The Schenker Vision 14 shows, what a modern Ultrabook should look like

Modern laptops are getting thinner and lighter, but manufacturers often waive ports and features in return. You often only get slim USB-C ports, which are very versatile thanks to Thunderbolt, but you will probably still need adapters. The memory is also soldered onto the mainboard most of the time, which does not only require a full mainboard replacement in the case of a RAM problem, but there is no way to upgrade the RAM, either. This means you already have to decide how much RAM you need when you buy the device. There are hardly any alternatives if you are looking for an Ultrabook, even though you will probably not notice the slightly thinner chassis.

The new Vision 14 from Schenker is surprisingly refreshing in this respect. Thanks to the use of a high-end magnesium alloy, the whole 14-inch Ultrabook only tips the scale at little more than 1 kg, but it is not designed to be the slimmest device on the market. It is still very slim at just 15.6 mm though. In return, the manufacturer gets more space for ports, replaceable memory, a regular Wi-Fi module (not soldered) and a comfortable keyboard with sufficient travel. 

We reviewed the device and we liked the high quality impression as well as the stable base unit. The display hinges, however, could be firmer for our taste and the lid bounces noticeably. You can get an optional 16:10 aspect ratio display with the 3K resolution (2880 x 1800 pixels) and 90 Hz. The matte panel has an excellent picture quality with sufficient brightness, high contrast and good response times without ghosting. We cannot detect any PWM flickering, either. The biggest issue is the high power consumption, and we can only record practical battery runtimes between 5-6 hours in combination with the 53 Wh battery. We would have liked to see an option for a bigger battery in favor of the second M.2-2280 slot.

From a technological point of view, the Vision is up to date with Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6, 16:10 panel, and a modern Tiger Lake processor. The performance utilization is very good and the notebook is usually ahead of its immediate rivals. Schenker does not offer AMD CPUs due to the availability issues, but there will be a Vision 14 with updated Tiger Lake Refresh CPUs and a dedicated GeForce RTX 3050 Ti; the mainboard is already prepared for the additional dGPU and a second fan. There are also different performance profile, so users can choose between maximum performance and a quiet device.

All in all, the Vision 14 is a very good Ultrabook and shows that the last millimeter is not always that important. We hope other manufacturer will follow this example and stop chasing every millimeter, which primarily look good in marketing material, and add more ports and modular components in return. The Schenker Vision 14 can be configured and ordered right now with an entry-level price of 1099 Euros (Core i5 & FHD panel).