (desktop)

Our number three pick overall, the Maingear Alpha's massive chassis accommodates a GeForce GTX 680 video card, a Core i7-3770K CPU, and up to 32GB of memory. You can play today's triple-A game titles, and upgrade every major component to play tomorrow's attractions, too.

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Toshiba’s Satellite P845t-S4310 is an interesting mix of budget laptop and all-purpose machine. It’s bigger and bulkier than most of the sleek machines on the market today, and its performance leaves quite a bit to be desired – even within its class. But it’s not quite at the price point ($800 or less) of a budget model, probably thanks to its sturdy aluminum body and premium speakers. This laptop is a Best Buy exclusive.

Our review model, which costs $910 as configured, has a third-generation Intel Core i5-3317U processor, 6GB of RAM, and a 750GB hard drive. The Satellite also has a 14-inch touchscreen, a DVD-RW drive, and built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n with WiDi capability, and it runs Windows 8.

Performance

In PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the Satellite P845t-S4310 scores 43 out of 100. This means that the Satellite is about 57 percent slower than our baseline testing model, which has a third-generation Intel i5 desktop processor, 8GB of RAM, and a discrete Nvidia graphics card. It’s perhaps a bit unfair to compare a budget all-purpose laptop with a desktop, but the Satellite still underperforms for its category. The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga, for example, which is both slimmer and more flexible than the Satellite (and which has the same mobile processor), managed a score of 60 on our WorldBench 8 tests. The HP Envy TouchSmart 4 managed a score of 57. So the Satellite isn’t awful, but it’s also not performing up to par when compared with other similarly-equipped laptops.

The Satellite does not do much better in individual performance tests. In the PCMark 7 office productivity it scored 822, well behind the Yoga’s score of 2115 and the TouchSmart’s score of 2058. Some of the performance difference is likely due to the hard drive, as the system lacks an SSD or even a small SSD to act as a hard drive cache.

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Lenovo’s Yoga is aptly named – it’s flexible in more than one way. Not only can this Ultrabook be used as a laptop and a tablet, its screen can actually swivel around the hinge 360 degrees to maximize the tablet experience.

Sure, at 0.67 inches thick and 3.4 pounds with a 13-inch screen, the Yoga isn’t the most comfortable, portable tablet on the market. But it’s a pretty cool device when you consider that, oh yeah, it’s both a laptop and a tablet.

Our review model, which costs $1099 as configured, has a third-generation Intel Core i5-3317U processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid state drive. The Yoga has a 13-inch multi-touch touchscreen, a 720p webcam, and built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and runs Windows 8.

Performance

In our new WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the Yoga scores 60 out of 100. This means that the Yoga is 40 percent slower than our baseline testing model, which has a third-generation Intel Core i5 desktop processor, 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia discrete graphics card. The Yoga’s score of 60 isn’t great for a desktop, but the Yoga isn’t a desktop – it’s an Ultrabook. Its score is actually quite good for an Ultrabook – the only other Ultrabook we’ve tested on WorldBench 8 is the HP Envy TouchSmart 4 (57), which has the same i5-3317U processor as the Yoga, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive.

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Razer is best known for its line of gaming peripherals, particularly mice and keyboards. Taken in that context, Razer's elegant-looking laptop, with its quirky keyboard layout and 17-inch display, can be thought of as the ultimate gaming peripheral. As a general purpose or desktop replacement laptop for everyday computing chores, though, it's less useful, of occasionally downright frustrating.

First, though, let's talk about the good.

Thin and elegant

The Blade is built into a chassis just 0.88 inches thick, weighing in at 6 pounds, 10 ounces, and an almost even 7.5 pounds with the amazingly small power brick. Since the Blade ships with a 17-inch, 1080p LED backlit screen, that sub-7 pound weight is actually impressively light. The whole package, when closed, looks like the evil twin of Apple's now-defunct 17-inch Macbook Pro.

When you pop open the lid, you start to realize you're not in Kansas anymore. First, the trackpad is not below the keyboard, but to the right, where most big laptops locate a numeric keypad. Second, it's not just a trackpad, but a small, 800 x 480 pixel color LCD display in its own right. It's a full multi-touch trackpad supporting gesture recognition. Placing the trackpad on the side means you never accidentally send your cursor shooting across the screen when you type. However, if you're used to standard laptop touchpad placement, you're going to spend some frustrating hours adapting to the new location.

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With the now-shipping Windows 8 fully controllable by touch as well as mouse and keyboard, you're bound to see some innovative portable designs such as the Dell XPS 12 Convertible Touch Ultrabook that take advantage of touch. In the XPS 12's case you can rotate its 12.5-inch touchscreen to face outward when the laptop is closed, turning it into a tablet. Clever, though the company might have taken it a step further.

Overall, the XPS 12 works well in its dual roles. It's a fully functional laptop with no obvious compromises, and as a tablet it works as well as anything else. There's a dedicated Windows button that mimics the Windows key on the display itself so you can easily switch from the new Windows 8 UI Metro interface to the Windows 8 desktop when the physical keyboard is hidden.

Build quality and ergonomics

Materials specialists will have a field day perusing the XPS 12's physical specs. The display is covered with Gorilla Glass, the frame is aluminum, the base and top of the unit are carbon fiber, and the keyboard deck is magnesium. The only thing not mentioned in the literature is the unit's radar cross-section. Seriously though, it's a tough unit.

Notably, despite the space age materials, as a tablet alone the XPS 12 would be overly thick and heavy. Even as a smallish laptop, its 4-pound[J1] travel weight is considerably heavier than a normal 12.5-inch or even 13.3-inch laptop. Part of that is the touchscreen digitizer, though an ounce or two is certainly due to the sturdy aluminum frame necessitated by the swiveling display. Gorilla glass probably adds to the overall weight as well.

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Reviewing an operating system is an odd endeavor, because people don’t really use operating systems; they use applications. The OS should be as transparent as possible, acting as a platform for applications. In today’s cloud-driven world, however, the notion that your application will run in a single OS is tenuous at best. Toss in the increasing use of smart devices, whether phones or tablets, and the idea of a single-platform operating system is less relevant now than it was just a few years ago. These days we have “ecosystems”—Microsoft, Apple, or Google, take your pick.

That said, PC users still expect their Windows applications to run as before, and they want to have the same control over their laptop and desktop computers as they’ve always had. New software features should enable users to do more. And as the reaction to the late, unlamented Windows Vista illustrated, all the shiny new bells and whistles should not harm performance or require new hardware.

Can Windows 8 meet its goal of being one aspect of a new Microsoft ecosystem while maintaining its roots in the PC? Can existing computers run Windows 8 without the need for expensive new touch displays? Will the revamped Windows 8 user interface turn off existing Windows users or pull them into the ecosystem? I’ll try to answer those questions and others as I dive deeply into Windows 8.

This review is based on the Windows 8 final release—what Microsoft calls the “release to manufacturing,” or RTM, version. The final release is available to Microsoft TechNet and MSDN subscribers. Desktop PCs, laptops, and tablets ship with Windows 8 preinstalled on the official launch day, October 26.

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The Toshiba Satellite R945-P440 is a solidly built 14-inch all-purpose laptop, but it looks positively monstrous next to the Ultrabooks and ultraportables on the market today. This 14-inch laptop measures a whopping 1.2 inches thick and weighs almost 5.2 pounds with accessories, which makes it sort of a drag to tote around. So the question is, why would you choose the Satellite R945-P440 over an Ultrabook, especially when you can pick up a sleek little number for about $100 more?

Our review model, which costs $730, sports a third-generation Intel Core i5-3210M processor, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 750GB hard drive spinning at 5400 rpm. This all-purpose machine also features built-in Wi-Fi 802.11a/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and Intel’s WiDi technology, which allows you to connect the machine wirelessly to WiDi-compatible external displays. The Satellite R945-P440 runs the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium.

Performance

In PCWorld’s WorldBench 7 benchmark tests, the Satellite R945-P440 posted a score of 86, which is below average for the all-purpose category. The all-purpose class encompasses a fairly wide range of laptops, so it’s best to compare the R945-P440 against other similarly sized all-purpose machines, such as the Alienware M14x and the Lenovo IdeaPad U410, both of which have 14-inch screens. The M14x achieved a WorldBench 7 score of 143, while the IdeaPad U410 earned a mark of 117.

The Satellite R945-P440’s performance looked better in individual tests. For example, in our WebVizBench Web performance test, the R945-P440 managed an average frame rate of 14.2 frames per second, a slightly slower result than that of the M14x (15.1 fps), and a better frame rate than that of the IdeaPad U410 (10.9 fps).

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In a world full of sleek and slim Ultrabooks, the Dell Inspiron 15R 7520 looks enormous. This 15.6-inch laptop is bulky, heavy (7.4 pounds), and not terribly stylish. But it does have some surprises under the hood—namely, four USB 3.0 ports, a full HD screen, and solid overall performance.

Our review model, which costs $1100, sports a third-generation Intel Core i7-3612QM CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive spinning at 5400 rpm. It also features an AMD Radeon HD 7730M discrete graphics card, built-in Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11n, and a Blu-ray Disc player. The Inspiron 15R 7520 runs the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium.

Performance

In PCWorld's WorldBench 7 benchmark tests, the Inspiron 15R 7520 did well, earning a score of 137. This score means that the Inspiron 15R 7520 was 37 percent faster than our standard testing model, which carries a second-generation Intel Core i5 desktop processor and 8GB of RAM. Although 137 is a good score for the all-purpose laptops category, it isn't excellent: For example, the Alienware M14x, an all-purpose laptop designed for gamers, posted a mark of 143 on WorldBench 7.

The Inspiron 15R 7520 performed very well on individual tests. First of all, it had a startup time of 22.3 seconds, which is quick for a non-Ultrabook laptop; by comparison, the HP Envy Sleekbook 6z-1000 took twice as long (45.9 seconds) to start up. The Inspiron 15R 7520 also did well in our Web performance and office productivity tests, producing 13.5 frames per second in the former and achieving a score of 4218 in the latter.

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Unpacking the Sony Duo 11 (aka the SVD1123CXB) reveals what appears to be a tablet; no keyboard is immediately visible. Yet when you pick it up, it seems a little hefty for a tablet. What's going on here? Well, the Duo 11 is not just a tablet. Lifting up the top edge tilts the display and reveals a sliding keyboard hidden beneath the panel.

Welcome to the world of Windows 8 sliders. The Duo 11 keeps its keyboard tucked underneath the tablet's bottom chassis—it's there when you need it, but you can hide it away when you don't.

Sony

The Duo 11 weighs in at 2 pounds, 13 ounces, decidedly on the light side for an Ultrabook. The 11.6-inch screen offers a full 1920-by-1080-pixel IPS touchscreen panel that provides good image quality and color fidelity. Sony also built a full Wacom digitizer into the touchscreen, complete with a stylus supporting 256 levels of pressure sensitivity. Artists will appreciate the digitizer, but Sony didn't think to include a slot to store the stylus in the body of the unit, so you'll need to keep track of it as you travel.

The Duo 11 meets Intel's Ultrabook spec: It's light, it boots quickly from the 128GB solid-state drive, and it measures just 0.71 inch thick. The machine carries an Intel Core i5-3317U processor, and our review unit had 8GB of system RAM (the standard amount of included memory is 6GB). Since it's an Ultrabook, its graphics hardware consists of the on-board Intel HD 4000 GPU built into the Ivy Bridge low-voltage processor.

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Microsoft is aiming to make a splash on October 26 with the debut of Windows 8, but most businesses aren’t leaping to upgrade right away. If you’re planning to run Windows 7 for a while, but you still need to buy hardware today, one of these laptops could be just right for you or the staff you manage. We put a clutch of Ultrabooks and lightweight laptops with good battery life to the test to help you pick the perfect machine for your workplace.

Let's start with the Vizio CT14-A2 Ultrabook...