A laptop that can serve as both your business computer at the office and home computer in off hours needs to be high performance and lightweight. To be productive and comfortable, we narrowed the search to laptops with at least 15 inch screens and full sized keyboards. We found that 15.6 inches was the sweet spot for screen size versus weight, as the larger 17 inch screen laptops became too heavy for easy carrying. Dropping down to the smaller 14 inch screens also reduced the available features in terms of external connection ports for USB, HDMI, etc., as well as screen resolutions which were no longer full high definition (FHD).
Checking out the specifications, features, weight and prices, the list was quickly narrowed down to the top two contenders for best lightweight, high performance laptop. Both the Dell Inspiron 7000 and Lenovo Flex 4 offer top-end Intel i7 processors to run Windows 10. These also have large capacity 512 GB solid state drives, providing plenty of space for loading programs and storing all your files, music, pictures and videos. If you find you need more memory space, you can buy an external flash drive to securely store and transport all your data.
These laptops are mechanically designed so you can configure the screen position to match the task. Rotate the screen to operate as a traditional laptop, flip it around to give an audience presentation, lay it open flat for tabletop viewing, of fold the keyboard completely out of the way for a tablet mode. The touchscreens are highly responsive and can be used with single fingertip, two fingers, multi-touch or a stylus.
The two other key considerations for best in class were battery life and weight. Both contenders will run up to 6 hours on a single charge, and weigh in at under 5 pounds.
Price was also a factor in selecting both of these for our list. The Dell is just over the $1k mark at and the Lenovo comes in a just under.. Some of the others we considered were hundreds of dollars more, which was what ultimately eliminated them from the list. But if you have the budget, and 4K Ultra High Definition is a must have for your next laptop, here’s our review for the Best 2 Laptops with 4K Ultra High Definition
After checking these two out, and reading all the other reviews for both laptops, we found it really came down to some personal preferences as to which was the best. Rather than picking just one, we left it up to you to decide which of these two would be your preferred lightweight, high performance laptop of choice.
Here are the specifications for both, and links to their pages on Amazon:
2017 Premium Dell Inspiron 7000
Description: 2017 Premium Dell Inspiron 7000 15.6″ Convertible 2-in-1 FHD Touchscreen Laptop, 7th Intel Core i7-7500U Processor, 12GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Backlit Keyboard, Bluetooth, HDMI, 802.11AC, Win 10
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7500U 2.7GHz Dual-core Ultra-low-voltage processor (3.5GHz with Turbo Boost) 4M Cache
Memory : 512GB SSD (Solid State Drive) + 12GB DDR4 RAM
Screen: 15.6″ Touchscreen LED-backlit IPS (In-plane switching) FHD (1920 x 1080)
Keyboard: Backlit Keyboard
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 620
Configurations: 2-in-1 Convertible, 360 Degree Rotation Design, Flip from laptop to tablet
Communications: 802.11 Wireless-AC, Bluetooth 4.0
Audio: Built-in stereo speakers with MaxxAudio Pro, with 2 microphone inputs
Webcam: Built-in 720p resolution HD webcam
Media Reader: Built-in media card reader, supports SD, SDHC and SDXC memory card formats
Ports: 1 USB Type-C port, 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 USB 2.0 ports, headphone-out/mic-in audio combo jack, HDMI port
Battery: 3-cell lithium-ion Battery, Battery life up to 6 hours
Weight: 4.83 lbs
Dimensions: 9.9 x 14.9 x 0.7 in
Color: Silver Grey
2017 Premium Dell Inspiron 7000
And the second contender:
Lenovo Flex 4 Signature Edition
Description: Lenovo Flex 4 15.6″ Signature Edition 2-in-1 Full HD IPS Touchscreen Notebook Computer, Intel Core i7-7500U 2.7GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, AMD Radeon R7 M460, Windows 10
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7500U 2.7GHz Dual-core Ultra-low-voltage processor (3.5GHz with Turbo Boost) 4M Cache
Memory: 512GB SSD (Solid State Drive) + 16GB DDR4 (1-DIMM) RAM
Screen: 15.6″ Touchscreen LED-backlit IPS (In-plane switching) FHD (1920 x 1080)
Keyboard: Backlit Keyboard
Graphics: 2GB AMD Radeon R7 M460 Graphics
Configuration: Unique hinge design, featuring four different modes: Laptop, Stand, Tent, or Tablet.
Communications: 802.11 Wireless-AC, Bluetooth 4.0
Audio: Stereo Speakers with Harman Audio Certification
Webcam: Integrated 720p resolution HD webcam
Media Reader: Built-in media card reader, supports SD, SDHC and SDXC memory card formats
Ports: 2 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, 1 HDMI, 1 headphone-out/mic-in audio combo jack, 100/1000M Gigbit Ethernet (RJ-45 Connector)
Battery: 3 Cell 52.5 Watt Hour Li-Polymer Battery, Battery life up to 6 hours
Weight: 4.58 lbs
Dimensions: 9.96 x 14.88 x 0.84 in
Color: Black
Lenovo Flex 4 Signature Edition
Final thoughts on these portables is that when you do sit down at your work desk or home office, you may want to have additional screen real-estate. A simple solution is an inexpensive (around $100) monitor that you can extend to via HDMI cable. Check out our review of the ViewSonic 24″ monitor, and others that are great for this application.
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See here for more information on the pricing.
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