Small but powerful Ultrabook suggestions...

[[R4A]Bigman]

Hi all

So I'm in the market for a new laptop. My current laptop is now 11 years old (P3 mobile ftw) and I figure its about time for an upgrade. Now given that I've been out of the market for so long, I'm someone lacking on information. I've tried looking around, but I seem to be getting myself in a bit of a muddle and I can't help this feeling that I've missed something.

Basically I'm looking for something that:-

1. Small and lightweight -- I'm thinking as light as possible, and small enough to fit on the trays in standard class trains
2. Decent battery life -- if I'm just pottering around on the web I'd like to think a modern machine could last 2-3hrs+ without charge (dunno if this is realistic)
3. Powerful enough for games -- not serious business games, but I'd want to play Starcraft II on lowest settings acceptably
4. Good screen resolution -- ideally 1440x900 minimum res I think, altho i'd mainly be doing coding and web browsing, so perhaps not necessary
5. Budget -- looking at around the £1k mark tops ideally, but willing to stretch for the right laptop

Now I know this list looks a lot like I'm asking for the moon on a stick. Perhaps I am. But my understanding is that the new Ivy Bridge processor + Intel graphics combo is going to give enough grunt to do the gaming. The rest I'm hoping will more or less fall in to place.

So the two laptops that immediately come to mind at the moment are the MacBook Air 11" and MacBook Air 13". They both seem to fit the bill. Although I'm torn a little in that I'm not sure if the 13" will be too big for the train, or that the 11" doesn't provide quite enough screen estate. Beyond that there doesn't look to be a huge amount around at the moment -- should I wait for more Ivy Bridge ultrabooks to come along?

Does anyone have any thoughts, suggestions or comments? Are my requirements simply not possible? Any help is mucho appreciated.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Asus UX21A:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5843/a...e-ux21a-review

Pricing is to be confirmed but it is competing with the MBA so should be a similar price. Until the Asus UX21A was released the MBA was probably one of the best choices,but the UX21A with its fantastic screen changes things somewhat IMHO.

However,for gaming,the HD4000 variant in the ULV IB CPUs is clocked much lower than the standard CPUs:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5843/a...ux21a-review/6

If you want to run games reasonably well,you need to get a slightly larger Ultrabook or Ultrasleek laptop. One is the Asus UX32VD:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-...k.75591.0.html

Unlike the UX31A which weighs around 1.1KG AFAIK,it weighs around 1.5KG it seems. However,it also has a 19201080 IPS panel.

There are also the Trinity A10 based Ultrasleek laptops which should be cheaper when they are eventually released.

Gigabyte also has the U2442 Ultrabook which weighs around 1.7KG it seems:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigabyt...k.76029.0.html

It has a 14" 1600X900 display and has an Nvidia GT640M GPU. Gigabyte are also released the X11 Ultrabook which is made of carbon fibre.

[melon]

I am never buying Asus again as long as I live

I dont care if it comes with a packet of rolos , its own registration plate or Chuch Norris himself.

m

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My mate has an Asus Eee Transformer Prime - lovely piece of kit. They make fantastic laptops and tablets - even Google has contracted them to make the Nexus Tab for them. They seem to be one of the few companies to take on Apple successfully when it comes to tablets and thin and light notebooks.

[Ulti]

Hi all

So I'm in the market for a new laptop. My current laptop is now 11 years old (P3 mobile ftw) and I figure its about time for an upgrade. Now given that I've been out of the market for so long, I'm someone lacking on information. I've tried looking around, but I seem to be getting myself in a bit of a muddle and I can't help this feeling that I've missed something.

Basically I'm looking for something that:-

1. Small and lightweight -- I'm thinking as light as possible, and small enough to fit on the trays in standard class trains
2. Decent battery life -- if I'm just pottering around on the web I'd like to think a modern machine could last 2-3hrs+ without charge (dunno if this is realistic)
3. Powerful enough for games -- not serious business games, but I'd want to play Starcraft II on lowest settings acceptably
4. Good screen resolution -- ideally 1440x900 minimum res I think, altho i'd mainly be doing coding and web browsing, so perhaps not necessary
5. Budget -- looking at around the £1k mark tops ideally, but willing to stretch for the right laptop

Now I know this list looks a lot like I'm asking for the moon on a stick. Perhaps I am. But my understanding is that the new Ivy Bridge processor + Intel graphics combo is going to give enough grunt to do the gaming. The rest I'm hoping will more or less fall in to place.

So the two laptops that immediately come to mind at the moment are the MacBook Air 11" and MacBook Air 13". They both seem to fit the bill. Although I'm torn a little in that I'm not sure if the 13" will be too big for the train, or that the 11" doesn't provide quite enough screen estate. Beyond that there doesn't look to be a huge amount around at the moment -- should I wait for more Ivy Bridge ultrabooks to come along?

Does anyone have any thoughts, suggestions or comments? Are my requirements simply not possible? Any help is mucho appreciated.

To be honest, apart from the screen resolution requirement, pretty much all ultrabooks will meet your requirements. To be defined as an ultrabook, they need to be under a certain weight and under a maximum thickness. (Point 1).

Onto point 2; 2-3 hours without charge is the norm for a 15.6" laptop, but for these Ultrabooks with ULV (ultra low voltage) CPUs, they can easily last at least 5 hours if you get a half decent one (pretty much all apart from the Acer S3 has 5 hours+ battery life with Wifi and decent levels of brightness (not max, about 40%/120cd/m).

Point 3; HD3000 (sandybridge gen), HD4000 (ivybridge gen) and Trinity (as CAT states) will all be able to play SCII on lowest settings. The Trinity ones will even allow you to play on high I think on 1080p, HD4000 and HD3000 should do medium quality on the res you require.

Point 4; This is the difficult bit. You will need to look at the Asus ultrabooks. The ones CAT listed are right. You could also look at the Sony Series Z as that allows an upgrade option of 1080p and it's one of the lighest.

Point 5; As you've lasted 11 years with your previous laptop, I think stretching it would be the right thing for you. However, I would wait until late July as there may be a better supply of IB ultrabooks as several have been released, but haven't reached the UK yet.

I do need to mention that with ultrabooks, the keyboards' travel have been reduced significantly, so do try to get your hands on an ultrabook to try the keyboards as it's pretty important. I personally tried an Acer S3 and Toshiba Z830 and their keyboards, whilst usable, were very crap to type on. I also tried a Samsung Series 9 and it felt much better.

If you want something with a better keyboard and don't require it to be stick thin, it's worth looking at the older Lenovo X220/230 but I've just quickly tried to customise them and they don't have options for a 1080p screen or anything above the standard 1366*768 for that matter (apart from an upgrade to an IPS panel).

[Ulti]

My mate has an Asus Eee Transformer Prime - lovely piece of kit. They make fantastic laptops and tablets - even Google has contracted them to make the Nexus Tab for them. They seem to be one of the few companies to take on Apple successfully when it comes to tablets and thin and light notebooks.

I think melon is unhappy with the way keyboards have evolved to chiclet keyboards with no key travel, not with their build quality.

Personally I think Asus are doing great and they've managed to design several things and lead the market forward, increasing competition with Apple. Just looking at some of the things they've done such as the Padfone and their slates, along with the Transformer Prime lets me praise them.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I think melon is unhappy with the way keyboards have evolved to chiclet keyboards with no key travel, not with their build quality.

Personally I think Asus are doing great and they've managed to design several things and lead the market forward, increasing competition with Apple. Just looking at some of the things they've done such as the Padfone and their slates, along with the Transformer Prime lets me praise them.

Lenovo has great keyboards IMHO - I think a lot of companies need to learn from them IMHO.

Do you know if Lenovo are doing any UltraBooks?? They seem to be consistently voted one of the best laptop companies for reliabilty.

[[R4A]Bigman]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

The Asus UX21A really looks to fit everything I want -- that screen looks incredible! Although I will have to wait to actually play with one in the flesh, I suspect, before passing a final judgement.

The Sony Z Series also definitely have the aesthetics going for them, another one to try out.

As a mechanical keyboard user on my desktop, I'm pretty picky with keyboards, and part of the reason for still having my old lappy is because the keyboard is one of the best laptop keyboards I've used. So this is one thing I definitely need to try out.

I was also hoping to see if Samsung make a Ivy Bridge version of their 11" Series 9 laptop (altho would have to see if they make any improvements on the screen resolution).

[[R4A]Bigman]

Do you know if Lenovo are doing any UltraBooks?? They seem to be consistently voted one of the best laptop companies for reliabilty.

Depends if the X220/X230 are classified as UltraBooks. They are certainly small and lightweight.

I've never been a massive fan of their appearance, personally, but they do have a certain charm to them, I suppose. More of a business-like look than anything else -- if you saw someone on a train with them you'd expect it to be their work laptop.

[Ulti]

Lenovo has great keyboards IMHO - I think a lot of companies need to learn from them IMHO.

Do you know if Lenovo are doing any UltraBooks?? They seem to be consistently voted one of the best laptop companies for reliabilty.

They do have an ultrabook, but it's just like every other ultrabook unfortunately. It's the U310 and U410. Unfortunately it has a chiclet keyboard and a regular screen with no upgrade options from what I saw.

Just a note Bigman, the Sony Z Series and Lenovo X series are not traditionally classed as ultrabooks as they use full mobile CPUs, rather than the ULV ones. This means their CPU performance will be better than an ultrabook. However, this means battery life should in theory be weaker but those two both have excellent battery life from what I remember. You can google up some reviews (my personal favourite is notebookcheck.net). They do both fit the size and weight factor of an ultrabook though.

If you go for an ultrabook with a chiclet keyboard, make sure you go with a retailer that accepts returns without hassle as they will definitely not be as nice to type on for you if you use a mechanical keyboard.

[peterb]

Toshiba have a new range out, the Portege. Might be worth a look.

http://www.misco.co.uk/Search/Keyword/portege

http://www.dabs.com/category/computi...m_content=i800

[Ulti]

I've got the Z830 and it's not really that good tbh. I got mine for £362 though or something close to that as it was a manufactured refurbished one. It's fast and all but it only has 1366*768 resolution and the keyboard has VERY LITTLE travel. It's keyboard isn't quite as bad as the Acer S3, but I think it's certainly one of the more worse keyboards. It's really light though (only 1.1kg) and thin, but that's a double edged sword as it feels really flimsy and even the Acer S3 feels much more sturdy. From the reviews I've read, the Acer S3 was meant to be a lot worse than the Asus ultrabooks too.

I gave my Z830 to my girlfriend and she seems to get on fine with it as she doesn't really type that much (we study actuarial science and she doesn't go on forums or anything like that) so she seemed pretty happy with it. She claimed 13.3" ultrabooks are still a bit big though and said she would have preferred the 11" MBA though but she's happy with the Toshiba. At the price I got the Toshiba for, I can't complain though. (Although I just did, lol)