Ultrabooks

Nefarious

Nefarious

Nefarious

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I need a new laptop (old one stolen) and was looking to replace my Dell XPS with another Dell but couldn't help feeling that they had gone a bit off the mark (from reviews and photos).

The XPS I lost was bought in Summer '12 and was relatively sleek with an i7, the same money with Dell now gets an i5 and generally lower spec.

What are peoples suggestions? Different brand, the Dells are actually reasonable or I should just become another Mac slave....?
 
The Running Man said:
The answer is never buying a more expensive apple. Samsung do some recent ultra books. I'd just shop around.
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More expensive Apple...? Depends what you compare it to. For example I bought my Air last year because it was cheaper than the only comparable system, the Sony Z series... ;) - Before the Asus and Samsung came out/were renewed.

Currently the three best proper Ultrabooks* are the Macbook Air, Asus UX31/32 and the Samsung Series 9. All will be in the region of around £1000-1200 for the basic models and up to around £1450 for the top end models. They are pretty much of a muchness spec wise and all very good, just depends what you want specifically. For example the Series 9 and Asus have the best screens, however the Asus has a full HD screen. The MBA allows 8GB of RAM and more customisability at point of sale. You don't get much choice of spec with the Samsung or Asus. (Pick of the Apple MBA bunch is the i7, 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD model at £1449 which is unrivalled)

There are some cheaper "true" ultrabooks around, such as the Acer ones and a Lenovo if you can't afford the top flight ones. Samsung also do a stunning 15" version of the Series 9 if you want a bigger screen.


*Although only one is actually called an ultrabook because having only been released for a year or so lots of companies have "cheapened" the name with "ultrabooks" that really aren't anything like the actual ultrabook when the definition was actually released...
 
Amp34 said:
More expensive Apple...? Depends what you compare it to. For example I bought my Air last year because it was cheaper than the only comparable system, the Sony Z series... ;) - Before the Asus and Samsung came out/were renewed.

Currently the three best proper Ultrabooks* are the Macbook Air, Asus UX31/32 and the Samsung Series 9. All will be in the region of around £1000-1200 for the basic models and up to around £1450 for the top end models. They are pretty much of a muchness spec wise and all very good, just depends what you want specifically. For example the Series 9 and Asus have the best screens, however the Asus has a full HD screen. The MBA allows 8GB of RAM and more customisability at point of sale. You don't get much choice of spec with the Samsung or Asus. (Pick of the Apple MBA bunch is the i7, 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD model at £1449 which is unrivalled)

There are some cheaper "true" ultrabooks around, such as the Acer ones and a Lenovo if you can't afford the top flight ones. Samsung also do a stunning 15" version of the Series 9 if you want a bigger screen.


*Although only one is actually called an ultrabook because having only been released for a year or so lots of companies have "cheapened" the name with "ultrabooks" that really aren't anything like the actual ultrabook when the definition was actually released...
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I was going to enjoy reading your post about Ultrabook till I got to the first price you mentioned. For me ultrabooks are designed for being lightweight and portable and if you need style and mobility your going to pay a premium for it. If your happy to spend £1k or more on an 'ultrabook' then go for the spec and not the latter.

To the OP, the Dell 14Z was a good suggestion given the price bracket but all manufactures now widen the selection of ultrabooks and managed to pack a whole top end into a small light weight machine. There's so many to choose from at your price bracket.
 
I'm not quite sure what you mean? What do you mean by "If your happy to spend £1k or more on an 'ultrabook' then go for the spec and not the latter."?

I can only assume you don't quite realise what an ultrabook actually is, which has become a problem now companies have started to dilute it.

From Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrabook

An Ultrabook is a higher-end type of subnotebook defined by Intel. Intel has applied to register the name as a trademark.[1] Ultrabooks are designed to feature reduced bulk without compromising performance and battery life. They use low-power Intel Core processors, solid-state drives, and unibody chassis to help meet these criteria.[2] Due to their limited size, they typically omit common laptop features such as optical disc drives and Ethernet ports.[3]
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The Ultrabook directly competes against Apple’s MacBook Air, which has similar form specifications and is powered by Intel CPUs, but runs Mac OS X (and is capable of running Microsoft Windows like the Ultrabooks)
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Ultrabooks are by definition high powered slim, premium devices, designed to be powerful but stylish. A Dell 14z is not actually an ultrabook in any shape or form by the original definition (and it's questionable on the newer definition). It uses a standard HDD, has a 14" screen, isn't unibody, has a DVD drive and it's too thick... There is an chassis spec chart on the wiki page.

Considering the OP is thinking about a getting a macbook then I'm assuming the traditional definition is probably what he's interested in?

EDIT: For clarity as well, the UX31 was either the first or second ultrabook released http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/21/asus-zenbook-ux31-review/ alongside the http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/14/acer-aspire-s3-ultrabook-review/ which turned out to be a bit "meh" (the S3 that is, not the UX31), Both were/are around the price range I suggested and are basically "reference" designs, with the Series 9 and MBA being basically identical (except the Air obviously runs OSX instead of windows and so by definition can't be a "true" ultrabook).
 
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Gigabyte U2442F should be out within the next month.

Screen isn't great in reviews, but performance can't be beaten in that category.
 
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