Toshiba Kirabook 13 i7s Touch

Toshiba Kirabook 13 i7s Touch ($ 1,699.99 as tested) is a luxurious-looking ultrabook matched by strong side. The brilliant 2560-by-1, 440 touch screen and the fourth-generation Intel Core i7 processor is great improvement over the parts found in the iterations of the previous year. Adding to its appeal is the fact that it packs much power in a system weighing less than 3 pounds. It earns it our Editors Choice 'for high-end Ultrabooks. If you're looking for a luxury laptop and spend some serious cash, the Touch Kirabook 13 i7s should be at the top of your list.

Design and Features
Exterior The Kirabook 13 i7s Touch has not changed from the previous Toshiba Kirabook. Both share the same magnesium alloy body that measures about 0.7 by 12.5 by 8.25 inches (HWD). A honeycomb pattern stamped into the structure of magnesium panel system provides some protection against flexing and helps keep weight low £ 2.76. That's almost as light as the 2.44-pound Pro 3 Microsoft Surface tablet tablet with Surface Cover Type and Writing.

The screen is bright and clear, and with a 2560-by-1, 440 resolution. Other systems touting higher than 1080p (1,920-by-1, 080) resolution include the Surface Pro 3 (2160-by-1, 440), the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (2013) (2560 - by-1, 600), and the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus (3,200-by-1, 800), our former Editors Choice 'for high-end Ultrabooks. The only drawback to the high-resolution screen is when you use apps that do not measure their user interface to match the resolution of the screen. For example, look at Adobe Photoshop CS6 and interfaces Valley benchmark as they use a 6-point type on their menus. The built-in Windows 8 apps look fine, however.

Screen bounce slightly when you tap it, but quickly settles down. The bezel is a little thin, but swiping from the edge of the screen to activate the Charms bar quickly becomes second nature. (Some people prefer a wider bezel, so your fingers will have a staging area for off-screen swipes.)

Despite the slim chassis, there are a decent number of I / O port and excellent connectivity. You get three USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, and an HDMI port. Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, and WiDi wireless connections of the system. No Ethernet port is present, but there really is not any room for one. The Kirabook has a sealed battery, unlike the Toshiba Portege R30-A1302 and the Dell Latitude e7440 Touch with their removable batteries.

The backlit keyboard is comfortable to use, and the one-piece multi-touch touchpad with satisfying mechanical click when you press the surface. The keys are slightly concave, but they are more shallow than deep scalloped keys on Dell XPS 13 Touch. The function keys at the top of the keyboard is especially for multimedia functions; you have to press and hold the Fn key to get F1-F12. Because Toshiba is aimed towards true portability, function keys and key auxiliary navigation like / Page Down and Page Up Remove small.

. The 256GB solid-state drive has some useful apps, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 11 11 The system also has two years of updates Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Theft; Most of its competitors have 90 days or a year at most. Other preloaded (mostly free) apps include Amazon, Dragon Assistant, eBay, Hulu Plus, Kindle, Microsoft Office Trial, and Netflix. The ultrabook has a two-year warranty with a special tech support line.