The best low-cost ultrabook today - Huawei, Honor or Asus?

As you already understood, all the computers considered in this article are capable of boasting a small thickness and adequate weight. The lightest is the Asus product. Therefore, it is he who will like most of all those who are going to regularly take a laptop with them to work. As for its design, it is also difficult to make any claims against it. You can only complain about the keyboard, which has very narrow arrows. But the rest of the keys turned out to be very large. This is due to the fact that the Taiwanese manufacturer moved the digital block to the touchpad. Today, this is the main feature of most Asus laptops.

The rest of the ultrabooks do not have any conspicuous "chips". Moreover, the Dell Latitude 14 3410 is generally repulsive at first. Firstly, it is slightly heavier than the rest of the computers discussed in this article. Secondly, it cannot be called a record thin. Thirdly, the frames around its display turned out to be quite wide. However, it cannot be said that this laptop is somehow difficult to carry around.Just its appearance makes you compare the device with laptops of past years, while competitors are as modern as possible.

As for the Honor and Huawei models, they are quite similar to each other. It is felt that their design was carried out by one company (the allocation of Honor to a separate manufacturer happened only in the first half of 2021). I am glad that these devices have a very thin display bezel.

Since we are talking about relatively inexpensive models, you should not count on a matrix with 4K resolution. Yes, and such a display would need completely different components, which now cost a lot of money. That is why you have to put up with Full HD resolution. In fact, with a 14-inch diagonal, this is a completely acceptable parameter. Not to mention 13.3 inches. This is exactly the screen size of the Asus ZenBook we are considering. Strictly speaking, it is precisely because of such a diagonal that this laptop could not deserve the highest rating from us - while typing or working in some professional program, you want more. But the fact that it uses an OLED matrix, as in many smartphones and especially expensive tablets, changes everything. With such a screen, you can count on low power consumption and near-perfect blacks. And the Taiwanese manufacturer managed to increase the brightness of the pixel glow. As a result, the laptop stands out from the competition in that it can be safely used outdoors when the sun is shining with might and main.

It cannot be said that we have chosen very cheap ultrabooks. In this regard, there are no complaints about the quality of the screens. Even in the case of computers equipped with IPS panels, maximum viewing angles and vibrant colors await you. The response time in all cases can be called adequate - it definitely won't hurt to play. Perhaps, the Dell product looks a little worse than the others. It must be due to the very low brightness of the backlight.

As mentioned above, almost all ultrabooks included in this comparison exist in several modifications. We will focus on those of them whose price tag does not exceed 60 thousand rubles. For this money, you can expect to get a portable computer based on the Intel Core i3. Such a processor will most likely have only two cores and four threads. But a high clock speed will allow you to ignore problems in most applications, not to mention the operating system. However, the above applies mainly to Acer Swift 3. If we talk about laptops from Asus, Huawei and Dell, then they usually already contain a chip from the Core i5 series.This is a much more powerful solution, consisting of four cores and eight threads. But the best processor was Honor MagicBook 14. This is a six-core chip that is part of the AMD Ryzen 5 line. Under certain conditions, its clock speed can increase to 4 GHz. Not surprisingly, a relatively inexpensive laptop is gaining significantly more points in benchmarks than its competitors.

As for the rest of the components, you will not see any special differences between the laptops. If you don't want to spend money on a particularly expensive configuration, you get only 8 GB of RAM. The only exception to the rule is the Huawei product, which has twice the volume at its disposal. But the operating frequency of the bars he uses is only 2400 MHz. Compare that to Asus and Acer - these ultrabooks use 4266 MHz RAM.

We warn you that due to the reduction in the size of laptops, the RAM in them is literally soldered to the motherboard. This means that it cannot be replaced or supplemented. In this regard, only the Dell Latitude 13 allows you to make at least some kind of upgrade in the future - it has two familiar slots, as a result of which the amount of RAM can be increased to 32 GB.

Ultrabooks don't have space for a hard drive. Instead, in all five cases, an SSD drive is installed, which is inserted into the M.2 slot.Those used in Honor and Dell can boast of the highest data reading speed. In this case, in the first case, you are waiting for 512 GB, while in the second - only 256 GB.

Separately, we note the presence of a fingerprint scanner in three out of five ultrabooks. It is not available only in computers from Dell and Asus. Instead, they have a built-in card reader. A good bonus for a photographer.

As you might guess, none of the laptops received a discrete graphics card. This is not due to their modest thickness. It's just that we are considering relatively inexpensive ultrabooks, and configurations with a video card on board, if they are on sale, are already asking for more than 85 thousand rubles. Therefore, you will have to be content with integrated graphics.

If you are going to use an ultrabook for games, then we are in a hurry to disappoint you. Only Honor can boast of any worthy result. But you should not expect 60 frames / s from him in blockbuster games at maximum graphics settings. As for the rest of the devices, the integrated graphics used by the Asus laptop provide a good picture. The result of the other three ultrabooks is even worse. We would not recommend buying them for games. When using them, it is felt that this computer is exclusively for work or study.

The Dell Latitude 14 has an interesting feature. This laptop has a bay for a 2.5-inch drive, which is connected via the familiar SATA interface. Yes, the data reading speed in this case will be relatively low. But extra storage never hurts!

As for the usual connectors, their lack is not observed in any of the laptops. In particular, all computers have an HDMI socket. Of course, not everywhere it meets the maximum specification. But this is not required, because ultrabooks simply do not have enough power to display 4K images at high frame rates. If we talk about the number of connectors, then in this regard, the Dell computer wins. After that, you understand why he was a little thicker than the others. It is noteworthy that all ultrabooks can boast at least one USB Type-C connector. At the same time, Honor allows you to charge yourself using this particular port. And Asus and Acer support the Thunderbolt image transfer interface.

Everything is in order with ultrabooks and with wireless modules. Since all of them were released relatively recently, the manufacturers managed to endow them with Wi-Fi 802.11ax support.Only a computer created by Huawei does not understand this standard. Whether it's scary is up to the buyer to judge. Also, all laptops received a Bluetooth module. Some of them are even the freshest among those that exist today. And Honor and Huawei are also able to boast an NFC chip. But it is used in them only for synchronization with a smartphone of the same brands.

Relatively recently, the existence of ultrabooks was simply impossible. Previously, computer components required a huge battery, otherwise the computer would begin to require connection to the mains after half an hour of operation. Fortunately, the situation has now changed. The transition to a thinner process technology and the use of energy efficient technologies have led to amazing results. For example, Asus ZenBook 13 is capable of surfing the Internet for 15 hours! The owner of the Acer Swift 3 laptop will not feel particularly disadvantaged either. As for the Honor computer, it has the most capacious battery. Its capacity has been increased to 7330 mAh. However, the design of the laptop turned out to be such that even with this parameter you have to count on only 11 hours of battery life. Which, however, is also not bad. Well, the lowest result is provided by computers from Huawei and Dell.

It should be noted support for fast charging, implemented in all five ultrabooks.In this regard, devices from Honor and Huawei look the most interesting, which in just half an hour charge by 44% and 46%, respectively. However, the result of the aforementioned Asus ZenBook 13 is also not bad, in 49 minutes its charge level reaches 60%.

Alas, the shortage of semiconductors and worldwide inflation have done their dirty work. From now on, we call inexpensive laptops, the cost of which is approximately 60 thousand rubles. In fact, you can find more affordable computers in the assortment of Asus and Acer. And they will also be considered ultrabooks. However, you will quickly have complaints about their performance. In this regard, I don’t want to compare them with Honor and Huawei products at all, since the winner will be clear much in advance.

Oddly enough, the Honor MagicBook 14 2021 laptop is sold cheaper than the rest. During sales, it can be purchased for 56-58 thousand rubles. The Acer Swift 3 costs about the same money. But this ultrabook seems less interesting. The most expensive laptops in this collection are Dell and Asus laptops. To some extent, their high cost is fully justified. These laptops are a little more versatile than the rest. But still, one feels that a year and a half ago, such a computer would have been cheaper.

It is easy to see that we have identified two leaders who go almost head to head. However, Honor wins the final victory. Laptops under this brand began to be produced quite recently, and therefore such superiority over eminent competitors cannot but surprise! Such an ultrabook is the best choice for anyone who wants to get their hands on a computer with a powerful processor. And the integrated graphics used here will show themselves well in shareware games.

In fact, the rest of the laptops are also worthy of the money that they ask for. Even Acer, equipped with a weak dual-core chip by modern standards. Perhaps the least advantageous looks only ultrabook Dell. Against the background of his competitors, he seems too plump. But on the other hand, there was a place on its body for more connectors, and for some it is even more important.