Where are the laptops? Why is Apple the only company with a brain?

[s44]

For the markets that ~13in ultrabooks are aimed at, the HD4400 IGP is perfectly fine. These aren't gaming machines, after all, even if the HD4400 is a fairly respectable IGP.

And in fact, thermal limitations/throttling makes stuff above the 4400 basically a paper improvement only.

There aren't any *Apple* devices that meet OP's requirements either. The rMBP is too heavy and, like every other ultrabook, lacks user-expandable RAM.

 

[creed3020]

I forgot to mention that the Yoga2Pro is the closest thing I have found...

-Lacks AC WiFi
-Intel HD 4400 is really the best they can do?

In the comments of the recent AT review of the Y2P there were some people indicating that AC wifi was included

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8289/life-with-the-lenovo-yoga-2-pro

 

[Chapbass]

You suspected incorrect. The term 'Ultrabook' didn't come around until 2011, but ultraportable laptops existed well before the MBA. Though, as Commodus stated, they came with draw backs. As did the early Air models, for that matter. In fact, Apple lifted the design language for the Air directly from Sony's early ultraportables.

Apple was able to take advantage of newer ULV and more tightly integrated silicon that didn't exist the half decade prior.

Lets not give Apple credit for inventing something that every other major OEM had done years before them.

This. For example, I had a sony SZ650 in 2007, before the air came around.

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Sony-Vaio-SZ650.htm

What a badass laptop.

 

[Chipfiref]

Apple could make a killing if they start making laptops which run on windows 7 (not the crippled bootcamp or vmware type running) and make them hdd/ssd/ram upgradable. At least I will be first in line. What holds me back from buying a macbook is the mac os.

I have a 2011 13" Macbook Air which is running Windows 7 (ultimate I believe)

It is not in any kind of VM, the machine actually boots to Windows. There were instructions and drivers to do this on the internet, I think on Apple's website?

This machine is pretty good for Win 7 - I play Civilization 5 on this Air - it has a resolution of 1440x900, but Civ 5 is very playable when on the go.

What I don't like is that the keys don't exactly match for Windows, but it is doable. Also my audio driver does not seem to work for the speakers, but does work for headphones!

Make me an offer!

...

Apple has taken the approach of making the best device possible for the consumer on the go, and still make a 25% markup. They count on a reasonable volume of sales at a very good proft. Their customer base tends to be commuting knowledge-workers (take the train to work), upper-middle income knowledge workers, students, the upwardly mobile and their offspring. Then they get a lot of birthday and Christmas business because of their huge advertising budget. Now, Samsung has currently something like a $16Billion! advertising budget, and you can see them catching up or even surpassing Apple in some markets/product categories.

The typical Windows laptops are unfortunately targeted at the lowest common denominator, where companies try to sell a huge chunk of product at low margins. This is just a different strategy from what Apple has done. (Rememberr Steve Jobs' whole design philosophy was different than all other electronics companies - I like what they have done in some areas, not in others - e.g. the little trash can Mac Pro) I went into the electronics store a few years ago and had to wade through tons of that years' mediocre Windows laptops just to find what I could live with. When I broke the screen, fixing was not worth it, I decided to get a Macbook Air and just put Windows 7 on it.

I wish Apple would make a decent Windows Mac Air, the way MS is making Microsoft Office for the MacOS.

 

[Rdmkr]

In the comments of the recent AT review of the Y2P there were some people indicating that AC wifi was included

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8289/life-with-the-lenovo-yoga-2-pro

You can install an AC wifi card easily anyway. A five minute job. As far as I'm aware there is no way for them to tell you did it so I think your warranty remains intact. (but don't quote me on it)

 

[kommisar]

Lenovo is infamous for having whitelist in bios that only lets certain hardware boot. See e.g. here:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Genera...rd-BIOS-whitelists-Lenovo-COME-ON/td-p/952681

Don't buy a Lenovo thinking you can easily upgrade until you do your research.

 

[marcplante]

Samsung ATIV 9 series. I believe the plus comes with an SSD, RAM you want and QHD screen, plus 9ish hour battery life. Pricey, but APPL hardware is too. Microsoft store has them marked down a bit. plus you can try it for 30 days.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/pcs/NP940X3G-K04US

 

[mauiblue]

Lenovo is infamous for having whitelist in bios that only lets certain hardware boot. See e.g. here:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Genera...rd-BIOS-whitelists-Lenovo-COME-ON/td-p/952681

Don't buy a Lenovo thinking you can easily upgrade until you do your research.

A couple weeks ago I installed a Crucial 8 gb stick of RAM in my Lenovo u430 ultrabook. Of course I did my research and all is well. Now planning to install a Crucial 1 TB SSD after doing my research. Should be good to go. Don't need to upgrade anything else except installing Windows 8.1 Pro or wait until Windows 9 comes out.

 

[s44]

OK, I was wrong. There is a machine for the OP (matte aside, since touchscreen = glass).

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KTHGRIS/
plus a 512gb MX100.

8gb RAM (expandable to 12), 512gb (expandable further with a different 7mm drive or by adding a M.2 drive), 1080p, and good battery life... all for under $1200.

There's actually a Nvidia 840M model, but (1) because ultrabooks aren't designed to dissipate that kind of heat, it's prone to device failures, and (2) if you're really finicky, this uses the 3200*1800 panel that doesn't do accurate yellows unless plugged into a wall. Yes, in the Notebook Forum thread there are actually people buying this version (the UX303LN - the UX303LA is the one recommended above) and replacing the panel with the 1080p one from the other one.

Or, if resolution and standard HDMI are more important than expandable RAM/7mm SSD slot, there's the Kirabook i5Sm for about the same price at Amazon (8gb/256gb standard, 2560*1440 resolution).

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Lenovo is infamous for having whitelist in bios that only lets certain hardware boot. See e.g. here:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Genera...rd-BIOS-whitelists-Lenovo-COME-ON/td-p/952681

Don't buy a Lenovo thinking you can easily upgrade until you do your research.

They've been doing that for a loooong time now with the wifi and wwan cards.

There's no whitelist for the CPU/memory/drives.

 

[D2ultima]

Ignoring most of the ultrabook vs macbook air talk, I would just like to remind good old OP that when you shove a dedicated GPU of any kind into a thin and light form factor, one of a few things will happen:
1 - CPU and GPU share cooling heatsink and fan
2 - GPU is left without fan; only CPU is cooled
3 - CPU and GPU both get separate yet awful fans to save space

Either way, you end up with a hot machine. You don't want a hot machine. I understand that there MUST be a perfect machine out there for you somewhere, but graphics power + thin and light = hot. You can't really fight this. You can probably find the battery life/screen/etc combo, however.

 

[ringtail]

Apple is THE ONLY company that's deviously clever at separating YOU from your dollars.

On that score Google is chasing Apple.

------------------------------------
From Humqaq (Point Conception), - "the Western Gate," the place revered by Indians all over the whole US and Canada as the door into eternity, the jumping-off place of human souls to the afterlife with the (what we now call) Chumash people of Goleta and Santa Barbara as its sacred custodians, since 13,500 years ago. link

Rincon in the foreground and the Santa Barbara coast

 

[randomlinh]

I've been in the market to look for something as well without the 3lb caveat. Actually, I just wanted a windows alternative to the MBPr and so far, the yoga 2 pro comes closest, but I have no idea how it's built (i've only seen the yoga 2 in stores). I actually like the Dell Lattitude 12 7000 series, except it's not cheap, and you can't seem to do i7 with the FHD screen.

But the question still stands, is there no market for this in a ~13ish size? I even considered the Surface Pro 3, but not sure I need that niche. Plus, it seems to throttle quite a bit.

Yes, I've considered just installing windows on a MBPr.

 

[Throckmorton]

You know what though? There are laptops from Sony and Asus that meet your requirements, but they're garbage. I bought a Sony with the electronic digitizer, and went through 5 trying to find one without blemishes on the screen. Finally gave up and bought an Asus Q550 from Best Buy and while it has good specs, the build quality is horrible. After disassembling the whole damn thing several times to swap hard drives trying to get a new SSD to work (technically replacement hard drives are not supported due to some dumb BIOS encryption system) it no longer screws together properly and some of the screw holes are stripped. The DVD drive doesn't work either. The Intel Centrino wifi drops frequently and has to be reset by going into "airplane mode". The only good thing about the laptop is the SRGB gamut IPS screen.

Should have just bought a Macbook Pro 13.3" Retina...

 

[Throckmorton]

Samsung ATIV 9 series. I believe the plus comes with an SSD, RAM you want and QHD screen, plus 9ish hour battery life. Pricey, but APPL hardware is too. Microsoft store has them marked down a bit. plus you can try it for 30 days.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/pcs/NP940X3G-K04US

The ATIV laptops are garbage. Poor quality screens. They're glossy yet they have matte sparkle. I tried one of those too and returned it.

 

[Hulk]

I mean does it make sense to anyone that APPL makes the best-selling laptops yet no one attempts to copy their formula? I suppose SONY attempted to but they are gone now.

My Sony Vaio is 4+ years old and I still have not found the replacement I want! The closest is the Apple 13.3" MacBook Pro but don't want to enter that ecosystem.

Here it is the "back to school" season and I am just seeing CRAP out there. 1366x768 screens??? What? In 2014? This is what my 2010 laptop has!!!

Why is this so hard to find...

-The latest Core i5U or i7U processor.
-13.3" screen size.
-Minimum Intel HD4400 gfx. Iris or something from AMD or nVidia preferred!
-Minimum 1920x1080 matte IPS monitor.
-Intel AC WiFi
-8GB RAM minimum (with at least one user-accessible expansion slot).
-256 SSD (with ability to upgrade).
-Minimum 6-8 hour battery life under "normal" WiFi use.
-ca. 3 lbs.
-Ultrabook thinness with one standard HDMI port.
-SD card reader.
-USB 3.0.
-Price: ca. $1500 (or less).

I agree with you 100%. Your specs are right on. Exactly what I want.

Only Apple seems to "get it." Unfortunately I don't "get" the Apple OS.

 

[fire400]

as of 9/26/2014...
< 3,460 views, less than 50 posts >

-viewers back away slowly, leaving hands in pockets... "this guy is too damn picky."

+1, for Bateluer. Lenovo is the way to go.

 

[Throckmorton]

The issue with Apple is RAM and hard drives are no longer upgradeable. You're stuck paying $300 for an extra 4gb and the SSD.

 

[tsupersonic]

The issue with Apple is RAM and hard drives are no longer upgradeable. You're stuck paying $300 for an extra 4gb and the SSD.

It's not just Apple. Many of the ultrabooks on the market are non-user upgradable. You're stuck paying for expensive RAM and SSD upgrades directly to the manufacturer.

 

[ownthesky]

OP is totally correct. PC OEM's have given up on competing. I don't feel bad for the sorry state of the PC industry; they've done it to themselves.

I'm a student. I just want a 11 to 13" 1080p display, 4 GB of RAM, a small SSD, and a keyboard/trackpad that isn't garbage. Obviously the thing shouldn't weight a ton. The only device that comes close is the Surface Pro 3 and after buying the keyboard, I'm in Macbook Air territory. Why are Chromebooks coming out with those specs, but the manufacturers won't slap Windows 8 on it? I'd gladly pay a premium for the MS license...

 

[win32asmguy]

http://www.ncix.com/detail/acer-travelmate-tmp645-mg-9617-intel-i7-4500u-ff-91481-1342.htm

It isn't perfect, but comes pretty close to what the OP wants while being in the price range. I am fairly certain it CAN be upgraded to an 802.11AC wifi card. It uses an mSATA SSD which can be upgraded as well. The 14 inch screen is pretty standard for business laptops and is still very thin and light compared to the Apple 13.3 inch.

My only worry about it would be to treat the AC power jack very gently so it will last longer. I have replaced many of those on Acer laptops, it is usually the first thing to break. Luckily the battery can really last 6-8 hours while using the wifi so you should not need it plugged in while on your lap (which is mostly what stresses the power jack).

 

[FwFred]

I forgot to mention that the Yoga2Pro is the closest thing I have found...

-Lacks AC WiFi
-Intel HD 4400 is really the best they can do?

For what it's worth, I've been using a Yoga2Pro I upgraded to the 7260AC for nearly a year. It works great!

 

[GreenMeters]

The Thinkpad Yoga 14 announced yesterday looks pretty promising. 1920x1080 display, business-oriented but with a consumer-grade GeForce 840M option. Little larger and heavier @ 14"/4.1 lbs but it's looking promising for anyone who wants moderating gaming, serious work, and mobility. Anxious for more specs.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Just ordered a refurb Dell Latitude E7440 ultrabook for $845(using a 30% off coupon).

14" 1080p matte IPS screen
16gb RAM
i5-4310u cpu
128g SSD
4 cell replaceable battery
AC Wifi
HD 4400
3 year warranty