New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Recommend an Ultrabook
No matter how hard I try I can't actually get anything done on a tablet, so it's time I replace my ultrabook. For the past few years I've been using a Toshiba first generation Ultrabook with an v1 i3 CPU. The things I like about it are:
- Backlit keyboard
- Very Light and small package
- Real mouse buttons below the touchpad
What I must have in the next one are:
- Higher resolution screen vs my current 1368x720
- Backlit keyboard
- Light, durable
- Good battery life
- i5 or better
Any recommendations / personal experience?
Comments
I don't know exactly how well it meats your expectations, but I've always end liked my friends ASUS Zenbook a lot.
That's a strange resolution. You sure it's not 1366x768?
Honestly, just go to MicroCenter and get the cheapest one that has your specs that feels sturdy.
I found this for you. Looks pretty nice, though the CPU is one of the U models, so it's underpowered so you get battery life. 1920x1080 touchscreen as well. It even folds up into a tablet type configuration!
Ugh... that's not enough ram to do jack shit.
I have a Samsung Series 9 (one generation older than the current) and like it. It has one of the better trackpads out there for an ultrabook but I still prefer a portable mouse.
My recommendation goes out for a Lenovo X1 Carbon, they also have other tablet/laptop hybrids if you're into that.
What's an ultra book...
Try to check if there's a better x502 for you
Sony Vaio Pro.
Agrees. Still enjoying mine.
This! this one is my favorite.
But I end up buying ThinkPad Edge E135 instead. Not apple to apple comparison though.
I have an acer s3 391. Pretty nice with an i5 processor and a 240gb samsung 840 ssd. Only flaws so far are less than advertised battery life (claim 5.5 hours, but actually 3) and noisy fan (which can be fixed with a program I found). But apart from that it's very good for the money
I didn't see a budget, so http://www.maingear.com/custom/notebooks/pulse17/index.php
nVidia 765M packed inside 0.8". Not sure 17" is too much for you.
http://www.toshiba.com/us/kirabook and http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/06/toshiba-satellite-u845w-review/
I just bought an Asus Transformer Book T100, which you might guess from the name is a tablet/keyboard dock combo. It runs Win 8.1 and has a new Atom Bay Trail quad core CPU, battery lasts pretty much 10 hours of 'office type tasks' use. I'm not recommending this for you because it has 1366x768 screen, low powered CPU etc - but what I did for ages before buying it was look at the options I had.
I considered an Acer Iconia W700 for a long time as Acer were running a cashback promo. However, they were Sandy Bridge i3 CPUs and with Haswell appearing right now with it's power saving and other obvious improvements (e.g. graphics) I couldn't justify getting one, even with the savings.
I looked at 'proper' ultrabooks for a long time. They're damn expensive in the main (the Asus Zen models are great but aren't cheap!), and for what I want - which is basically a portable development machine in addition to my 15" Dell XPS with i5 - too costly and over powered.
This is where I stumbled into the tablet arena. I have a Samsung Galaxy 8.9 and it's great for browsing, email etc but it's not a work machine. Android just doesn't have the development IDEs. The Microsoft Surface seemed a good option but the new ones were just about to be released, and there were a lot of others due out in competition. But anyway, after all this research I realised that a tablet + keyboard dock/case was what I needed.
There are new units due from Dell soon (the Venue Pro line), and HP, Sony, Samsung, Asus, Acer and Toshiba all have models due before the year end. Compared to an ultrabook I'm not sure how they'll stack up against your want list, but I'd bet they're pretty close. The Dell Venue Pro 11 for example has 1920x1080 screen, comes with Atom and i3/i5/i7 CPU options and has 2 keyboard options (traditional laptop-type dock and a case/cover). The battery life in these is really good.
I sacrificed a few things with my T100 - I wanted something I could install Debian, and the drivers for the new Bay Trail graphics/wireless/etc are not out yet (and who knows if they will be soon). Win 8.1 is fine though, I've installed the things I need and get tonnes of battery life, whilst performance is decent (flash storage, 2GB RAM etc). If I was buying one as my main machine, having now experienced the flexibility of the 10.1" tablet/laptop design I'm not sure whether I'd go for a "proper" laptop. There are things like the Lenovo Yoga 13 that provide i7 3537U 2.0GHz CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD - for £899 (less in the States without the UK's VAT I'd imagine) - which is pretty much an ultrabook with the option of the detachable tablet piece. For negligible money, I think personally I'd go the convertible route.
Anyway I've written far too much so I'll stop now - hope it is of some use to you (or someone else!) and feel free to ask anything else if at all necessary.
Here is an awesome deal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230671
But no backlit keyboard. on sale for $799 at the time of posting.
lenovo ThinkPad
Anybody I know with a Macbook Air loves it. The battery life on the new ones is ridiculous, they're great for working anywhere. But if you need to run Windows the battery life suffers.
My boss has an Asus Zenbook 15" and the size and screen are very nice, but the keyboard and trackpad are mediocre.
The internet seems to like the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro. And of course Thinkpads like the X1 Carbon and the T430s (not quite an ultrabook, but pretty close) are sturdy and have nice keyboards and trackpoints. If you could put 16GB in the X1 Carbon I'd buy one tomorrow.
Just pick up a Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 off of Ebay or Craigslist. I picked one up for $25 and had to get a charger ~20. One of the best investments ever, I can't tell you how many times I/dog knocked it off the couch and the device is still preforming excellent. Load it up with Ubuntu w/ Xfce and you will have a pretty nice machine that is easy to carry and durable.
Love my yoga 11s
DELL XPS13 or Lenovo Carbon X1
I would choose between MacBook Air and Asus ultrabooks. + the new MBA model has a full work day battery
I've been using the 13" model for 4.5 months and I just love it !
I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for this, but I'm going to have to suggest a mac book, for what it offers and its price point its not that bad of a choice. (obviously boot camp it and install windows/linux on it)
Martin @ CC just got a new Macbook and he was showing it off earlier. It's pretty nice, but I'm just not an apple person.
You will love your new macbook, Jon. I was a fan of Windows 1 year ago, but when I switched to mac this year, I can't even go back to Windows. It's so good.
Macs suck
I'm looking at the Lenovo U430 or U530 because I need a new laptop.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-ideapad-ultrabook-14-touch-screen-laptop-4gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-gray/9130047.p?id=1218992520815&skuId=9130047
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-ideapad-u530-touch-ultrabook-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-8gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-silver-black/1836027.p?id=1219065630762&skuId=1836027
Whichever one I'm going to get will end up with a real SSD in it - not these garbage SSHD things.
My wife has a MacBook Air. Great battery life and light, but... the screen is poor and the OS, meh. It maybe UNIX underneath and you can do pretty much the same stuff you'd do on Linux with the Terminal, but I don't like the Apple ecosystem at all. It's unfortunate that you only get the battery life using OSX too, but shows that it can be done.
Go with a thinkpad carbon if you have the money.
+1 for thinkpad
Samsung 9