Ipados 16 hands on monitor multitasking takes steps forward aba ipados 16 hands on monitor multitasking takes steps forward three ipados 16 hands on monitor multitasking takes steps forward book ipados 16 hands on monitor multitasking takes steps nyt ipados 16 hands on monitor multitasking takeshi s castle ipados 16 hands on monitor multitasking on ipad ipados 16 hands on monitor multitasking quotes ipados 16 hands farm ipados 16 hands to feet ipados 16 keyboard bugs ipados 16 0

iPadOS 16 Hands-On: Monitor Multitasking Takes Steps Forward and Sideways

iPadOS 16 Hands-On: Monitor Multitasking Takes Steps Forward and Sideways

Twitter, Slack, Outlook and Safari are open all at once, and I'm browsing and scanning between all of them. This is on my monitor. It's like any other day. Meanwhile, I'm playing Catan on my iPad. Everything I'm doing is powered by the iPad, with the monitor connected via USB-C as a secondary display. I feel almost like I'm on a Mac. But… I'm not.

iPadOS 16 introduces a feature I've wanted on iPads for years: truer multiwindow multitasking, and real external monitor support for extended workspaces. A public beta preview of the software is available now (which I wouldn't recommend installing on your everyday personal device). How iPadOS makes both of these happen is the weird part. The navigation needs a lot of finessing, based on my early experiences so far.

You also need an M1-equipped iPad to make these new multitasking features work, which means a current iPad Pro or iPad Air model. No others will be compatible. These iPads are on the expensive side, making this a pro feature you may not even consider worth upgrading for yet.

Read more: iPad Air 2022 (M1) Review

I could go into other iPadOS features, but I'll do that later because, really, this is the feature this year. Stage Manager, which enables these extra multitasking perks, brings a whole new layout that's also extremely alien-feeling. And that's the problem with iPadOS now. It's powerful, and it's also strange and still not Mac-like enough.

It feels like Apple is trying to evolve a new computer interface, but through tiny steps and experiments. As iPadOS drifts between iPhone and Mac, picking up more parts of each and blending them, the pieces don't always make sense. That's where I'm at after trying the public beta out: striving to find my iPadOS sea legs.

Laying out iPad apps on a big monitor is finally useful in iPadOS 16.

Scott Stein/CNET

The Good: Monitor magic

Plug in a monitor now, and wow, it's just like a Mac. Apps can be opened on the monitor, or on the iPad, and the mouse or trackpad cursor will just move back and forth like on a monitor-connected Mac. I don't think Apple's new Stage Manager changes things much for people working directly on an iPad (see below), but wow, it opens up possibilities if you have a monitor nearby.

Using an iPad Air with Magic Keyboard attached, I just perched it in front of my Dell monitor and felt it become a two-screen device at last. It's particularly weird and fun to control apps with the keyboard and trackpad, while also doing things with the touchscreen on the iPad with an app open there. For me it was playing Catan while also responding to emails and Slacks. Dumb, and also awesome.

Now I'm playing some John Williams soundtracks while writing and Slacking and playing some Catan and checking Twitter, and this basically feels like my typical screen-immersed day, but all iPad-enabled.

The whole experience reminds me, in a lot of ways, of using Samsung's DeX, which allows desktop-type computer experiences on its tablets and phones when connected to a monitor. Years ago, I found that DeX ended up working surprisingly well, sometimes. Apple's doing a similar type of move on the iPad M1 models, but super powered. Running multiple apps at once is far more useful than you might think, since you're probably doing it unconsciously every day on your laptop.

Plug in a monitor, and you'll find that it connects the way monitors should, allowing separate apps to open independently of the iPad display. In a new Settings feature for Displays, you can also choose to mirror your iPad the way iPadOS only allowed previously (who wants that?). The monitor settings allow the second display orientation to be moved around: if you pick the monitor as "above" your iPad, the mouse/trackpad cursor will move from iPad to monitor when you move up. 

There's also a new extra resolution mode on the iPad display itself, which compresses text and apps for "more space." On the 11-inch iPad Air, it didn't seem to do much for my work experience other than make text smaller. On the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro, it can make the screen feel more laptop-like.

Getting apps to open simultaneously requires opening them from the dock and dragging them into position. App windows can be size-adjusted now, but not with full freedom. Windows can squish and stretch and go horizontal or vertical, but Apple limits the sizes and shapes. It feels like fuzzy experimentation to get the layout you want. And if windows get too big, Apple overlaps the windows. But only in very specific ways, so it's not as free as a regular Mac's window-based (not Windows-based!) OS.

The multiple windows get less useful on the iPad display, especially if you don't have the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro (right).

Scott Stein/CNET

The Bad: How does this work, again?

Getting all the apps to be open, and work, and figure out how to navigate them, is another matter. Apple has introduced Stage Manager, a new multitasking manager, but the app/feature only launches from within Control Center, by swiping down and tapping a cryptic icon with a block and three dots. No one will normally ever figure this out.

It gets weirder. Stage Manager has instances of grouped open apps, but if an app is already open, you'll just swap to that instance instead of overlaying it with the others that are open, although you can also drag open apps on and off that side dock and into your workspace. On the iPad itself, these other app windows stay open on the side, shrinking your free app display space. Apps can be re-expanded, but jumping back and forth to choose apps gets confusing fast. And then there's that three-dot icon above windows, which still handles app zooming, split-screening and minimizing just like iPadOS 15. Following me? I expect you're not.

I lost my way, despite being a longtime iPadOS user. And apps can't be easily dragged from one window to another, either. Just when I started feeling like I was slipping into a Mac flow, iPadOS throws me into an uncanny valley again.

And there are public beta bugs, too: connecting to a monitor turns off my iPad audio unless I use headphones. Sometimes I've had sudden crash restarts from too many apps open. And, if I unplug from the monitor, I find some app groups suddenly having empty black windows. Oh, and I tried launching Catan on my monitor, and it started up sideways. Beta explorers, good luck.

Stage Manager gets so annoying on the iPad display that I instantly turn it off again unless I'm connected to a monitor. To me, it's specifically a monitor multitasking Mode.

The deeper I go, the weirder and buggier it feels. I try launching Batman Returns on Apple TV to watch while I write this, and it automatically plays on the monitor instead of my iPad screen. I can shift the whole video up to the monitor completely, but not back down to the iPad again. And then when I try shifting Pages from the monitor to the iPad screen (which is done via that very small three-dot icon at the top of each window, which now has a menu that vaguely says "move to display"), the app suddenly goes blank and I have to force quit it.

Overall: A step forward (if you love monitors), but a weird one

iPadOS 16 has most of iOS 16's greatest hits, minus that cool new customizable Lock Screen feature. There's also an Apple-made Weather App, now, finally (yay?). There are more integrated ways to share docs and group-collaborate through Messages, or FaceTime, extending what was started last year. Apple's promising collaborative white board app, called Freeform, isn't in the public beta yet but is expected this fall.

I still don't recommend downloading a public OS beta from Apple on your main device, because too many strange and bad things can happen. The iPadOS 16 beta has crashed a number of times for me.

But just for that way it can make M1 iPads use an extra monitor as a true second screen, I'm already thrilled. I just wish the whole Stage Manager process made more sense and allowed for far more fluid or flexible window placement and screen-jumping, because right now it feels much like a beta feature. Even the way Apple allows you to turn the feature off and on via Control Center suggests that perhaps it's not thought of as an everyday feature yet, but instead, a "pro" one you'll need to consciously look for to use.

I'm enjoying writing and playing Catan at the same time, though. It's made having my iPad Pro at my desk a far more fun and far more productive tool, even if it's made me less productive. Sorry, it's my turn now. I'm going to build a city.

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Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2015) review: A minimalist MacBook that proves less can be more

Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2015) review: A minimalist MacBook that proves less can be more

Editors' note (June 27, 2017):  The12-inch MacBook, reviewed in full below, was updated in 2016 and then again in June 2017, at Apple's   Worldwide Developers Conference . The new  $1,299 12-inch MacBook and $999 13-inch MacBook Air now have faster, more powerful Intel  processors. The current crop of MacBook Pros --  the $1,299 13-inch, $1,799 13-inch with Touch Bar, and $2,399 15-inch with Touch Bar  -- have those new chips, too, along with upgraded graphics hardware. 

Otherwise, aside from a RAM bump here and a slight price drop there, the 2017 batch is very similar to the one from 2016, with the same enclosures, ports, trackpads and screens. But be forewarned: Buying a new MacBook Pro may require you to invest in a  variety of adapters  for your legacy devices. Also note that the  13-inch MacBook Pro from 2015  has been discontinued, though the $1,999  15-inch model  from that year remains available for those who want all the ports and fewer dongles.

The complaints started even before Apple's first new MacBook demo ended. During the March 2015 press event, observers fretted about the new, slimmer, lighter 12-inch MacBook. "It's underpowered," they said. "The battery life will be short. The new keyboard is too shallow. The no-click touchpad is a gimmick."

The outcry, which ranged from deriding the new, singular USB-C port to the overall price was reminiscent of the world's reaction to the original iPad in 2010. And like that groundbreaking tablet, the new 12-inch MacBook won't do everything and isn't for everyone. But its strictly enforced minimalism will make this laptop the model that industrial designers will strive to copy for the next several years.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The 12-inch MacBook is a system that ditches the Air and Pro monikers and returns to a simpler designation not seen since the classic black and white polycarbonate MacBooks of the mid-2000s (the ones you still occasionally see in coffee shops despite being their being discontinued in 2011).

Starting at $1,299, it includes a high-resolution Retina screen (much sharper than that on the Air), 8GB of RAM and 256GB of solid state storage. Unlike other laptops with removable drives or RAM, everything here is (permanently) packed into a tiny custom motherboard that leaves maximum room for a large battery. A second version, priced at $1,599, adds a 512GB hard drive and a tiny processor speed bump. In the UK and Australia, the prices start at £1,049 and AU$1,799 for the base model and hit £1,299 and AU$2,199 for the upgrade. More expensive build-to-order models are available, too. (The MacBook can be ordered online at 12:00 a.m. PT tonight, the same time as the Apple Watch, and should be available in store -- presumably in limited quantities -- on Friday, April 10.)

By way of comparison, the 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999, but a similar 8GB/256GB configuration will cost the same $1,299. The 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at the same $1,299 as this new MacBook, but with only half the storage. Upgrading that Pro model to the same 8GB/256GB will cost $1,499. And on the Windows side, a Samsung Ativ Book 9 with the same 8GB RAM/256GB flash drive and the same processor -- will cost you $1,399 (all prices in US dollars). So, in the context of its main rivals, the MacBook is actually priced rather competitively.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Looking only at a spec sheet, it's easy to see why this new MacBook might be a tough sell. The MacBook uses Intel's new Core M processor, designed for slim, light laptops, hybrids and tablets with premium prices. It's efficient enough that full laptops can even run fanless, allowing for quiet, cool operation. But, the Core M has disappointed in the handful of Windows systems in which we've already tested it, turning in sluggish performance and mediocre battery life, the latter an unforgivable flaw for computers designed to be as light and portable as possible.

To spare you the suspense, I can say that the new MacBook performs much better than any other Core M system we've tested to date, hitting 11 hours in our video playback test. That's not nearly as much as you'd get from a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro -- and it puts this system at a disadvantage compared to the longest-lasting laptops -- but battery life is definitely not the deal-breaker it could have been.

Heavy online use will drain the battery even more quickly, and I found myself frequently glancing up at the upper right corner of the screen to see the battery life percentage tick down as I worked. I've found it can last for a full work day of moderate usage, but unlike a current-gen MacBook Pro or Air, it'll be hard to go a few days without plugging it in at all.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Beyond that, the limitations of having a single USB-C port for all your connection needs (with the exception of a standard audio jack that also made the cut) is even more of a challenge, unless you're prepared to arm yourself with a pocketful of dongles and adaptors.

Other changes are easier to adapt to. We've previously gone into some detail about the new click-free pad, which Apple calls the Force Touch trackpad, which is also available in the updated MacBook Pro. It's a clever bit of space-saving engineering that replaces the old trackpad, with a hinged design for physically clicking down, with a flat glass surface augmented by a force feedback engine. The keyboard is an even more radical change, swapping out the long-standing Mac standard of deep island-style keys for a set of much shallower keys, but with larger actual key faces.

Using the new MacBook means accepting its limitations, some of which are deliberately self-imposed. That's especially noticeable when you look at another new laptop, the Samsung Ativ Book 9. It weighs the same as the MacBook, has a similar 12-inch high-res screen, and an Intel Core M processor, but manages to fit in two full-size USB ports and a micro-HDMI output (although it also has a proprietary power connection and lacks USB-C, which is set to become the new standard).

The new MacBook and the similar Samsung Book 9.

Sarah Tew/CNET

If your need for longer battery life, more powerful performance, or more ports doesn't automatically preclude you, then the in-person experience of using the new MacBook will far outshine the on-paper shortcomings. For writing, Web surfing, video viewing and social media, it's a pleasure to use, and makes the still-slim 13-inch MacBook Air feel a bit like a lumbering dinosaur, to say nothing of other ultrabook-style laptops. It's a perfect coffee shop companion.

Some of the critical reactions to this laptop remind me of another new Apple design introduction I covered seven years ago, the original MacBook Air. That system was also criticized for dropping ports and connections, such as an Ethernet and VGA, that people were convinced they still needed. And, much like the new MacBook, it included just a single USB port.

Back in 2008, I was correct that the Air's new, stripped-down design had real legs, and would set the standard for years to come. But also true was that future refinements down the road would turn the MacBook Air from a speciality product into a mainstream one. When the next 12-inch MacBook update arrives, I suspect it will at the very least add a second USB-C port, and that's when it will become much easier to recommend to a broader audience.

Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2015)

Price as reviewed	$1,299, £1,049, AU$1,799
Display size/resolution	12-inch 2,304x1,440 screen
PC CPU	1.1GHz Intel Core M 5Y31
PC Memory	8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz
Graphics	1,536MB Intel HD Graphics 5300
Storage	256 SSD
Optical drive	None
Networking	802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system	Apple OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite

Design and features

This is the thinnest Mac that Apple has ever made: at its thickest point it's just 13.1mm (about half an inch), 24 percent thinner than the existing 11-inch MacBook Air. It's also the lightest MacBook, at 2.04 pounds (0.9 kg). Samsung's new Book 9 weighs 2.08 pounds, essentially the same, although it has a slightly larger footprint.

The overall shape and industrial design is familiar, based on the past seven-plus years of MacBook design, but with a few new twists, such as new colors. Besides the traditional silver, the new MacBook also comes in space grey or gold. Our test unit was gold, and like the iPhone color scheme it copies, the coloration is subtle, and gives off the impression that your laptop has a bronzed finish.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The keyboard, another big change, uses a new butterfly mechanism for keys that's thinner and more stable. The nearly edge-to-edge keyboard has larger key faces, yes, but the keys are also shallower, barely popping up above the keyboard tray and depressing into the chassis only slightly. It takes some getting used to, especially if you're accustomed to the deep, clicky physical feedback of the current MacBooks or the similar island-style keyboards of most other modern laptops.

The first time I tried the keyboard, I couldn't get through even a few sample sentences without several typos, because of the shallow keys and their lower level of tactile feedback. But when I tried again a couple of hours later, it was already much easier.

Sarah Tew/CNET

After using the new MacBook keyboard for the better part of a week, the shallowness of the keys, and a lack of a deeply satisfying click still bothers me. But, as someone who types very longform, the larger key faces and rock-solid stability make up for that, tipping the needle into the positive category. The keys are almost completely wobble-free, as opposed to the wiggle you can get under your fingers on a current MacBook keyboard.

The new trackpad, called the Force Touch, is even more of a change. Nearly the same size as the Air's, but squeezed into a smaller space, it dominates the lower half of the laptop and goes right up to the bottom edge. While previous trackpads had a hinge along the top in a kind of diving board design, the new pad works very differently. We took a deeper hands-on look at Force Touch when we tested it in the only other Apple product to support the new TrackPad right now, the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Four sensors under the pad allow you to "click" anywhere on the surface, and the Force Click effect, which combines the sensors with haptic (or taptic) feedback, allows you to have two levels of perceived clicking within an app or task. That deep click feels to the finger and brain like the trackpad has a stepped physical mechanism, but in fact, the movement you feel is a small horizontal shift, which, even when fully explained, still feels like you're depressing the trackpad two levels.

Apple describes it like this: "With the Force Touch trackpad, force sensors detect your click anywhere on the surface and move the trackpad laterally toward you, although the feel is the same familiar downward motion you're accustomed to in a trackpad."

With that second, deeper click, you can access several types of contextual information, for example, highlighting a word and getting a Wikipedia pop-up, or seeing a map when deep-clicking on an address. Jumping into the preview view of a document or file works with the deep click, too, just as it does now by pressing the space bar in OS X. The most advanced use is probably fast-forwarding through a video clip in QuickTime, faster or slower, depending on how hard you press down on the trackpad.

I ended up using this trackpad just as I do almost every other one, Apple or otherwise, by tapping rather than clicking. It still bewilders me that Apple turns off tap-to-click by default, forcing you to hunt around the preferences menu to find it. Here's a tip: besides the tapping feature under the trackpad preferences menu, you may want to go to the accessibility menu and look under Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad options to turn on tap-to-drag.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The new MacBook has a 12-inch Retina display with a 2,304x1,440-pixel resolution. It, too, has a new design -- it's the thinnest ever built into a MacBook, at 0.88mm -- with a larger aperture for light and individual pixels in red, green and blue. The slightly unusual resolution is a combination of Apple's drive for a very high pixel-per-inch density, as well as an aspect ratio that sticks with 16:10, as opposed to nearly every other laptop available now, all of which use the same 16:9 aspect ratio as HDTV. (The 11-inch MacBook Air remains the only 16:9 MacBook.)

The screen looks clear and bright, and works from wide viewing angles. There's a glossy overlay, but I've seen much worse offenders when it comes to screen glare and light reflection. The screen bezel, that dead space between the actual display and the outer edge of the lid, is thinner here than on a MacBook Air, and the screen glass goes nearly edge to edge, giving the MacBook a seamless look much like the current Pro models. Thin bezels are definitely an important style note these days, although Dell does it much better with its current XPS 13 laptop, with an eye-catching barely there bezel.

The speaker grille above the keyboard is predictably thin-sounding -- this is a very small laptop after all, with little room for speaker cones to move air -- but it'll suffice for casual video viewing. With Beats Audio as part of the Apple family we may see a greater emphasis on audio in Macs in the future, just as Beats and HP had a successful partnership for several years.

Joe Kaminski/CNET

One spec that many feel was shortchanged in this new laptop is the built-in webcam. It's a simple 640x480 camera, and not as high-res as the 720p camera found in the Air or Pro laptops. The image above is taken from an iPhone 6, and shows my image, being transmitted from the 12-inch MacBook, via FaceTime. Note the softness of the image, which is an issue with viewing the 480p transmission on a much higher resolution screen.

Ports and connections

Video	USB 3.1 Type C
Audio	3.5mm audio jack
Data	USB 3.1 Type C
Networking	802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Optical	None

Connections, performance and battery

While testing the new MacBook, I found myself frequently plugging and unplugging accessories. Starting with the power cable connected to the single USB-C port, I pulled the power out to plug in a short USB-C to USB-A cable (sold by Apple for $19, £15 or AU$29), and connected the USB dongle for a wireless mouse. When I wanted to use a USB data key, I had to disconnect the mouse, and use the same adaptor cable to connect my key.

Shortly, you will be able to connect video the same way, using a USB-C to HDMI, DisplayPort or VGA adaptor. Apple has two connections blocks that include either HDMI or VGA for $79, £65 or AU$119, but neither was available at the time of this review.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The official pitch is that MacBook users will use wireless connections for just about everything. Bluetooth for a mouse, Wi-Fi for Internet access, AirDrop for file transfer, and so on. Most of these assumptions are correct, but there's something to be said for being able to use a full-size USB or HDMI port to connect to any USB key or HDTV with minimal hassle.

One potentially very useful benefit of USB-C is that, because it's used to power the laptop battery, it can also draw power from the portable backup battery packs that so many people have lying around in drawers and laptop bags. Take a USB-C to male USB cable (we tried a $10 one sent by Monoprice), and you can get some extra battery power on the go without having to bring the whole power brick or have access to a power outlet. It won't fully charge the laptop, but it could offer enough juice to get you out of a jam.

Sadly, MagSafe, truly one of the great developments in the history of laptops, is gone, and the new USB-C power plug has no magnetic connection at all. It simply slots in. The connector is fairly shallow, so it may very well just pop out if you yank the cable by accidentally stepping on it, but it certainly doesn't feel as accident-proof as the MagSafe version does.

The new 12-inch MacBook also breaks from the rest of Apple's computer line in that it does not use a processor from Intel's Core i series. Mostly Macs use Core i5 chips from either the current fifth generation of those chips, or the previous fourth generation (although the professional-level Mac Pro desktop uses an Intel Xeon processor).

Instead, this laptop uses the Core M, a new entry in Intel's laptop family. The pitch for Core M is that it enables laptops to be very thin and light, but still powerful and long-lasting. That's an appealing pitch, and Core M chips are so far only found in premium-priced systems (the least expensive being the $700 Asus T300 Chi).

Sarah Tew/CNET

But, in the first three computers we've tested with Core M chips, the results have not lived up to the hype. Lenovo's Yoga 3 Pro had sluggish performance and weak battery life. The Asus T300 Chi did a little better, but still ran for less than 6 hours in our battery test. The Samsung Ativ Book 9, a 12-inch laptop very similar to this one, did a bit better both on performance and battery life, coming close to 8 hours.

Getting the most out of Core M may require your hardware and software, including the operating system, to be properly tuned for it. And as Apple can control every aspect of its OS and exactly what hardware is paired with it, it's not surprising that the company is able to get some of the best results to date from the Core M. In our benchmark tests, no one will confuse this system with even the basic 13-inch MacBook Air, but it was faster in our multitasking test than the other Core M laptops we've reviewed. More importantly, in day to day use, it often felt just as responsive as a MacBook Air, with a few important caveats.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Basic Web surfing worked flawlessly, as did streaming even 4K video from YouTube or HD video from Netflix. Even basic gaming via Steam was doable, and I could play older or simpler games such as Portal 2 or Telltale's The Walking Dead series if I dialed the in-game resolution down to 1,440x900 and played with middle-ground graphics settings.

Using a browser other than Apple's Safari, which is very well optimized for the OS X/Core M combination, can lead to some slowdown, as can loading up multiple video streams at once. Pushing apps such as Photoshop with challenging filters and high-resolution files is likewise going to be slower than most Windows laptops with Core i5 CPUs.

But for many laptop users, especially those primarily interested in a laptop's size and weight, battery life is of the utmost importance. That is the one area where Apple's use of the Core M platform has caused the most angst-ridden speculation. Other Core M systems, all slim laptops or hybrids, have all turned in battery life scores that are on the low side, from about five and a half hours (for the Yoga 3 Pro and Asus T300 Chi) to seven and a half hours (for the Samsung Book 9) in our video playback battery drain test.

Meanwhile, Apple's own current MacBook Air runs for an amazing 18 hours (thanks to its recently upgraded Broadwell Core i5 CPU) and the 13-inch Pro ran for 15 hours in the same test. Two recent slim, premium laptops, the Dell XPS 13 and HP Spectre x360, both managed 12 hours.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The 12-inch MacBook doesn't last as long as those Core i5 laptops, but it does beat the other Core M systems by a large margin, running for 11 hours 3 minutes in our video playback battery drain test. Apple says it should give you at least 10 hours of video playback, so that's in line with the company's claims. Real-world scenarios, with more energy draining apps and frequent online use, will be shorter, and in a secondary test streaming online video non-stop over Wi-Fi, the system ran for 5 hours.

How did Apple manage to get better battery life from the notoriously fickle Core M? Part of it may be the optimization Apple can do as the creator of both the hardware and operating system. But a big part of it may be the large 39.7-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery crammed into the small MacBook's body. The actual motherboard and all the internal components have been shrunk down to be only fraction of the size of a typical laptop motherboard. Instead, the entire rest of the system interior is filled with a battery designed to fit into every nook and cranny of available space.

Conclusion

My initial impression of the original MacBook Air from 2008 feels timely and fitting here. Of that laptop, which was considered both groundbreaking and frustratingly limited, I said:

Sarah Tew/CNET

Likewise, this new MacBook will also be the right fit for a smaller segment of a public than the more universally useful 13-inch MacBook Air or Pro. But those who can work with the limitations -- primarily a lack of ports, shorter battery life, performance that's not suited for pro-level photo and video editing, and a shallow keyboard that takes some getting used to -- will love its sharp display, slim and light body, and responsive touchpad.

My primary caveat is this -- if history is any guide, you can count on a near-future generation of this laptop boosting its utility by doubling the number of USB-C ports to at least two. So like many new technology products, it may be worth waiting for the next version, even if having a 12-inch, two-pound gold MacBook right now will make you the coolest kid at the coffee shop.

Handbrake Multimedia Multitasking test

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2015) 370 Dell XPS 13 (2015, non-touch) 428 Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2015) 465 Samsung Ativ Book 9 (2015) 563 Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 682

Note: Shorter bars indicate better performance (in seconds)

Adobe Photoshop CS5 image-processing test

Dell XPS 13 (2015, non-touch) 263 Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2015) 268 Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 294 Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2015) 307 Samsung Ativ Book 9 (2015) 311

Note: Shorter bars indicate better performance (in seconds)

Apple iTunes encoding test

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2015) 107 Dell XPS 13 (2015, non-touch) 112 Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2015) 130 Samsung Ativ Book 9 (2015) 130 Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 142

Note: Shorter bars indicate better performance (in seconds)

Video playback battery drain test

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2015) 1080 Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2015) 747 Dell XPS 13 (2015, non-touch) 726 Samsung Ativ Book 9 (2015) 457 Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 346

Note: Longer bars indicate better performance (in minutes)

System Configurations

Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2015)	OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite; 1.1GHz Intel Core M-5Y31; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1,536MB Intel HD Graphics 5300; 256GB SSD
Dell XPS 13 (2015, non-touch)	Windows 8.1 (64.bit); 2.2GHz Intel Core i5-5200U; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 2,000MB (shared) Intel HD 5500 Graphics; 128GB SSD
Lenovo Yoga Pro 3	Windows 8.1 (64-bit); 1.1GHz Intel Core M-5Y60; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 3,839MB (shared) Intel HD Graphics 5300; 256GB SSD
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2015)	Yosimite OSX 10.10.2; 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-5250U; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1,536MB Intel HD Graphis 6000; 128GB SSD
Samsung Ativ Book 9 (2015)	Windows 8.1 (64.bit); 1.1GHz Intel Core M-5Y31; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 2,005MB (shared) Intel HD 5300 Graphics; 128GB SSD

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Dell XPS 13 Plus Review: This Slim Premium Laptop Isn't Afraid to Shake Things Up

Dell XPS 13 Plus Review: This Slim Premium Laptop Isn't Afraid to Shake Things Up

When you open up the XPS 13 Plus, three things will immediately strike you as... unusual. Those design choices make the XPS 13 Plus stand out so much visually, but they also make for an unconventional experience. Not necessarily a bad one, but certainly one that fights years of laptop design muscle memory. 

First is the touchpad, which sits, disguised, along the edge-to-edge palm rest. It's there, but you can't actually see it. The touch-sensitive part of that front area is indistinguishable from the part you just rest your hands on. 

Apple laptops still have a distinct panel for touch, some laptops from Dell's own Alienware line have touchpads that literally glow in different colors, but here it's guesswork. In practice, however, I found the touch-sensitive area relatively easy to use. It runs from the left edge of the spacebar on one side to the right edge of the Alt key on the other. Sure, it would be cool to have the touchpad run the entire length of the body, but that would be a nightmare for palm rejection AI and probably not as useful as you'd think.

Like

• Inventive new design
• Very slim and light
• Excellent performance
• Great OLED display
• Included USB-C dongles

Don't Like

• You might not love the new touchpad, keyboard and function keys
• Underwhelming battery life
• Heat and fan noise
• Low-resolution webcam
• No headphone port

But the larger point remains -- people are used to how touchpads work and what they look like, so you mess with that shared experience at your own peril. In this case, the touchpad's overall feel is good for a Windows laptop, but it could also feel either too sensitive or not sensitive enough, depending on what I was doing. The best word for an overall vibe would be "floaty," and it suffers in comparison by landing on my desk immediately after the latest MacBook Air, which is the platonic ideal of touchpad feel and functionality. 

Dell makes a big deal of the haptics of the touchpad. It feels like you can click it down, but it's not actually depressing. MacBook touchpads have worked the same way for years. Personally, I'm a tapper, not a clicker, so it didn't make a huge difference to me. 

The invisible touchpad. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Next is the keyboard, which ditches the standard island-style keys -- flat with a modest space between each one -- for an edge-to-edge design, where each key brushes up against its neighbor. It's a style that popped up occasionally in the 2010s, but one I haven't seen in a while. It lets you offer a larger top surface for each key and in some cases, helps make a laptop thinner. I got used to it quickly but, again, my muscle memory fought it. It also lacks the satisfying snap of a good island-style keyboard. 

The last big change is to the Function key row. It reminds me of the now-deprecated Apple Touch Bar, as it's a backlit row of touch-sensitive icons. The media and system commands are lit by default -- brightness, volume, keyboard backlight and so on. Hold the Fn key and you see the typical F1 to F12 keys. You can swap the behavior the other way if you prefer. 

Why do this? Again, I believe it's to shave some thickness from the system and allow for its hinge mechanism. I'm not against the idea in principle, but the MacBook Pro's rough go of it shows that people aren't itching to swap physical buttons for virtual ones. And this isn't a full-color user-assignable OLED screen strip like Apple's version, either. But in the end, the only thing I think you'll miss is having a physical Esc key, which can be important in your day to day use. I liked how clear the icons were and how they were boldly backlit. 

Function keys are replaced by a touch strip. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Configuration and performance

Once you put aside those three breaks with laptop design orthodoxy, the rest of the XPS 13 Plus is a conventional and mostly excellent premium 13-inch laptop experience. The XPS 13 line has always been one of my favorite Windows laptops, and this looks and feels like a high-end machine that will be a conversation piece whenever you whip it out. 

The XPS 13 Plus starts at $1,299 and the model I tested is currently $1,949. It includes an upgraded CPU, RAM and display. I liked that there are four 13.4-inch screen options, both OLED and LCD, ranging from a 1,920x1,080 non-touch screen to a 3,840x2,400 touchscreen.

Inside, the version here has a 12th-gen Intel Core i7-1280P, and all the engineering to squeeze it into this 15mm-thick body is impressive. That said, the fans spin up audibly, sometimes sounding like a little white noise machine in the background, and even then, the system got very warm, especially on the bottom panel. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Performance with that 12th-gen Core i7 is a highlight, and it's nice to have this much raw horsepower in a high-design, executive-class laptop. I've compared it to Apple's latest mainstream and Pro laptops, as well as comparable Windows systems. It's part of Intel's Evo program, which is a designation for premium slim laptop designs with good performance. If you go with the least expensive configuration, you get a Core i5 from the same generation. 

In the preloaded My Dell app, you can switch between performance presets (navigate from My Dell > Power > Thermal). The Performance mode was indeed faster, but also cranked the fans up even more, created a lot of heat, and certainly didn't help the already limp battery life. 

Display and webcam 

The display is also a highlight. I tested the 3,456x2,160-pixel touchscreen version, which is an impressive-looking OLED panel. Dell calls this 3.5K and you can also get a true 4K version, but that's no OLED panel. Either one is a $300 upgrade from the base non-touch Full HD 1,920x1,080-pixel model. There's also a FHD touch panel for $100 more, and if you're looking to cut costs, it's probably where I'd go. On a relatively small laptop, you can get away with FHD resolution, but adding touch is going to be valuable. 

I'm less pleased with the 720p webcam. Premium laptops have made a major switch to FHD cameras in the past couple of years, even dragging long-time holdout Apple in with the latest MacBook Air Dell says the lower-res camera here benefits from image processing help on the software side, but I found it to be merely ok. Jumping into a Zoom meeting in low light, I had a distinct orange hue. Adding a higher-resolution camera would likely mean a thicker lid, so I get that there's a size-versus-functionality tradeoff. 

A great webcam, this is not. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

The camera is also used for Dell's presence-detection features, which I find interesting. It can wake from sleep mode when the camera detects your face, or it can lock itself when you walk away. But the feature I liked most was called Look Away Detect, which will dim the screen if it sees you looking away. That's good for both battery life and privacy, and worked so well that I think more laptops should have a feature like that. 

It has just two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, which is frankly fine for most people these days, and it matches the most recent 13-inch MacBook Pro. But, Dell kills the headphone jack, which might be rarely used, but is a notable exclusion nonetheless. A USB-C-to-audio dongle is included in the box, as is a USB-C-to-USB-A one. That's a nice bonus, and one that some companies (ahem, Apple...) would probably make you pay extra for. The downside is, if you keep it plugged into power and use the headphone adaptor at the same time, you're out of ports. 

Battery life and roadworthiness 

Despite focusing on some of the unusual design choices and limitations, there's a lot I love about the XPS 13 Plus. I love a sharp, original design and am willing to trade a little familiarity to push the edges a bit. This level of performance in a slim, light laptop like this is enviable (as long as we're sticking on the non-dedicated GPU side of things), and the hidden performance modes offer more flexibility than I'm used to seeing in similar laptops. 

But there's one more wrinkle in the formula. Battery life. In benchmark testing, the XPS 13 Plus ran on the short side, at about 4 hours while streaming online video, which is far from the most strenuous thing you might ask it to do. In hands-on use, it felt a little better depending on what I was doing, but it also dropped from almost 70% to under 30% in less than 2 hours while I was writing this review. 

Ports are limited, but dongles are included. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Use the optimized performance preset, turn down the screen brightness, close unused apps and you can likely push the battery life to a better place. But I don't feel confident that I could pick up this laptop in the morning and work on it all day without charging. It helps that there's an express charging preset for powering up part of the battery quickly. 

The nearly 4K screen doesn't do the battery any favors, although the fact that it's an OLED panel should help. That's one reason I'm cautious about recommending 4K laptops -- higher-resolution screens are a battery killer. 

The XPS 13 Plus has a lot of innovative ideas -- some of which are important, while others seem like change for the sake of change. We may even disagree on which is which. If I were working on the next generation of this laptop, I'd keep the design updates but suggest sacrificing a little thickness for a bigger battery so this could be a more travel-ready companion. 

Geekbench 5 (multicore)

Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)

Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Cinebench R23 (multicore)

Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)

Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

3DMark Wild Life Extreme

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320

Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)

Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Online streaming battery drain test

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)

Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

System Configurations

Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320	Windows 11 Home; 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-1280P; 16GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 128MB Intel Iris Xe Graphics; 512GB SSD
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)	MacOS Monterey 12.4; Apple M2 8-core chip; 8GB RAM; Apple 10-core GPU; 256GB SSD
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED	Windows 11 Pro; 2.7 AMD Ryzen 7 6800U; 16GB DDR5 ; 6,400MHz; 512MB AMD Radeon Graphics; 1TB SSD
Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T-797T)	Windows 11 Home; 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-1280P; 16GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 128MB Intel Iris Xe Graphics; 512GB SSD
Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)	Windows 11 Home; 2.1GHz Intel Core i7-1260P; 16GB DDR5 5.200GHz RAM; 128MB Intel Iris Xe Graphics; 512GB SSD

How we test computers

The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computer-like devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both those objective and subjective judgments. 

The list of benchmarking software we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core tests we're currently running on every compatible computer include: Primate Labs Geekbench 5, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra. 

A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found in our How We Test Computers page. 

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Best Windows Laptop for 2022

Best Windows Laptop for 2022

Our top picks for the best Windows laptop options include models by Asus, Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, Microsoft and more. We've loaded this list with only the best laptops running Windows 11 we've personally tested and approved. This list, of course, focuses only on the best Windows laptops, specifically -- you won't find the best Apple laptops or Chromebooks here. If you want a wider selection, check out our overall best laptop picks. 

Right now, the best Windows laptop for most people is the Dell XPS 13 for its excellent combination of performance, battery life and portability. Our favorite budget-priced alternative at the moment is the Acer Swift 3. Of course, the best part of getting a Windows PC is the amount of variety available, which is covered with the other picks on this list. This best Windows laptop list will be updated periodically when new models are tested, reviewed and made the cut. 

Also, while there are a lot of laptops here, we know that your interests might be broader or fine-tuned than only what counts for the best Windows laptop options. Because of this, we have more specific recommendations for the best gaming laptops, 15-inch laptops, two-in-one and Chromebooks, as well as the best laptop for college students, the best laptop for creatives and the best MacBook Pro alternatives for the Windows set. Also, if you need to stay as low as possible on the price of a new laptop computer, we have you covered there, too. Check out our picks for budget la ptops and budget gaming laptops.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The Dell XPS 13 is a perennial favorite for its size, weight and performance and just overall good looks. In 2020, Dell made the laptop even smaller, while making the laptop screen larger and increasing performance for both CPU and graphics-intensive tasks. For 2022, it made the XPS 13 even smaller and lighter, kept its sub-$999 starting price the same and dropped in the latest 12th-gen Intel processors.

While we haven't had a chance to test the new model yet, we expect it to be a strong Windows alternative to the MacBook Air. Also, if you want to save money, the 2021 XPS 13 with 11th-gen Intel chips is available for less now.

Josh Goldman / CNET

Available with either AMD Ryzen or Intel Core processors, this 14-inch laptop gives you more screen to work on than 13-inch laptops, but is still incredibly lightweight -- less than 3 pounds. The bigger display is nice, too, covering 100% sRGB color gamut (better than you typically find at its starting price under $700). It also has a backlit keyboard, a fingerprint reader and USB Type-C and HDMI ports, too. The 2022 version of the Swift 3 falls just under $1,000 with 12th-gen Intel Core i-series CPUs. But the 2021 models are still widely available for less than $600. 

Read our Acer Swift 3 (14-inch, 2020) review.

This thin, 3-pound convertible is a solid choice for anyone who needs a laptop for office or schoolwork. The all-metal chassis gives it a premium look and feel, and it has a comfortable keyboard and a responsive, smooth precision touchpad. Though it's light on extra features compared to its premium linemate, the Yoga 9i, it does have one of Lenovo's sliding shutters for its webcam that gives you privacy when you want it. And it has a long battery life to boot at 12 hours, 45 minutes in our tests. The latest version with 12th-gen Intel processors starts at $999 (although you can find it on sale for less). The 2021 models are still available, too, at reduced prices. 

James Martin/CNET

HP's Victus 16 is a surprisingly robust and powerful gaming laptop that keeps up with the latest games at a more affordable price. Compared to HP's high-end Omen gaming laptop line, the Victus is more of an all-purpose laptop but still configured for gaming with a price starting at less than $1,000. HP offers several configurations with graphics chip options ranging from Nvidia's entry-level GeForce GTX 1650 up to a midrange RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6500M.

HP Victus 16 review.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Although this Microsoft Surface laptop is not the Surface Laptop, the Surface Pro continues to hit all the right notes if you're looking for a do-it-all Windows tablet that doubles as a Windows laptop. Microsoft recently overhauled it for the Surface Pro 8, which has a larger 13-inch display, 11th-gen Intel Core processors and two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. The Surface Pro 7 is still around for the time being at a discount, and an updated version called the Surface Pro 7 Plus will stay in the lineup, so you'll still be able to get the classic Pro design but with new processors.

Surface Pro 8 review.

Lori Grunin/CNET

We're big fans of the ROG Strix line and you really can't go wrong with any of them. However, Asus' $1,650 all-AMD Strix G15 gaming laptop delivers excellent performance and battery life, with a top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and Radeon RX 6800M GPU -- and that's before you realize that the performance and components are way above its price class. It runs cool and quiet, even running close to full tilt. At higher prices, it's not such an obvious call, though. Read the Asus ROG Strix G15 AA review.

Sarah Tew/CNET

There's a lot to love with the Razer Blade 14, which incorporates one of the fastest mobile CPUs available (for now, at least), the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, and top-end mobile graphics with the GeForce RTX 3070 or 3080. Its display can go pixel-to-pixel with the MacBook's. And its high-quality build is up there with the best MacBooks but, like an Apple, it's not necessarily the best laptop deal, even compared to other premium laptops.

Razer Blade 14 review.

Joshua Goldman/CNET

Lenovo launched the Yoga line 10 years ago with Windows 8 and now, with Windows 11, the flexibility of the design has only gotten better. The company's flagship 14-inch Yoga 9i Gen 7 has an updated look with comfortable, rounded edges and 12th-gen Intel processors that give it a big multicore performance jump. A beautiful OLED display and improved audio make it excellent for work, video conferences and entertainment. Lenovo includes an active pen and a laptop sleeve to complete the premium package. 

The powerful speakers do add some vibration to the palm rests when turned up and Lenovo has cluttered the laptop with pitches for optional services and software. But, overall, the latest Yoga 9i is the two-in-one convertible laptop to beat. Unfortunately, its availability is limited at the moment so you might have to wait to buy one. Read our Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 7 review.

Read our Lenovo Yoga 9i review.

James Martin/CNET

The XPS 17 combines the same slim, premium design of its 13-inch linemate but with increased performance possibilities. It can be configured with up to a 12th-gen Intel Core i9 processor, 64GB of memory and a 6GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics chip. The best part: Dell trimmed up the chassis so much that you get a 17-inch display in a body that's the size of an older 15-inch laptop. You're getting a lot of power and a big screen in the smallest possible package. 

Dell XPS 17 review.

Josh Goldman/CNET

If you've ever wished for just a little extra screen space on your thin-and-light laptop, your wish is granted. The Duo 14's 12.6-inch secondary touchscreen behaves just like any other attached display except it's built into the body above the keyboard. You can use it for extending the main 14-inch display so it works like one large screen, or use it for apps that would normally be buried behind what you're working on. If that's not enough, it's pen-enabled so you can write and draw on it with the included pen. Plus, Asus' ScreenXpert software lets you turn it into a giant touchpad, a number pad or even a tool deck for Adobe Creative Cloud software. 

Read our Asus ZenBook Duo 14 review.

How we test computers

The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computer-like devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both those objective and subjective judgments. 

The list of benchmarking software we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core tests we're currently running on every compatible computer include: Primate Labs Geekbench 5, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra. 

A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found in our How We Test Computers page. 

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