Ultrabook/convertible options (<£1500)

Rooster212

Rooster212

Rooster212

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Hi everyone,

I've been looking around for a new laptop, and I love the look of an ultrabook. I'd consider myself a power user so it needs to be pretty powerful, and ideally cope with a little light gaming (nothing too fancy, Dota 2/casual games and the like). I love the idea of a touchscreen Ultrabook, and if it could be convertible or detachable, that would be a nice touch.

I've come from a MacBook Pro, and I'm looking to buy after Christmas I think. My preferences for features in order are:

  1. SSD (or user replaceable hard drive)
  2. Thin/Small (so 11 or 13 inch)
  3. Half decent trackpad/keyboard
  4. Touch screen
  5. Backlit keyboard

I've been looking for the past couple of days around, and I've got a couple of ideas, but I was wondering if anyone has any other suggestions:

  • Asus TX201LA
  • Sony Vaio Pro 11 or 13
  • Lenovo Yoga 11S
  • MacBook Air 11" or 13" (no touchscreen but so impressed with Mac build quality/keyboard/trackpad)
  • Surface Pro 2 (not too sure on the form factor for my uses...)

Budget wise, I'm not really that bothered at the moment. Probably would struggle to get over £1500 but I'm not in the buying phase at the moment. Thanks for reading :cool:

TL,DR is essentially: ultrabook, touchscreen/convertible, not underpowered, £1500 limit but not looking at immediate purchase.
 
New Yoga 13 Pro 2 is worth a look - the 3800x1800 gives some interesting options for scaling up or having masses of workspace (depending on your eyesight).
 
Does look pretty good, the higher end ones anyway. I'm not sure about the form factor of the Yoga for tablet usage though. Still looks good, will bear it in mind :)
 
Rooster212 said:
Does look pretty good, the higher end ones anyway. I'm not sure about the form factor of the Yoga for tablet usage though. Still looks good, will bear it in mind :)
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Its a bit hit and miss if I'm honest - the tent and stand mobiles ( /\ and /_ shapes) are quite handy if you want to say watch something on a plane I guess, or use it as a self supported touchscreen with the keyboard hidden, but as a pure tablet its a bit big and holding it by the keyboard is a but weird. It does lock the keyboard out in these modes though so you don't type gibberish while holding it.

Personally as a convertible device I think the Dell XPS 12 is nice with the way the screen flips in the bezel - but the Yoga 13 Pro 2 beats it on price and with that high-res panel.
 
The Dell does look nice but ideally I'm looking for a Haswell ultrabook cause of the differences with the battery life etc. although I haven't looked at the Dell much, there might be a Haswell one :p
 
Rooster212 said:
The Dell does look nice but ideally I'm looking for a Haswell ultrabook cause of the differences with the battery life etc. although I haven't looked at the Dell much, there might be a Haswell one :p
Click to expand...

The XPS 12 was updated to Haswell a while back.

There were some REALLY good Outlet deals on the IVB XPS 12 as well to clear stock, but those have all sold now.
 
y2w2003 said:
Have you had a look at the Sony Multi-flip? Comes in various sizes too.
Click to expand...

Looks pretty nice, however I have trouble accessing Sony's site, just redirects me to a 404 page every time I try and access it?!

Looking around other sites, it looks good :) maybe a bit underpowered for my uses but I'm finding it hard to see all the options without having Sony's site available to me.
 
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