Ultrabook advice.

[wysockisauce]

Hey there, I need some help choosing a laptop.
It will be used for school work, web browsing and video playback.

Screen size- 13"

Resolution- 1080p atleast. Higher res would be favorable.

RAM- 8gb minimum.

Storage- 128gb SSD minimum.

Battery- 6 hours minimum. Longer battery life would be favorable.

Weight- Less than 4lb.

Price- Around $1000


I have been looking for quite some time and am having a hard time finding something better than the base model rMBP 13 for $1199 with a $100 gift card. It seems like comparable windows machines are much more expensive.

I am familiar with the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, but I'm avoiding it after reading about the issues people are having with it.

Hopefully you guys can point out something I missed.

Thanks

 

[Roland00Address]

It hard to go against the macbook air it is practically perfect in everything besides the lack of IPS. I would also prefer windows over osx.

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/Best-Ultrabooks.htm

I also like the Sony z.

Personally for me I rather get this pocket the savings and put my own msata ssd. But it much heavier then you want. (I rather use a tablet or a t100 for something small). Speaking of tablet the surface 3 is roughly in your price range.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...?ClickID=apswzwslytoynssplrsz9nw55wsvrys0vllr

Do you mind refurbished or only new?

 

[crashtestdummy]

I have the Yoga 2 Pro. I'm pretty happy with it. The only complaints I've got at this point after all the driver and firmware updates are with how some applications (particularly Adobe) handle resolution scaling and that the WiFi doesn't support 5GHz. The latter is fixed with a $35 upgrade, though.

 

[Roland00Address]

If you do get a windows laptop, check out http://www.microsoftstore.com/ they have some good prices for new ultrabooks that meet your criteria, such as the Acer S7, Dell XPS 13 and the Dell XPS 12 Tablet. These laptops do not have the junkware on them that you usually find if you buy from best buy or directly from the vendor

I know the S7 has a wonderful 1080 panel, and supposedly the 1440p panel is even better. The problem with the s7 is the keys have very little travel and the trackpad SUCKS. I have no clue how good the dell xps 13 is.

 

[vbuggy]

Look for deals on the XPS 13? If you want something like a Macbook Air but better in some respects, then it's a solid choice.

 

[holden j caufield]

nothing better than a Dell business e7240 latitude for those specs right now.

- 12.5 (touch 1080p glossy)
- 2 upgradeable msata slots
- 2 upgradeable ram slots
- Non chiclet keyboard old school keyboard with great backlit keyboard
- Removable battery, all parts are easy access
- Dedicated mouse buttons (I hate the clickpad touchpad and mouse built together)
- Docking port (also has wigig wireless dock station, best invention ever)

- 3 usb 3.0, full displayport, 1 mini displayport, audio jack

3lbs (3.5 lbs for the 1080p with touchscreen)

I get 6 hours on mine with medium screen brightness (more if you undervolt and use throttlestop), it's got the ruggerized matte finish on the outside

has indicator lights HD, battery, wifi (something some of the newer thinkpads don't have)

Very easy to upgrade the ram, msata, wireless card etc. Loving mine, except I'm getting into CAD and I'm not sure the integrated graphics will perform well doing that.

It is built very rugged and feels tough and sturdy like other latitudes and precisions. Wanted to stay with thinkpads but they're very different now.

upgraded to 16gb ram runs 5 virtual machines flawlessly at the same time

Yoga 2 would have been my choice if I could put more than 8gb of ram. Or x240 but 8gb ram max in this day is silly.

 

[Commodus]

Think you've answered your own question. So long as the software you need works on the Mac (Office does, of course), the 13-inch rMBP is a great machine. I can get 9-10 hours of real-world use on mine (web/TweetDeck/Photoshop/messaging), the trackpad is the best in the business, and the keyboard lets you type quickly.

It's definitely above your intended budget, but it is a case of getting what you pay for.

 

[s44]

The 8gb is what makes it hard. Most Windows OEMs don't let you configure RAM, and try to sell you the i7 upgrade along with it. Y2P is probably your best bet if price matters.

Of course, spending $1000 for uses that a Chromebook could handle seems silly to me...

 

[GreenMeters]

When do you need it? ASUS UX303LA ZenBook sounds like it would fit your requirements, but they've just been released and are still in short supply. Could be difficult to get one before the beginning of Sept.