Spec me a laptop

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Joined
10 Jul 2006
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2,423
Essentially I want the Macbook Air without actually buying one...I know that is stupid but humour me. This is what I want:

- At least 4GB or the ability to upgrade to
- Any CPU will do
- SSD or the ability to upgrade to
- Very good build quality (not expecting aluminium but still good quality)
- Thin and light (hopefully the weight is close to that of the air)
- Chiclet keyboard (very preferable - but accept I may have to scimp)
- Very good battery life.
- Costs less than the air
- 13" screen.

Does anything exist that competes with the air?
 
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There are a few machines out there; LG Z330, Aspire S5; if you check Intel's web site for Ultrabooks they have a section listing more, but I'm not sure about build and price.

In terms of a MacBook Air what price are you trying to beat?

Its easiest for me to spin the Dell web site for something specific, weight wise this is on a par with the Air, has an aluminium lid, carbon fibre base, 6mm at its thinnest point and 18mm at its thickest, is 6 hours average battery life enough?

£949 - Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook
Intel® Core™ i5-2467M processor (2 cores, 4 threads, 1.60 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.30 GHz, Intel® HD Graphics 3000)
4096MB 1333MHz Single Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x4096]
128GB Solid State Hard Drive
Chiclet backlit keyboard
Wireless Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 (2x2 b/g/n+ Bluetooth Combo Card)
LCD 13.3" Hi-Def (720p) True Life WLED Display with Skype-Certified 1.3MP Hi-Def Webcam
6-Cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
 
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Another thought with the Samsung VAT back deal on going right now; their 900 range looks nice and is selling for between £900 and £1,200 pre VAT, are my sums right...£750 to £1000 after VAT back!

Samsung NP900X3A
Intel Core i5, 1.6GHz,
4GB RAM,
128GB SSD
13.3 Inch Display
7 hour battery
16mm thick
 
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What do you want an Air-like machine to do? You could get slightly radical if its just "web-centric" apps you need to get at and go for a Samsung Chromebook. Nice price; £300

Intel® ATOM™ Processor N570 (1.66GHz, 667MHz, 2 x 512KB)
Chrome OS
2Gb RAM
12.1" LCD Screen 1280 x 800
16 GB SSD
3 x USB 2.0
WiFi
HD SRS Premium Sound
Webcam
6 Cell Battery
4-in-1 (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC)
AC Adapter(11.5" x 8.6" x 0.78" ~ 0.78")
Weight 1.3 Kg (2.86 lbs)

Spec sounds puny against a MacBook Air but the concept is different: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromebook
 
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