Spec me an ultraportable :)

[wij]

My 15" Macbook Pro has served me well for getting on four years now but it is starting to show its age and also becoming very heavy for the amount of travelling around I do.

So basically here are my requirements and shortlist at the moment:

What I want:

• Less than 1.5Kg Weight
• 13" Screen (Or Smaller)
• Decent screen resolution (this seems to be the thing that is hard to get!)
• SSD
• Budget around £1500-2000

My Shortlist:

• Macbook Air - not quit everthing I want and lack of ports is very annoying.
• Sony Vaio Z-Series - Very expensive, but I can order with a 1080p screen!
• IBM X301 - This looks perfect but would be nice to have a longer battery life and newer CPU.
• IBM X201 - More compact than X301 and better CPU/Battery but screen takes a hit.
• Dell Latidue/Vostro V13 - No SSD option, and poor res. screen

I guess I want the moon on a stick whilst I'm at it But why can't someone just make a decent (and I don't care if it's expensive) laptop like the Vaio-Z ?

ThinkPad X301 looks good too but I've seen rumours that IBM are dropping the line in favour of the T-Series, and at nearly £1800 for the spec the Vaio isn't much more...

I suppose what I'm after is a realistic competitor to the Vaio-Z at the moment, so in other words... High res screen, decent keyboard (with a backlight), powerful spec for such a small machine and a battery that is capable of lasting a good few hours.

 

[teaboy5]

Have you look at the HP range?

2540p? Not sure on the screen res of the top of my head but check their site.

 

[wij]

Have you look at the HP range?

2540p? Not sure on the screen res of the top of my head but check their site.

I did have a quick look at them but discounted it based on the fact that one with the spec I'd want it comes in at around £1900 so again I'll just get the Vaio

TBH There doesn't seem to be anything out there at the moment that remotely competes with the Z series, the T401s from IBM looks quite good though, bit heavier and with a 14" screen just that little bit bigger but its £300 cheaper than the Sony.

I know I will need to compromise somewhere, but I do need a decent res screen for the type of work I do. Guess at the moment its a decision as to whether I spend £2k on the Vaio Z, £1700 on the T401s or buy a slightly aging X301 for £1500 and just accept that it isnt going to be as powerful as the others but meets every other criteria.

 

[PermaBanned]

What sort of resolution do you class as 'decent'? To be honest i think anything more than 1366x768 on 13" would be somewhat unusable.

The cheapest i could find that matches your specifications would be the Nova V13 Executive.

Intel ULV Pentium Dual Core 4100
4GB DDR3
Kingston 64GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Intel 4500
13.3" HD 1366 x 768 LED Screen
1.5kg with 31.08WH battery

£600 without an OS.

 

[wij]

What sort of resolution do you class as 'decent'? To be honest i think anything more than 1366x768 on 13" would be somewhat unusable.

Well I'd disagree, though it may not be for everyone. A colleague has a Vaio Z with the 1600x900 res screen and it is perfectly usable and makes working with multiple apps and the sort of multi-pane programs that I use much much easier.

Personally I'm not really interested in the cheapest either, I want something that does exactly what I want, I would also be quite surprised if that ******** laptop was built to anything like the standards that the IBM's are, but then its 1/3 the price.

There are loads of 12/13" laptops out there but they all compromise in too many areas it seems. The Vaio at the moment seems to be the only one that doesn't.

I did find out though that the Thinkpad X201s has a 1440x900 screen and though it doesn't have the graphics power that the Vaio does but it will last a good 10hrs with the 9-cell battery and weighs next to nothing.

Macbook Air will be due a refresh in a short time too, possibly even a redesign so I'm certainly holding out to see what that brings though it's probably too much to hope that it gets an i7 UM chip and gains at least one extra USB port

I know that there isn't much out there that meets my needs, they are unusual and I'm also fussy about what I have, the screen being one of the bits I refuse to compromise on the most, but I'm quite prepared to pay for that.

Still, thanks for the suggestion. It looks more and more like the Vaio is the best option followed by one of the IBM's.

 

[olivier renault]

Had High hopes for the Envy 14. Looks like it wont come to the UK with a radiance screen. But worth keeping a look out.

Hmm not ultra-portable though. :/

 

[olivier renault]

linky

 

[wij]

Gave in and ordered the Vaio Z

£2k for the following spec:

Core i7-620M 2.66Ghz
Win 7 Pro 64Bit
8Gb RAM
128Gb SSD (2x 64Gb Modules in RAID0)
1920x1080 Screen
Backlight Keyboard
1Gb nVidia GT330M

Was close between that and the IBM X201 to be honest, I've had a netbook and really was totally underwhelmed by the performance and in terms of build quality they simply leave a lot to be desired.

Not a cheap machine by any stretch but it weighs less than most netbooks and has some serious power behind it. Sony also had a few offers on making some of the upgrades I wanted free

 

[kiteloopy]

shame....I was going to put a +1 for the x201. I have it and its fault less imo.

edit: nice one tho. Im sure you'll love it.

 

[Westyfield2]

Gave in and ordered the Vaio Z

£2k for the following spec:

Core i7-620M 2.66Ghz
Win 7 Pro 64Bit
8Gb RAM
128Gb SSD (2x 64Gb Modules in RAID0)
1920x1080 Screen
Backlight Keyboard
1Gb nVidia GT330M

Was close between that and the IBM X201 to be honest, I've had a netbook and really was totally underwhelmed by the performance and in terms of build quality they simply leave a lot to be desired.

Not a cheap machine by any stretch but it weighs less than most netbooks and has some serious power behind it. Sony also had a few offers on making some of the upgrades I wanted free

Colleague got a Vaio-Z delivered today, you'll enjoy it! I love the 1080 screen!

My 15" MacBook Pro is three years old now (2.4GHz C2D, 8600GT, 4GB, 500GB 7200RPM, 1440x900 matte) and I have to say I'm very tempted by his!

Can you get the screen in matte/anti-glare or is it glossy only?

 

[shadow_boxer]

Sony vaio Z series is very good. Bit on the pricey side I gota admit.

 

[SpamMonkey]

Gave in and ordered the Vaio Z

£2k for the following spec:

Core i7-620M 2.66Ghz
Win 7 Pro 64Bit
8Gb RAM
128Gb SSD (2x 64Gb Modules in RAID0)
1920x1080 Screen
Backlight Keyboard
1Gb nVidia GT330M

Congrats. I have a Z with almost identical spec and love it to bits. Depending on your usage I would recommend spending the extra to get 256Gb hard drive. The SSD drives are not a standard size and so cannot be upgraded later.

 

[wij]

The X201s was very tempting tbh, £500 cheaper and even more portable (though actually the same weight) but then I felt that for an slightly larger volume I was gaining massively in performance with the Vaio and the screen res was also what swung it for me in the end, still if I don't like it the supplier I got it from has a 30 day return policy.

I know about the SSD thing, 128Gb should be fine for me, it will have only essential apps on it, a couple of VM images and perhaps the odd game - which that nVidia card should make light work of!

Also I don't store music, video's etc. on the laptop as I have a nice little external drive for that.

 

[wij]

Colleague got a Vaio-Z delivered today, you'll enjoy it! I love the 1080 screen!

My 15" MacBook Pro is three years old now (2.4GHz C2D, 8600GT, 4GB, 500GB 7200RPM, 1440x900 matte) and I have to say I'm very tempted by his!

Can you get the screen in matte/anti-glare or is it glossy only?

Your MBP sounds like it was the model just after mine, nice machines and I'm going to miss OS X but Apple really aren't competing in the area of high-spec but highly portable machines in my eyes. The likes of the Vaio and IBM's really shows up a hole in their lineup that I wish they would plug (I don't consider the 13" MBP to be ultra/highly-portable or as powerful as some of the competition for its price range, and the Air really doesn't have enough connectivity... sorry Apple some of us need Ethernet and a couple of USB ports).

RE the Vaio screen AFAIK its matte only, which is good as that is actually my preference as the sort of places I often find myself working the lighting would really get on my nerves with a glossy screen.