[Spec request] Best thin & light laptop?

[Sumanji]

Hey,

Can you guys spec me a thin and light laptop please?

- Budget: <$800 (£600?)
- Usage: Browsing, email, gentle office work, Netflix in bed etc.
- Specs: SSD and 8GB RAM are a must
- Looks: Needs to be slick, thin and light, so swmbo can tolerate it...

Thinking the base 128GB 2017 Macbook Air (and install Windows) is a good starting point, but would rather just get a similar better value Windows machine, if it exists!

Cheers,

Su

[Splash]

The Dell XPS13 are lovely but massively blow your budget - in all honesty I'm not sure I've seen anything in your budget with 8Gb RAM, so if you've seen an MBA at that price with the Windows license price factored in I'd go with that (they *are* lovely bits of kit for your use case)

[jimbouk]

- Usage: Browsing, email, gentle office work, Netflix in bed etc.
- Specs: SSD and 8GB RAM are a must

Not sure why the RAM is a requirement given the usage? With a thin and light laptop you're not going to be able to upgrade the RAM yourself, and 8GB out of the box is going to push you well out of your budget unfortunately.

For asthetics, I've always had a thing for the ASUS Zenbooks. https://www.ebuyer.com/805315-asus-z...ux410ua-gv158t for example is <£600. Performance isn't going to set the world on fire, but looks great and has an SSD:

[wazzickle]

I'm using a lenovo yoga 710 which probably fits the bill on all fronts. I'm pretty happy with it. Kaby Lake i7, 8gb ram, 240gb ssd, 14" / 1080p, ~1.5kg, power lasts a good amount of time.

Don't get a macbook, you're paying a significant price premium just for the name.

[scaryjim]

Not sure why the RAM is a requirement given the usage? ...

I frequently find Chrome chomping 3GB+ of main memory on my laptop. If you've only got 4GB of physical in total (some of which you then lose to hardware reservation) it'd be easy enough to chomp it all just from some web browsing.

How thin and light is thin and light, Sumanji? The HP Probook is ~ 2cm deep and weighs ~ 1.6kg - if the budget has any flexibility you can pick it up with FHD display, 8th Gen Core i5, 8GB RAM anbd 256GB SSD for $849 direct from HP (http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-pro...-2ss98ut-aba-1), alhtough I assume that price excludes taxes...

Alternatively the 13" Envy 360 is currently available at $799: http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-env...ouch-1yu00av-1 - that's frankly a really good price for 8th Gen Core i7, 8GB/256GB and an FHD screen... It's 0.55" deep and weighs < 3lb...

[Splash]

Don't get a macbook, you're paying a significant price premium just for the name.

While that may historically have been true I disagree with you on this at present. Sure, if you're going to install Windows on it then you'll have to buy a Windows license which chomps into your budget even more, but for what you get hardware-wise the MBA is really quite competitive.

Other than that: I had an Asus Zenbook for a number of years (only replaced it when I wanted something with more grunt, which at the time was an MBP) and was very happy with it - as mentioned above though the RAM is not trivial to upgrade (and is soldered to the systemboard in some cases) so if you need 8Gb then you're probably looking at a bit of a premium for it.

[Sumanji]

I frequently find Chrome chomping 3GB+ of main memory on my laptop. If you've only got 4GB of physical in total (some of which you then lose to hardware reservation) it'd be easy enough to chomp it all just from some web browsing.

Exactly this... 8GB is a must, sadly.

Alternatively the 13" Envy 360 is currently available at $799: http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-env...ouch-1yu00av-1 - that's frankly a really good price for 8th Gen Core i7, 8GB/256GB and an FHD screen... It's 0.55" deep and weighs < 3lb...

This would have been fantastic, but looks like the price has gone back up to $1,050

Will have to keep an eye out for another price drop...

[edit] Thinking of pulling the trigger on this... https://www.ebay.com/itm/20211746866...887&rmvSB=true

Thanks,

Su