More powerful than a Chromebook, the ultraportable is a more compact type of laptop and has great battery life. Perfect for mobile workers, this elitist product is now available at more affordable prices. The catch is that there is a plethora of devices for sale. Our guide will help you make your purchase.
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Our selection
"With the best quality ratio, the Matebook 14 R5H 16 512 is quite powerful with its 16GB of Ram and Ryzen 5, making it perfect…"
"This ultraportable is a bargain at less than 500 euros! With great autonomy and a thin screen, it's the perfect tool to stay in touch…"
"Both durable and very powerful, the Macbook Air M1 is an ultraportable notebook with a very elegant and slim design. Equipped with an 8-core Apple…"
"In addition to being ultra-thin and light, it is available in 4 colors. Packing 16GB of RAM, it runs on a Ryzen 7 capable of…"
With the best quality ratio, the Matebook 14 R5H 16 512 is quite powerful with its 16GB of Ram and Ryzen 5, making it perfect for students and professionals.
See the priceIt is an elegant and thin ultraportable, as it is 1.59 cm thick, 30.7 cm long and weighs only 1.5 kg. You can easily slip it into your bag or satchel. The display is supported by a 14-inch screen with a WLED backlight. It reproduces a high quality image thanks to a resolution of 2160 x 1440p. On the shell of the screen, you have a built-in webcam and its microphone for streaming or conference calls.
It is a versatile and very responsive device as it has a Ryzen 5 4600H processor clocked at 3 GHz, with a 4 GHz turbo mode, with 6 courses and 12 threads. Your OS will boot up in no time with the 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512 GB SSD. Especially challenged to a multimedia use, this Huawei Matebook 14 is equipped with an integrated AMD Graphics chip. Embedding Bluetooth 5 and a Wi-Fi card, it has an autonomy of up to 14 hours.
This ultraportable is a bargain at less than 500 euros! With great autonomy and a thin screen, it's the perfect tool to stay in touch with those you care about most.
See the priceThe gray frame is modern and attractive. The latter hosts a 14-inch HD screen, 1366 x 768, capable of broadcasting your favorite series with faithful colors and good brightness. For a better reactivity, HP has equipped its machine with WIN 10s, faster, and a 256 GB M.2 SSD. Don't worry, you'll be able to use your external storage device using the USB 3.1 ports.
Ultraportable, that's for sure! It weighs only 1.46 kg with a thickness of 17.9 mm. However, it has power to spare, with its Ryzen 3 3250U, Picasso range, running at 2.6 GHz in dual core mode. Average multitasking is possible thanks to the 4 GB of RAM and you have a free slot. Equipped with the Radeon Vega 3, integrated in the CPU, it has a long battery life (up to 8 hours and 45 minutes) and the fast charging technology allows 50% battery in about 45 minutes.
Both durable and very powerful, the Macbook Air M1 is an ultraportable notebook with a very elegant and slim design. Equipped with an 8-core Apple M1 CPU and GPU, the computer includes 8GB of RAM.
1 039 £ on AmazonThe Apple branded notebook features a 13.3-inch LED-backlit IPS display. Its display offers a native resolution of 2560 x 1600p at 227 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors. On the performance front, the machine impresses with an 8-core Apple Silicon M1 processor with 4 high-performance cores and 4 energy-efficient ones. The base is also paired with an 8-core Apple M1 GPU to ensure top-notch display quality.
Offering up to 18 hours of battery life, the MacBook Air M1 takes a weight of 1.29 kg. RAM is defined by 8GB of soldered RAM. The storage is characterized by a 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD. To its structure, it adopts a rigid aluminum Unibody chassis with a set of connectivity consisting of two Thunderbolt 4 ports compatible Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 Gen 2, charging and Display Port. The wireless connection includes Wi-Fi 6 ax backwards compatible with previous models and a Bluetooth 5.0 module.
In addition to being ultra-thin and light, it is available in 4 colors. Packing 16GB of RAM, it runs on a Ryzen 7 capable of intensive multitasking.
See the priceA student favorite, the ASUS Vivobook S has an ultra-modern design with thin edges and a high-end textured finish. On the scale, it's very light at 1.4 kg and portability is complemented by a 21 mm thickness. Including Office 365, it sports a 14-inch FHD, 1920 x 1080 display showing your movies and software with good color intensity.
Such feats would not be possible without the presence of the Ryzen 7 4700U with 8 logical cores, and 8 threads, capable of running at a maximum speed of 4.1 GHz. This allows a great reactivity at startup and when running your software. The 16 GB RAM and the 512 GB SSD are no strangers to this either. For your various peripherals, you have 2 USB 2.0 ports and 2 others in 3.0 mode. So that you are not disturbed, it has an average autonomy of about 6 hours.
Any specific needs?
The best ultraportable in 2021
The best entry-level ultraportable
The best high-end ultraportable
Your guide :
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| TOP OF THE TOP | CHEAP | TOP OF THE LINE | EXCELLENT | |
In accordance with our commitment, this buying guide does not contain any sponsored products. |
8/10 |
8/10 |
9/10 |
7/10 |
| OUR SELECTION |
Huawei Matebook 14 R5H 16 512
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HP 14s-fq0077nf, 14" Ultraportable PC
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Apple MacBook Air, Apple M1 Chip
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ASUS Vivobook S S433IA-EK746T
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With the best quality ratio, the Matebook 14 R5H 16 512 is quite powerful with its 16GB of Ram and Ryzen 5, making it perfect for students and professionals.
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This ultraportable is a bargain at less than 500 euros! With great autonomy and a thin screen, it's the perfect tool to stay in touch with those you care about most.
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Both durable and very powerful, the Macbook Air M1 is an ultraportable notebook with a very elegant and slim design. Equipped with an 8-core Apple M1 CPU and GPU, the computer includes 8GB of RAM.
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In addition to being ultra-thin and light, it is available in 4 colors. Packing 16GB of RAM, it runs on a Ryzen 7 capable of intensive multitasking.
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CPU
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Ryzen 5 4600H
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Ryzen 3 3250U
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Apple M1 share
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Ryzen 7 4700U
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Number of cores
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6 cores / 12 threads
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2 cores / 4 threads
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8 cores
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8 cores / 8 threads
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Speed / Turbo
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3 GHz / 4 Ghz
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2.6 Ghz / 3.5 Ghz
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3.2 Ghz
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2 Ghz / 4.1 Ghz
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RAM
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16 GB
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4 GB
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8 GB
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16 GB
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Storage
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SSD 512 GB
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SSD 256 GB
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512 GB
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SSD 512 GB
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For multipurpose use, we advise you to choose an ultraportable equipped with processor from Intel Core i5 or Ryzen 5. This type of CPU has enough power to run resource-intensive software smoothly. On the other hand, if you favor office and gaming use, such as watching streaming videos, you may want to look at the Intel i3, Celeron, or Ryzen 3.
We integrate the random access memory (RAM) directly under the processor section, as the action of the two components has a huge influence on the overall performance of the ultraportable. For office work and web browsing, we suggest a device with 4GB RAM. A RAM of 8GB, and more is perfect for a device with more power like an i5 and will suit a more intensive use of the ultraportable.
This is an important criterion, as it is one of the two priorities of Intel when they designed the ultraportable. A good ultraportable should have a battery life that can handle at least a day's work. In practice, we can estimate an autonomy between 6 and 10 hours at least. This is the hallmark of this type of device clearly dedicated to mobile workers. In order to maintain the health of your battery, it is recommended to use it as often as possible.
On an ultraportable, the screen influences portability. It's best to choose a model with a screen that's large enough for you to have good visual comfort. With this in mind, look at models with a screen between 12 and 14 inches. Also, pay attention to the size of your computer bag and the things you have to carry around on a daily basis so that the ultraportable does not add extra weight.
For those who work with graphics, image processing and other software, we recommend choosing a resolution in FHD or 1080p. High definition, HD, will be sufficient for word processing.
In contrast to
Chromebooks that only have a flash SSD, an ultraportable can have a real SSD drive from 128 to 512 GB. Obviously, this affects the final price of the device. For office use, we recommend an ultraportable with a flash drive with at least 32GB of storage capacity. Your device will be more compact and you will be able to use an external hard drive, or a USB key, to store your data.
Given the concern for miniaturization on the ultrabook, you shouldn't expect to find devices with an external graphics card. Not being built for gaming, ultraportables come with an integrated graphics chip like Intel HD Graphic or AMD Radeon™ Graphics. This is a good configuration for very low-grade games and allows you to enjoy videos at a good resolution.
Compact, you should opt for an ultraportable with powerful USB ports like USB 3.0 Type-A and a USB Type-C port. The latter is a must-have since more and more device manufacturers are basing their products on this much faster and more versatile port than USB-A. In the same vein, a Thunderbolt 3 port is the icing on the cake. This year will be the year of the new generation WI-FI or WI-FI 6. It is a faster protocol than version 5 and will allow you to connect in 5G.
Designed by Intel, the ultrabook has been manufactured with precise dimensions. An ultrabook should have a thickness, maximum, of 21 mm for a weight of less than 2 kg, 1.5 kg to be more precise. It is much more compact than a Chromebook, but it is however more powerful. Intel made them to satisfy customers looking for more and more portability without compromising too much on performance. Small, but powerful enough to do office work, web browsing or multitasking.
Indeed, some high-end models are equipped with a Core i7 or a Ryzen 7 and can have up to 16 GB of RAM. The big difference will be in the operating system. A Chromebook will run on Google's Chrome OS. For maximum usage, you will need an internet connection. However, if you're used to the way Google tools work, such as Drive, you won't feel out of place. You can also opt for Chromebooks that run on the lighter Windows 10s.
An ultraportable is equipped with the PC version of Win 10, which makes it more accessible. You can also find ultraportables made by Apple, like the MacBook Air models, running Mac OS.
The laptop is a sort of miniaturization of a desktop PC. Powerful, the laptop can be equipped with a graphics card, with a version 10% less powerful than the desktop version, and can be boosted in RAM. On the other hand, Gamer or professional laptops are more expensive and have large dimensions.
As the name suggests, the ultraportable is more portable than a laptop. More than perfect for workers who are always on the go, it offers a good compromise between its compactness and its performance. Moreover, this type of device is more affordable than a laptop, but it is less powerful.
The ultraportable will suit students and professionals looking for a more compact solution than a laptop. However, if you want a more powerful device for gaming or more demanding software, a laptop is a better choice.
Turn on your ultraportable every day
The cells of a rechargeable battery such as those found in ultraportables have a longer life if used often. Remember to recharge your ultraportable to 100% before the first use.
An external DVD drive
Although
the use of Cd or DVD has become obsolete, some fields of work still use it. This type of accessory keeps the integrity of a file, especially images, without any deterioration. On an ultraportable you will not have a drive. To remedy this, you can buy an external DVD or Blu-ray drive.
Use an external monitor
If
your ultraportable has an HDMI or DisplayPort, you can connect an external monitor to it. This will allow you to do a slide show or work on a larger screen for better visual comfort.
Use a laptop cooler
While
not as powerful as a laptop, the ultraportable can, however, be prone to overheating. In order to keep your components cool, you can resort to a laptop cooler.
Elevate your ultraportable
It
can be tiring to work on an ultraportable for hours and have to bend your eyes, and neck. The solution will be to acquire a laptop stand that will allow you to raise, in height, your device.
The best ultraportable depends on your needs and your budget. Read our buying guide to find out which products are the best right now.
If you're on the go a lot and you're looking for a work tool with great portability, choose an ultraportable. More powerful than a Chromebook, this type of device is the perfect compromise between compactness and performance.
Unfortunately not. These are laptops that are designed as a package. This makes the selection stage of the purchase more important. For more information, please read our article.
Yes, it's the first ultra-thin laptop model. On the other hand, it's an expensive device, but in terms of performance nothing to complain about.
More powerful than a Chromebook, it is therefore more expensive. You can find a good model from 500 euros. The top of the range is negotiated around 1000 euros.
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