Vizio 14-inch Thin + Light (CT14-A2)

The Vizio 14 - inch Thin + Light ( CT14 - A2 ) ( $ 1,099.99 list ) is another good effort from Vizio , a name you may know from the HDTV market . Vizio screen technology has brought to the ultrabook space , and put on an absolute tech hot rod of a laptop . Unfortunately , a couple of missteps significantly affect the day-to- day system availability , if otherwise we would have a potential first crack in the Choice of the editors ' for Ultrabooks here .

Design and Features
The CT14 - A2 hits the ground running with the aluminum unibody construction . With a quick glance at it to almost be mistaken for one of the sleek Apple MacBook laptops as theMacBook already 13 - inch ( $ 1,199 list , 3.5 stars ) . True , it has a silver keyboard instead of the black keys of a MacBook , but it still has that feel , with mostly aluminum keyboard deck looks , palm rest and lid. The key non - backlit keyboard is a little slippery and the key travel is shallow , a concern if you are a touch typist . Also , the trackpad is not quite there yet : it has some tracking and click the registration problem , which is a concern if you have to choose the text often in your work or school day-to- day surfing . For example , if you use two fingers to scroll up / down , touchpad sometimes failed to register the motion , making you repeat the motion until it works . Updates are constantly being posted on the website Vizio , which improve the performance somewhat , but it still shows that there are inherent problems with the touchpad on the laptop , which can not be easily replaced . The keyboard and mouse are two main ways you interact with your digital life , after all .

The strength of the CT14 - A2 is its screen . The screen resolution of 1600 -by - 900 just short of full 1080p HD , but that's much better than the resolution 1366 -by - 768 to find the other Ultrabooks on price range as HP envy 4 - 1043cl ( $ 1,034.99 direct , 4 stars anyway ) . Websites , videos , and pictures are bright and clear 14 - inch widescreen . The row of function keys default to functions such as screen brightness , volume , and playback functions , so you do not have to press the " Fn " key to not clear the screen if it is too bright . The screen resolution of 1600 -by - 900 also means you can read more than one website before scrolling , an advantage of the system with lower resolution screens . There is a bit of a screen door effect , where you can see the vertical and horizontal rows of pixels when you look closely at the screen , but it is not too bad unless you are really sensitive to the side effects . The CT14 - A2 weighs 3.4 pounds , which is OK for the ultrabook category .

The system has the Microsoft Signature prep pre - loaded , which is a service that you would normally receive in the Microsoft Store at the mall . The system is pre - loaded with Bing as a search engine , is constantly rotating wallpaper is a gorgeous mix of images from Microsoft Bing Signature and services , and the desktop is devoid of icons in addition to Recycle bin . The system is free of bloatware ( third party testing apps and ads for services ) , the only pre - installed program Vizio and Microsoft apps such as Skype , Zune , Office 2010 Starter , and Microsoft Security Essential .

The CT14 - A2 has a fast 256GB solid - state drive ( SSD ) , an Intel Core i7 processor , Intel HD 4000 graphics , and 802.11a/b/g/n dual - band Wi - Fi ( 2.4GHz and 5GHz ) . The system has two USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI - out port . System lacking an SD or other digital media card slot , although there is room for one . These are very respectable internal components , and lead to some great performance numbers in our benchmark tests (more on that below ) . A reasonably significant nit 4GB of system memory . Unlike other systems , 4GB can not be upgraded , nor can you order a system with more memory from Vizio . 4GB may not be enough for the kind of enthusiasts that require a Core i7 processor ; 4GB will start to seem small if you regularly work with large image files or video files , but it should be more than enough for the majority of users of general - purpose .

The 256GB SSD is twice as large SSDs their rivals : the MacBook Air and other ultrbooks like Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A - R5102F have 128GB SSDs . The result is that the CT14 - A2 has 195GB free when you take it out of the box , more than triple the available capacity of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon ( $ 1,599 list , 4.0 stars ) ( 54GB free ) . While you can " get away " with a small capacity SSD in the PC business that stores most of its files to a server , a home / entertainment PC requires more local storage for music , videos , and image files that tend to pile up . Also contributing SSD boot times and launched the app to take seconds instead of minutes , making it feel natural to the system quickly .