HP Spectre 13 Ultrabook Review

ros: Unique Control Zone touchpad; Beautiful design; Gorgeous display; Snappy backlit keyboard; Strong performance; Long battery life

Cons: Bottom runs a bit warm

The Verdict: The HP Spectre 13t-3000 Ultrabook packs a user-friendly touchpad, strong performance and long battery life in a beautiful design.

One of the chief complaints users have about Windows 8 is that its gesture controls aren't intuitive enough for first-time users. HP addresses that gripe head-on with the new Spectre 13t-3000 Ultrabook. Large areas on either side of the notebook's Control Zone touchpad make it easier to activate Windows 8's gesture-based Charms and Recent Apps menus. That's not all this $1,019 ultraportable has to offer, though. With the latest Intel Core i5 processor, a solid-state drive, beautiful 13-inch 1080p touch screen and a dead sexy design, the Spectre 13t is one of the best Ultrabooks money can buy.

HP Spectre 13 Ultrabook Review

Design

  Like many of HP's Ultrabooks, the Spectre 13t-3000 features a gorgeous, all-aluminum chassis. For the Spectre 13t, however, HP has added some panache, throwing in a truffle-brown-colored, brushed lid and base that are offset nicely by the notebook's champagne, brushed-aluminum keyboard deck. In the center of the lid, a reflective bronze HP logo adds a touch of class.

Open up the notebook, and the first thing to catch your eye will be the Spectre 13t's oversized Control Zone Touchpad. Developed to make it easier than ever to use Windows 8 gestures, without having to reach up to the touch screen, Control Zone features a standard touchpad flanked on its left and right sides by areas specifically designed for interacting with Windows 8's Recent Apps and Charms menus. (More on this later.)

Measuring 12.8 x 8.7 x 0.59 inches and weighing a scant 3.3 pounds, the HP Spectre 13t is a hair thinner, though a bit heavier than the 13-inch MacBook Air (12.8 x 8.9 x 0.11 - 0.68 inches and 3 pounds). At 12.6 x 8.8 x 0.54 inches, Samsung's ATIV Book 9 Plus is slightly smaller than both the Spectre 13t and Macbook Air, and weighs 3.2 pounds. Acer's Aspire S7 measures just 12.7 x 8.8 x 0.51 inches and weighs 3 pounds.

Display

 The Spectre 13t sports a beautiful 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1080-resolution HP Infinity touch screen display that's far sharper than the $1,099 MacBook Air's 1440 x 900 panel. The Acer Aspire S7 offers a 1920 x 1080, 13.3-inch display, while the $1,399 Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus comes with a Retina-like 3200 x 1800 QHD+ screen. If you want to shell out an extra $70, however, you can equip your Spectre 13t with an HP Vivid QHD Infinity display (2560 x 1440 pixels).

A trailer for "X-Men: Days of Future Past" looked considerably better when viewed on the Spectre 13t's 1080p display than it did on the MacBook Air. Fine lines in characters' faces were sharper on the HP, and colors appeared warmer. Skin tones also looked more natural, and blacks looked endlessly deep on the Spectre 13t. The MacBook Air's display looked washed out by comparison. Similarly, a high-definition image of a lush mountain landscape looked far greener and sharper on the HP.

With a display brightness of 254 lux, the HP Spectre 13t's screen barely outshined the ultraportable laptop category average of 249 lux, and was neck and neck with the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus (251 lux). The MacBook Air's display topped out at 263 lux, while the Acer Aspire S7 hit an impressive 329 lux.

The Spectre 13t's touch screen proved accurate and responsive during our time with the notebook.

Audio

As with many of HP's more-premium notebooks, the Spectre 13t-3000 comes loaded with the impressive Beats Audio software. Jay-Z and Kanye West's bass-heavy "No Church in the Wild" sounded excellent as it thumped through the Spectre's bottom-mounted speakers. We noted a similar experience while listening to Coheed and Cambria's "Mothers of Men," as guitar squeals and symbol crashes filled our conference room.

Switch off Beats, however, and audio sounds muddled. In fact, at one point, it sounded like we were listening to a smartphone rather than a laptop. So just keep Beats on. On the LAPTOP Audio Test, the Spectre 13 pumped out a steady 84 dB at a distance of 23 inches. That's just above the category average of 83 dB.

Keyboard

The HP Spectre 13t's keyboard provided consistently solid feedback throughout our testing. We experienced a good amount of travel and little to no flex. We're also fans of the keyboard's beautiful white backlighting, which evenly illuminated each key.

On the Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor test, we typed at a rate of 79 words per minute with a 1 percent error rate, about equal to our personal average. Our one gripe with the keyboard is the small size of its directional keys, which made navigating a bit of a chore.

Control Zone Touchpad

Using Windows 8 gestures via a notebook's touchpad can be a pain. The pad's small size limits space for swiping in from the left or right, making accessing the Charms and Recent Apps menus frustrating. To address this issue, HP and Synaptics equipped the Spectre 13t with a Control Zone touchpad. Despite its name, it's essentially a normal touchpad with two visually and tactilely distinctive wings on either side. It's designed to make using Windows 8 gestures more intuitive.

Performing gestures on the Control Zone is no different than it would be on a standard notebook. Users swipe in from the right to open the Charms menu, while a swipe in from the left opens the Recent Apps menu. In testing, however, HP said it found that the wings helped users more easily recognize how to use Windows 8 gestures. From a practicality standpoint, it makes more sense to direct users to the touchpad, rather than forcing them to use the touch screen exclusively or expecting them to know, without prompting, that they can use the touchpad for the same gestures.

 Control Zone offers more than not just improved usability. When you open the Charms menu, for example, you can now simply slide your finger up or down the right control zone to select the icon you want to open. Without this feature, you'd have to open the Charms menu, then move your cursor to the icon you want. It's a small, but welcome improvement.

Adding the Control Zones to the touchpad dramatically increased its size, to a whopping 5.5 x 2.6 inches. With such a large space between the user and keyboard, we figured we'd accidentally move the cursor more often. To prevent this, HP and Synaptic wisely chose to disable the cursor in the Control Zones. As a result, we noticed little to no issues with palm rejection during our time with the notebook.

Overall, we liked the larger touchpad and its enhanced functionality. Even Windows 8 veterans will appreciate how much easier it is to use gestures with the Control Zone compared to a standard touchpad.

Ports and Webcam

  As with many Ultrabooks, the Spectre 13t-3000 keeps ports to a minimum. On the right side, you get a single USB 3.0 port, full-size HDMI port, mini DisplayPort and power jack. On the left side is a second USB 3.0 port, combination microphone/ headphone jack, 2-in-1 SD Card slot and lock slot. Don't expect Ethernet or VGA.

The Spectre 13t's 720p webcam provided acceptable stills and video. Colors were accurate, and while we noticed some blurring, the lines in our shirt were still easy to make out.

Heat

The Spectre 13t proved itself to be a cool customer during our LAPTOP Heat Test (streaming a full-screen Hulu video for 15 minutes) reaching just 84 degrees Fahrenheit on the touchpad. The space between the G and H keys hit 94 degrees, falling just below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees. The bottom of the notebook, however, reached a somewhat toasty 99 degrees.

Performance

With a 1.6-GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-4200U processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB solid-state drive, the Spectre 13t is a lightweight speed demon. We opened multiple tabs in both Chrome and Internet Explorer, streamed music from Spotify and watched Netflix without any slowdown.

On the Geekbench 3 benchmark, the Spectre 13t scored 6,436. That's better than the Intel 1.3-GHz Core i5-4250U-powered MacBook Air 13-inch's score of 6,267, and well above the ultraportable category average of 4,559. The Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus, which packs the same processor as the Spectre 13t, scored a lower 4,150.

The Spectre 13t performed equally well on the PCMark 7 benchmark, hitting 4,806 and easily besting the ultraportable category average of 3,927. The ATIV Book 9 Plus pulled ahead of the HP with a score of 5,017, but the Acer Aspire S7 was higher still, with a score of 5,051.

Thanks to its 128GB solid-state drive, the Spectre 13t booted Windows 8.1 in just 10 seconds. The Acer Aspire S7 was one second faster, while the ATIV Book 9 Plus was a second slower.

The Spectre's SSD also helped it transfer files at a breakneck pace, moving 4.97GB of mixed media files in just 32 seconds. That equals a rate of 159 MBps, which is faster than the category average of 111 MBps, as well as the Acer Aspire S7's 113 MBps and Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus' 127 MBps. That said, the MacBook Air handily beat all three notebooks with its impressive transfer rate of 242 MBps.

During the OpenOffice SpreadSheet Macro, the Spectre 13t matched 20,000 names to their corresponding addresses in 5 minutes and 30 seconds. The average ultraportable takes 6:40, while the MacBook Air 13-inch took 5:33. The ATIV Book 9 Plus was a bit quicker, at 5:13. Once again, though, the Aspire S7 took the crown, with a time of 5:12.

Graphics

 With its Intel HD Graphics 4400 integrated graphics chip, the HP Spectre 13t is primed for watching HD videos and playing basic Windows 8 games, but don't expect to run something like "Call of Duty." On the 3DMark 11 benchmark, the Spectre 13t pulled down a score of 943, while the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus scored a respectable 913, and the Aspire S7 scored 895. All three laptops easily beat the ultraportable category average of 713.

While playing "World of Warcraft," the HP Spectre 13t delivered an average of 28 frames per second with the graphics set to auto detect and resolution at 1366 x 768. That's not quite playable. The Acer Aspire S7 averaged 39 fps at the same resolution, while the ATIV Book 9 Plus hit 46 fps. The MacBook Air averaged 45 frames per second with the resolution set to 1300 x 812.

Battery Life

Thanks to its 4-cell battery and low-voltage, fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, the Spectre will last you all day, and you won't have to worry about finding an outlet. On the LAPTOP Battery Test, which involves continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi with the display brightness set to 40 percent, the Spectre 13t lasted an impressive 9 hours and 4 minutes. That blows away the ultraportable notebook category average of 6:35. This runtime also surpasses the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus' 8:06 and Acer Aspire S7's 8:53. The MacBook Air 13-inch, however, ran for a marathon 11:40.

Software and Warranty

 HP went relatively light on the software load for the Spectre 13t, which is a good thing. You get the standard array of Windows 8.1 apps, including the new Bing Food & Drink and Health & Fitness apps and Microsoft Office Home and Student.

The heavy hitter here is the included Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5. Regularly priced at $149, the software lets you adjust, enhance and organize your digital photos with ease. Unfortunately, unlike HP's older Envy notebooks, the Spectre 13t doesn't come with Photoshop Elements or Premiere Elements.

HP provides customers with a one-year limited hardware warranty. See how HP fared in our Tech Support Showdown and Best & Worst Brand Report.

Configurations

The Spectre 13t starts at $999. At that price, consumers get a 1.6-GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-4200U processor, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB solid state drive and a 1080p display. The Smart Buy configuration, which costs $1,229 after a mail-in rebate, has the same processor, but 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a 2560 x 1440-pixel screen.

Consumers can also customize the starting model with up to an Intel Core i7-4500U processor ($195), 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD ($150) and the 2560 x 1440 display ($70). Additionally, you can outfit the Spectre 13 with 802.11ac Wi-Fi, a $20 option.

HP Spectre vs. the Competition

 In some ways, the Spectre 13 surpasses the likes of Apple's $1,099 13-inch MacBook Air, offering a sharper and more vivid screen along with touch capability. However, the Air lasts much longer on a charge and boasts faster flash memory.

Samsung's $1,399 ATIV Book 9 Plus has a sharper display, but you can configure the HP with a higher-res panel, too. And the Spectre 13 offers a better keyboard. The Aspire S7 ($1,399), an Editors' Choice pick, is lighter and slimmer than the HP and offers faster performance, but it also costs $380 more.

Verdict

 HP's $1,019 Spectre 13t-3000 has everything you want in an Ultrabook: a sleek design, fast performance and long battery life. And while you can always use the full HD touchscreen to navigate Windows 8.1, HP gives you an excellent alternative with its Control Zone touchpad. We also like this ultraportable's keyboard and sound quality. The only complaint we have is that the bottom of the Spectre 13 runs a tad warm. Overall, the HP Spectre 13 is a superior Windows 8 Ultrabook.

See more: Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20 Review

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Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20 Review

Pros: Attractive design; Engaging and intuitive Aura interface; Full suite of family-centric apps and games; Fun optional accessories

Cons: Display not full HD; Short battery life; No memory card slot

The Verdict: Lenovo's IdeaCentre Flex 20 portable all-in-one offers a robust suite of family-friendly entertainment for an affordable price.

Don't call it a tablet. Lenovo's IdeaCentre Flex 20 is a portable all-in-one (AIO) PC that hopes to distill the success of the larger Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon 27 in a smaller and less expensive package. Priced at $799, the entry-level Flex 20 sports an Intel Core i3 processor, a 20-inch high-def display and the unique interface and accessories of its bigger brother. However, a lower price tag doesn't come without taking a few shortcuts.

Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20 Review

Design

From the front, the Flex 20 looks like any other tablet, albeit with supersized proportions. The 19.5-inch display is surrounded by a 1.5-inch glossy black bezel. The borders are a little too thick for our tastes, making the screen look relatively small. Above the display is a shiny chrome Lenovo logo, a webcam and a LED flash. A tangerine IdeaCentre insignia decorates the bottom right corner while a single physical home button rests along the bottom bezel.

The AIO's rear panel is constructed of matte silver plastic. A pair of hard plastic feet rest in the top corners of the device with a smaller pair toward the bottom. Sitting at the top of the panel are physical buttons for power, volume and rotation lock. A large chrome Lenovo insignia in the top left corner demands attention.

The Flex 20 features a pop-out hinge that enables the device to stand upright, but a firm steady push on the top of the AIO lays it flat. The hinge, which is nice and sturdy, is secured by a sliding gray switch. We wish the switch would automatically pop out when transitioning from tablet mode back to desktop mode. It's a hassle to have to reach around the back of the device and release the switch.

Weighing 8.2 pounds and measuring 20.5 x 12.2 x 0.8 inches, the Flex 20 is fairly easy to carry under one arm. It makes the 11.2-pound, 19.9 x 12 x 1.8-inch Sony VAIO Tap 20 seem massive by comparison. However, when it comes to lithe AIOs, the Dell XPS 18 reigns supreme at 5.2 pounds and 18.25 x 11.17 x 0.41 inches.

Display

 The 19.5-inch 1600 x 900 display on the Flex 20 is a downgrade from the Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon 27 Table PC's 27-inch, 1920 x 1080 panel. The screen is still massive, but it's not as vibrant as we would have liked. For example, the red flowers on Mila Kunis' dress in the 1080p "Jupiter Ascending" trailer were on the pale side. While the display was sharp enough for us to make out the fine ridges of Channing Tatum's pointy wolf ears in a close-up, the intricate molding adorning a golden table was less defined.

Glare was a constant companion when the AIO was in an upright position. We had an easier time when we laid the device flat. We were also disappointed at the rather shallow viewing angles that immediately inverted colors past 45 degrees.

When we measured for display brightness, the Flex 20 averaged 274 lux, which surpasses the 250 lux category average and the VAIO Tap 20's 254 lux. It was no match, however, for the XPS 18's 304 lux display.

The 10-point capacitive display was smooth and responsive when performing pinch-zoom and Windows 8 gestures, such as switching apps and calling up the Charms menu.

Audio

  The Flex 20 has a pair of bottom-mounted speakers that work in conjunction with Dolby's Home Theater v4 software. At full volume, the AIO easily filled our medium-sized testing space, but quality could be better. The bass guitar on The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" sounded flat while the drums sounded somewhat muted. Jack White's distinctive vocal was also distorted.

We attempted to remedy the problem with one of the three presets (Music, Gaming and Movies) in the Dolby control panel. The Movie preset was the worst of the three, but we couldn't really hear the difference between the remaining options.

On the LAPTOP Audio Test, which measures decibel output at 23 inches from the laptop, the Flex 20 registered 88 dB, besting the 82 dB desktop replacement average.

Keyboard and Mouse

 The included AccuType Bluetooth Wireless keyboard is easy on the eyes. The metallic keyboard, which is powered by a pair of AAA batteries, is surprisingly light at 1.2 pounds. Similar to the Horizon 27, the Flex 20's keyboard includes a number pad at the expense of undersized Left Tab, Caps Lock, Backspace, Right Shift and Enter keys.

Typing on the smile-shaped Lenovo keys proved a comfortable experience, thanks to firm, springy feedback. We hit 55 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, matching our usual rate.

The Flex 20 also includes a wireless mouse that connects to the AIO using the included Bluetooth dongle. Instead of the Horizon 27's mouse, which has a funky rotating rear section, the Flex 20's peripheral is more traditional. The matte gray plastic device fit comfortably in our hand. We particularly liked the black soft-touch plastic scroll wheel, which felt pleasant against our index finger. The mouse's buttons are large and provided a satisfying click when pressed.

Aura Interface

 Lenovo's innovative multiuser interface, Aura, makes a return on the Flex 20. Just like the Horizon 27, Flex 20 users can launch the Aura interface in two ways: by laying the AIO completely flat or by using a tile in Windows 8's Modern interface.

The UI consists of a large ring in the center of the display surrounded by icons for Photo, Lenovo App Shop, Games, Music, Education and Apps. The Settings menu resides in the top left corner, accessed via a translucent button with a couple of gears. There are also tabs for Standby, Exit, System Settings and User Help. Status icons for Wi-Fi and Battery sit in the opposite corner, along with an X to return to Windows 8.

Tapping an icon on the ring displays each piece of available content in a wraparound carousel with large colorful thumbnails. Circling the carousel clockwise reveals more choices, while a counterclockwise motion hides content.

 Pulling a photo from the carousel allowed us to access all our images in a miniature slideshow. Song tracks morphed into old-school CD cases with controls to display song title, play/pause, skip forward/back, repeat and volume. Videos have a film reel border and controls for full screen, play/pause and volume.

Aura utilizes nearly every inch of the Flex 20's 10-point touch screen. If the panel became too cluttered with our myriad photos, music tracks and videos, we simply opened one hand on the display to send everything flying to the borders. Closing our hand returned everything to its original position. Closing a file takes two swipes: one to place it near the border and another to close.

Pressing and shaking a single piece of content clears the display of everything except that file type. For example, pressing and shaking an image would push everything that wasn't a photo toward the borders. We liked the seamless action of flinging content from one edge of the display to another.

Voice Command

Nuance's Dragon Assistant, which lets users interact with the device using voice commands, is an intriguing addition to Lenovo's AIO software. Setup took about 3 minutes, which included training the software to recognize our voice. Once the initial setup was complete, we accessed the Assistant by uttering the phrase "Hello Dragon." From there, we could perform a number of tasks, including searching via Google or Bing, posting updates on our social networking accounts, playing music or making a Skype call.

The software takes less than a second to wake from sleep, and between 1 to 2 seconds to carry out most commands. However, you have to be within a 1-foot circumference of the Flex 20 for the software to pick up your voice.

One of the software's major obstacles is its limited command set. We were especially disappointed to discover that the voice commands couldn't be used with the Aura interface or with any of the games. Another issue we had was the program's tendency to respond to other voices, despite going through the training process.

Accessories

 The optional joysticks, air hockey strikers and electronic die from the Horizon 27 make their return with the Flex 20, and can be used with specific games in Aura, such as "Lenovo Fishing Joy," "Lenovo Air Hockey" and "Lenovo Roulette." The E-Dice are priced at $59.99 while a pair of joysticks and strikers are shipped in a bundle for $49.99.

The E-Dice remains one of the most unique peripherals we've come across. The 1-inch device has a built-in accelerometer that keeps track of what number you rolled. The information is then relayed to the Flex 20 via embedded ZigBee chips in the die and a USB dongle. The dongle can register up to three dice simultaneously. The E-Dice also comes with a USB charging station.

The air hockey paddles are pretty straightforward, and are big enough for kids and adults to use comfortably. The bottom of the paddles are outfitted with metallic discs that enables the display to detect them.

The joysticks look like a smaller version of the paddles, but with a small suction cup attached to the bottom. When we launched a joystick-compatible game, we simply attached the sticks to their designated spots on the Horizon's display and used them to navigate our way through the game.

As fun and novel as these accessories are, we wish that Lenovo would include a stylus and a digital paintbrush for productivity and art-focused tasks.

Aura Games

 Casual gaming remains one of the biggest components of the Aura interface. The eight preinstalled games ("Lenovo Air Hockey," "Lenovo Fishing Joy," "King of Opera," "Lenovo Roulette," "Draw Race 2," "Lenovo Texas Hold 'Em," Ubisoft's "Raiding Company" and "Lenovo Tycoon") remain entertaining and deceptively challenging.

You can't beat the classics. "Lenovo Air Hockey" continues to be one of our favorite titles on Aura. The game offers several modes of play and a palette swap to keep things interesting. Volleying the puck back and forth with a colleague was initially fast-paced and pretty accurate. However, we ran into some latency issues that significantly slowed down puck movement. It was frustrating to send the puck screaming toward our opponent's goal only to have it stutter and slow to a crawl. Also, since this is a two-player affair, there's no need to have four digital paddles on the board; there were many instances where our physical striker would suddenly switch paddles due to the close proximity. Unfortunately, there's no way to remove the second set of strikers.

"Lenovo Tycoon" is like "Monopoly" played on a global scale. After choosing an avatar, we'd roll the die in a race around the world to buy property on each of the seven continents. The digital die was very accurate and responsive, even when it rolled off the table. In-game animations of our game pieces and the board were amusing.

Unfortunately, the actual "Monopoly" game was cut from Lenovo's lineup. We miss the random bits of game trivia gleaned from a trip around the board.

Players with the gambling bug will want to check out Lenovo's versions of "Roulette" and "Texas Hold ‘Em." We got a kick out of placing bets and waiting for the ball to come to a stop. As we faced off against other staffers in a high-stakes hand of poker, we enjoyed swiping over our cards to get a sneak peek. Lenovo has a free Android app in the works that will let players hold their cards in their hands.

"Raiding Company" and "Fishing Joy" put the joysticks to work. "Fishing Joy" tasks players with rotating a cannon that fires nets to capture various fish. When we played "Raiding Company," we went tomb raiding, blasting mummies with various weapons. The joysticks are fairly responsive, but we accidentally dislodged them from the display during some of the more frenetic bouts.

"Draw Race 2" is a racing game with a twist. Instead of relying on tilt physics or a gamepad, the game has players draw their car's path around the track. Depending on the car's attributes, including speed and cornering, winning is easier said than done. "King of the Opera" pits 1 to 4 players against each other in a battle royale to steal the spotlight. Players must capture the spotlight for as long as they can before being bumped out by an opponent.

Overall, playing games on the Flex 20 is a fun experience. The games are easy enough for beginners, but engaging enough for intermediate players. We preferred the Horizon 27's larger playing field for games such as "King of Opera," but we barely noticed a difference on the remaining games.

Lenovo also included its own app store so users won't get bored playing the same titles. The store features popular games such as "Angry Birds Star Wars" and "Fruit Ninja," as well as productivity apps Evernote and Box.

Aura Apps

 Lenovo bundles a few educational apps targeting kids ages 2 to 6, with games focusing on teaching colors, shapes and animals.

The Lenovo Color Corner app is reminiscent of an old-fashioned activity book. It's split up into several sections that lets kids color, draw and connect the dots on a number of templates. "Lenovo Best Guess" is a counting game that can be played with 1 to 4 players. The title tasks gamers with selecting the correct number of items when prompted out of three possible choices. Once the round is over, the weirdly cute jellyfish mascot gives a quick lesson about the number.

 With all the kid-focused software, we were pleasantly surprised to discover StageLight, a music-creation program hidden under the Apps icon. Starting with genre, the app helps users create a music track, including laying down a drum line, bass and synth.

Want to just veg out? Launch the FilmOn Live TV app, which lets users watch live television in standard definition. There are more than 80 channels to choose from, including Sci-Fi Telly and The Western Channel. When we got our fill of heebie-jeebies from American Horrors channel, we switched over to Fox NY5 for some local news.

Webcam

 Using CyberLink YouCam Mobile for Windows 8, the integrated webcam on the Flex 20 shoots photos and videos in 720p. The camera did a good job of capturing the varying shades of blue in our sweater, but the detail was severely lacking. Images were consistently muddied by visual noise.

Ports

The Flex 20's small smattering of ports are gathered on its left side. It includes a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a headset jack and a proprietary power port. We were surprised to see that the Lenovo didn't add a memory card slot or an Ethernet port.

Performance

The Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex's 20's 1.7-GHz Intel Core i3-4010U CPU with 4GB of RAM can handle most tasks, such as social networking, Web surfing and word processing. We didn't notice slowdown when we streamed an episode of "The Astonishing X-Men" on Netflix with seven open tabs in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer while running a full system scan. We watched as the mutants' Danger Room gained sentience without so much as a hiccup. However, when playing "Air Hockey," the puck's movement would stutter.

Lenovo's all-in-one didn't impress on PCMark 7 benchmark, as its score of 2,330 fell short of the 4,686 desktop replacement average. The Dell XPS 18's 2.7-GHz Intel Core i5-3337U CPU managed 4,127, although that model costs $600 more at $1,399.

On Geekbench, the Flex 20 hit 3,513, failing to meet the 10,080 average -- which, to be fair, includes a good number of high-performance gaming systems. The Sony VAIO Tap 20 (1.7-GHz Intel Core i5-3317U CPU) scored 5,683 while the XPS 18 notched 6,291.

The Flex 20's 500GB 5,400-rpm hard drive booted Windows 8 in 15 seconds, almost twice as fast as the 27-second average. The XPS 18 and its 500GB 5,400-rpm hard drive loaded Windows 8 in a slightly slower 19 seconds. The VAIO Tap 20's 750GB 5,400-rpm hard drive started Windows 8 in a sluggish 44 seconds.

During the File Transfer Test, the Flex 20 duplicated 4.97GB of multimedia files in 2 minutes and 42 seconds, a transfer rate of 31.42 MBps. While that's far below the 129 MBps average, it's more than twice the Sony VAIO Tap 20's speed of 12 MBps. The Dell XPS 18 was slightly faster with 33 MBps.

The Flex 20 paired 20,000 names and addresses in 8 minutes and 6 seconds on the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro Test. That's much slower than the 4:44 category average, as well as the XPS 18 (5:58) and VAIO Tap 20 (5:47).

Graphics

 Equipped with an Intel HD Graphics 4400 GPU, the Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20 is powerful enough to run the games you'll find in the Aura interface and most other casual games, but it will have difficulty with anything more taxing.

When we ran the 3DMark11 benchmark, the Flex 20 hit 715, far below the 4,576 desktop replacement average. Keep in mind that this category of notebook is made of up powerhouse gaming systems with discrete GPUs. The Flex 20 outpaced the Dell XPS 18 (619) and Sony VAIO Tap 20 (569).

During the "World of Warcraft" test, the Flex 20 delivered 24 fps on autodetect at 1600 x 900, short of our 30 fps playability threshold. The VAIO Tap 20's 900p display was a couple of frames behind with 22 fps. The XPS 18 managed 25 fps at 1080p, which is still unplayable. When we dropped the resolution to 1366 x 768, the Flex 20 didn't fare much better, averaging 27 fps.

Battery Life

The Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20's internal battery lasted 3 hours and 27 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi), short of the 4:12 desktop replacement average. The Sony VAIO Tap 20 delivered a runtime of 3:50 while the Dell XPS 18 clocked in at 4:12.

Software and Warranty

 Apart from the Aura interface, Lenovo squeezed in a few more apps on the Flex 20. The Lenovo Solution Center keeps tabs on system health, network connections and overall system security via an easy-to-navigate dashboard.

Lenovo Support gives users a fast way to troubleshoot with access to user guides and forums. Lenovo System Rescue allows users to perform a system restore in case of a system crash. And in case you need to find more apps, Lenovo included its Companion app store.

 Lenovo also added a few kid-friendly apps to the mix, including "Lenovo Dress Up," where we had a blast tricking out our monkey in the best geek gear we could find. We also liked "Lenovo Forest Adventures," which put us in the middle of an interactive storybook.

Third-party software includes Amazon Kindle, Accuweather.com, Rara.com, a music streaming site and McAfee Security Advisor.

The Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20 comes with a 1-year warranty. See how Lenovo fared in our Tech Support Showdown and Best & Worst Brands Report.

Verdict

The Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20 isn't the most powerful all-in-one on the block, but it delivers a lot of value for $799. This family-friendly device offers a touch screen, an engaging Aura interface, and entertaining games and apps. Lenovo's optional accessories, such as the E-Dice, add to the fun. The 1600 x 900-pixel display isn't full HD, but that's one of the trade-offs you'll need to make for this price.

For an extra $100, shoppers can pick up the Dell XPS 18, which offers a brighter and sharper 1080p display in a more portable design, but you'll get a smaller 18.4-inch screen and miss Lenovo's innovative UI. That configuration also packs a lower-end Pentium processor. The faster Core i5-powered XPS 18, our Editors' Choice pick, costs $1,399.

Overall, the Flex 20 is a solid choice for families on a budget who like to play and learn together.

See more: Acer Aspire E1-470P Review

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Acer Aspire E1-470P Review

Pros: Very affordable; Excellent keyboard; Good audio; Solid performance for price

Cons: Finicky touchpad; Short battery life

The Verdict: For just $399, the 14-inch Acer Aspire E1-470P provides a touch screen, excellent keyboard and solid everyday performance.

How much laptop can you really get for less than $400? In the case of the Aspire E1-470P, you get solid Core i3 performance, a 14-inch touch screen and a roomy 500GB hard drive. That's a pretty fair price for those specs, but what do you give up?

Acer Aspire E1-470P Review

Design

The Aspire E1-470P certainly looks the part of a budget laptop: The notebook sports an unremarkable glossy black plastic exterior that easily picks up fingerprint smudges, with a silver Acer logo on the right side of the lid serving as the sole flourish.

The spacious deck shares the same glossy plastic finish as the lid. Though the touchpad is slightly off-center, the deck provides plenty of room for both wrists, and the gently rounded edges ensure a comfortable typing experience. Moreover, we appreciated that Acer chose to place the power button at the top left corner of the deck rather than on the side of the notebook, as the company has done in the past.

A matte black bezel frames the notebook's 14-inch display, and a 720p webcam sits above the screen in the center. Another silver Acer logo is located directly opposite the camera, below the display.

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At 13.5 x 9.7 x 1.0 inches and 4.2 pounds, the Aspire E1 is heftier than other 14-inch budget notebooks, such as the $399 Lenovo IdeaPad S405 (13.25 x 9.5 x 0.33-0.83 inches, 3.4 pounds) and the $329 HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook (13.66 x 9.37 x 0.83 inches, 3.8 pounds). Nevertheless, the Aspire is noticeably lighter than the 15-inch ASUS X550CA-DB31 (14.9 x 9.8 x 0.97-1.2 inches, 4.8 pounds, $449), which boasts an aluminum lid.

Display

The Aspire E1-470P's 14-inch 1366 x 768 display isn't particularly crisp, but it boasts lush colors and viewing angles wide enough to accommodate a few friends. When we streamed a 1080p trailer for "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," the hero's iconic red-white-and-blue shield contrasted nicely with his dark-hued uniform, and we could move about a foot to either side of the screen before the colors started to wash out.

More impressively, the notebook's display is touch sensitive, a rarity for budget notebooks. (Neither the Lenovo Ideapad S405 nor the ASUS X550CA-DB31 offer touch screens.) The 10-point touch screen performed reliably, though the notebook's sluggish Core i3 processor hamstrung its speed. We had no trouble executing gestures like edge-swiping and one-finger scrolling, for instance, but the animation looked choppy.

When we measured the display brightness using our light meter, the Aspire E1 averaged 189 lux. While this is dimmer than the mainstream average (210 lux), it outshines the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook (143 lux), the ASUS X550CA-DB31 (144 lux) and the Lenovo IdeaPad S405 (173 lux).

Audio

The Aspire E1-470P's bottom-mounted speakers deliver surprisingly clear and accurate audio. When we listened to Iron Maiden's "Where Eagles Dare," Bruce Dickenson's soaring vocals rang out clearly, and we didn't notice any distortion when Adrian Smith hit the high notes during the guitar solo, though the bass line fell a bit flat. We couldn't find software to fine-tune the audio settings, but given the good overall quality of the speakers, this wasn't a serious issue.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Aspire E1-470P features an excellent island-style keyboard with full-size Backspace, Enter and Right-Shift keys. We didn't notice any flex as we wrote this review, and the well-spaced keys delivered plenty of tactile feedback. The keyboard lacks backlighting, although that's typical for budget laptops. On the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, we achieved a rate of 72 words per minute with a 1-percent error rate, which is slightly higher than our 68-wpm average.

Unfortunately, the 4.1 x 2-inch Alps touchpad proved much less reliable. The pad's textured pattern felt course beneath our fingers, and we often had trouble smoothly executing gestures such as two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. More annoyingly, the touchpad suffers from terrible palm rejection, which -- when combined with tap-to-click -- frequently caused us to begin typing in the middle of random paragraphs. However, you can adjust the sensitivity by digging through the Tapping tab in the Mouse Properties Control Panel.

Heat

The Aspire E1-470P stayed cool during our testing. After streaming a full-screen video on Hulu for 15 minutes, the touchpad measured 89 degrees Fahrenheit, while the space between the G and H Keys was 85 degrees and the bottom of the notebook hit 88 degrees. We consider anything above 95 degrees uncomfortable.

Webcam

Pictures and video captured with the notebook's 0.9-megapixel camera appear grainy and slightly off-color in artificial lighting, but will suffice for a Skype conversation. In daylight, colors look true-to-life, though we still could not make out fine details such as individual hairs in our beard.

Ports

The Aspire E1 features a healthy selection of ports, including an Ethernet port, a DisplayPort, a full-size HDMI-out port, a USB 3.0 port and a headphone/microphone combo jack on the left, and two USB 2.0 ports on the right. An SD Card reader is located on the front right corner of the notebook.

Performance

Equipped with an older (and less energy-efficient) 1.8-GHz "Ivy Bridge" Intel Core i3-3217U processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB, 5,400-rpm hard drive, the Aspire E1-470P provides enough power to browse the Web, listen to music or stream movies -- but don't expect to use any CPU-intensive programs such as Adobe Photoshop.

Subjectively, we didn't experience any stuttering while surfing the Web on Google Chrome or listening to music on Pandora. On our objective benchmarks, the Aspire E1 tended to outpace competing budget notebooks but still fell far behind the mainstream average, which includes more expensive notebooks with Core i5 and i7 processors.

When we ran PCMark 7, which measures overall performance, the notebook notched a score of 2,038. This beats both the 1,439 turned in by the Lenovo IdeaPad S405 (2.1-GHz AMD dual-core A6-4455M processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB, 5,400-rpm hard drive) and the 1,918 achieved by the ASUS X550CA-DB31 (1.8-GHz dual-core Intel Core i3-3217U processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB, 5,400-rpm hard drive).

Due to its slower mechanical hard drive, the Aspire E1 loaded Windows 8 in a relatively sluggish 22 seconds, one second shy of the Lenovo IdeaPad S405 and seven seconds slower than the ASUS X550CA. The HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook, which uses Chrome OS, booted up in just nine seconds. The average mainstream notebook, by contrast, loaded the operating system in 30 seconds (though that average includes notebooks using the slower-booting Windows 7).

On the LAPTOP File Transfer Test, the Aspire E1 copied 4.97GB of files in three minutes and 34 seconds, for a rate of just 23.8 MBps. While this beats the Lenovo IdeaPad S405 (25.6 MBps), it falls behind the ASUS X550CA (30.7 MBps).

The Aspire E1 completed our OpenOffice Spreadsheet Test in eight minutes and 36 seconds, faster than both the Lenovo IdeaPad S405 (8:59) and the ASUS X550CA (8:58).

Graphics and Gaming

Armed with an older Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip, the Aspire E1-470P struggled on our graphics benchmarks. When we ran 3DMark 11, which measures overall graphics performance, the notebook achieved a score of 546. This falls behind the score of 559 notched by the ASUS X550CA, which also uses an Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip, as well as the score of 560 turned in by the AMD HD 7520G-powered Lenovo IdeaPad S405.

Unsurprisingly, the Aspire E1 suffered from dismal frame rates on "World of Warcraft," averaging an unplayable 28 frames per second with the graphics on Autodetect. Bumping up the graphics to Ultra caused the frame rate to plummet to 10 fps. The Lenovo IdeaPad S405 and ASUS X550CA achieved similarly poor results with the graphics on Autodetect, averaging 28 and 23 fps, respectively.

Battery Life

On the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous surfing on the Web via Wi-Fi), the Aspire E1-470P lasted a mere 3 hours and 7 minutes, more than 2 hours less than HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook (5:29) and the mainstream average (5:30). The Lenovo IdeaPad S405 and the ASUS X550CA fared only slightly better, clocking in at 3:34 and 4:05, respectively.

After we uninstalled McAfee Internet Security, however, the E1's battery life increased by half an hour, to 3:37.

Software and Warranty

The Aspire E1-470P comes preloaded with a number of third-party applications, including Soluto, a cloud-based PC-management service; Nero BackItUp 12 Essentials, an automatic backup suite; and trial versions of McAfee Internet Security and Norton Online Backup. Other third-party apps include ChaCha, eBay, Netflix and Spotify. Of course, no Windows 8 machine would be complete without Microsoft applications, such as Skype, SkyDrive and a one-month trial of Microsoft Office 365.

Acer also includes a number of its own desktop-based applications, such as Acer Recovery Management, which lets you restore the notebook to its factory settings, create a customized restore point or reinstall drivers and applications. Acer Explorer is an application hub, and Acer Device Fast-lane lets you quickly lock the touchpad, toggle Airplane Mode and enable or disable the Wi-Fi.

The Acer Aspire E1-470P comes with a one-year parts and labor warranty. See how Acer fared in our Best & Worst Brands Report and Tech Support Showdown.

Verdict

Although anyone looking to purchase a laptop for less than $400 should be prepared to make some compromises, the Acer Aspire E1-470P will leave most shoppers feeling like they got their money's worth. For just $399 (through Best Buy), the notebook offers an excellent keyboard, surprisingly rich audio and solid everyday performance. The notebook's touch screen is also a major plus.

However, the Aspire E1's short battery life and finicky touchpad hold us back from awarding this notebook higher honors. If endurance and affordability are the most important considerations, the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook costs just $329 and lasts almost 5.5 hours on a charge. But if you want a full Windows experience with touch, the Aspire E1 is definitely worth a look. If you're looking for an affordable Windows 8 touch-screen experience, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better deal than the Acer Aspire E1-470P.

See more: Toshiba Satellite E45t Ultrabook Review

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Toshiba Satellite E45t Ultrabook Review

Pros: Good overall performance; Solid sturdy build; Runs cool; Long battery life; Good keyboard

Cons: Lackluster display; Tinny audio; Poor webcam; Bit heavy for 14-incher

The Verdict: The $699 Toshiba Satellite E45t Ultrabook is a capable Windows 8 touch-screen laptop with Core i5 performance in an attractive, sturdy shell.

Those in the market for a portable Windows 8 notebook for less than a grand are spoiled by all the great choices these days. Toshiba's $699 Satellite E45t Ultrabook (a Best Buy exclusive) offers a 14-inch touch screen, an Intel Core i5 CPU, a 750GB hard drive, a 32GB SSD cache and nifty Dragon Assistant voice software in a sleek, sturdy package. Is the Satellite E45t the Ultrabook for you?

Toshiba Satellite E45t Ultrabook Review

Design

Covered in silver aluminum with a brushed metal finish, the Toshiba Satellite E45t-A4300 Ultrabook sports a premium look. As with many of Toshiba's recent notebooks, the E45t features the company's "Skyline" design, with rounded corners toward the rear, and more squared corners toward the front of the system. A shiny, chrome Toshiba logo adorns the bottom left of the lid, and the underside is encased in black plastic.

Inside, the laptop's black, island-style keyboard is housed in a dark-gray aluminum deck, with a round, fingertip-size power button on the top right. The touchpad is centered beneath the keyboard's G and H keys, surrounded by a brushed metal palm rest.

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At 13.4 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches and 4.4 pounds, the E45t is just a bit smaller but heavier than such competing Ultrabooks as the Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch (13.9 x 9.1 x 0.82 inches, 4 pounds) and the Dell Inspiron 14 7000 (13.6 x 9.4 x 0.6 inches, 3.8 pounds).

Display

The Satellite E45t's 14-inch 1366 x 768-pixel TFT display delivered mediocre visuals. When we watched a 1080p trailer for "The Avengers," the Hulk's green skin and Iron Man's red-and-gold armor looked somewhat washed-out, blacks weren't deep and there was visual noise in darker areas. Viewing angles were narrow, with images washing out once we moved beyond 45 degrees to either side. We also found that we had to tilt the display about 30 degrees past vertical -- farther than we would like -- in order to see the truest colors.

On the bright side, graphics in games such as "Bejeweled 3" and "Dragon's Blade" looked rich. We enjoyed the vibrant orange and yellow flames surrounding special gems in "Bejeweled 3."

Although it was adequately bright to our eyes, the E45t sports a dimmer display than competing Ultrabooks. Registering 149 lux on our brightness meter, the E45t was outshone by the Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch (163 lux) and the Dell Inspiron 14 7000 (178 lux), and also scored lower than the thin-and-light notebook category average (211 lux). Additionally, the IdeaPad U430 Touch sports a sharper 1600 x 900p display, while the Inspiron 14 7000 boasts a full-HD (1920 x 1080p) screen.

However, the E45t's 10-point touch screen was responsive. Gestures worked well, including pinch to zoom, swiping back and forth to navigate Web pages in Internet Explorer and swiping up to view all apps. The laptop's sturdy hinge offered adequate resistance to our pokes, only budging slightly when we used more force than usual.

Audio

The E45t's DTS Studio Sound speakers were good, but not great. We played "Oh Come, Emmanuel" by Lindsey Stirling and Kuha'o Case at full volume, and though the music was loud enough to fill a medium-size conference room, violin and piano notes sounded canned and hollow. When we listened to "Let Her Go" by Passenger, Mike Rosenberg's crooning vocals echoed oddly.

Toshiba's Audio Source Filtering app lets you prioritize voices or background sounds using a slider bar. Although placing the bar on the left for Voice Enhancement made Rosenberg's voice clearer and louder, we lost most of the accompanying instruments, and setting the dial to Background Sound Enhancement caused the vocals to disappear into the music.

Dolby's DTS Studio Sound program lets you add bass boost and surround sound, as well as control your device's output with an equalizer. We played around with the Dolby app but found no significant difference in the music.

To test the device's speaker volume, we played a tone at max volume and measured it from 13 inches away. The E45t notched 73 decibels -- softer than the thin-and-light category average (83 dB), the IdeaPad U430 Touch (90 dB) and the Inspiron 14 7000 (75 dB).

Keyboard and Touchpad

The island-style keyboard on the E45t is large and comfortably spaced. While there was adequate feedback, we wish the keys had deeper travel. We liked the dedicated row of Function keys at the top, which let you adjust brightness, volume, playback and connectivity settings with one tap.

 On the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, we typed an average of 78 words per minute on the E45t -- better than our desktop average of 74 wpm. Error rates were the same at 1 percent on both desktop and the E45t. The bright, even LED backlighting under the keyboard times out after 15 seconds of inactivity but comes back to life once you hit any key.

Measuring 4.2 x 2.6 inches, the touchpad on the E45t is spacious and responsive. Windows 8 gestures worked like a charm; we easily swiped in from the left edge to toggle through our open apps, and scrolled through websites with two fingers.

Heat

After 15 minutes of streaming a full-screen Hulu video, the space between the G and H keys measured 77 degrees Fahrenheit, while the touchpad registered just 71 degrees -- cooler than the thin-and-light category averages of 85 and 80 degrees, respectively. The bottom of the notebook also measured a lap-friendly 87 degrees, well under our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.

Webcam

The HD camera on the E45t took dull, grainy pictures. Our bright-pink planner and fluorescent-green iPhone 5c appeared to be in pastel tones, and there was prominent pixelation on our ribbed, green sweater and along our hairline.

Ports

You'll find plenty of connectivity options on the Satellite E45t. Two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port and an Ethernet port line the laptop's right side, while the left edge houses a power jack, USB 2.0 port, 3.5mm combination audio jack and a memory-card reader.

Performance

With a fourth-generation 1.6-GHz Intel Core i5-4200U processor with 6GB of RAM, the E45t delivered zippy performance. We played a round of "Dragon's Blade" without lag while apps such as Evernote Touch, Windows Store, Bejeweled, Internet Explorer, Video Player and Gallery were open. Switching between apps and the Modern screen was instantaneous as we repeatedly pressed the Windows button on the keyboard.

The Satellite E45t did similarly well on performance benchmark PCMark 7. Its score of 4,316 is better than the average thin-and-light notebook (3,460), the IdeaPad U430 Touch (3,785) and the Inspiron 14 7000 (2,771). Both the IdeaPad and the Inspiron pack the same CPU as the Toshiba and carry 4GB and 6GB of RAM, respectively.

On Geekbench 3, the E45t notched 4,963, which is lower than the category average of 6,021 and the Inspiron (5,048) but higher than the IdeaPad (4,739).

The E45t's 750GB 5,400rpm SATA hard drive, which is complemented by a 32GB SSD cache, booted Windows 8.1 in 21 seconds. That's faster than the average thin-and-light notebook (29 seconds) and the Dell Inspiron 14 (23 seconds). However, the IdeaPad U430 Touch booted in just 16 seconds.

Copying 4.97GB of mixed-media files in 2 minutes and 31 seconds, the E45t's transfer rate of 28.1 MBps is less than half the category average of 60 MBps, and slower than the IdeaPad U430 Touch (29 MBps) and the Inspiron 14 7000 (30 MBps).

The Satellite E45t did well on our OpenOffice Test, matching 20,000 names and addresses in 5 minutes and 20 seconds. That's almost a full minute faster than the average (6:18) but a tad slower than the IdeaPad (5:11) and the Inspiron (5:18).

Graphics and Gaming

Packing an Intel Mobile HD graphics chip, the E45t fared pretty well on various tests. Its 3DMark Ice Storm score of 34,306 was better than the performance of the IdeaPad U430 Touch (29,623) and Inspiron 14 7000 (33,494), both of which are powered by Intel's Integrated HD Graphics 4400. The thin-and-light category average is a higher 42,006.

When we played "World of Warcraft" with all three notebooks set to 1366 x 768 pixels and effects on Autodetect, the E45t averaged a playable 36 frames per second. That showing is worse than the Inspiron 14 7000 (46 fps), but slightly better than the IdeaPad (35 fps).

With the settings bumped up to Ultra, the E45t mustered an unplayable 19 fps.

Battery Life

The Satellite E45t's 3-cell lithium-polymer battery will last you an entire workday on a charge. Clocking 8 hours and 6 minutes on LAPTOP's battery test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi), the E45t beat the thin-and-light category average (6:44) and the Inspiron 14 7000 (7:09). The IdeaPad U430 Touch provided 20 more minutes of juice (8:26).

Software

Programs that ship with the Satellite E45t include the standard suite of Windows 8 apps, such as Internet Explorer 10, Skype, People, SkyDrive and XBox Games. Toshiba also throws in a one-month trial of Office 365 for new customers, a 30-day Norton Anti-Theft trial, a 12-month subscription to Norton AntiVirus and the WildTangent Game Console.

You also get an array of Toshiba apps, such as App Place (app store), Book Place (e-book store), Maintenance Utility, Media Player, Recovery Disk Creator, Password Utility and Service Station.

Nuance Dragon Assistant

Toshiba also packed Nuance's voice-control software Dragon Assistant into the E45t, so you can use a Siri-like program to search the Web, compose tweets or messages, and check your various accounts. After about 10 minutes of setup and calibration, we were ready to start using voice controls on our E45t. Greeting the computer with "Hello, Dragon" activates the program.

The software's effectiveness depends on the amount of noise around you. In a lively, open office, we asked the E45t several times to "Open Camera," to no avail. Dragon either did not register our request or misheard it. We said, "Shut Down Computer," and Dragon returned Hulu results for "Calculator shut down computer."

Dragon was much more accurate and responsive in a quiet office, letting us open Internet Explorer, the calculator and other programs. Having Dragon Assistant is a nice touch if your hands are occupied but requires plenty of refinement to make it more useful.

Configurations and Warranty

Our review unit of the Toshiba Satellite E45t (A4300) is a Best Buy exclusive and sports 6GB of RAM; a 750GB, 5,400-rpm hard drive with a 32GB SSD cache; and an Intel Core i5-4200 processor, all for $699.

A second configuration, E45t-AST2N01 -- available on Toshiba's site for $779 -- has 8GB of RAM; a 1TB, 5,400-rpm hard drive with a 32GB SSD disk cache; and the same Intel Core i5-4200U CPU.

The Satellite E45t comes with a one-year limited warranty each for parts and labor.

Verdict

 For $699, the Toshiba Satellite E45t Ultrabook is a capable and attractive Windows 8 thin-and-light notebook. It offers brisk performance, long battery life and a responsive touch screen. Our biggest qualm is this notebook's lackluster display. For $20 less, we prefer the Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch. That system offers a higher-resolution display, longer battery life and an even better keyboard. Still, the Toshiba E45t is a stylish, thin and light notebook with enough power and juice to last you the day.

See More: Origin Eon 17 SLX Review

 

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Origin Eon 17 SLX Review

Pros: Elegant inviting design; Strong performance; Face-melting graphics performance; Fast boot and transfer times; Highly customizable specs

Cons: Dull screen colors; Awkward mouse-button placement; Expensive; Heavy; Fan gets loud when gaming

The Verdict: The Origin Eon 17 SLX offers a jaw-dropping amount of power with a slick chassis and a high level of customization -- if you can afford it.

The Origin Eon 17 SLX is a monster ... in a good way. Equipped with dual Nvidia GTX 780M GPUs in SLI configuration, gamers can expect screaming frame rates on even the most graphically taxing games. A powerful Core i7 Extreme CPU processor, a pair of SSDs and an additional hard drive just reinforce the company's shock-and-awe approach. Of course, all this power doesn't come cheap: While the Eon 17 SLX starts at $2,016, our configuration costs $4,462. Does all that muscle make the SLX the new king of the gaming notebooks?

Origin Eon 17 SLX Review

Design

When we first set eyes on the Eon 17 SLX, our inner "Knight Rider" fantasies ran wild. A pair of glowing red lights and black chrome grilles along the rear of the notebook reminded us of David Hasselhoff's Trans-Am. We just wish that there were a pulsating row of red lights up front so we could have our own personal K.I.T.T.

Aside from the notebook's rear, the Eon 17 SLX keeps things simple, employing a refined, black, soft-touch finish on the lid, with a light-gray Origin logo prominently in the center. Unfortunately, the lid is a fingerprint magnet, turning into a shiny mess.

One thing you won't see on most notebooks is the back-facing 1.0-MP webcam on the top edge of the Eon's lid. Intended for use when video conferencing, it ups the notebook's weirdness factor considerably.

 The interior is made primarily of black matte plastic, with a thin strip of glossy black plastic breaking the monotony. This shiny strip, which runs along the top of the deck, contains a number of status lights as well as a circular power button. The keyboard resides in a slightly recessed deck; just below, the touchpad is emblazoned with a glowing Origin emblem. In another zany design twist, Origin left a half inch of space between the touchpad and the discrete mouse buttons.

We were disappointed to learn that, unlike the Origin Eon 17-S, which has seven custom chassis options, the SLX can only be ordered in black.

Measuring 16.5 x 11.3 x 2.15 inches and weighing a hulking 9.4 pounds, we wouldn't recommend carrying around the Eon 17 SLX for long periods of time. The 16.5 x 10.7 x 1.2~1.7-inch Toshiba Qosmio X75 is a full 2 pounds lighter. It also dwarves the ASUS G750JX (8.8 pounds, 16.1 x 12.5 x 0.66~1.9 inches) and the MSI GT70 (8.9 pounds, 16.85 x 11.3 x 2.2 inches). That's nothing compared to the hulking beast that is the Alienware 18's 12.2-pound, 18 x 12.9 x 2.83-inch frame.

Lighting

Similar to Alienware, Origin outfits its notebooks with customizable backlit keyboards. Users can also set the color of the touchpad emblem. The lighting configuration program allows users to choose from eight effects (Random, Dancing, Tempo, Flash, Wave, Breath, Cycle and Custom) and eight colors (Black, Blue, Red, Pink, Green, Light Blue, Yellow and White). Unfortunately, you can't toggle the lights along the notebook's rear.

Using the backlighting software is fairly straightforward -- you can choose an effect or create a unique light palette using the Custom setting. We wish that the software allowed deeper customization, as Alienware does. It would be nice, for example, to set the colors for the other effects, instead of having them cycle through the available hues.

We also wish the software were easier to access. The program can only be launched by pressing the "/" (forward slash) key on the number pad in conjunction with the Fn key. It took us a number of tries before we located and started the app. In contrast, Alienware's AlienFX software can be quickly found in the Alienware Command Center utility suite.

Display

The Eon 17 SLX's 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel matte display offers good viewing angles and sharp details, but colors and contrast could be better. Watching the 1080p trailer for "Her," Joaquin Phoenix's bright-red shirt took on more of a persimmon color. The blacks also fared poorly, as evidenced by a night scene of the city skyline that wasn't quite as dark as it should be.

When we played "The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings," the deep and foreboding blacks of a midnight forest looked ashen and gray. Geralt's distinctive facial scar also had a faded quality. And just like in the "Her" trailer, the reds had more of an orange tint than we would have liked.

When we measured display brightness, the SLX measured 261 lux, topping the 253-lux desktop replacement average. That was enough to beat the GT70 and the G750JX, which both hit 240 lux. The Alienware 18 did somewhat better, with 254 lux, but the Qosmio X75 was the brightest in the bunch, measuring 297 lux.

Audio

Nestled between the hinges of the lid and angled toward the user, the SLX's Onkyo speakers bathed our face in loud, brassy audio. Queen Latifah's full, flirty alto was the star of the show as we listened to "When You're Good To Mama." However, her playful delivery was, at times, upstaged by the tinny trumpet section. That, combined with the brassy cymbals, resulted in a cacophony of chaos at full volume.

We attempted to tame the brass dragon with the Sound Blaster Xi-Fi MB control panel, but there wasn't any real difference between the Music, Movie and Game presets.

While playing "The Witcher 2," some of the background music sounded flat, with very shallow bass, and swelling crescendos during a key battle sounded hollow and ordinary. However, effects such as clanging swords and babbling brooks were spot-on and greatly enhanced the ambiance.

The SLX scored 82 decibels on the LAPTOP Audio Test (audio output at 23 inches from the laptop), well below the 91-dB average. The G750JX managed 85 dB, while the X75 achieved 94 dB.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Similar to previous Origin notebooks, the SLX has a traditional keyboard with a full number pad. The keys are big, with nice spacing and firm, springy feedback. We hit 60 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, noticeably higher than our 55 wpm average. We weren't blown away by the brightness of the backlighting, but it will get the job done in a dimly lit room.

Origin's 4.1 x 2.75-inch touchpad has plenty of space for you to navigate. However, it's not centered under the G and H keys, which can be an issue for touch typists.

The discrete mouse bar is hit or miss -- as in, you have to ignore your instinct to press down directly below the touchpad, or you'll miss it. Because the mouse bar is located a full half inch below the touchpad, we often found ourselves having to look before we pressed to make sure we literally hit the bar. The lightly textured bar felt good against our finger and had a distinct click. However, it would have been nice if the bar were split into two separate buttons.

Fingerprint Reader

The SLX features a BioExcess fingerprint scanner for gamers who want to make sure their "Call of Duty" stats have extra protection. The scanner is located just below the Enter key of the number pad.

The initial startup is simple. After choosing a finger to register, we slid our finger over the scanner six times. As with most scanners, the swipes have to be slow, deliberate movement or it won't scan, and you'll be forced to do it again.

Once the fingerprints were entered, we assigned them to launch Steam and access our Facebook account. It can also be used to access Twitter and Gmail.

Heat

 During the LAPTOP Heat Test (streaming a full-screen Hulu video for 15 minutes), the SLX's touchpad measured a cool 77 degrees Fahrenheit. The space between the G and H keys registered 84 degrees, while notebook's bottom was 86 degrees. Those temperatures are well below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

However, after 15 minutes of playing "The Witcher 2," the touchpad jumped to 87 degrees. The space between the G and H keys and the bottom vent rose to 100 degrees. Also, the notebook's fans were going at full speed and sounded like a small turbine.

Webcam

 The Eon 17 SLX has the unusual distinction of having both rear-facing and front-facing webcams. Both devices can capture images and video in 1080p. An option bar along the bottom of the display let us switch between the cameras on the fly.

Colors on the 5.0-MP camera (the one facing us) had a bluish tint, giving any browns in the picture a darker hue, including our skin. Although the image was clear enough to read the orange text on the cereal box, the image was still fuzzy, with few clear details.

The 1.0-MP rear camera gave us brighter colors than the front camera. We were particularly impressed with the vivid blue and red from our "Candy Crush Saga" Rubik's cube. Similar to the front camera, the rear device did an admirable job of capturing text, but the overall image was still grainy.

Ports

The SLX is just teeming with ports. Two USB 3.0 ports sit on the right side of the notebook, along with an eSATA/USB 2.0 port, a Thunderbolt port and a DVD burner. Along the left are a 9-in-1 card reader, an Ethernet port, a Kensington lock slot and jacks for headphones, microphone, line-in and S/PDIF. Lining the rear of the device is another pair of USB 3.0 ports, HDMI-in and the power jack.

Graphics

Strap on your seatbelts! The Origin Eon 17 SLX has been outfitted with dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M GPU in SLI (Scalable Link Interface) packing 4GB of VRAM each. For the uninitiated, Nvidia's SLI technology harnesses the power of two GPUs to dynamically increase graphics performance and enhance image quality. That means that this rig will deliver blistering frame rates and performance, whether you're saving the galaxy or editing video.

The notebook tore through 3DMark11 with a jaw-dropping score of 13,076. That's almost three times as high as the 4,576 desktop-replacement average. The Alienware 18, which also sports twin Nvidia GTX 780M GPUs in SLI, scored a slightly lower 11,642.

Needless to say, the Origin's scores were generally double those of other 17-inch notebooks with single GPUs. For example, the MSI GT70, which has a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M GPU, notched 5,903. The ASUS G750JX and the Toshiba Qosmio X75, which have Nvidia GeForce 770M GPUs with 3GB of RAM, hit 5,202 and 4,915, respectively.

When we ran the "World of Warcraft" benchmark, the SLX achieved 112 fps on Ultra at 1080p, topping the 94-fps average. However, it couldn't compete with the Alienware 18's 168 fps. That left the G750JX and GT70 duking it out for third place, with 105 fps and 103 fps, respectively. The X75 barely beat the average, with 95 fps.

On the more demanding "BioShock Infinite" test, the SLX hit a searing 108 fps on High at native resolution, crushing the 38-fps average. The Alienware 18 was a very distant second, with 80 fps. The GT70 managed 44 fps, followed by the G750JX (37 fps). The X75 brought up the rear, with 29 fps.

The SLX continued to dominate when we ran "Metro: Last Light," scoring 52 fps on High at 1080p.

Performance

The Origin Eon 17 SLX's 3.0-GHz Intel Core i7-4930MX CPU with 16GB of RAM was more powerful than other systems we've tested, but the gap was less pronounced. It easily streamed an episode of "House of Cards" while running a system scan with 15 open tabs in Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

On PCMark 7, the notebook scored 6,475, easily topping the 4,689 desktop-replacement average. The Alienware 18's 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-4900MQ delivered 6,199, while the ASUS G750JX and its 2.4-GHz Intel Core i7-4700HQ CPU hit 6,115. The 2.4-GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ CPU-powered Toshiba Qosmio X75 and MSI GT70 notched 6,049 and 6,025, respectively.

The SLX is equipped with two 120GB SSDs in RAID 0 configuration and a 750GB 7,200-rpm hard drive, which allowed the system to boot Windows 8.1 in 16 seconds. That's 10 seconds faster than the 26-second average. However, the G750JX (1TB 5,400-rpm hard drive) started Windows 8 in 11 seconds, the GT70 took 9 seconds and the X75 loaded Windows 8 in a blistering 6 seconds.

The Eon 17 SLX duplicated 4.97GB of mixed-media files in 17 seconds for a transfer rate of 299 MBps, more than twice the 123-MBps desktop replacement average. The Alienware 18 was right behind, with 268 MBps. The X75's 256GB SSD and 1TB 7,200-rpm hard drive achieved 154 MBps, while the G750JX and hit 170 MBps respectively. However, the GT70's dual 128GB SSDs and 1TB 7,200-rpm HDD obtained a screaming 463 MBps.

When we ran the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro test, the SLX matched 20,000 names and addresses in 3 minutes and 39 seconds, which blew past the 4:46 average. The Alienware 18 was a close second, at 3:40, with the X75 right behind, at 3:58. The GT70 and G750JX clocked in at 4:01 and 4:05, respectively.

Battery Life

Must...stay...plugged...in...The Origin Eon 17 SLX only lasted 2 hours and 18 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi). While we don't expect all-day endurance from a desktop replacement, that's almost 2 hours less than the 4:12 desktop-replacement average. The Alienware 18 managed to edge out the SLX, with a time of 2:30. The Toshiba Qosmio X75 clocked in at 4:09, while the MSI GT70 posted 4:18. The G750JX was the last rig fragging, at 4:57.

Software and Warranty

There's no bloatware as far as the eye can see. Other than the Windows 8.1 apps (Mail, Calendar, Xbox Music and News), the Origin Eon 17 SLX has no extraneous programs gumming up the works.

The notebook comes with a one-year part replacement and a 45-day free-shipping warranty, with lifetime labor and 24/7 support.

Configurations

So, how much is an ultra-tricked-out rig worth to you? An arm? A leg? Both? Our review unit costs a whopping $4,462 and features a 3.0-GHz Intel Core i7-4930MX CPU with 16GB of RAM; a pair of 120GB SSDs in RAID 0 configuration; a 750GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; and dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M GPUs in SLI (Scalable Link Interface), each of which packs 4GB of VRAM.

But don't sign your firstborn over to Origin just yet. Gamers can also walk away with the $2,016 base model, which offers a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ processor with 4GB of RAM; a 320GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; an Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M GPU with 2GB of VRAM; Windows 7; and a DVD burner. It's not all-powerful, but it's still a pretty formidable notebook.

The company also offers a plethora of enhancements, allowing shoppers to choose from up to three GPUs, six CPUs, nine RAM options and 11 SSDs. Gamers can also order additional mSATA caches and RAID configurations.

Verdict

Every time we think Origin can't top itself with the overpowered bells and whistles, something like the Eon 17 SLX falls into our laps. Its dual Nvidia GPUs delivered the best graphics numbers we've seen this year, and its CPU and SSDs were also among the fastest we've seen. It doesn't hurt that the notebook resembles a sexy sports car, either. And who can forget the dizzying number of customization options the company offers?

However, for $4,462, Origin needs to put some more work into its display and audio, and we were not fans of the placement of the touchpad or the mouse bar. For roughly the same price ($4,499), you can configure an Alienware 18 with the same CPU, GPUs and RAM, plus a 512GB SSD and a 750GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive. Although it weighs 3 pounds more, we also prefer its design, display and customizable lights.

Overall, the Origin Eon 17 SLX is an über-powerful notebook made for gamers with money to burn. While it could stand some improvements, in terms of raw horsepower, it'll give you one hell of a ride.

see more: Dell Latitude 7440 Review

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Dell Latitude 7440 Review

Pros: Attractive and durable design; Soft-touch palm rest; Colorful touch-screen display; High-quality audio

Cons: Keyboard flexes; Below-average battery life

The Verdict: The Dell Latitude 7440 is a slick business Ultrabook with speedy performance and a full HD touch screen, but it could use a little more endurance.

The Dell Latitude 7440 is a business Ultrabook that packs a lot of technology into its durable 3.9-pound frame. Starting at $999, our $1,849 14-inch Dell Latitude 7440 sports a fourth-generation Core i5-4300U processor, a full HD 1080p touch-screen display and a 256GB SSD for speedy performance. But is Dell's new Latitude the best business notebook you can get?

Dell Latitude 7440 Review

Design

The Latitude 7440 sports a sleek and attractive all-black design. The notebook's lid is made of a sturdy soft-touch carbon fiber material that reminds us of the Kevlar back on Motorola Droid phones. This carbon fiber is backed by an aluminum frame and reinforced steel hinges.

Underneath the surface, Dell deployed its MIL-STD-810G-tested Tri-Metal chassis for extra durability. This means the E7440 should be able to withstand extreme temperatures and vibrations more than your average notebook. Specifically, MIL-STD-810G-tested notebooks can operate in temperatures ranging between 32 degrees and 95 degrees Fahrenheit and at altitudes between minus 50 and 10,000 feet. Both the $1,749 Lenovo ThinkPad T440s and $1,229 Toshiba Tecra Z40 are similarly certified.

The Latitude 7440's keyboard deck sports the same texture as its lid, which felt comfortable while typing. We love the subtle blue accents Dell added to the Latitude's keyboard. The baby blue color of the keys' Fn symbols matches the outer lining of the pointing stick, which adds a pleasant contrast to the otherwise black body. The E7440's display is capable of folding all the way back, enabling it to lie flat. This is a good position for giving presentations.

Measuring 12.2 x 8.3 x 0.79 inches and weighing 3.9 pounds, the Latitude 7440 has a smaller footprint than the slightly heavier Lenovo ThinkPad T440s (13.3 x 8.89 x 0.8 inches, 3.8 pounds with 3-cell battery). The Toshiba Tecra Z40 (13.3 x 9.3 x 0.8 inches) is a much lighter 3.2 pounds, while the Acer Travelmate P645 is taller and wider but lighter (12.9 x 9.3 x 0.8 inches, 3.5 pounds).

Display

The Latitude 7440's 14-inch 1920 x 1080 glossy touch screen produced vivid colors, but it's not the brightest in its class. When watching a trailer for "The Amazing Spiderman 2," we enjoyed bold orange explosions and we were impressed with the energetic red shade of Spiderman's suit.

The Latitude's display registered 238 lux on our light meter, beating the Toshiba Tecra Z40's matte display (169 lux) and the thin-and-light notebook category average (209 lux). The Dell also shined brighter than the Travelmate P645's 1920 x 1080 235 lux display. However, the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s' 14-inch 1920 x 1080 touch screen notched a higher 294 lux.

We found the touch screen to be responsive during everyday use. We had no issue selecting and moving tiles in Windows 8 and using pinch-to-zoom to enlarge images.

Audio

The Dell Latitude 7440's bottom-mounted speakers produce boisterous audio for a notebook of its size. When blasting "Royals" by Lorde, we felt the bass notes thump, and the snaps in the background sounded crisp against the singer's smooth vocals.

The 7440 also pumps out louder audio than your average notebook. At 88 decibels, the E7440 scored higher on the LAPTOP Audio Test than the Toshiba Tecra Z40 (79 dB), the Acer Travelmate P345 (83 dB), the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s (81 dB) and the thin-and-light notebook category average (82 dB).

Keyboard

There are many things we like about the Latitude 7440, but its keyboard isn't one of them. The traditional backlit keyboard felt somewhat flimsy while typing, exhibiting flex when we pushed down on the G and H keys. Key travel was fairly deep, but shallower than the Dell Latitude 6430u's island-style keyboard. We much prefer the ThinkPad T440s' comfortable keyboard with its stronger tactile feedback.

Using the Latitude 7440, we only managed 57 words per minute during the Ten Thumbs Typing Test with a 2 percent error rate. This is much lower than our personal average speed of about 75 words per minute.

Touchpad and Pointing Stick

Overall, the Latitude 7440's 3.5 x 1.8-inch touchpad was smooth. There was no latency when moving the cursor, and the touchpad was responsive to gestures such as two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. We enjoyed using the touchpad's dedicated click buttons, which provide solid feedback.

The pointing stick located in the center of the 7440's keyboard is a reliable alternative to the touchpad. The rubberized grip makes it easy to manipulate the cursor without having to take your fingers away from the keyboard. Dell also features a button in between the upper set of mouse keys that allow you to quickly navigate to the top of a Web page or document when pointing up with the pointing stick.

We easily highlighted text and scrolled around websites using the Dell's pointing stick, but the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s' AccuPoint pointing stick provided a more accurate experience.

Ports

Built for productivity, the Dell Latitude 7440 comes with all the ports you need. The laptop's right side houses an audio and microphone combination jack, a USB 3.0 port and a lock slot. The left side features a SmartCard reader and an SD Card slot. On the notebook's rear, you'll find a power jack, HDMI, two more USB 3.0 slots, a mini DisplayPort and Ethernet. Dell has also included a docking connector on the bottom of the notebook.

Heat

The Latitude 7440's side-mounted vents keep the notebook cool under pressure. After streaming video on Hulu for 15 minutes, the notebook's underside reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit, lower than the 95 degree threshold we consider to be uncomfortable. The touchpad registered 78 degrees, while the area between the G & H keys hit 86 degrees.

WiGig

Our configuration of the Latitude 7440 supports WiGig technology for wirelessly connecting your laptop to compatible monitors and displays. The notebook is also compatible with the $269 Dell D500 Wireless Dock, which connects to a monitor, mouse and keyboard. However, we found this solution to be much less reliable than a wired dock based on our testing.

Webcam

The Dell Latitude 7440's 720p camera takes colorful yet grainy images. When we captured a self-portrait, our face looked blurry and pixelated. At least the red hair color shown in the image looked true.

Performance

Our configuration of the Dell Latitude 7440 features a 1.9-GHz Intel Core i5-4300U processor with 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. This combination of components enabled the notebook to multitask with ease. With 10 apps open, including the camera app, Internet Explorer, Bing News and the Windows Store, we streamed an episode of "Family Guy" in one window while playing "Cut the Rope" in another and didn't notice any latency or hiccups.

The Latitude 7440 delivered mixed results in synthetic benchmark tests. The notebook scored 4,544 on PCMark 7, which is higher than the 3,493 thin-and-light category average and the Tecra Z40 (2,542, 1.9-GHz Intel Core i5-4300U with 8GB of RAM). Both the 2.6-GHz Intel Core i5-4200U-powered ThinkPad T440s (4,970) and 1.8-GHz Intel Core i7-4500U Acer TravelMate P645 (4,886) scored higher.

On the Geekbench 3 test, which measures multicore processor performance, the Latitude 7440 score of 5,259 fell short of the 5,939 thin-and-light category average. This is also lower than the Tecra Z40's score (5,326) and the TravelMate P645 score (5,945), but it still beats the T440s (5,151).

It only took 14 seconds for the Dell Latitude 7440 to load Windows 8 Pro, which is twice as fast as the 28-second thin-and-light category average. The Lenovo Thinkpad T440s booted Windows 8 Pro in the same amount of time.

The Dell transferred 4.97GB of mixed media files in 39 seconds, equaling a rate of 130.5 MBps. This is twice as fast as the average thin- and-light laptop (60 MBps) and much quicker than the Tecra Z40's 320GB 7,200-rpm hard drive (23 MBps). Other business Ultrabook SSDs are faster though, including the Acer TravelMate P645 (175.5 MBps) and ThinkPad T440s (188.5 MBps).

The Latitude 7440 matched 20,000 names to their corresponding addresses in OpenOffice in just 4 minutes and 46 seconds, faster than the 6:17 thin-and-light category average. This is also quicker than the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s (5:14), but on a par with the Toshiba Tecra Z40 (4:45) and Acer TravelMate P645 (4:42).

Graphics

The Dell Latitude 7440's integrated HD 4400 graphics are suitable for light gaming and streaming video, but don't expect to play demanding games. The notebook scored 801 in the 3DMark11 benchmark. This is lower than the 968 thin-and-light laptop category average and both scores of the Tecra Z40 (869) and ThinkPad T44s (930). The Acer TravelMate P645 scored the highest with 1,783, but it benefits from a discrete ATI Radeon HD 8750M graphics chip.

When playing "World of Warcraft" at the laptop's native resolution on auto settings, the E7440 mustered an unplayable 23 frames per second. When bumping up the settings to ultra, that frame rate dropped to a barely playable 11 fps.

Battery Life

The Dell Latitude 7440s doesn't have the staying power of other business Ultrabooks. During the LAPTOP Battery Test, which consists of continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 40 percent display brightness, the notebook's 4-cell 45 Whr battery lasted 5 hours and 52 minutes. That runtime is shorter than the 6:49 thin-and-light notebook category average, and also falls behind the ThinkPad T440s' standard battery (7:01) and the Toshiba Tecra Z40 (9:28). You'll have to pay $276 for Dell's 9-cell 97Whr battery slice to get extra battery life.

Security

Dell offers a few security options with its Latitude 7000 Ultrabook line. The notebook comes with TPM support out of the box, but you can purchase additional security and encryption software at an extra cost. These include various versions of Computrace ranging from $26.60 to $104.29, DDPE encryption services that cost between $20.30 and $90.30 depending on your preference, and Dell SonicWALL solutions priced between $310.50 and $1,095. The Latitude 7000 line doesn't come with an option for a fingerprint or SmartCard reader at this time, although those features are likely to come in the future. Both the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s and Toshiba Tecra Z40 have offered biometric security configurations since launch.

Software and Warranty

The Dell Latitude 7440 is mostly a blank slate out of the box, but Dell has included some of its own first-party tools. These include Dell Digital Delivery, Dell Power Manager and Dell Backup and Recovery. Dell Digital Delivery is the company's platform for purchasing software, while the Dell Power Manager provides information about your system's battery, including its condition and how much power is left.

This configuration of the Latitude 7440 comes with three years of basic hardware service and three years of limited onsite service after remote diagnosis. See how Dell fared in our Tech Support Showdown and Best & Worst Brands report.

Configurations

Dell offers a few configuration options for the Latitude 7440. Our $1,849 review unit came with Windows 8 Pro, a 1.9-GHz Intel Core i5-4300U processor, 4 GB of RAM, a 256GB solid state drive and a 1920 x 1080 touch screen. This is the most expensive model in the 7000 series line listed on Dell's website.

The least expensive configuration starts at $999 and includes Windows 7 with a license for Windows 8, a 1.7-GHz Intel Core i3-4010U CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB 5,400-RPM hard drive, and a 1,366 x 768 anti-glare non-touch display. It also features a smaller 3-cell 34 Whr battery and 802.11n single-band Wi-Fi, as opposed to the most expensive configuration's 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy support.

Verdict

The Dell Latitude 7440 is a business Ultrabook that offers solid Haswell performance, a rich full HD touch screen and impressive audio in a design that's both attractive and tough. Frequent travelers and office workers will definitely benefit from Dell's Tri-Metal military-grade chassis, which is built to handle the bumps, bruises and extreme temperatures that come with being on the road.

However, the keyboard on this notebook didn't feel sturdy enough, and the below-average battery life disappoints. Overall, we prefer Lenovo ThinkPad T440s, which offers a better keyboard and pointing stick along with longer battery life. But if you're in a Dell shop or like what the brand brings to the table this Ultrabook is a good choice.

 See more: Acer TravelMate P645 Review

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