8:50
All Specs
Asus new TUF Dash F15 has 2021 off to a good start for watchers of mobile gaming hardware. For $1,699 as tested (models start at $1,099), this 15.6-inch gaming laptop performs on par with systems from last year that were much higher-priced. Its pairing of Intel Core i7 Tiger Lake-H silicon the company s newest mobile CPUs for power laptops and a brand-new 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 mobile GPU produced triple-digit frame rates in our testing, with its 240Hz-refresh-rate screen more than keeping pace. It also isn t lacking for practicality with its quiet fans, comfortable keyboard, and lengthy-for-its-class battery life. Its most glaring omission is a webcam, though its gaming performance is not necessarily better than that of last-generation laptops. Still, the TUF Dash F15 is still a respectable pick, especially in its lesser-priced Best Buy configurations.
A host of improvements (including Intel's new Xe Max dedicated GPU) make the latest Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 Black Edition a decent choice for digital artists, but it can’t compete on value, performance, or features with the best 15-inch convertible laptops.
12:39
All Specs
HP still sells the Spectre x360 13, but you can forget about it. The Spectre x360 14 (starts at $1,299.99; $1,699.99 as tested) is an elegant convertible laptop that ditches the older system s 13.3-inch touch screen and its familiar 16:9 aspect ratio for a 13.5-inch panel with a squarer 3:2 ratio, for a superior view of text and web pages. Basically, it says, I see you and raise to the 16:10 display of the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. Add to that some immaculate engineering, gorgeous OLED screen technology, and a stylus pen and USB Type-A port that the Dell lacks, and the Spectre edges out the XPS 13 2-in-1, snatching the Editors Choice award as our new favorite premium convertible.