Net has also reported how Android Nougat will stop password-reset ransomware, stating that: "The new operating system will no longer allow users or software to invoke a command that clears already-set passwords." However, in order to protect your device it notes that you will need to set a password in the first place.
The most exciting area for consumers is productivity. We've already heard about Android Nougat's new Direct Reply feature, which allows you to directly reply to messages, emails and more from the notification bar, and now apparently we'll be able to change a notification's visibility by long-tapping it and selecting an option.
When we do reply to a message we have loads of new emoji at our fingertips. The professional women emoji that leaked just recently are among 72 new Unicode 9 emoji glyphs, which are more realistic and support different skin tones.
Google is also said to be redesigning the navigation buttons, which in Android Nougat will be animated and change their colour when long-pressed.
But this laptop is a very different beast to those in Apple¡¯s stable, just a fraction of the price and running Windows 10 Home 64-bit rather than macOS Sierra. As a budget imitator there are some clear differences in its build, from the thicker screen bezels to the plastic parts used for heat dissipation found at the rear. (And as we¡¯ll come to later, it¡¯s nowhere near as fast.)
So build quality isn¡¯t quite up to Apple¡¯s standards, but the EZBook Air is a very long way from awful for a Windows 10 laptop at this price. This laptop is incredibly thin and light, weighing in at under a kilo and measuring just 4mm at its thinnest place. And while the aforementioned chunky bezels and grey rubber bumpers around the screen and on the laptop¡¯s underside spoil the effect somewhat, its primarily aluminium shell, fanless design and full-HD screen take it up a notch from some of the cheap and nasty-looking Windows 10 laptops we¡¯ve seen.
We¡¯re not massively keen on the sickly gold colouring, but neither were we fans of Apple¡¯s gold MacBook and recognise that others may appreciate it. And we have to say it does look good set against the black Scrabble-tile keyboard nestled under the screen. See all budget laptop reviews
Jumper EZBook Air review
With only an 11.6in screen fitted to the EZBook Air the keyboard was never going to be the roomiest of designs, but Jumper has done a good job with the space available to it. While there¡¯s no room for a separate numberpad the keys are all adequately sized (roughly 15mm in diameter) and spaced. These floating keys are comfortable to type with and reasonably quiet, while the one-piece touchpad below is large and easy to use without accidentally knocking it with a stray wrist. Our only real complaints concern the fact this is a US-layout keyboard, and that the touchpad doesn¡¯t support gestures.
The display is about as small as you¡¯ll find on a Windows 10 laptop, but this is no bad thing for portability, which is probably the EZBook Air¡¯s strongest suit. It¡¯s also a fairly decent screen, full-HD (1920x1080 pixels) in resolution and with good colour reproduction and contrast.
A 0.3Mp basic webcam sits above the display, which will suffice for video calls. There¡¯s little else of note around the EZBook Air¡¯s Spartan chassis, but that in itself is interesting. When Apple removed all the ports save for a USB-C input/output from its 12in MacBook Air we couldn¡¯t understand the logic: Apple¡¯s all about the design, but at the expense of usability? Why make it difficult for people to attach a USB hard drive or mouse, or an HDMI display?
Jumper has done exactly the same with its EZBook Air, and all you¡¯ll find here is a 3.5mm headphone jack (thankfully not a Lightning connector) and a single USB-C port. However, in the box it supplies a handy USB-C to full-size USB adaptor, which will allow you to hook up your hard drive, disc drive or mouse (one at a time, mind). We should point out that it¡¯s possible to buy reasonably cheap adaptors that let you add extra USB and HDMI ports, such as this ChoeTech USB-C Adaptor (£31.99 Amazon UK), although still frustrating that you need to.
With no ethernet port the Jumper has to connect to the web over Wi-Fi, but it¡¯s well covered here with support for dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac. There¡¯s also support for Bluetooth 4.0.
Although they aren¡¯t visible from the outside, we¡¯ve been told there are stereo speakers inside. The volume is pretty decent, although some distortion is present at the top end.
JUMPER EZBOOK AIR CHEAP WINDOWS LAPTOP REVIEW: CORE HARDWARE AND PERFORMANCE
In common with some of the cheap Windows 10 tablet-laptop hybrids from Chuwi we¡¯ve reviewed of late, processing power is handled by the Intel Atom X5 (Cherry Trail) Z8300 quad-core processor, which is paired with 4GB of DDR3L RAM and integrates Intel HD graphics. It¡¯s not the most powerful combination, but for a cheap Windows 10 laptop that is required only for browsing the web, tapping out emails and writing the odd Microsoft Word doc, it¡¯s up to the job. It also means there¡¯s nothing inside pushing this fanless laptop to break into a sweat.
In our benchmarks the Jumper EZBook Air performed in line with the Chuwi Hi12 and Chuwi HiBook, recording 1052 points in PCMark 8 Home against their 1010- and 1058 points respectively.
It fared better in the GFXBench graphics test, recording 26fps in T-Rex and 13fps in Manhattan where the HiBook was capable of 23- and 11fps respectively.
We ran the two Chuwi hybrids through Geekbench 3, but this has since been updated to version 4.0 and the results are not comparable. In Geekbench 4 the EZBook Air recorded 729 points single-core and 2050 points multi-core, with the latter roughly half the 4000-point baseline set by the more powerful Intel Core i7-6600U. This score would be closer in comparison to the dual-core Intel Core i3-4030U, which recorded 2060 points in Geekbench 4.
The EZBook Air has 128GB of flash storage, of which just over 100GB is available. There is no microSD slot for expansion, and if you want to plug in a portable drive you will need to either buy a USB-C-connected drive or use the supplied adaptor.
Something the Jumper does very well at is runtime, and with some not especially powerful hardware inside its 8000mAh lithium-polymer battery can last a full working day away from the mains. With the USB-C input able to accept 3A of power it¡¯s reasonably fast to charge, but it¡¯s a shame you can¡¯t attach any other peripherals while the laptop is charging.
What's the best laptop? We round up the best laptops you can buy in the UK in 2016, including best Windows laptops and best MacBooks.
The best laptop is the Dell XPS 13, followed by the Lenovo Yoga 710 and the Asus ZenBook UX305, but there are plenty of other options in our list below.
Despite the rise of tablets, there are still plenty of reasons to choose a laptop. Sometimes you just can't beat a bigger screen, a keyboard and Windows for getting stuff done. But, if you want a laptop that's also a tablet, there are plenty of convertible or 'hybrid' laptops which have a touchscreen which folds right back behind the keyboard and can be used as a tablet. The Yoga 710 is one of the best we've seen in this respect, although if its 11in screen is too small, Lenovo does offer larger versions.
Best laptops 2016: Buying guide
As with any product we review, the best laptops are rated on various factors - performance, build quality, features and value for money ¨C along with an overall score, potentially with an award, too. Note that star ratings don't always dictate where a product ranks in the list below, as the score applies to the date it was reviewed.
If you're looking for a laptop that can handle the latest games, see our up-to-date list of the best gaming laptops.
As much as we can, we make sure all the laptops in the chart are available to but in the UK. However, it's not something we can check every day so there's a chance you might not find the model listed. There are also often many different SKUs (versions/models) of a laptop so the specs might vary to those on the model we've reviewed (we can't always choose the exact model to review).
Most laptops will come pre-installed with Windows 10 now. Of course, our best laptops group test also includes the best MacBooks, which run OS X (now macOS) out of the box. Macs are often more expensive than Windows laptops, but Apple's laptops are better value than ever before. You might feel that the premium build quality and features warrant spending extra, although many Windows laptop manufacturers have stepped up their game recently.
Best laptops 2016: How much should I spend on a laptop?
In this chart, there's no cap on how much the device can cost ¨C sometimes the best does come at a steep price. Equally you can get a lot of laptop for under £300 ¨C provided you only need to do basic tasks like browse the web, email and create the odd document. If so see the best budget laptops.