Best ultrabooks

14. Lenovo IdeaPad U410 - £600/US$700 (around AU$915)

Sure, there is plenty of room for super-skinny, super-slick, ultra-desirable machines with hefty price-tags, but there is also a demand for more affordable portable notebooks. That's where the Ivy Bridge Core i5-toting Lenovo IdeaPad U410 comes in.
Ultrabooks aren't great if you're looking to do some high-end gaming or intense HD video editing, but for everything else this is a brilliant machine that is perfectly suited to meet your digital media demands, with an extremely tempting price tag.

15. Toshiba Satellite Z930 - £780/AU$1,290/US$1,200

The Toshiba Satellite Z930-10X manages balances power with affordability. Thin, light and powerful enough to handle a wide range of tasks simultaneously, it boasts a wide range of connectivity options and an Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor.
If you want an Ultrabook exclusively for entertainment then we'd recommend looking elsewhere, since it lacks a Full HD resolution and has integrated graphics and fairly weak audio compared to other Ultrabooks. But as a mobile workstation for offices, the Toshiba Satellite Z930-10X is an excellent purchase.

16. MacBook Air 2012 - £930/AU$1,100/US$1,100

Although not technically an Ultrabook, previous iterations of the MacBook Air were the machines that inspired the creation of Ultrabooks, so we felt it deserved to sit alongside these rivals. The 2012 MacBook Air is just as inspiring, with an Intel Core i5 processor, faster RAM and better connections.
It's easy for us to recommend the newest MacBook Air, because it's a fantastic machine. But, unlike last year, there are other impressive lightweight options out there.
Read our MacBook Air 2012 review

17. Gigabyte U2442 Ultrabook - £970/US$1,100 (around AU$1,480)

A very strong first laptop offering from Gigabyte, which usually makes components, the Gigabyte U2442 Ultrabook has a lot to recommend it. Gamers and power users will appreciate the Nvidia graphics and 8GB RAM, while everyday users will respond well to the lack of bloatware and clever features such as Smart Manager.
Adding power through boosted RAM and extra graphics while keeping the chassis down to a slim and portable size is what this Ultrabook is about, while the screen is well suited to both entertainment and processing tasks.

18. Acer Aspire S5 - £1,250/$1,400 (around AU$1,910)

The Acer Aspire S5 is one of the top-end Ultrabooks, packing genuine power and marking a change for the manufacturer. If you're looking for a primary laptop that can handle the rigours of everyday life, but be as light and svelte as humanly possible, you've found your ideal laptop.
But it's not perfect, with some niggles and less impressive specs, including a storage shortage and build quality issues with the MagicFlip I/O port. A powerful Intel Core i7 processor and bright screen make up for such shortcomings, though.

19. Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A - £1,350/AU$1,700/US$1,420

When Ultrabooks were first introduced by Intel, one of the first models to show us that it could stand up to the gauntlet laid down by the MacBook Air was the Asus Zenbook UX21. The Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A continues the styling of its predecessors, and adds a Core i7-3517U processor, Intel HD 4000 graphics and 4GB of RAM.
But the most notable change is its screen - a 1080p IPS wonder that dwarfs its competition's resolution. It falls down on battery life, so you should consider if that's a big issue for you. It's also expensive, but its performance is admirable.

20. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon - £1,500/US$1,500 (around AU$2,290)

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a fantastic business Ultrabook, with one of the most comfortable keyboards we've ever used. Fantastic build quality and lightweight design meet top performance and a range of useful features, such as a long battery life, huge SSD drive, super-fast boot times and blistering processor performance.
A few niggles with the screen and connections aside, if we chose one Ultrabook to be our business companion, we'd pick the comfortable, high performance and long lasting Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon every time.