Laptop

Maintenance miracle. Unfortunately, this is pretty rare nowadays: The maintenance hatch, which is very easy to remove, allows access to all major components of the new multimedia notebook from Dell. Another highlight is the high-resolution 4K touchscreen and thanks to its GTX 960M GPU, it should also attract gamers. Unfortunately, some issues affect the initial good impression.

Improved. After the very buggy Assassin’s Creed Unity, the gaming world is now looking very closely at the successor. Does Syndicate inherit the same performance issues or did Ubisoft put more effort into it this time? We tested it with dozens of laptops.

Price-performance Nitro. Acer offers many configurations of the Aspire V 15. Equipped with an i5-ULV CPU and a GeForce 945M GPU, this model for 900 Euros (~$955) is the least expensive version of the high-end Nitro series yet. How does it hold up against the models with a four-digit price tag?

Classy typewriter. A good build and configuration are omnipresent, and the improvements compared with the predecessor are appealing. ULV Core i7 processor meets gaming suitable 2 GB Nvidia GPU fused with 256 GB M.2 SATA SSD. The very good keyboard, thermals and system noise convince - but is everything that glitters here really gold?

Eye candy. Casualization or not: “Star Wars Battlefront” is a real highlight in terms of graphics, which makes most competitors look rather outdated. Find out if you can also enjoy the game on notebooks.

Full speed with Nitro. Acer's successful Nitro lineup is being upgraded to Skylake. The manufacturer again manages to leave the rivals behind thanks to a well-conceived total package.

Good choice, take 2. Asus' update of the Zenbook UX305 is not extensive by any means with a Skylake m3 CPU instead of a Broadwell SoC standing out as the notable difference. In the other areas, the UX305CA inherits both the strengths and weaknesses of the predecessor, which still makes it a solid choice in our book. This time around, we are taking a look at the version of the subnotebook with Full-HD display panel.

Classy convertible. This is the flagship Yoga and Lenovo's consumer crown jewel for the next year. Can this super-thin Skylake convertible replace your one-trick Ultrabook?

Now with Skylake. Skylake ensures a decent CPU and GPU performance gain, but not at the expense of battery life. Unfortunately, HP has still not incorporated a good display in the third generation of ProBooks.

Old-school technology, but fascinating. About four years after Skyrim, Bethesda Softworks releases their next role-play highlight called Fallout 4. Visually, the title might not impress much, but it offers a huge gaming world full of possibilities. Our benchmark article takes a look at how the game performs on various notebooks.

Way too expensive. Lenovo's 15.6-inch all-rounder cannot attract attention with its performance and features. However, this does not keep Lenovo from charging a ludicrous price for this device.

(Quad)Core values. High-end is great, but not always required: even when equipped with a Core i5 CPU and a GeForc 945M GPU, the Acer Aspire VN7-792G offers solid performance for a price that's more than fair. The display isn't too shabby, either.

New revision. We already checked the Alienware 15 twice. In this review update, the gaming notebook gets a fresh Skylake processor and the fast Nvidia GTX 980M. Can Alienware keep the components of the 15-inch device cool?

Ready for games with Skylake. Fallout 4, Black Ops 3, Battlefront – autumn brings a lot of challenge for gamers. MSI has refreshed its line-up for the gaming festival and improved the GE72 a lot: Apart of an up-to-date Intel quad-core CPU, the 17-inch fireball got an IPS panel and a USB 3.1 port. However, the price went up quite a bit, too. Is this justified?

Incomplete. While the console version received international acclaim, the PC version is causing all sorts of trouble. Performance drops here, crashes and graphics errors there: The fact is Black Ops 3 doesn't currently appear to be very well developed. Does the game degenerate into incessant stuttering on notebooks too?

Moon landing. There is currently much heated debate as to whether Anno 2205 can live up to its predecessor in the realm of game mechanics. Here at Notebookcheck, we're primarily concerned with the city-builder game's graphics. Do the visuals do justice to the future world scenario? We tested a number of notebook GPUs at various settings.

Up to date. Intel's quad-core Skylake processor only has a slight lead over its Haswell predecessor. However, its small boost in performance is accompanied by lower energy consumption. After the release of the GS70 Haswell model, MSI also fiddled with its successor's connectivity options: Two USB 3.1 ports and an NVMe M.2 slot are now on board.

Expensive performance boost. For their top-of-the-line model in the E550-series, Lenovo not only integrated a speedy Core i7 CPU, but also a dedicated Radeon GPU. The resulting notebook costs almost 1000 Euro (~$1100). Is that too much money for an entry-level ThinkPad?

Quiet and cool. The Aspire does not have a whole lot of CPU performance, but it is completely sufficient for office tasks and web browsing. Advantages of the system are the low temperature development, the quiet operating noise and the good keyboard. It does not consume a lot of power, either.

Nitro reloaded. Introduced at the IFA 2015, Acer’s Nitro refresh is released in time for Christmas and the race for buyer's favor. Can the non-black edition recapture the success of the late 2014 Nitro?

Traditional & affordable. HP's 14-inch Pavilion 14t is a low-cost conventional notebook. The decent performance is overshadowed by an underwhelming display and just average battery life.

Extreme athlete. Desktop performance in a laptop? The brand new GeForce GTX 980 makes this possible. Schenker Technologies belongs to the first manufacturers launching a suitable gaming notebook. We checked whether the steep price is justified.

Perfect thermals. No matter what we did with Acer's newcomer, the core clock rates never swayed from the specified maximum - even in battery mode. Befittingly, the TravelMate was almost perfect in terms of temperature and noise development. Can the screen and input devices keep up?

Everything is new. Dell's new entry-level business device comes with a matte IPS display, long battery runtimes and a large maintenance hatch. Priced at almost 900 Euros (~$987), it is not a cheap system though.

Skylake on the march. Nexoc joins together the tried-and-true Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M and brand new Skylake Intel Core i7-6700HQ CPU. The combo promises both high performance and reduced energy consumption. Nexoc's new device meets these expectations -- but what is a mediocre display doing in a computer in this price range?

Desktop-name, desktop-power. Although we do not appreciate the name of the mobile GTX 980 because it can be easily confused, Nvidia's new gaming flagship performs impressively. Our test covers the performance in Full HD and 4K resolution.

Revival. Nexoc breathes new life into their M512 Barebone with a brand new Skylake Core i3 and a fast M.2 SSD. Can a chassis released in 2013 still compete at the end of 2015?

Ghost in a shell. The portable 15.6-inch GS60 gets Skylake, DDR4, NVMe SSD, and USB 3.1 Super Port for its latest refresh. Essentially, pretty much everything but the GTX 970M has been updated. Has gaming performance improved in any way?

New wine - old wineskin? Nexoc takes a tried-and-true Clevo barebone and packs top-of-the-line hardware into a familiar chassis. What could go wrong?