Anything to rival the Macbook Air?

Cheetah Designs

Cheetah Designs

Cheetah Designs

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10 Jul 2006
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Looking for a laptop:

- between 11.6"-14" screen.
- Full-sized Chiclet keyboard
- LONG battery life
- New CPU (not worried about speed, just want new architecture)
- At least 4GB RAM
- Slim and light

Good stuff to have - I would probably let some of the above go if I could have:

- Known to work well with a linux distribution like Ubuntu
- Detachable screen to use as a tablet.
 
I don't think there is anything to match the Air. I was considering buying one a couple of months ago, and the consensus seems to be that you can get something almost as good for the same price, but nothing that clearly improves on it.

I would just get an Air, mainly for the better support and (hopefully) higher resale value.
 
I'm very happy with my Lenovo Yoga Pro 2. I primarily wanted a laptop and wasn't too fussed about the convertible element, but I use the stand and tablet modes far more than I ever imagined I would.

The screen is lovely, but relies quite heavily on Windows DPI scaling. I ran up CentOS on it in a VM the other day to play with something for work and the desktop icons are so small it's borderline unusable. I'm far from a Linux expert, and a quick Google search indicates the DPI settings can be changed but I'd make sure before buying.

Lenovo have also just released the Thinkpad Yoga - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/386503/lenovo-thinkpad-yoga
 
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Dell XPS 13 has a 13" full hd touch screen, but closer to the size of the 11" MBA.

Dell sell a developer edition that has Ubuntu installed and all the drivers etc.

MBA screen is not great by current standards, low resolution, not IPS.
 
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POB said:
MBA screen is not great by current standards, low resolution, not IPS.
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What uses of a 13" laptop benefit from a high resolution? Since I will be using the laptop primarily for development work - I guess there is no benefit of more than 1400*900?

Also - the thing that worries me is fan noise. I know from past experience that the Macbook Airs are built very well such that you can't hear the fan noise at all. Whereas every other laptop I have had (both high end and not) have horrific fan noise, especially when you put it on a duvet.
 
Look at a 13" MacBook Air next to a 13" Pro. The Pro's screen is much better.

I can't see the point of the air at all, the Pro is faster, almost as slim and the screen is great.
 
Cheetah Designs said:
What uses of a 13" laptop benefit from a high resolution? Since I will be using the laptop primarily for development work - I guess there is no benefit of more than 1400*900?

Also - the thing that worries me is fan noise. I know from past experience that the Macbook Airs are built very well such that you can't hear the fan noise at all. Whereas every other laptop I have had (both high end and not) have horrific fan noise, especially when you put it on a duvet.
Click to expand...

Same use that 1080p is on a phone - combined DPI scaling (when it works well with software properly written to utilise it) means you get a much crisper image, rather than making everything smaller on the screen.

The Yoga design works well for say watching a film on a duvet - fold the screen back and voila, the vents are on the top.
 
Cheetah Designs said:
What uses of a 13" laptop benefit from a high resolution? Since I will be using the laptop primarily for development work - I guess there is no benefit of more than 1400*900?

Also - the thing that worries me is fan noise. I know from past experience that the Macbook Airs are built very well such that you can't hear the fan noise at all. Whereas every other laptop I have had (both high end and not) have horrific fan noise, especially when you put it on a duvet.
Click to expand...

The 13" 1080p screen on my NP740U3E is lovely! Really crisp, and means that you can fit lots on the screen for the size. Text is a bit small at times (have my scaling set to 100%, default is 125%) but you can always zoom in.
 
blueboy2001 said:
I'm very happy with my Lenovo Yoga Pro 2. I primarily wanted a laptop and wasn't too fussed about the convertible element, but I use the stand and tablet modes far more than I ever imagined I would.

The screen is lovely, but relies quite heavily on Windows DPI scaling. I ran up CentOS on it in a VM the other day to play with something for work and the desktop icons are so small it's borderline unusable. I'm far from a Linux expert, and a quick Google search indicates the DPI settings can be changed but I'd make sure before buying.

Lenovo have also just released the Thinkpad Yoga - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/386503/lenovo-thinkpad-yoga
Click to expand...

This is one of the things that a lot of people don't seem to understand.
Yes having a stupidly high resolution screen makes things look crisp but on something that size for daily use it can be unusable.

I'm personally not a fan of 1920*1080 on a 13" as it can make legacy apps and linux stuff uncomfortable to use. (e.g. Putty, terminals etc.)

I do really like the idea behind the Lenovo Yoga's though, and if the 11 inch Yoga was much cheaper I'd buy one just for traveling.
I am however quite tempted with a Lenovo X240 as my portable laptop.
 
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