Mobile Arsenal: The Laptop

We are starting a new series of articles here on ThinkComputers. We define our “Mobile Arsenal” as what we would recommend to you for your mobile setup. Many of us are traveling all the time and we need to be able to be productive on the road. After using quite a lot of different types of mobile products and applications we are going to focus on the best and present them to you here.

Today we will be focusing on laptops. This is of course the core of being productive while on the road. For our Mobile Arsenal we are going to recommend laptops that are great for doing work and getting things done. If you are looking for a gaming laptop or something else we are not going to recommend that here. So let’s get started.

Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro

Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro

I am actually using this laptop as my current main laptop and I love it. The screen resolution on the Yoga 2 Pro is the main reason I use it. At 3200 x 1800 that is more than enough room for multi-tasking, working with larger images and HD video. Another cool thing about the Yoga 2 Pro is that the screen itself can be flipped completely over so you can use it as a tablet, have it propped up and more. This is perfect for the plane ride and has many of other applications as well. The Yoga I have has the Intel Core i5-4200U in it and it can handle pretty much anything I throw at it (Photoshop, Premiere, HD video, etc). As far as battery life goes you are going to get anywhere from 5-7 hours, which is pretty much any continental flight in the US.

The Yoga 2 Pro starts at $999 and prices go up from there depending on what options you want.

ASUS Zenbook Infinity

ASUS Zenbook Infinity

When ASUS announced the Zenbook Infinity it was all the buzz because the lid and the area around the keyboard is made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. So as you can guess this is one pretty sexy looking laptop. Beyond that the 13.3-inch Ultrabook has a 2560 x 1440 IGZO panel and has a configuration that with the Intel Core i7-4558U processor and Iris 5100 graphics. That means you can pretty much throw anything at this Ultrabook and it will be able to handle it pretty well. This is of course a more high-end offering, but one of the best out there at 13.3-inches. Just like the Yoga 2 Pro you should get anywhere from 5-7 hours of battery life out of the Zenbook Infinity.

The ASUS Zenbook Infinity starts at $1499 and prices go up from there.

Acer Aspire S7

Acer Aspire S7

This has to be one of the best designed laptops that I’ve had the chance to get my hands on. Acer actually offers this Ultrabook with an aluminum chassis and glass lid or a fully metallic. The Aspire S7 is extremely small and compact, it is only 0.5 inches thick and only weighs in at 2.9 pounds. The 13.3-inch Aspire S7 features a 2560 x 1440 WQHD display and supports Intel’s latest Haswell processors. Being so compact do you only have a limited number of ports and the battery is smaller. You will probably only get around 5 hours of battery life out of the Aspire S7.

The Aspire S7 starts at a low $899, but the model we would recommend is $1499.

Apple Macbook Air

Apple Macbook Air

We had to include the Macbook Air on our list. Colin has one and he really loves it. Unlike the other Ultrabooks listed here the Macbook Air is not an Ultrabook, but one of the most popular ultra-portables out there and it does not run Windows, but rather Apple’s OS X operating system. Many people enjoy that operating system and it is less susceptible to viruses. As the name suggest the Macbook Air is extremely small and light, which makes it extremely easy to take with you anywhere. The keyboard and trackpad are some of the best available. Just like all the other Ultrabooks the Macbook Air is available with Intel’s latest Haswell processors. The 13-inch Macbook Air has a native resolution of 1440 x 900, which is lacking compared to other laptops that we have mentioned. The battery life on the Macbook Air is very impressive, depending on what you are doing you can get 10 to 12 hours of use out of it!

The 13-inch Macbook Air starts at $1099 and goes up from there.

So there you have it our suggestions for a laptop to start out your Mobile Arsenal. Do you think we missed a laptop? Let us know in the comments.

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