The complete list of Skylake portable laptops and ultrabooks

There’s a new Intel hardware platform in preparation for the end of 2015 and most of 2016, called Skylake.

In the past, I’ve provided you with comprehensive lists of all the ultraportable laptops built on the Intel Haswell and later the Broadwell platforms, and since those posts were highly appreciated, this article does pretty much the same thing for this latest Intel hardware series.

“Ultraportable” is of course a highly subjective term, but I do have a few criteria in mind when compiling this list, with the most important ones being the overall weight and the type of hardware inside each device. And that’s because for me, a laptop can only be called “portable” these days if it’s easy-enough to carry around and if it can run for an absolute minimum of 5 hours on a charge, while performing everyday activities.

We’re not going to focus on the particularities of Skylake here or how it compares to its predecessors, we have other posts on these topics. We’ll just create a complete list of all the Skylake-built ultraportables, ranging from the smallest form factors and up to full-size everyday computers; a list that will help you narrow down your options to something that’s going to best suit your needs and budget.

The selection is curated based on screen-size and contains details on the hardware, the form factor, battery-size and the weight, but also links to our reviews (the links on each unit’s name) and webstores were you can find these machines discounted (the links on the prices). The list is also a continuous work in progress, as I update it several times a week with the latest launches. Even so, there might be some devices missing, so if you notice anything that should be in here and it isn’t, please get in touch in the comments section.

This post lists all the Skylake laptops available today or soon to be launched

Anyway, here are the Skylake portable laptops that are available right now (or will be launched in the near future).

The Skylake portable laptops

This section contains all the devices built on Intel’s Skylake-U hardware, with 15W processors like the Core i3-6100U, Core i5 – 6200U/6300U , Core i7-6500U/6600U and all the other further launched iterations. Some Skylake Core M devices are also included.

We’ll start with the most portable options, with screens smaller than 13-inches in diagonal.

We’ll continue with the popular 13-inchers, the devices that strike the better tradeof between performance, size, weight and battery life, but are not going to be cheap.

For slightly beefier specs in what would still be a fairly compact body, you’ll have to look at some of the available 14-inchers.

And if you’re willing to sacrifice the size and weight (to some extent) for performance and a larger screen, the 15 and 17-inchers in this category are the ones for you.

Here’s a short glossary of the terms mentioned above:

• Types:
  • clamshell: classic shaped computer whose screen closes on top of the keyboard and does not flip into any sort of tablet mode;
  • convertible: 2-in-1 laptop whose screen rotates and converts to a tablet mode (or similar), but cannot be detached from the base;
  • detachable: 2-in-1 laptop whose screen detaches from the base. These are mostly stand-alone tablets bundled with matching docking stations that most often include docking keyboards, ports, batteries and other features;
  • slider: 2-in-1 laptop whose screen slides up and down on top of the body and usually reveals a keyboard hidden underneath.
• Resolutions: HD ( 1366 x 768 px), WXGA+ (1440 x 900 px), HD+ (1600 x 900 px), FHD (1920 x 1080 px),  FHD+ (2160 x 1440 px), retina (2304 x 1440 px), QHD (2560 x 1440 px), WQXGA (2560 x 1600 px), QHD+  (3200 x 1800 px), UHD (3840 x 2160 px) – also see this post;

Anyway, that’s about it for now. If you’re interested in portable laptops though, you should also check out some of the other articles on the site, I’m sure you’ll find them useful in your search:

• my favorite 11 inch, 13 inch and 14, 15 inch and above ultrabooks;
• the best gaming ultraportables of the moment;
• my selection of 2-in-1 laptops;
• my selection of the best affordable ultrabooks.

And like I said in the beginning, don’t forget I’m continuously updating this list, so if you’re in the market for a Skylake laptop, you should bookmark the post and return from time to time for the latest updates.

You can also get in touch in the comments section if you have anything to add or any questions about these computers or Skylake in general, as I’m around and will help out if I can.

Douglas Black contributed to this report.