Year in laptops

2018 was a juggernaut when it came to advancement in consumer electronics. We saw how smartphones evolved over the past year. But while the little computers inside our pockets have grown, so have their big brothers, the laptops. Powerful laptops were known to be unwieldy, thick and heavy. But 2018 managed to trim the fat while keeping the insides as efficient and powerful. There were some great laptops in 2018. We enter 2019 with a renowned sense of hope, and the devices listed below lay the foundation for inno­vations in 2019.

Dell XPS

 Price: Rs 125,000 (XPS 13), 169,000 (XPS 15)(Prices may vary depending on configuration)

Dell XPS is easily one of the best lap­tops to come out in 2018. It redefined what laptops were supposed to look like with its near bezel-less InfinityDisplay and internals that were good enough to run triple-A titles. The XPS is a versatile machine. Even with its powerful interiors it has a muted exterior, none of the sharp curves and bright accent colors mostly associated with gaming laptops. The thinness of the device also makes it easy to carry around. But it will still come out all guns blazing when it needs to.

Much like the Macs of old, the XPS does everything well: the keyboard is very clicky and has decent trav­el, the trackpad is large and comes with support for Windows Gestures. The body is made of machined aluminum, fiber-glass and carbon fiber. The XPS, in other words, is a do-it-all machine, sitting com­fortably in a business meeting without making you look like a child, while providing great performance underneath.

 

 Lenovo IdeaPad 320

 Price: Rs 75,000 (i5, 8 GB)

If performance is all you care about, the Lenovo deliv­ers great results at a price you don’t have to break the bank for. Much like the Dell, the Leno­vo is also muted in its aesthetics. No gamer accents and sharp curves. The IdeaPad comes in some decent specifications, with 8th Generation processors and MX150 graphics card its stand-out fea­tures. The MX150 might not be as powerful as Nvidia’s GTX line but it is more than capable compared to built-in graphics processors. The laptop isn’t built out of premium materials but the hardened plastic still looks good and the internals are phenomenal regardless.

 

 Acer Predator Helios 300

 Price: Rs 134,800

If you like the gamer aesthetics on your laptop, the Acer Preda­tor Helios 300 is just for you. From the out­side, the laptop looks like a killer alien machine, with sharp angu­lar cuts and red accents all over the device. Its inter­nals match its design, coming as it does with the GTX 1060 graphics card and i7 processors from Intel’s seventh-generation processor line. If you’re a gamer and looking for a device that can provide buttery smooth gaming, you can’t find a better deal than the Predator Helios 300.