This year, laptops continued to trend toward thin, metallic, increasingly versatile builds and a decreasing number of ports. Many of their specs fall within a narrow range, but there are a few notable variations. Join New Atlas as we round up and compare eight of 2016's best high-end laptops.

The 12-inch MacBook is  the most compact overall. The MacBooks' aluminum bodies are simplistic, emblazoned with the Apple logo.  The heavy Surface and Inspiron are nearly twice the weight of MacBook.

In this selection, Apple is the most adventurous with their color schemes; perhaps they want you to think of these petite laptops as accessories as much as technology. The other manufactures don't offer as many options, but Razer's matte black and HP's separate neutrals (which are different earth-toned grays) are standouts.

That means the 13.9-inch Yoga 910 is actually 2-percent smaller, by area, than the 13.5-inch Surface Book, and the 12-inch MacBook (with a 16:10 aspect ratio) is able to offer a little more real estate.

The Apple offerings have solid-state glass trackpads that don't actually move when you press them but instead provide click-mimicking haptic feedback. Apple dubs this bit of technology "Force Touch," and a different iteration of it shows up in the home buttons on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

Apple released a "Touch Bar" option for this years' MacBook Pros. The Touch Bar is a touch-sensitive strip above the keyboard that replaces the traditional F1-F12 function keys. It populates with different gesture-enabled shortcuts depending on your preferences and the app in use. Read more about it in our review of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.

Battery life varies drastically according to usage and system efficiency, so a higher watt-hour spec does not necessarily translate into greater staying power.

Manufacturers' estimates should be taken with a grain of salt, but for comparison's sake, Apple estimates "up to 10 hours wireless web" for the MacBook and MacBook Pros. 

In typical Apple fashion, the MacBook and MacBook Pros receive the latest macOS updates (until the machines are no longer supported). Right now, they run MacOS Sierra.

Source: newatlas