Small and bold: TOP-5 ultrabooks in the region of $1000

Model 430 G5 fromHewlett-Packard rightfully keeps in the top sales thanks to a combination of compact size and performant hardware.

The HP ProBook 430 G5 has a high-performance quad-core Intel Core i5 processor of the penultimate generation. It operates at a frequency of 1.6 GHz and even in this mode shows excellent performance. If you need to throw firewood on the fire, then with the help of TurboBoost technology, all four cores can "get hot" up to 3.4 GHz.

Together with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM (it can be expanded to 16 GB) and a fast SSD drive, the laptop demonstrates excellent performance without any reservations. In the PC Mark 7 tests, he scored an excellent 6043 points, which allows him to cope with everyday tasks (surfing, documents, videos), run professional software (Photoshop, Cubase) and even play a little. Although gaming performance will still be limited by the integrated Intel HD 720 graphics card.

The dimensions of the laptop are 326x234x19.8 mm with a weight of almost one and a half kilograms. This is slightly larger than the rest of the laptops from our top, but the difference of a couple of centimeters in width is almost invisible to the eye and does not affect the place in the bag or backpack.

The appearance tends more to the usual laptop forms, there are quite noticeable frames around the display, and the base made of plastic and polished aluminium looks quite strict and conservative.

The keyboard is comfortable, thanks to the long stroke of the keys and a small resistance to the force of pressing, the laptop is great for those who type a lot. Also worth noting is the fingerprint scanner hidden in the touchpad unit.

The case is assembled conscientiously, nothing creaks and does not play, the lid does not push through, even if pressed down with effort, and the laptop itself remains quiet even at peak loads.

Speaking of loads. Even working with heavy software, the HP ProBook 430 G5 lasted about 7 hours on a single battery charge. In office work mode with occasional coffee breaks and smoke breaks, the battery life reached 11 hours. This is a very, very impressive result.

The laptop comes "naked" right out of the box — there is no Windows or Linux here, so you will have to install the OS yourself. On the one hand, there is nothing complicated about this, fortunately, installing Windows and a set of drivers has become much easier over the years. On the other hand, not everyone will want to mess with DOS.

But the lack of an OS is one of the factors that made it possible to keep the price of the HP ProBook 430 G5 15-20% lower than other models of 13-inch laptops with identical hardware. This is an affordable laptop that combines performant hardware, high-quality materials and an attractive price tag. An perfect candidate for specialists in small and medium-sized businesses.

Lenovo Ideapad 720S 13 is a stylish and high-performance laptop enclosed in a lightweight and compact aluminium case.

The laptop has a new quad-core processor of the eighth generation Kaby Lake. It operates at a frequency of 1.6 GHz in normal mode and in case of increased load automatically accelerates to 3.4 GHz using TurboBoost technology. At peak loads, it shows excellent performance, and in case of downtime, it helps to save battery power without wasting it.

The DDR4 standard memory and a nimble SSD drive complement the picture. Together with cloud storage, 256 GB of storage covers the needs of most users. But 8 GB of RAM, although it remains the optimal volume in 2018, in a couple of years it may become the minimum. Look at how the voracity of browsers is growing. Considering the price of the laptop, I would like to have room for expansion, but it is not here — Lenovo Ideapad 720S 13 has only one slot for RAM.

The diagonal of the IPS matrix is 13" at a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. This combination of size and resolution gives excellent pixel density, and the matrix itself reliably transmits colours, so it is comfortable to read on it, and, for example, to work with photos.

The design of the laptop is made in a rather interesting style: the frames on the right, left and top of the display are minimized, but under the display there is a fairly wide stripe with the company logo. Thanks to this, the dimensions of the laptop were minimized and made one of the lightest 13-inch laptops on the market. It weighs only 1.1 kg and practically does not burden the bag.

A set of laptop connectors includes two USB 3.0 ports, two USB-C ports and a card reader. One of the USB ports is always active and can charge gadgets, even if the laptop itself is turned off. On the one hand, such equipment looks as modern as possible, on the other — to connect an external monitor, you will have to get an adapter from USB-C to HDMI. There is no regular HDMI port here.

The picture is complemented by quite powerful speakers from JBL with Dolby Audio support and a stock set of sound profiles for different tasks. For such a crumb, the Ideapad 720S 13 sounds unexpectedly loud, there is no fault to find. But what you should find fault with is the cooler. During peak loads, it makes a noticeable noise and reduces the quality of the speakers to nothing.

Thanks to the combination of performant hardware, thin body, good battery life time (up to 10 hours on a single charge) and different colour options, the Ideapad 720S 13 line is suitable for a wide range of users — from students and businessmen, to photographers and housewives.

Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UAL is a laptop that has almost no equal in terms of size and performance. Equipped with a performant filling and a frameless 13-inch display, it weighs less than a kilogram!

The dimensions of the laptop are 130x216x13.9 mm. As we have already said, this is one of the thinnest and lightest models on the market. For comparison, popular models of 13-inch laptops weigh around 1.5 kg. The ZenBook 13 UX331UAL cannot be even thinner physically because of the USB ports. I am glad that this lightness did not affect the strength of the structure in any way — the case is made of polished metal and assembled conscientiously.

Also, the frameless display has a positive effect on the dimensions. The 13-inch display is surrounded by a very thin frame on the top and sides, and there is a wider stripe with the Asus logo on the bottom. IPS matrix with Full HD resolution shows staggered contrast and excellent colour reproduction, so that the laptop is comfortable to use both in the native walls and in the open air.

In terms of performance in the popular PCMark 7 benchmark, the laptop gets a pretty serious 5911 points. All thanks to a bunch of Intel i5 quad-core processor (frequencies from 1.6 GHz to 3.4 GHz), 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and a fast SSD disk with a volume of 256 GB.

In real life, this hardware gives maximum performance in office and multimedia tasks. With games, everything is not so clear. The maximum for the built-in UHD Graphics 620 graphics card is the average graphics settings in games of the last generation like Diablo 3 and Bioshock Infinite. You can play, but it's hard to call it full-fledged gaming.

The battery capacity is 5000 mAh, and the battery life claimed by the manufacturer is 15 hours. And this is the case when the numbers on the box do not lie. In the conditional "office" mode with coffee breaks and a full lunch, the ZenBook 13 UX331UAL can withstand up to 14 hours of work. If you arrange a telethon and review the last season of "Game of Thrones" in a day, then the charge will last for 9 hours. This is one of the most "long-playing" models among laptops. The cherry on the cake is fast charging, which allows you to half charge the battery in 40 minutes.

In terms of peripherals, it is difficult to find fault with the Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UAL: there is one HDMI port, a pair of high-speed USB 3.1 connectors, one USB-C port, a card reader and a fingerprint scanner. The only oddity in terms of additional features is a camera with a resolution from the time of the first smartphones (640x480 pixels). For a laptop with a price tag of $1000, this solution looks frankly strange.

Dell Inspiron 13 5379 is a 13—inch laptop that can transform into a performant tablet.

It is designed as follows: the screen is attached to the base with a pair of loops that allow you to expand the laptop halves 360 degrees, turning it into a tablet. The hinges are tight enough, the screen does not hang out and does not shake.

The laptop case is made of plastic and looks strict and unassuming. It is impossible to write this down in unambiguous minuses, but laptops for $ 1000 have been accustomed to a more refined appearance. But for the sake of practicality, the case was made matte, not glossy, so a minimum of prints and dust is collected on it.

The 13.3-inch IPS display has a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, which can be considered the golden mean for such a diagonal. The screen is glossy touch and glossy with good contrast, colour reproduction and viewing angles. The sensor supports 10-finger multitouch and responds promptly to commands. But sometimes there is not enough brightness reserve — it is completely invisible indoors, but on a sunny day on the street, the picture sometimes lacks readability.

Dell was one of the first companies to equip its transformers with eighth-generation Kaby Lake-R processors. Dell Inspiron 13 5379 was no exception, the heart of which is Core i5 with operating frequencies of 1.6 GHz — 3.4 GHz. The picture is complemented by 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and a 256 GB SSD drive. The amount of "RAM" can be expanded to 16 GB with an additional RAM slot, so problems with a lack of performance do not threaten this model for at least a couple of years.

The built-in Intel HD 620 graphics card completes the picture, which allows you to play World of Tanks with an average frame rate of slightly more than thirty per second. However, this will have to be limited to low resolution and average graphics settings. At such moments, you can hear that the laptop has a cooler. The rest of the time, if the processor is not loaded to the maximum, the laptop works completely silently, and the fan is not even always activated.

On the left side of the laptop there are two USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI video output, a combined audio jack and a power socket. On the right there is a USB 2.0 port and a card reader. Wi-Fi 802.11 and Bluetooth 4.2 modules are provided for wireless communications.

Dell Inspiron 13 5379 is perfect for those who are looking for a compact and performant laptop without unnecessary "frills". And its transformation capabilities can be considered as a bonus, because its price is comparable in level with conventional ultrabooks with identical hardware.

The laptop case is made of lightweight and durable aluminium alloy. The model looks strict and unobtrusive, the orientation of the model on businessmen and entrepreneurs is visible. The case is solidly assembled, because of the strong loop, it is difficult to open the laptop with one hand, but it will not allow the screen to hang freely after 3-4 years of active use. The surface of the case is matte and leaves almost no prints.

In the centre of the Dell Vostro 5370 is a 13-inch TN+film screen with Full HD resolution and anti-glare coating. And this is a rather strange decision, because laptops with a price tag in the region of $ 1000 have long been accustomed to IPS matrices with greater contrast, colour depth and viewing angles.

But there are no problems with iron. The laptop relies on Intel's Kaby Lake R hardware platform. In particular, a 14-nanometer Core i5-8250U processor with four computing cores was used. The nominal clock frequency is 1.6 GHz, in case of increased loads, the clock frequency automatically rises to 3.4 GHz.

The picture is complemented by 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and an SSD drive with a capacity of up to 256 GB. The amount of RAM can be increased to 32 GB. This combination of iron gives a reserve of power, which is more than enough to solve household and work tasks both right now and in the very distant future.

Although the model is positioned as a business solution, instead of the integrated graphics card familiar to ultrabooks, the Dell Vostro 5370 has a much more performant Radeon 530 discrete video chip with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory. Its performance gives a comfortable 30-40 frames per second (FPS) at medium settings in recent hits like ES: Skyrim, Assassin's Creed Unity and Titanfall.

In principle, the stock of video memory of 2 GB is enough for very fresh games, but for them the slider of graphic settings will have to be lowered to a minimum, and the number of frames per second will periodically sag to 15-20.

The laptop has a modern selection of slots that are evenly distributed on the sides of the case: HDMI, 2 USB 3.0 ports, one USB-C port and a card reader. And the business orientation is reminded by a bundle of Kensington castle, a fingerprint scanner and a cryptographic module TPM, which allows you to increase the security of the system by additional encryption of the hard disk, enhanced verification of the system software and improved protection of credentials.