MacBook Air vs Ultrabooks

[Andrew Moore]

I bought the i7 11.6" macbook air with 256gb SSD... Itsd fantastic!!

Love it more so than any PC I have own except for the gaming aspect!

Dual boots work well on it too

 

[KillBoY_UK]

If I had £1k i would get a ASUS UX31E (having seen one next to a MBA) with a i7 CPU rather than a macbook air personalty and if i needed OSX ill hackintosh it with a retail copy of OSx (if you can still do that) even if apple gets ****y about it.

 

[Andrew Moore]

If I had £1k i would get a ASUS UX31E (having seen one next to a MBA) with a i7 CPU rather than a macbook air personalty and if i needed OSX ill hackintosh it with a retail copy of OSx (if you can still do that) even if apple gets ****y about it.

Played with the asus here but the i7 is slower than the i7 in the mac (if you get that option).. its only 100mhz but speed is speed at the end of the day.. everything else from what i recall was negligable... + Bootcamp on Apple is very useful

 

[Amp34]

Thing thing is; post in here and we will all say Mac, post in general hardware and they will all say Ultrabook.

You're not going to get an impartial opinion anywhere.

If you've never used a Mac before, it might be worth spending some time in an Apple Store playing with one to see how you get on with OS X (some people just don't click with it).

However, I'm a firm believer that Mac is best, so I say go for it.

I agree, except for the last paragraph.

13.3" Ultrabooks vs 13.3" MBA

---------------| Asus UX31        | Samsung 5        | 13.3" MBA
Processor------| 1.6Ghz 3mb cache | 1.6Ghz 3mb cache | 1.7Ghz 3mb cache
Upgrade--------| 1.7ghz 3mb cache | 1.7ghz 3mb cache | 1.8ghz 4mb cache
RAM -----------| 4GB              | 4GB              | 4GB
Upgrade--------| No               | 8GB              | No
GPU------------| HD 3000          | HD 3000          | HD 3000
Backlit KB-----| No               | Yes              | Yes
Screen---------| 1600 x 900 TFT   | 1366 x 768 TFT   | 1440 x 900 LED
Storage--------| 128GB SSD        | 500GB 5400RPM    | 128GB SSD
Upgrade--------| 256GB SSD        | 1TB, 128GB SSD   | 256GB SSD
Battery--------| 6 Hours          | 5 Hours          | 7 Hours
Multi Touch----| Yes              | No               | Yes
Boot time -----| 29 Seconds       | 65 Seconds       | 17 Seconds
Note-----------| Samsung 5 with SSD boots in 25 Seconds
Price----------| £1000            | Est £700-£900    | £1099

Final notes: There's a 14" Samsung also available which has an optical drive, and a dedicated GPU but has worse battery life, weighs more, pricing still un-announced.

Build quality is slightly superior on the MBA, the Asus isn't far behind but the Samsung is lagging quite a bit.

The Asus has tagged lots of extra pointless software on it, which apparently is quite annoying because it randomly pop's up warnings and information, although people like us will just disable it with ease.

All 3 have SD readers, only the MBA has a Thunderbolt port according to official spec sheets but some reviews mention that the Samsung has one so we'l have to see on that front.

----
Personal opinion: both the MBA and the Asus look superior to the Samsung 5, Is the MBA worth approx £100 more? to me yes, but I'm comfortable using OSX.

You appear to have missed out the Samsung Series 9, the real competition, rather than the series 5. The series 9 has been upgraded to a higher resolution screen in the latest update as well. The Dell just looks meh IMO.

However you do have some good points, but also some contentious points. The MBA has good build quality but mine creeks quite a lot more than my old Dell XPS. The OSX vs Windows argument will never be settled but IMO it's just a lifestyle/asthetics choice rather than anything else for most people. I use both and they are both as good as each other.

The MBA does have a thunderbolt port but the others generally have USB3, all (so far) suffer from a big downside which is the lack of anything but 4GB RAM.

And for those that say the windows laptops are just MBA copies, some are (looking at the usual suspects *cough* Acer) but there have been a slew of thin light laptops for years before the MBA came out, it's just Intel finally have a decent chip to use (think of the original couple of MBA's which were little more than expensive netbooks).

I like my MBA but that doesn't mean it's superior (arguably that crown beings to the Sony Vaio Z series, although not an ultra book - But any decent spec is exorbitantly expensive), more different. The new Series 9, Asus UX31 and the MBA are all good machines.

 

[Izi]

snip.

samsung series 9 - can't upgrade HDD I dont think? Or maybe I am thinking about a different ultrabook. I've heard these look great in real life.

Sony Vaio Z - went to see this in shop, its horrible and feels cheap / plasticy even though it has a carbon fibre shell. The screen was terrible and had loads of flex in the lid.

 

[Amp34]

samsung series 9 - can't upgrade HDD I dont think? Or maybe I am thinking about a different ultrabook. I've heard these look great in real life.

Like you can't upgrade the rest of the untrabooks/MBA, you get either 128 or 256GB SSD.

Sony Vaio Z - went to see this in shop, its horrible and feels cheap / plasticy even though it has a carbon fibre shell. The screen was terrible and had loads of flex in the lid.

Really? Far nicer looking than the Air and far more powerful. It does flex a bit more but certainly doesn't feel cheap. It does however seem much lighter than the rest (and I think is). The screen is widely regarded as one of the best you can get on a laptop so I'm intrigued! I've seen the 1920x1080 version in the flesh and there is nothing wrong with it at all.

 

[FishFluff]

I've used a couple of Ultrabooks and the trackpads are universally AWFUL.

Whichever OS you want to use, just get a Macbook Air.

 

[Izi]

Like you can't upgrade the rest of the untrabooks/MBA, you get either 128 or 256GB SSD.



Really? Far nicer looking than the Air and far more powerful. It does flex a bit more but certainly doesn't feel cheap. It does however seem much lighter than the rest (and I think is). The screen is widely regarded as one of the best you can get on a laptop so I'm intrigued! I've seen the 1920x1080 version in the flesh and there is nothing wrong with it at all.

there was one ultrabook which you couldn't upgrade the HDD full stop (hard wired to mobo or something), can't remember if it was the Samung 9 though.

Yeah, didn't like the Sony Z - like I said it felt horrible.

 

[Goodie]

Thanks for the input folks, I'm still swaying towards the air now, but as some have suggested I'll make sure I go into a shop and have a play around first. I'll also at least make sure that I take a look at some of the ultrabooks metioned before I make and purchase.

 

[R4z0r]

Hi, I had the same decision to make a little while ago, well, between MacBook Pro and an HP EliteBook. In the end I went with the EliteBook as I'm a heavy Office user and I like the fact it can dock properly.

I found the below two links extremely useful in making the decision, closest thing to an unbiased comparisson.

http://blog.ioshints.info/2011/11/macbook-air-mixed-feelings-or-is-it.html

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/23798/what-will-i-miss-from-windows/23956#23956

 

[roberts]

Played with the asus here but the i7 is slower than the i7 in the mac (if you get that option).. its only 100mhz but speed is speed at the end of the day.. everything else from what i recall was negligable... + Bootcamp on Apple is very useful

Which Mac Air option do you mean?
There is no i7 option for air, only i5 from what I can see.

 

[Amp34]

Which Mac Air option do you mean?
There is no i7 option for air, only i5 from what I can see.

Choose the 256GB i5 (more expensive one) and then when you go to customise it you can choose the i7 instead for an extra £100. You can pick them up at Apple stores as well, they aren't web exclusive.

 

[edgedemon]

Hmmm, a mixed bag from me
I have a macbook pro, never touched a mac until 3 weeks or so ago, and I ordered one as we were getting so many issues with students having problems on macs, that we needed to have one to find out what was going on.

It is nice, and so much just works, but Lion OS is a piece of ****, at least in a corporate workspace, there is so much that is broken in Lion that works in snow leopard, so I would say that if you plan on just using it at home, you will love it, take it into uni, and you might start to get issues, especially with authenticated IP printing and endless cert issues with safari that don't happen with firefox, so be careful..

Cant fault it for home use though..

 

[Amp34]

Hi, I had the same decision to make a little while ago, well, between MacBook Pro and an HP EliteBook. In the end I went with the EliteBook as I'm a heavy Office user and I like the fact it can dock properly.

I found the below two links extremely useful in making the decision, closest thing to an unbiased comparisson.

http://blog.ioshints.info/2011/11/macbook-air-mixed-feelings-or-is-it.html

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/23798/what-will-i-miss-from-windows/23956#23956

I have to say after using my Air for the last 3 months I agree with the first link on this bit

but I still have the feeling that MacBook is a toy designed for creative people, not for people who have to get a job done.

As already mentioned window management is poor and I think if I had to use OSX as my work machine (without downloading anything) I would have exploded in frustration 2 months ago.

I see OSX (and I'm sure it will be contentious) as being great for web browsing and the occasional word processing/Photo work. "Pretty", easy to use (although they can both be said for windows as well) and generally simple, however for productivity windows is king in so many more ways for most people.

 

[Alpherah]

I completely disagree, with the gestures i find switching between all my open 'stuff' on OSX much more efficient then windows.

 

[Izi]

I completely disagree, with the gestures i find switching between all my open 'stuff' on OSX much more efficient then windows.

what was the last version of Windows you used.

Windows 7 wins hands down for window management, and in an office environment generally.

 

[Amp34]

I completely disagree, with the gestures i find switching between all my open 'stuff' on OSX much more efficient then windows.

Which gesture? Swipe up? Which is much like moving the mouse down to the task bar in windows, but you don't get the choice of actual windows, just desktops or swipe sideways which just goes through the desktops the above but one after the other? Much like Alt tab in Windows.

I know there is a third one but can't remember that one atm, it is more relevant however, still not as good as actually having a task bar that shows everything.

 

[SIAT]

Which gesture? Swipe up? Which is much like moving the mouse down to the task bar in windows, but you don't get the choice of actual windows, just desktops or swipe sideways which just goes through the desktops the above but one after the other? Much like Alt tab in Windows.

I know there is a third one but can't remember that one atm, it is more relevant however, still not as good as actually having a task bar that shows everything.

Seriously try hyperdock. It provides the same functionality as windows 7 does with the preview of open windows. Makes switching a doddle. http://hyperdock.bahoom.com/

I far prefer working in os x, but it's user preference really these days. I get lazy with window management as with a 27in screen it's hard to lose stuff behind different windows.

 

[roberts]

Choose the 256GB i5 (more expensive one) and then when you go to customise it you can choose the i7 instead for an extra £100. You can pick them up at Apple stores as well, they aren't web exclusive.

Excellent, didn't realise that.

 

[Amp34]

Seriously try hyperdock. It provides the same functionality as windows 7 does with the preview of open windows. Makes switching a doddle. http://hyperdock.bahoom.com/

I far prefer working in os x, but it's user preference really these days. I get lazy with window management as with a 27in screen it's hard to lose stuff behind different windows.

My point was without downloading various addons (so just standard W7 vs standard Lion) windows is far more productive. The window management was just one example, I'm sure there are dozens of different productivity increasers you can download for Windows and OSX but where do you stop if you start talking downloads?

It's basically fine with just one or two programs open, like I use my Air for, but once you start having a few windows open its a bit chaotic. As I said, I think for the majority of productive users it would cause issues. I have twin 30" screens on my work machine, still spend lots of time switching windows, its not just about screen real estate...