Ultrabook decision

Winston

Winston

Winston

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Can anyone help guide me into making the right decision?

I recently sold my desktop as need the extra space in my house, kids... So been looking at getting an Ultrabook

I can't decide between a few top dogs and looking for people's opinions to help guide me

Contenders are Dell Xps12, Sony Vaio Duo 13, Sony Vaio Pro 13 or Acer aspire S7

Wanting to get the new Haswell versions of any of these but can't make a decision

Thanks in advance
 
I have also been looking at ultrabooks as I need one for work. Normally just buy a Mac but need a windows one for work hence the headache over the last few days researching.

Was sorely tempted to go all out and get the Lenovo X1 carbon as it is beautiful and well specced but couldn't bring myself to spend £1620 on a laptop.

Then started leaning towards the Lenovo Ideapad 13 Yoga which is pretty high specced and well priced as well as having a cool flipover screen to convert it into a tablet, however I think the screen resolution is too low, not quite 1080p.

Also looked as Asus Zenbook, Dell XPS13 (too businesses, doesn't stand out valuewise), Samsung 9 Series (hate samsung stuff).

In the end I think I have settled on the Sony Vaio Pro 13. It has the new haswell architechture, looks sexy, decently specced and priced and if you buy off the sony site you get 4 years warranty for the next few days.
Spec I think I'm going to go for is:

Sony Vaio Pro 13
Intel® CoreTM i7-4500U 1.8 GHz
Windows 8
256 GB SATA Flash SSD
8 GB 1600 MT/s DDR3L-SDRAM
33.7 cm LED, 1920x1080
Ethernet Wi-Fi & VGA dongle
Battery life up to 7 hours
4 year warranty
£1158
 
Thanks for taking time to give me your opinions

I've been muddling over exactly the same all week

Stuck between the vaio duo 13 or the Pro 13, the duo brings it out about £300 more than the pro
 
Now considering a vaio fit instead

Configured
Intel® CoreTM i7-3537U, 2 GHz
Windows 8
BlackTouch Screen39.5cm LED 1920 x 1080 +webcam
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 735M 2 GB
256 GB SATA Flash SSD
8 GB 1600 MT/s DDR3
L-SDRAMDVD disc drive
Software
Office 365 Home Premium Trial
No protection
No Adobe Creation
No Adobe® Lightroom 4Imagination Studio Suite 4
Also IncludedHDMI(TM) outputNFC technology included
2 years warranty
Battery life up to 4.5 hours
Backlight keyboard
1 AC AdapterWireless LAN (IEEE 802.11bgn)English (QWERTY)1x USB 2.0 + 2x USB 3.0Services
FREE4 year warranty
Total Price£*1,029.00*inc. VAT
 
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I have bought and rolled out a few samsung 530 series ultrabooks, the 13" is pretty slim and runs really well even though it has a 500gb regular drive but the 24gb express cache (SD I assume) really helps make it snappy and non spindle like whatsoever.
 
I'm going through the same decision process (but with the MacBook Air thrown in too). I'm strongly veering towards the Sony Vaio Pro 13 - price is decent and it looks like a really nice piece of kit, and so portable.

I'll go into a Sony Centre to take a look at it first.
 
Now considering a Macbook as well but have never got on with apple products but sure I'd adjust given time

What would you buy for about £1300 - £1500?
 
I recently bought a Dell Latitude 6430U from the outlet, with 16 GB RAM, 256 GB mSATA SSD, Core i7-3687U, HD+ screen (these are rare to find on the outlet), 7 hour battery life; really lovely laptop, has absolutely everything exactly how I want it. Just under £800. It's not Haswell, but I'm very happy with it. If the equivalent Haswell has 10+ hours battery instead of 7, then that would be a bonus, but 7 is already plenty for me.
 
In general, you will never find the latest generation stuff on the outlet, at least not for a while. In other words, if you are set on buying Haswell, you will be paying a premium for it because you will be paying retail (assuming the outlet was ever part of your considerations).

The Dell Outlet offers such tremendous value for money, especially when you can buy really highly speced machines for peanuts on the dollar, that I don't think I would ever buy retail while the outlet is around.
 
I changed my mind in the end and went for the top spec Lenovo Yoga 13 instead of the Vaio Pro. mainly because of the flip around screen but also because it's £150 cheaper with only marginally worse specs

Never been a fan of touchscreens but I had a hands on with the Yoga the other day and the touchscreen can be pretty useful in windows8, I can see myself becoming a convert, especially for things like OneNote and for scrolling
Also I'm thinking that the tent mode will be really handy for when I'm working on an external monitor and also using my laptop screen. Usually you end up with the laptop keyboard in the way of your working area but this completely gets rid of it.
 
Hamish said:
I changed my mind in the end and went for the top spec Lenovo Yoga 13 instead of the Vaio Pro. mainly because of the flip around screen but also because it's £150 cheaper with only marginally worse specs
Click to expand...
The Yoga looks really nice, but every single one I've seen in the shops (John Lewis, PC World, etc.) had really bad flaking/peeling/scratching on the surface material (from memory, a sort of rubbery material), which doesn't bode well for long-term appearance (obviously doesn't impact the performance).
 
rotor said:
The Yoga looks really nice, but every single one I've seen in the shops (John Lewis, PC World, etc.) had really bad flaking/peeling/scratching on the surface material (from memory, a sort of rubbery material), which doesn't bode well for long-term appearance (obviously doesn't impact the performance).
Click to expand...

Yeah i've read it has some kind of soft palm rest. I had a look at one in the airport the other day and it looked completely fine, maybe it was brand new though. None of the reviews mention it as a problem.
The main problem I I have right now is the lowish res, but I can live with that.
 
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