Laptops and phones use the same lithium-ion technology for their batteries.
The Best cheap laptops of 2017
Ever get that text message out of the blue? You know, “Hey, I’m in best buy now.”. What do you think of this Acer laptop and DELL laptop? Say it has four cores, and the other has 8GB of memory. Help！ ”
Yes, it’s that time of the year when friends and family hit you up for computer-buying advice. Their kids are going off to college, and they need your all-knowing tech help right now. Because with great computer knowledge comes great responsibility, I always wade into the specs, and provide quick-take buying recommendations based on what I can discern from the configurations and prices.
So, in the spirit of offering you the same expert advice I’d give to my nearest and dearest, I’ve combed through the best-selling budget laptop lists from both Amazon and Best Buy, and weighed the pros and cons. Both lists change quite rapidly, so I’m basing this on a snapshot in time—namely, the best-selling laptops on the morning of July 21, 2017.
This year’s Amazon top five is dominated by Intel, with three out of five running its processors and the remaining two running AMD. At Best Buy, where people spend a little more, Intel dominated the top five even more decisively, with just a lone AMD entry.
Are these reviews? Absolutely not. But I still think there’s a lot of value in helping out those who can’t tell an Atom from a Core i7.
Amazon’s Top Five
Amazon’s best-selling laptops change rankings often, but some remain at the top for long stretches of time.
Acer Aspire E 15
Amazon Best-Seller Rank: No. 1
While last year’s buyers preferred a beefed up version of the Acer Aspire E 15 (which is No. 5 this year), consumers have voted for lower cost with this year’s $349 Aspire. This year’s top seller gives you a dual-core, 7th-generation Intel Core i3-7100; 4GB of DDR4 RAM; a 1TB 5,400rpm hard drive; and a DVD burner. Other notable specs include the screen, which is pretty good for the price, with a 15.6-inch 1920×1080, or “full HD,” panel.
A Core i3 might not sound as impressive as a Core i5, but the actual performance difference to the average consumer will likely be negligible. The Core i5 boasts a 700MHz advantage, or roughly 30 percent. In practical terms, the Core i3 might exhibit a step or two slower performance, but for general computing use, the average person usually can’t tell the difference.
That’s because a system’s hard drive is usually the bottleneck to performance. And at this price, you’re almost always going to get a hard drive (No. 4 on this list being the exception). Relatively ancient hard-drive technology is about as slow and cumbersome as using a record player over an MP3. Fortunately, the Aspire E 15 is easy to service, so if you can afford to upgrade to a solid-state drive (SSD), do it.
Graphics performance, which mostly impacts gaming, is also sacrificed in this budget Aspire. Rather than a dedicated graphics chip in the laptop with its own memory pool, the Aspire E 15 uses Intel’s integrated HD 620 graphics. It results in nearly half the graphics performance of the beefier Aspire E 15 (No. 5 this year) but it’s really not a deal breaker. It will still handle most light-duty gaming such as Minecraft—just don’t expect miracles.
One final thing to note is that of the 10 laptops in this story, the Aspire E 15 is among the heaviest at 5.3 pounds. The only other laptop to weigh this much is the No. 5 Acer Aspire E 15. Still, overall this is a fine notebook and we give it a Thumbs Up, but we gotta say, the No. 2 is also pretty appealing for budget shoppers on Amazon—this is the real fight.
HP Notebook 15
Amazon Best-Seller Rank: No. 2
The theme here is cheap and HP’s Notebook 15 pushes the price for a 15.6-inch laptop down to $252. Dayum. Costing $100 less than the Acer takes some effort, which meant passing over Intel’s pricier CPUs for an AMD A6-7310 quad-core chip. Although a quad-core may sound better than a dual-core, the underlying design matters too.
Performance data for the A6-7310 is limited, but it’s based on AMD’s Puma architecture. For the most part, the A6-7310 is sandwiched between the performance of an Intel Atom or “N” series Celeron and a Core i3. So, not bad, but not great.
And despite the Radeon R4 name, graphics performance of the APU looks to be about two-thirds of a comparable Intel GPU, based on reports. That means, for the most part, gaming will be limited to lower resolutions and lower game settings.
On the storage front, you get a 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive, a DVD burner, and a screen resolution of 1366×768.
The upshot is that this a serviceable laptop, but one that will generally have lower performance and perhaps slightly less Hp 6735s laptop battery life than the Acer Aspire E 15.
At the same time, you save $100, which can go toward rent, or a couple of weeks’ worth of lunches.
Asus Chromebook C202SA-YS02
Amazon Best-Seller Rank: No. 3
Asus’s Chromebook C202SA is one of those laptops that reminds you why Chromebooks rule the budget-laptop category (see our full review for details). Besides their popularity in education, Chromebooks just offer a lot of value.
The Chromebook C202SA, for instance, is intended for schools, which means its semi-ruggedized, or at least made to take more of a beating with its rubber-covered corners and “spill-proof” keyboard.
Inside the C202SA is an Intel Celeron N3060 CPU, which can be thought of as an Atom CPU on steroids. It’s the primary CPU running most Chromebooks today and is fine for most tasks. The C202SA has 4GB of RAM, which is preferable to the 2GB of RAM you typically see in low-end Chromebooks.
Storage is handled by 16GB of eMMC—chip-based storage technology that’s similar to an SSD but slower. As slow as eMMC can be, it’s still way better than a hard disk drive and a key reason for budget Chromebooks’ responsiveness.
If you’re new to Chromebooks and worry about 16GB vs. 32GB or more, don’t be. ChromeOS is a very lightweight OS with deep ties to the cloud. It’s why you can have a 16GB Chromebook and use it for years without running out of space.
The only real negative of the C202SA is its bulk, but if the user is a child (or klutz), the trade-off for semi-rugged features may well be worth it.
In the end, this one is easy: thumbs up.
HP 14-inch Laptop
Amazon Best-Seller Rank: No. 4
The No. 4 seller on Amazon, HP’s 14-inch Laptop, is a complicated laptop story. The first thing that grabs you is the price: It’s a Windows 10 Home laptop for $219. The second thing is the screen: It’s a higher-resolution 1920×1080 panel that makes the 1366×768 screens you get in this price range seem janky. Even better, it uses superior IPS technology. IPS gives you excellent off-axis viewing, and rarely, if ever, provides a bad experience, whereas so-called “IPS-like” or “wide-viewing angle” panels run the gamut from bad to good.
Even the AMD E2-7110 CPU isn’t half bad. Like the AMD A6-7310, it’s slower than Core i3, but generally slightly faster than a Celeron “N” CPU. So what’s the catch? Storage. HP outfits the creatively named 14-inch Laptop with a 32GB eMMC drive. While eMMC can yield a more responsive feel than a hard drive, the limited space is problematic on a Windows-based laptop.
This laptop will basically give you a great screen to look at and reasonable responsiveness from its eMMC drive, but the minute you fill up the drive (which won’t take long), the experience is going to take a dive.
It’s really a shame, because with just a little more storage space or a hard drive option (along with the eMMC), this could be an incredible bargain laptop. As it is, you need to really consider this laptop’s limitations before you buy one. Our verdict: thumbs down.
Acer Aspire E 15
Amazon Best-Seller Rank: No. 5
Take last year’s best-selling Acer Aspire E 15, update the CPU, add a USB Type C port, and you pretty much have the No. 5 Amazon laptop.
Yes, it looks the same as the No. 1 selling Acer Aspire E 15 above, but there’s a world of difference here. The main one is the graphics. With a GeForce 940MX, you’re getting reasonable graphics performance from a budget laptop. The second difference is storage. This particular Acer Aspire E 15 dumps the hard drive for a 256GB M.2 SSD. That means this laptop will likely feel and act a lot more responsive than dog-slow hard disk drive-based laptops in most use cases. Although we haven’t confirmed it, Amazon customers have reported that a hard drive upgrade is a snap on this model.
Acer also doubles the RAM from the base model to 8GB. The CPU is Intel’s latest 7th-generation Core i5-7200U, which is the same chip used in laptops that cost twice as much as the Aspire E 15.
If there were two things to ding about this laptop, it would be the weight and the price. At 5.3 pounds, it’s not as light as the competition. And at $579, it stretches the definition of budget laptop.
Still, if you want snappier performance at a good price and don’t care about the weight, the Acer Aspire E 15 is a thumbs up.
Best Buy’s Top Five
Best Buy’s best-selling laptops mix it up far more than Amazon’s, but this list will still create confusion for non-nerds.
At Best Buy, the list of best-selling laptops offers a far more interesting mix. It runs the gamut from Apple to AMD, pits an Intel Celeron CPU against a Core i3, and extends beyond the “budget” realm. It’s enough to leave less-tech-savvy folk confused as hell.
Fortunately, though, I can help.
Lenovo IdeaPad 110
Best Buy Best-Seller Rank: No. 1
Lenovo’s IdeaPad 110 is more or less the equal of the HP Notebook 15 that’s the No. 2 best seller on Amazon. It has the same CPU, an AMD A6-7310; the same amount of RAM, 4GB; and the same size hard drive, 500GB. With the same size and same resolution panel, the main difference is the price.
On the date we locked this down, this laptop was going for an amazing $199. That’s a steal. When it isn’t on sale though, it’s typically $279, which makes it a little less palatable.
Sure, among the top five at Best Buy, it’s the cheapest of the Windows laptops, but $279 is pretty close to Amazon’s top seller, the Acer Aspire E 15, which gives you a higher-resolution screen, and slightly more performance. So when not on sale, we’d say the IdeaPad 110 is a wobbler for us.
When on sale for $199, however, it’s an impressive amount of hardware for the price and an easy thumbs up.
Apple MacBook Air 13
Best Buy Best-Seller Rank: No. 2
Apple has a reputation for overcharging for its hardware and that rep is normally well deserved. The MacBook Air 13 you see here though (and at the price we stumbled upon) is almost reasonably priced.
Inside you get an Intel 5th-generation, dual-core Core i5-5250U, 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and a 128GB PCIe SSD. The construction of the laptop is top-notch, too, with an aluminum shell and outstanding trackpad and keyboard. For the most part, this is a slightly sped-up version of the MacBook Air 13 that Apple first introduced in 2015.
Overall, the MacBook Air 13 yields zippy performance for general computing, with only heavier chores such as gaming and photo-editing being issues. Battery life is also legendary thanks to a giant Apple a1322 notebook battery and a compromised screen. The screen, in fact, is probably the main negative of the hardware (well, that and the fact that you’re buying hardware introduced two years ago).
Even though it’s only 13 inches diagonally, the display is an unimpressive 1440×900 in resolution using TN technology. Although TN is unsuitable for critical photo-editing (IPS panels are preferred for that), the one Apple uses isn’t that bad.
The important factor is the price, though. Last year Apple was hawking this same basic laptop for $1,000, but on the day we froze our pricing, it was on sale for $699, which actually makes it a competitive laptop.
If you’re looking at Apple’s full asking price of $1,000, we’d point you to Dell’s XPS 13 or HP’s Spectre X360 13T, or No. 5 on this list as much better value. But for $699, the MacBook Air 13 earns a thumbs up.
Samsung Chromebook 3
Best Buy Best-Seller Rank: No. 3
While Samsung’s Chromebook 3 isn’t as rugged as the Asus Chromebook C202 on Amazon’s list, it can be had for 25 percent less. Internally, it’s basically the same and should yield the same performance with its Intel Celeron N3060 and 4GB of RAM. The Samsung even gives you twice the amount of storage with its 32GB of eMMC, although that’s a minor win since you really don’t need local storage on a Chromebook.
Performance of both the Samsung and Asus Chromebooks is fine and more than enough for basic browsing tasks. The 4GB of RAM helps out those who like to have a ton of pages open, as well. We generally prefer Intel’s Celeron N series (basically Atom) over the ARM chips we’ve seen in many Chromebooks.
The Chromebook 3’s screen is “just” 1366×768, but at only 11.6-inches diagonal, you won’t notice its low resolution that much.
If you’re picking between the Chromebook 3 and the Asus C202, it mostly comes down to aesthetics and features like a spill-proof keyboard (Asus). The Samsung Chromebook 3 is a little thinner but, interestingly, slightly heavier.
Either way, this is a decent Chromebook that gives you more than a typical budget Chromebook from just a year ago. Thumbs up.
HP 15.6-inch Laptop
Best Buy Best-Seller Rank: No. 4
HP’s 15.6-inch Laptop (if you ignore its boring name) is actually quite a decent laptop when on sale, but when it isn’t, it’s punching out of its weight.
The 15.6-inch HP gives you a Core i5-7200U, 8GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage. The Core i5 is indeed faster than a Core i3, but it’s still just a dual-core CPU and most people just won’t notice the difference in common browsing and Office chores.
The screen is a bit subpar with its 1366×768 pixels stretched out over a 15.6-inch expanse but it’s not a deal breaker. In fact, this is a decent performance laptop at the price we found on Best Buy ($449).
It’s main problem is when it’s not on sale. The non-sale price is $549, which puts it squarely in the territory of the No. 5 best seller on Amazon: Acer’s Aspire E 15. For $29 more, the Acer gives you a GeForce 940MX graphics card, a higher-resolution 1920×1080 screen, and a 256GB SSD.
So consider this laptop a thumbs up on sale, and a wobbler when not.
Lenovo Yoga 720
Best Buy Best-Seller Rank: No. 5
Like the No. 2 on the Best Buy best-selling list, the MacBook Air 13, Lenovo’s Yoga 720 is hardly a budget laptop at $759 on sale, but it also shows you just how much more value there is in PCs.
Unlike the MacBook Air 13 that still rolls a 5th-gen CPU, the Yoga 720 features Intel’s latest 7th-gen dual-core Core i7-7500U. You also get 8GB of RAM (the same as the MacBook Air 13) and twice the amount of storage at 256GB using an ultra-fast SSD. In practical, everyday use, performance between the Yoga 720 and MacBook Air 13 won’t be noticeably different, but in more difficult tasks, the Yoga 720 will be faster.
The Yoga 720 also gives you the latest Thunderbolt 3 over USB-C unlike the MacBook Air 13, which uses the now-dying Thunderbolt 2 standard.
The screen on the Yoga 720 is higher resolution at 1920×1080 and features IPS technology, which is preferable to the TN technology in the MacBook Air 13.
The Yoga 720 also folds backward for use as a tablet and features 10-point touch and pen support. That’s just way more versatility than the MacBook Air 13 offers.
If the MacBook Air 13 were priced at its typical $1,000, there would be no comparison between the two in performance, storage, and versatility. The only time it gets close between the Yoga 720 and the MacBook Air 13 is when you can find the MacBook Air 13 on sale at $749, and the Yoga 720 is off sale at $849. Even then, you’re still getting double the storage, Thundebolt 3, a touchscreen, pen support, and a higher-resolution IPS panel for just $100 more.
The Yoga 720 is a thumbs up, on sale or not.
The best Chromebook now You can buy
Buying a Chromebook has always been a little confusing. First of all, we have to figure out the idea that this is a laptop, just a browser. Then, we have to find out how much such a thing should cost. Now, we have to consider whether the Android applications that are still testing are increasing, and whether we can just use these browsers to turn them into something that really competes with Windows and Mac computers.
So let’s simplify it: Yes, Chromebooks are still mostly “just” Chrome browsers. You can run Android apps on a select few, but it’s not a great experience yet and it’s anybody’s guess as to when that will change. But the web-based apps available for Chrome itself are often remarkably powerful, and many can work offline. So when you buy a Chromebook, you can and should just focus on the things that make using Chrome OS itself a good experience: a fast processor, a good screen, long battery life, a nice keyboard, and a reasonable price.
That last one can be particularly hard to parse, because pricing can vary from $150 or so for devices meant for the education market all the way up to northwards of $1,000 for top-of-the-line models. But at the end of the day, you should avoid spending more than five or six hundred dollars on a Chromebook, if only because you can get Windows machines that are pretty darn good at those prices.
That advice may change if and when Google releases real improvements to the Android app system on Chrome OS. Rumors are pointing to a new, top-tier Chromebook Pixel getting released in October. Even though we expect that to cost more than what most people should spend on a Chromebook, we’ll definitely update this article when we find out more information.
In the meanwhile, the best Chromebook you can buy right now is the one that does the best job showcasing what the Chrome browser and its apps can do, with a bit of support for Android apps as future proofing.
THE BEST CHROMEBOOK RIGHT NOW: ASUS CHROMEBOOK FLIP C302
The competition for the best Chromebook is a little tighter now than it used to be, thanks to excellent devices from a bunch of manufacturers like Asus, Lenovo, and Samsung. But the best of them hits all the features you should care about on a Chromebook without any major flaws.
It’s the Asus Chromebook Flip C302, which in our review we called the new “standard.” That’s because it hits those basic notes: nice hardware, a good screen, a fast Intel processor, a backlit keyboard, and good Asus a32-m50 laptop battery life. It also has support for Android apps if you need them; they were just added to the “stable” version of Chrome OS for the C302 recently.
The only real downside to the C302 is its price, which often hovers around $500 on Amazon. But the problem with buying a much cheaper Chromebook is that you’ll end up compromising on one (or several) things that will ultimately annoy you. The biggest one is performance. The C302 can handle a dozen or more tabs, while cheaper Chromebooks can bog down when you get more than eight and usually make you look at crappy screens while you wait.
The C302 is also relatively futureproof, not only because it supports Android apps but because it can also be flipped around into a tablet mode. That mode can be useful for watching video and means that as Google continues to improve Chrome OS for touch, the C302 will be able to take advantage.
If I’m honest, I prefer the hardware of Samsung’s Chromebook Pro, which is slightly better looking and comes with a stylus. However, the Chromebook Pro lacks a backlit keyboard, a mystifying omission. The C302 has a good, backlit keyboard but no stylus — which isn’t a huge loss given the state of the software for styli on Chrome OS.
IF YOU NEED ANDROID APPS: SAMSUNG CHROMEBOOK PLUS
If Android apps are essential on your Chromebook, the best way to run them is with Samsung’s Chromebook Plus. It’s an excellently built machine that’s thin and light. It uses a custom, ARM-based processor called the OP1. ARM processors are similar to what you have on your phone, so on Chromebooks they usually end up being slower and more frustrating that Intel processors.
On the Chromebook Plus, that’s not totally true. While a proper Intel processor will give you better performance using the Chrome browser, the OP1 is surprisingly fast. It performs better than any comparable ARM-based Chromebook we’ve tried, even though it’s not quite as fast as the C302.
Running an ARM processor means that most Android apps require less “translation” work to run well on Chrome OS. Games are less likely to stutter, and overall the experience is better. And though it lacks a backlit keyboard, it does come with a stylus. Even though the software for the stylus isn’t great, it is convenient to have it when you need to quickly mark up a screenshot or document.
The Chromebook Plus is a little more expensive than we’d like, at $449 retail, but if you really need Android apps, it’s your best bet.
(Note: yes, you may have noticed that the Chromebook Plus has a slightly higher review score, though it’s very close. We still recommend the C302 for most people. The Plus’ score reflects its abilities with Android apps and its surprisingly good performance for a slightly cheaper price.)
THE REST
Quality on Chromebooks can unfortunately vary widely once you get below $400 or so. It’s possible to find something pretty good if you’re willing to forego features like a touchscreen or a backlit keyboard, but you should definitely try them out in person before buying if at all possible. That’s because, by and large, the money savings come from cutting corners on both build quality and the processor.
Like The Wirecutter, we like the Thinkpad 13 Chromebook as a basic option — but only if you are sure you’ll never want a touchscreen for tablet mode. Although the Acer Chromebook 14 for Work seemed promising, we managed to crack the screen without that much abuse because the top of the laptop flexed too much. Acer‘s Chromebook 15 is an option if you must have a gigantic screen, but the rest of the laptop disappoints. The Lenovo Flex 11, which is inexpensive at under $300, surprised us with its durability and quality screen for the price, but of course the processor is only good enough for the most basic of tasks.
How to speed up your PC
Your computer is slow.Annoyingly slow. You can add memory, or buy a faster SSD, but it costs money. No, the first thing you should do is try to make Windows faster. As a result, we propose nine ways to speed up your computer’s Windows 10 without spending a penny.
Be warned: There’s always a trade-off. More speed may mean less battery life, or even giving up a beloved program. You’ll have to decide what sacrifices you’re willing to make in order to increase Windows’ speed.
Last spring, I bought a Lenovo Ideapad Miix 310 as a second, smaller PC. I found it so slow it was painful. I used that machine for researching this article. The Miix still isn’t fast, but it’s a lot faster.
1. Give it the reboot
If your PC is behaving horribly slow, try rebooting. Yes, it’s an obvious solution, but people tend to forget the obvious.
The sleep or hibernate setting will save power, but only a full reboot clears out the cobwebs in Windows’ brain and gives it a fresh start. Do it every day if the PC is really slow.
2. Turn on High Performance
Windows assumes that you want an energy-efficient computer. But you can trade electricity for speed. Use this tip only if you’re willing to increase your electric bill and decrease your Asus a32-m50 laptop battery performance.
Right-click the Start button and in the resulting menu, select Power Options.
In the resulting Control Panel window, pull down the Show additional plans option. Select High performance.
Some low-end PCs, including my Miix 310, don’t have those options.
3. Undo some appearance options
Windows works hard to make the screen easy on the eyes. If your PC is underpowered, you may want to sacrifice aesthetics and gain some speed.
Right-click Start, and select System. In the resulting Control Panel window’s left pane, select Advanced system settings.
This brings up the System Properties dialog box, already on the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the Performance box (the first of three “Settings” buttons on this tab).
This brings up another dialog box. You can uncheck some of the options, or simply select Adjust for best performance.
4. Remove unneeded autoloaders
A whole lot of programs want to load automatically every time you boot. Each one slows down the boot process, and some continue to slow down Windows afterwards.
These are not all bad. Your antivirus program should load when you boot and keep running as long as your PC is on. Other programs that need to run in the background to work, such as OneDrive, should also autoload.
But some programs—even good ones that you use frequently—don’t really need to run all the time. You don’t want to uninstall those, but you may want to stop them from autoloading.
To see how bad the situation is, right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager. Click the Startup tab. (If you don’t see any tabs at the top of the window, click More details in the lower-left corner.)
The Startup tab will show you all the autoloading programs. As you examine the list, think about what programs don’t really need to keep running at all times. To stop one from loading automatically, right-click its entry on the Startup tab and select Disable.
If you don’t recognize the name of an autoloader, right-click it and select Search online to help you find more information.
5. Stop hog processes
Your computer may be running a poorly written process that’s hogging a lot of resources. To find out, right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager. (Once again, if you don’t see any tabs at the top of the window, click More Details.)
On the Processes tab, click the CPU column header to sort by processor usage. The top items will be the ones hogging the CPU. (If the top processes are all using 0%, the processes are sorted in the wrong direction. Click the column header again.)
Don’t assume that the top process is necessarily a hog. Some big applications are worth the CPU cycles. One way to manage these programs is to close them when you’re done with them. Another is to switch to a smaller program.
If the hog is Windows Driver Foundation, see this Windows Club article.
You can close a process from inside Task Manager. Select the process and click the End task button and confirm your decision. But this should be avoided.
When you’re done, click the Memory column header and repeat.
6. Turn off search indexing
When you search for a word across all the files in your Documents library, the results come up almost immediately. That’s wonderful, but it comes at a price. When you’re not searching, the indexing needed to create those fast searches slows you down.
To turn off all indexing:
1. Open Windows Explorer, right-click your C: drive, and select Properties.
2. On the General tab, uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties.
3. In the resulting warning box, select Apply changes to drive C:\, subfolders and files.
Windows may take some time turning off the indexing. Get up and take a walk; it’s good for you.
There’s another option that will let you turn off some indexing but not all of it:
Type indexing in the Cortana field. Select Indexing Options. Click the Modify button near the lower-left side of the resulting dialog box.
This brings up another dialog box, with two sections. And yes, it’s confusing. Start in the bottom section of the dialog box, Summary of selected locations. Click any of these options, and it changes the contents of the top section, Change selected locations.
Unchecking items in that top section will stop indexing in those specific locations.
7. Turn off Windows tips
Windows 10 occasionally gives you tips about how you can better use the operating system. The problem is that, in order to see what tips you need, it keeps an eye on how you’re using your PC.
Yes, that sounds worrying from a privacy issue, but it also slows down your PC.
To turn it off, click Start > Settings. Select System, then select Notifications & actions in the left pane.
At the bottom of the Notifications section, turn off Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows.
You might also want to explore the other notification options, and turn some of them off, as well. I don’t think any of the others slow down the PC, but they can get annoying.
8. Clean your internal drive
If your internal storage is almost full—whether it’s a hard drive or an SSD—that could be slowing you down. But if your drive has plenty of free room, skip this section.
Start with Windows’ own Disk Cleanup tool. In the Cortana field, type disk and select Disk Cleanup.
Wait while Disk Cleanup examines your drive. Click the Clean up system files button (this time you’ll need an administrator password). Then wait again for another examination.
Examine the options. If you find one called Previous Windows installation(s), you’re in luck. By checking it and clicking OK, you’ll free up a lot of space. You can check other items to get rid of them, as well.
Something else you might want to consider: Uninstall programs you no longer use.
9. Check for Malware
I doubt an infection is intentionally slowing down your PC. There’s no illegal profits from that. Plus it’s a sure-fire way to trigger a victim’s suspicions.
But some malicious code could be slowing down your PC, even if that wasn’t the criminal’s intention. So if you’re suspicious, read Eric Geier and Josh Norem’s guide on how to remove malware from your Windows PC.
How to charge your devices properly
Without a battery, your expensive laptop or smartphone becomes a dead electron. These charging plants have a limited life span: as time goes on, they will begin to lose power to a longer charge rate.
To extend the battery’s useful life for as long as possible, you need to take care of your device properly. That means adopting good charging habits and taking care with battery storage. Here’s what you need to know.
The science of lithium-ion batteries
The rechargeable batteries used by today’s smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other devices all use a technology called lithium-ion. As you might expect, they contain…lithium ions. As Popular Science explained in our look at Tesla’s Powerwall battey:
When the Asus a32-k52 laptop battery is charging, positively-charged lithium ions move from one electrode, called the cathode, to the other, known as the anode, through an electrolyte solution in the battery cell. That causes electrons to concentrate on the anode, at the negative side. When the battery is discharged, the reverse happens. As for those electrons, they move through circuits that are external to the battery, providing juice.
Those electrons actually supply the energy for your smartphone or tablet—or in the case of Tesla, your entire home.
Over the years, scientists have tweaked the formula of the chemical mix inside lithium-ion batteries to try and get them to last longer, charge faster, and work more efficiently. Despite their tinkering, lithium-ion batteries still have a set lifetime. Why?
The cycle of battery charging and discharging and recharging can only repeat a certain number of times: Due to the nature of the chemical reactions happening at the anode and cathode, thin layers of insulating atoms form, obstructing the electrodes’ effectiveness. The limit varies, but most rechargables will last two or three years, so if you’ve noticed battery life dropping on an old smartphone or laptop, you can blame atomic buildup.
Charging and recharging
So how do you make your lithium-ion battery last as long as possible? You may have heard you need to do a full charge and discharge when your device is right out of the box—but this doesn’t really matter on modern batteries. What matters most is how you charge your phone or laptop after you’ve started using it.
Shallow discharges and recharges are better than full ones, because they put less stress on the battery, so it lasts longer. When your battery is discharging, Battery University recommends that you only let it reach 50 percent before topping it up again. While you’re charging it back up, you should also avoid pushing a lithium-ion battery all the way to 100 percent.
If you do fill your battery all the way up, don’t leave the device plugged in. Instead, follow the shallow discharge and recharge cycle we just mentioned. This isn’t a safety issue: Lithium-ion batteries have built-in safeguards designed to stop them from exploding if they’re left charging while at maximum capacity. But in the long term, electronics will age faster if they’re constantly plugged in while already charged to 100 percent.
Although shallow charges and discharges hit the longevity sweet spot, there are exceptions to this rule. Once a month, let the battery undergo a full discharge to about 5 percent, just to recalibrate its self-assessment. This mechanism allows your laptop or smartphone to give you an “estimated battery time remaining” reading that’s somewhat accurate. Regular full discharges aren’t a good idea though. In general, you should be keeping your battery above 20 percent, according to Samsung.
These are all guidelines, by the way: There’s nothing dangerous about keeping your phone charged overnight, and modern phones and laptops include mechanisms for minimizing the strain on the battery if your device is plugged in all the time. Fortunately for users, small tweaks and improvements are made to the technology each year, so every time you upgrade your smartphone, you’re getting a lithium-ion battery that should go further between charges and last longer overall.
Storage and general care
Something else lithium-ion batteries don’t like are extreme temperatures. Whenever possible, you should avoid leaving phones and laptops in hot cars or in chilly rooms, because these temperature extremes won’t do their batteries’ lifespans any favors. You should particularly watch out for overheating during charging—though if your phone or laptop manufacturer has done its job, this shouldn’t be an issue.
As another precaution, you should also make sure you’re using the official charger that came bundled with your phone or tablet, or you should invest in an exact replacement. This will guarantee that the charger is safe to use with your device’s Asus a32-a8 battery, and optimized to charge it as efficiently as possible. The official charger will apply the best practices for your battery’s general health.
Make sure your phone avoids extreme temperatures.
If you’re going to be storing your laptop or smartphone for an extended period of time, you should leave the gadget with a charge somewhere around 50 percent, as recommended by Apple and other sources. Switch your device off while you store it, and as we mentioned earlier, make sure to keep it in a Goldilocks spot: not too hot and not too cold.
The documentation that comes with your device should include more tips and advice, so read through it all carefully for any extra guidelines on treating your batteries as kindly as possible. Apply this little bit of extra care, and you should find the battery inside your phone or laptop lasting at least until you’re ready for an upgrade.
The Best Refurbished Notebook Deals Right Now
If you want to save some money on your next laptop purchase, the refurbished model may be your best choice. If you buy a reputable seller, a refurbished model should be in great condition to support and guarantee. However, not all refurbished goods are much cheaper than new equivalents. You need to pull the trigger and do some research.
Below, we’ve identified the best refurbished laptop deals right now. For help finding a unit on your own, read our refurbished laptop buying guide.
The Best Time to Buy a Notebook
Nothing causes buyer’s remorse quite like seeing the laptop you bought last month for $1,000 go on sale for $750.It’s equally unpalatable was the purchase of an expensive new DELL XPS 13 in August, and then watched DELL launch a faster, more advanced model in September. Most notebooks drop the final price, and the new model always appears in the corner. So when is the best time to buy a laptop? The answer largely depends on your environment.
Do You Need It Now?
The best time to buy a new laptop is when you really need one. If your current notebook is broken, you need stronger performance for work or play, or this is a child’s first computer, there’s no good reason to delay your purchase. However, if you have a competent but aging laptop that you plan to replace in the near future, you might save money or benefit from newer technology if you wait strategically.
MacBooks
Apple refreshes its laptops around once per year, though the company doesn’t always release all the new models at once or follow a consistent schedule. Apple last refreshed all of its MacBooks, including the 12-inch MacBook, MacBook Pro 13-inch, a MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touch Bar, MacBook Pro 15-inch (also with Touch Bar) and MacBook Air in June 2017. Except for the Air, all of the MacBooks are now running on Intel’s current-generation “Kaby Lake” processors.
Though anything is possible, we don’t expect to see any MacBooks with Intel 8th Generation “Kaby Lake Refresh” processors until Spring 2018. However, you may see some discounts and sales during the holiday season, particularly around Black Friday.
Bottom Line: Buy now, unless you can wait a long time for a sale that may never come.
PC Laptops Sale and Refresh Schedule
The major PC manufacturers release new laptops at three times of year: back-to-school season (June to August), holiday season (September to December) and spring (February to April). New models usually ship at the beginning or middle of these windows. However, the best deals tend to appear in July/August and November/December, which are the heart of the school and holiday shopping seasons.
“There is a best time to buy notebooks, and it is exactly when you think it is, between the last week in July and the first three weeks in August, when the back-to-school merchandising frenzy is in full force,” said Analyst Stephen Baker, who studies laptop pricing and sales for the NPD Group, a market intelligence firm. He noted that this time frame applies to both Macs and PCs.
Not surprisingly, we’ve found that prices can be just as low if not lower at the end of the year, when consumers are busy buying gifts for family members or for themselves.
For example, the 12-inch Apple MacBook (Core m5, 256GB SSD) started at $1,299 on Amazon in March 2016 but sank to $1,149 in August, before shooting back up to around $1,250, until November, when it went back down to $1,149 for a short time and then up again to $1,199.
Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee the product you want will be any cheaper in August or December than it was in April. You may find a newer model at the same price, though.
In 2015, Dell didn’t offer significant discounts on the XPS 13, our favorite laptop overall, for either season. However, during the fall 2016 buying season, Dell refreshed the premium laptop with a new Intel 7th Generation Core Series CPU, a larger battery and a Killer Wi-Fi card, which together offer better performance, two hours longer Dell xps m1330 laptop battery life and stronger connectivity. The new models carry the exact same prices as their predecessors, while the earlier models left the market entirely.
Bottom Line: You’ll find more deals in the July/August and November/December time frames and will see new model releases in early spring, midsummer and fall.
Intel CPU, Nvidia GPU Refreshes Lead the Industry
Though PC vendors tend to release new products at three times of year, they usually don’t refresh each model more than once a year. Business notebooks in particular can stay on the market unchanged for as long as 18 months. Most updates are timed to coincide closely with Intel’s CPU release schedule, as manufacturers want all their laptops to carry the latest generation of processor nearly as soon as it’s available.
Intel announced its new 8th Generation “Kaby Lake Refresh” chips in August 2017, with manufacturers planning to roll out new laptops based on the chips starting in September. However, only the Core i5 and Core i7 U series chips, which appear in mainstream consumer laptops that usually cost over $500, will roll out this fall. Any laptop that currently uses a more powerful, Intel H Series CPU or a low-power Intel Y Series CPU will not be getting an 8th Generation Core refresh for many months, probably not until at least January 2018. Budget laptops that use Intel Celeron, Pentium or Core i3 processors also won’t be refreshed for a long time.
The 8th Gen Core refresh is more significant than most prior CPU updates, because the mainstream U series will get upgraded from two to four CPU cores, which promises much better multitasking. Intel boasts that some users will see performance increases as high as 40 percent when compared to 7th Generation “Kaby Lake” chips. So, if you want to buy a mainstream consumer laptop, you might want to wait for one with an Intel 8th Gen Core Series chip inside.
When shopping for a new system, you can tell that a laptop’s processor is 8th Gen Core if the first digit of its four-digit model number is an 8 (ex: Core i5-8250U). Most CPUs today are still Intel 7th Generation “Kaby Lake” chips that use a 7 at the beginning of the model number (ex: Core i5-7200U).
For many years, AMD’s laptop processors were nothing to write home about as they appeared on a handful of low-performance, low-budget systems. However, in fall 2017, the company is launching its powerful new Ryzen platform for laptops. We expect to see Ryzen primarily on gaming systems, however.
In the world of gaming laptops, graphics chip updates are even more important than CPU refreshes. In August 2016, Nvidia released its new “Pascal” GPUs, which carry model numbers beginning with 10 (ex: GTX 1060, GTX 1070). Gaming laptop vendors such as Alienware, Asus and MSI immediately began refreshes of all of their models to incorporate Pascal, which offers significantly faster performance and VR-readiness than the previous generation of Nvidia 900 series (GTX 960, 970 and 980) chips.
The evolutionary improvements in performance and battery life between two generations of Intel processor — 6th Gen to 7th Gen, for example — may not be significant on their own However, manufacturers often use a CPU or GPU refresh as an excuse to make a laptop lighter or add new features like a higher-res screen, a faster SSD or new ports. The Thunderbolt ports on Lenovo‘s 2017 ThinkPads, for example, allow you to connect to charge the laptop, power dual monitors and connect to high-speed peripherals over a single cable.
Many times, a chip refresh also leads to the release of completely new products, such as the super-slim Asus ZenBook 3, which launched with Kaby Lake. Other times, it leads to major design changes to existing models as we saw on the Pascal update to the Alienware 13. You might not tell from looking at it, but the ThinkPad T470, which has Kaby Lake, is 0.25 pounds lighter than the prior-gen T460.
Bottom Line: If you’re buying a consumer (not business or gaming) laptop and spending over $500, wait for 8th Generation Core chips. If not, don’t wait.
Older Models Don’t Often Get Cheaper
You would expect to see great prices on the old models after a refresh, but more often than not, the original manufacturer discontinues these versions without offering a discount. You can always find a third-party retailer selling last year’s model, but it might actually cost more than the current unit does.
For example, a configuration of the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro gaming laptop came out in October 2014 with a price of $2,300, but by August 2015 it was down to $1,899. After newer versions with faster CPUs had replaced it, the old model jumped up as high as $3,319 and then settled at around $2,649, while the new model costeds just $2,199.
There are a few noteworthy exceptions, which usually occur when the vendor keeps producing the old model at a lower price. For example, Microsoft cut the Surface Pro 3‘s price by $100 after releasing the slightly better Surface Pro 4.
How to Know if You’re Getting a Good Deal
Whenever you find a laptop sale — in December, August or April — it can be hard to tell whether you’re actually getting a great price or just a slight discount off the MSRP, unless you know what the product normally sells for. There are a couple of ways to tell:
- Use a price-history tool: A couple of sites track price changes over time so you can see if today’s price is really the lowest it has ever been at one particular retailer. Camelcamelcamel.com (and its Chrome extension) will show a price-history graph for most products on Amazon, while the Hover Hound Chrome extension does the same for Newegg.However, we haven’t found a service that tracks the price history from other key services, such as Dell.com, Lenovo.com or Microsoft Store, all of which offer great prices. We’re also yet to find a tracker that shows the price of the same product across multiple retailers. So Amazon.com’s lowest price ever may still be higher than someone else’s.
- Visit deal aggregators: Deal news sites keep an eye on pricing and call attention to the best deals in their posts. We maintain an up-to-date list of deals at Laptopmag.com, and you can also check out sites such as techbargains.com and bensbargains.net.
To Wait or Not to Wait?
When deciding whether to buy now or wait, you have to consider both price and obsolescence. From a price perspective, you are likely to see more and better deals during back-to-school buying season in June, July and August. However, there’s no guarantee that the product you want will be cheaper during that time period.
If you’re worried about your new laptop becoming obsolete soon after you buy it, the answer depends on the brand and type you choose. Apple fans who are considering a MacBook Pro, shouldn’t expect any major changes until 2018 and those who want a business or gaming laptop probably won’t see models with new Intel CPUs until then either. Gamers may see some performance gains from AMD Ryzen-powered notebooks at the end of 2017.
If you’re buying a PC laptop that’s not for gaming or use as a workstation, you should probably wait for models with Intel 8th Gen Core CPUs to hit the market in September and October 2017.
LAPTOP: Should I Buy a New Laptop or a New Battery?
Many people have laptops for four years, five years or even longer, and still find that they are powerful, functional and suitable for everyday use. But can’t your old computer stay out for a long time? Unlike computer chips, LCD screens and hard drives, lithium-ion batteries in all laptops have very limited life. Over the course of several years, the battery began to have less and less charge.
Forum user Mr. Crackers has a 5-year-old Sony VAIO laptop that he still enjoys using, but now it lasts only 1 hour on a charge. He’s wondering if he should spend around $100 on a new Sony vgp-bps9a notebook battery, or pony up a lot more money for a brand-new laptop.
Deciding whether or not to replace an older but still good laptop is rarely an obvious choice. Here are some questions to ask when deciding whether to fix up your old system or buy a new one.
1. What kind of new laptop can I afford?
If your old laptop was a premium device and you can only afford a budget notebook now, fix that old laptop. Though you can find serviceable new laptops for under $500, and even under $200, a brand-new budget system might not have the same good build quality, screen and keyboard as an older laptop that cost over $1,000 when it was new. And a new laptop with a Celeron or Core i3 CPU is not necessarily much speedier than an older notebook with a Core i5 or Core i7. Your 2012 MacBook Air is still better than a 2017 HP Stream 13.
2. Can I fix my old laptop?
Many laptops don’t have a replaceable battery. If the problem isn’t battery life but a broken keyboard or screen, you also need to see whether these parts are easy to swap out. Screens are extremely difficult to replace without breaking the chassis. The best way to find out what parts of your laptop can be replaced and how easily it would be to do so, is to look for the service manual on the manufacturer’s site. If you can’t find a service manual, you can search for online tutorials from other people who have swapped out the HP 484170-001 laptop battery, screen, RAM or hard drive on your specific model. For RAM and storage drives specifically, you can use Crucial’s Advisor tool to check whether you can upgrade and what type of components you need.
3. Is this an opportunity to get new features?
Perhaps your old laptop had a lower resolution screen than you’d like, or its performance just isn’t good enough for all the apps you want to run today. Maybe its battery life wasn’t that hot in the first place. A new laptop would not only offer better battery life, but also a host of other potential improvements. Five years ago, most laptops did not have touch screens, 4K panels or one-touch fingerprint readers and none of them had Windows 10 or USB Type-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Ultimately, all of these questions come back to money. If you can afford to get the same class of laptop that you’re replacing, get a new one. If you can’t, look for a fix.
Acer swift 3 and ASUS Zenbook ux330ua: battle between two value laptops
There was a time when the “value notebook” means a bleak black Friday, especially in WAL-MART, built from cheap plastic, an almost invisible display. Those days are over. Today, the “value laptop” refers to a machine with a solid chassis and decent components, which is more affordable. In our Acer swifts 3 showdown with ASUS Zenbook ux330ua, we pit the latest two value machines to see each other, which is affordable champion.
We reviewed the 13.3-inch ZenBook UX330UA in a configuration that includes a seventh-generation Intel Core i5-7200U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD, for $730. Our review Acer Swift 3 was identically equipped for $650. We found them both to offer solid value for the money, with a bunch of great qualities that make them well-suited for buyers who need a workhorse productivity machine that won’t weigh them down, nor make their wallets feel too much lighter. Yet there are enough differences between the two machines to make for a clear winner.
SPECS
| Acer Swift 3
|
Asus ZenBook UX330UA
|
|
| Size | 13.43 x 9.31 x 0.71 inches | 12.7 x 8.7 x 0.53 inches |
| Weight | 3.31 pounds | 2.64 pounds |
| Display | 14-inch IPS non-touch display | 13.3-inch IPS non-touch display |
| Resolution | 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (157 ppi) | 3,200 x 1,800 (276 PPI) 1,920 x 1,080 (165 PPI) |
| Operating System | Windows 10 | Windows 10 |
| Storage | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB PCIe SSD | 256GB or 512GB SATA SSD |
| Processor | 7th generation Intel Core i3, i5, i7 | 7th generation Intel Core i5, i7 |
| RAM | 4GB or 8GB LPDDR3 | 4GB or 8GB LPDDR3 |
| Camera/Webcam | Front HD webcam | Front HD webcam |
| Keyboard | Backlit chiclet | Backlit chiclet |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Biometrics | Windows Hello fingerprint scanner | Windows Hello fingerprint scanner |
| Battery | 49 watt-hour lithium polymer | 57 watt-hour lithium polymer |
| Ports | 1 x USB 3.0 Type-A, 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1 X USB 3.1 Type-C, 1 x HDMI, SD card reader, combo audio jack | 2 x USB 3.0 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type C, 1 x micro-HDMI, microSDXC card reader, combo audio jack |
| Price | $500 to $850 | $700-780 |
| Availability | Newegg, Amazon | Amazon |
| DT review | 4 out of 5 | 4.5 out of 5 |
Build quality adds value, but one is just a bit better
There was a time not too long ago when buying a machine close to the $500 price point meant accepting cheap plastic and a creaky design. Those days are over, and we’ll begin by talking about design and build quality — both the Acer Swift 3 and the Asus ZenBook UX330UA sport a metal chassis and solid builds that belie their relatively budget prices.
As a 14-inch machine, the Acer Swift 3 is naturally a bit larger than the ZenBook. It weighs in at 3.31 pounds and is a tiny bit chunky at 0.71 inches, with metal used in both the display lid and the lower half giving it a build that we described at robust and premium. We noticed some flexing in the chassis when we really pressed the issue (no pun intended) but in normal use, the Swift 3 felt plenty solid.
The ZenBook UX330UA was thinner at 0.53 inches, and lighter at 2.6 pounds, given its smaller display and overall chassis size. It also benefits from a generous helping of metal in its chassis, and the “spun metal concentric circle” pattern that’s common to the Asus line added a bit of design flair. The build quality was also solid, with no more flex than Acer’s value-oriented machine.
While the competition is close here, we give the nod to the ZenBook. It’s quite a bit more portable, feels a bit more luxurious, and stands out more than the Acer Swift 3 because of the concentric circle pattern etched into the lid.
Winner: Asus Zenbook UX330UA
TWO SOLID MID-RANGE PERFORMERS, BUT BETTER THERMALS AND FASTER STORAGE WINS OUT
As noted earlier, we reviewed identically equipped machines. Both came with workhorse Intel Core i5-7200U processors and 8GB of RAM. The main difference in terms of performance was the choice of solid-state drive (SSD) technology. Acer went with the faster and more modern PCIe version, while Asus saved some money by going with the older — and slower — SATA version.
Unsurprisingly, performance in the Geekbench benchmark was nearly identical, with the Acer Swift 3 scoring 3,809 in the single-core test and 7,515 in the multi-core test, and the ZenBook UX 330UA scoring 3,711 and 7,075. Those are close enough to be a wash.
On the other hand, in our more intensive Handbrake test that encodes a 420GB video to H.265 format, the Acer Swift 3 took 1,084 seconds and the Asus ZenBook UX 330UA took a significantly longer 1,445 seconds — that is significant. It’s possible that the ZenBook’s thinner chassis wasn’t as good at dissipating heat, and so the CPU was throttled.
Next, the Acer Swift 3’s PCIe SSD scored 1,169 MB/s on the CrystalDiskMark read test and 512 MB/s on the write test. That compares to the Asus ZenBook UX330UA’s slower SATA SSD, that could garner only 489 MB/s in the read test and 422 MB/s in the write test. While both machines were plenty fast in terms of booting, opening apps, and accessing and saving data, the Swift 3 promises to avoid slowdowns when working with lots of stored data compared to the ZenBook UX330UA.
In the end, both machines are solid performers, particularly for the price. But when it comes to heavier workloads, the Acer Swift 3’s thicker chassis helps it maintain higher speeds and its faster SSD gets a performance assist as well.
Winner: Acer Swift 3
BACKLIGHTING AND WINDOWS HELLO BRING SOME REAL VALUE TO LOW-PRICED LAPTOPS
One area where manufacturers sometimes cut down on costs in value laptops is the keyboard and touchpad. It’s not uncommon to receive a mushy keyboard and unresponsive touchpad if you’re not willing to pay considerably more money. We’re happy to report that both Asus and Acer spent some time getting their respective input mechanism in order.
The keyboard on the Acer Swift 3 offers a solid typing experience, and the keys are backlit with two brightness levels and, unfortunately, some uneven lighting. The expansive touchpad supports Microsoft’s Precision Touchpad protocol and so worked without issue across the full complement of Windows 10 gestures. Windows Hello support is provided by a fingerprint reader to the right of the touchpad.
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA’s keyboard is similarly comfortable, with good spacing, a generous palm rest, and a respectable 1.5mm of key travel. The ZenBook’s backlighting offers three brightness levels, but we found all of them to be too dim, and lighting was also uneven. The touchpad also provides Microsoft Precision Touchpad gesture support, and was adequately sized, but we found the surface to be too slick for comfort. Finally, the Windows Hello fingerprint scanner was a welcome addition, but we found its placement in the upper-right corner of the touchpad to be distracting — it doesn’t support touch, so it takes away from the overall swiping area.
It’s a close call here, but the Acer Swift 3 seemed just that tiniest bit more pleasant for typing and gesturing, and we preferred the location of its fingerprint scanner. Therefore, it earned the win by the narrowest of margins.
Winner: Acer Swift 3
PLENTY OF PORTS, BUT ONE MACHINE IS JUST A LITTLE MORE CONNECTED
More expensive newer systems (outside of Microsoft’s Surface line) are likely to include the newest USB Type-C port. Value laptops haven’t all caught on to the new standard yet, but don’t tell that to Acer and Asus. Both of the machines include USB Type-C connections and so are relatively future-proof when it comes to connecting to newer accessories. Neither machine added in Thunderbolt 3 support, which is a bummer, but not surprising at this price point. Also, both machines disallow charging via USB Type-C, and so require proprietary power adapters.
The Acer Swift 3 is the thicker machine, as we’ve noted, and another area where some extra girth can come in handy is in connectivity. Acer took full advantage of that fact, packing in two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, and the USB Type-C port, to go with a full-size HDMI connection, an SD card reader, and a combo audio jack. That’s a solid selection of ports that ensure you can plug in a full complement of peripherals.
The Asus ZenBook UX330A also offers two USB 3.0 Type-A ports to go with the USB Type-C port, but it eschews USB. 2.0. It slips in a micro-HDMI port a, a microSDXC card reader, and a combo audio port. That’s a fair complement of ports for a thin-and-light machine.
Both machines offer good connectivity and are future-proof given the support for USB Type-C. The ZenBook UX330UA has one fewer port, it requires an adapter to connect to full-size HDMI, and it doesn’t support full-size SD cards. Overall, this category has a clear winner.
Winner: Acer Swift 3
ONE DISPLAY WAS CLEARLY SUPERIOR
Both of our the Acer Swift 3 and ZenBook UX330UA review units came equipped with Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) displays. That’s more common for value laptops, but not yet ubiquitous. Yet it doesn’t mean that we found the displays to be identical.
To begin with, the Acer Swift 3 is a 14-inch machine, and so a Full HD display is a bit less sharp at 157 PPI compared to the 13.3-inch ZenBook’s 165 PPI. That’s not enough to tell a huge difference, but pixel peepers might discern a few more pixels on the Swift 3. Beyond that, Acer chose a decent but not great display that offered only average contrast at 540:1, below-average color gamut at 67 percent of sRGB and 50 percent of AdobeRGB, and low brightness at only 242 nits. Color accuracy was average at 2.34 (1.o or less is considered excellent).
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA, on the other hand, didn’t only rely on its slightly sharper display to be superior here. It also enjoyed almost twice the contrast at 940:1, covered a much more dynamic 98 percent of sRGB and 74 percent of AdobeRGB, and was much brighter at 315 nits. Color accuracy was also average at 2.56. The display was anti-glare, and so performed better in bright lighting than the Swift 3’s glossy display.
Simply put, the Asus ZenBook UX330U scores big here. Its display is sharper, brighter, enjoys better color, and has significantly better contrast. It’s also more comfortable to use in bright environments. For its first win, the ZenBook’s much superior display is significant.
Winner: Asus ZenBook UX330UA
ONE LASTS A LOT LONGER THAN THE OTHER, AND WHICH ONE MIGHT SURPRISE YOU
As mentioned earlier, the ZenBook UX330UA is a bit lighter and a bit thinner than the Acer Swift 3, due in part to its smaller display. That makes the ZenBook easier to slip into a backpack and head out for work.
When it comes to how long each machine will last away from a plug, the dichotomy is a little more clear cut. Whereas Acer made use of the Swift 3’s thicker chassis to squeeze in better connectivity, it left some space unused when it came to packing in the battery. The Swift 3 had to make due with a 49 watt-hour Acer as07b31 laptop battery, which resulted in respectable but not outstanding battery life. In our video loop test that replays an Avengers trailer from local storage until the battery gives out, the Swift 3 lasted for 10 hours and 22 minutes. In our web browsing loop test, it lasted for six hours and 14 minutes.
Asus was a little more aggressive in making room for a battery with the ZenBook UX330UA, managing to cram in 57 watt-hours of Asus A42-G73 noteboook battery capacity. That resulted in a machine that lasted considerably longer in our battery tests. The ZenBook UX330UA lasted almost three hours long when looping our test video, at 13 hours and three minutes. Our web browsing test told a similar story, with the ZenBook lasting an impressive 10 hours and 25 minutes — more than four hours longer than the Acer Swift 3.
Clearly, the Asus ZenBook UX330UA is going to let you get more work done when you can’t plug in. And it’s lighter to boot.
Winner: Asus ZenBook UX330UA
AVAILABILITY AND PRICE
Acer has a number of configurations listed for the Swift 3, ranging from $500 for a machine with a Core i3-7100U CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD all the way up to $850 for a Core i7-7500U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 5126GB SSD. Our review unit was priced at $650 for a Core i5-7200U, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD. All Swift 3 machines come with Full HD displays.
Currently, although Asus plans for more configurations, the ZenBook UX330UA is basically available in two configurations. Our review unit with a Full HD display, Core i5-7200U, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD cost $730, and the same configuration with QHD+ (3,200 x 1,800) resolution is available for $780.
While the Acer Swift 3 is a bit less expensive and comes in more configurations (some of them quite pricey), the Asus ZenBook UX330UA wins us over for offering a higher resolution display. They both are well-priced value laptops, but we give a slight edge to the ZenBook.
Winner: Asus ZenBook UX330UA
CONCLUSION
Two value laptops entered this battle, and the Acer Swift 3 took home some early wins. Its performance was better than the Asus ZenBook UX330UA could muster, at least in terms of storage speeds and when the CPU was being pushed to the max. It also has slightly better connectivity and input, with one additional port, full-size connections, slightly better keyboard backlighting, and superior fingerprint scanner placement.
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA came on strong, however. It enjoys a superior display that’s more usable in all light conditions and just looks so much better. And, it lasts considerably longer away from a plug. Display quality and battery life are two very important laptop characteristics, and the ZenBook scored some huge wins here. Toss in the availability of a higher resolution display for not too much more, and we’re convinced that the ZenBook UX330UA is the superior value laptop.
How to Choose a Corded Power Drill for Woodworking
If you walk around the power tools section of the home and look at the electric drill, you’ll find that almost all of the options are made up of cordless models.
Obviously, cordless drills are very popular. Does that mean that corded power drillsare antiquated and you should only consider a cordless model? Absolutely not. There are plenty of times where a corded power drill is the right choice for a task, whether it’s on a job site or in the woodshop.
Why You Should Consider a Corded Power Drill
While cordless power drills are very useful due in part to their portability, there are still tasks that still require more power than a cordless will provide. When drilling numerous holes of large diameter, particularly large paddle bits, a power drill should be your tool of choice. Performing such tasks that require considerable power would place tax a DEWALT DE9074 Cordless Drill Battery far more than recommended.
What to Look for in a Power Drill
When looking for a power drill, you’ll find that most of the features mimic those found in cordless drills, namely a keyless chuck, reversible action and comfortable grip. However, while cordless drills have 2-speeds, power drills are typically variable speed, which can be very useful when you need to slow down the action. Additionally, some power drills incorporate a hammering action that, while not usable for woodworking, is handy for drilling through concrete, bricks or cinder blocks.
Drill Sizes
Power Drills typically come in two different sizes, 3/8-inch and 1/2-inch. This relates to the size of the chuck, and is indicative of the largest diameter bit that the drill will accommodate. In most cases, a 3/8-inch will suffice, but if you need to drill larger holes regularly or simply want more power, you might consider spending the additional money for a 1/2-inch model.
Safety While Operating Your Drill
While power drills aren’t typically overloaded with safety features found on other power tools, that isn’t to say you shouldn’t exercise caution when using your power drill. Avoid wearing loose-fitting clothing or jewelry that could get caught up in the drill, unplug the drill when not in use, and always wear safety glasses. Additionally, be sure to read and follow the safety instructions found in the power drill’s owner’s manual.
Beyond these obvious safety precautions, there are a couple of additional safety suggestions that typically need to be mentioned in any discussion of power drills. A power drill should never be carried by the cord. This can cause the cord to dislodge from the casing and cause the power cable to possibly short out. Regularly check your cord for damage.
Hold on Tight
Second, when drilling with paddle bits, be sure to hold onto the drill with a bit firmer of a grip than you normally might, perhaps even holding with two hands. Because of their spade-like shape, paddle bits can occasionally bind against the stock, which will cause a considerable amount of torque back to the drill and subsequently, into your hand. It doesn’t take more than one sprained wrist caused by a binding paddle bit to remind the operator to hold on tightly.
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