Why is it so hard to find a good laptop?

[Sunburn74]

Asus ux31a? Processor maybe not as fast, but sleek machine with great battery life and a fabulous screen.

 

[ImDonly1]

Asus ux31a? Processor maybe not as fast, but sleek machine with great battery life and a fabulous screen.

That's last years model, so they are discounted. Not sure how good the trackpad is on them?

This year's ux301 with haswell cost from $1,600-2,000. I don't know what they were thinking with that one.

 

[SecurityTheatre]

The moment there is a "Retina" MacBook Air, I will have my perfect laptop.

It's your day!

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/540156/20140224/apple-macbook-air-2014-a8.htm

 

[Kroze]

The HP folio I'm typing this on has been my longest held laptop to date. My only issue is the screen resolution.

The moment there is a "Retina" MacBook Air, I will have my perfect laptop. I've decided the next laptop I buy I will not compromise on anything that I want. So less than .75" thick, 13" >= 1680x1050, backlit keyboard, 256gb SSD+, 8gb Ram+, 7+ hours real world battery. Dedicated graphics would be asking a little too much. I also want it to be silent, but I realized that the thinner they get, the less possible that really is.

I think the MacBook Pro exceeds all of your criteria. .71" thick, Way higher resolution w/IPS display, backlit keyboard, SSD, 9+ hours of battery life.

 

[Kroze]

It's your day!

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/540156/20140224/apple-macbook-air-2014-a8.htm

I wonder how it'll compare to the Haswell processors that are currently in the MBA.

 

[Infohawk]

If you want a PC, does it really matter if it costs the same as a mac? Macs are great choices for a lot of people, but for those of us that need a PC for one reason or another, I don't think it matters if macs are the same price.

 

[Commodus]

I wonder how it'll compare to the Haswell processors that are currently in the MBA.

Considering how the rumor is completely unsupported and likely false, it won't compare at all. Wish folks wouldn't take sketchy rumors at face value...

 

[TwiceOver]

It's your day!

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/540156/20140224/apple-macbook-air-2014-a8.htm

You had me all hyped up there for nothing.

 

[Kroze]

If you want a PC, does it really matter if it costs the same as a mac? Macs are great choices for a lot of people, but for those of us that need a PC for one reason or another, I don't think it matters if macs are the same price.

I want a laptop that have the same or similar characteristics & quality as the Macbook Pro at a lower cost than the Macbook Pro. Which is battery life, hi res IPS display, solidly constructed, very thin and light.

If I'm going to spend $1300, i'll just go out and buy the MB Pro because there's nothing comparable at that price.

 

[sze5003]

I want a laptop that have the same or similar characteristics & quality as the Macbook Pro at a lower cost than the Macbook Pro. Which is battery life, hi res IPS display, solidly constructed, very thin and light.

If I'm going to spend $1300, i'll just go out and buy the MB Pro because there's nothing comparable at that price.

Yea I used to find lots of laptops for less money with decent specs for what I wanted but when you look at the style and battery life of a macbook you really can not compare. Of course if you will run windows on it then battery will decrease faster.

As far as the display the only laptop that I had which had a great display was the dell xps 15 model. Of course I chose a nicer display and at that time, I think I paid close to 1200 but it had new tech in it and a good GPU when compared to the macs.

But now the macbook pros are pretty well off stock, minus an ssd. The only thing cheaper would be to get a recently thin PC laptop and swap the hd out, finding one with a really nice screen will not be cheaper though.

 

[Riceninja]

i bought this recently:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Samsung-ATIV-Book-9-Plus-NP940X3G-K05US-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/productID.289564800

tested out the yoga, x1 carbon, asus ux301, nothing in the windows sphere comes close to the ativ which rivals mbp for looks, build quality and screen sharpness.

sure its about $200 overpriced but worth it in my mind. aesthetics are important.

 

[Oyeve]

OP, why dont you just buy a MB and move on?

 

[Infohawk]

I want a laptop that have the same or similar characteristics & quality as the Macbook Pro at a lower cost than the Macbook Pro. Which is battery life, hi res IPS display, solidly constructed, very thin and light.

If I'm going to spend $1300, i'll just go out and buy the MB Pro because there's nothing comparable at that price.

OP, why dont you just buy a MB and move on?

This. If you don't need Windows for a specific reason, Apple has become a good choice. The days where they ran PowerPC and were always overpriced seem to be gone.

 

[tokie]

This bothers me greatly.

Sub-$1000 laptops are generally pieces of shit. Terrible screens, terrible battery life, and terrible keyboard/trackpad feel.

I want something similar to the rMBP but cheaper. The Dell XPS 15 costs around the same as a rMBP 15". Similarly the Dell XPS 13 costs the same as a rMBP 13".

Why do people think they can price the same as Apple and survive? Dell is not a premium brand. Selling the same hardware for as much money as Apple is suicide.

 

[Sunburn74]

Like I said before last years ux31a is a fabulous machine, I get 6.5 to 7 hours of use and a superior IPS screen to the Mac book and the macbook air. Track pad is decent to good overall. Best machine I have ever bought and prices for the ivy version start at 599 due to the older design. There is a haswell model (ux31LA) which is out. Reviews are scarce but there is a Swedish site posting real world usage greater than 7.5 hrs. The haswell model is starting at around 1200 but with 8gb of ram and a 256gb sad and a 1080p IPS touchscreen.

http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/17316-asus-zenbook-touch-ux31la/8#pagehead

You may want to browse a few of Asus other variants on the zen book theme ads these variants make tradeoffs based on need such as adding a dedicated having GPU in favor of a slightly thicker chassis but which can now give a full HDMI slot and etc.

No one seriously mentioned the Samsung series 9 which also are high end machines with amazing screens and apple esque build quality. The battery life of last years model in real world use exceeded 7 hours due to a massive battery.

You get what you pay for but honestly at around $1000-1200 I do think the best PC options outclass the best Mac options at that price point.

 

[StrangerGuy]

My thoughts:
-MBA as a lone SKU massively outsells every single PC laptop out there, they can save more in manufacturing costs thanks to economics of scale.
-The opposite thing happens for the PC OEMs since they have TONS of individual models to build and support.
-Apple doesn't have to pay the Windows tax.
-Apple can bully Intel for better prices with their iOS/ARM leverage that PC OEMs don't enjoy.
-PC laptops are generally regarded by people to be cheap disposable appliances undeserving of paying more for extra quality. If they want to spend more they simply got a MBA.

tl:dr = Apple can do a whole lot more at the same cost than any given PC OEM and people are willing to pay the premium for it.

 

[nk215]

I have the thinkpad x1 carbon and I really like it. The 2014 X1 carbon should have a very good screen compared to the previous year model. I also have the older ASUS pink (hand me down from the wife, that's why it's pink) which is also very good but with only 4GB memory.

 

[Bateluer]

Using the MacBook Pro as a benchmark, I can't find a single laptop PC that can compare without costing the same as or more than the MacBook Pro 13.3" ($1300).

My requirements are:

1. High resolution IPS display.
2. Exceptional REAL-WORLD battery life. IBM/Lenovo and their bullshit advertised battery life really jaded me. Looking at all the reviews, the macbook pro really does get 9 hours of usage.
3. Strong and sturdy build quality that's also thin and light. I don't think anything come close to the macbook one piece aluminum body.
4. A CPU that's not a low performing ultrabook type.

Am I asking for too much?

Not really, those are pretty much standard Ultrabook features. But they're also readily available for ~1300 dollars from Acer, Asus, HP, Samsung, and Lenovo. Most are using similar Haswell i5 models, some i3s on the lower end and some i7s on the higher end.

Battery life is a tougher question to answer though. Lots of variables to consider there. On my 2011 Macbook Air, Apple rated it for ~5hs, but in the real world it pulled a little over 3hrs. On my Acer V5 122p subnotebook, Acer rates it for ~3hrs and thats pretty close to what it gets with normal use.

I was reading Engadget's review on the HP Spectre 13, seemed like a promising device though I'm not in the market for a 1000+ ultrabook personally. It pulled 8:30hrs in their battery life test.

http://www.engadget.com/products/hp/spectre/13/

 

[ultimatebob]

I'll say this... Dell's consumer grade notebooks suck. My two year old Dell XPS 15 looks like it's been through a war even though it's only two years old and never leaves the house. It also had multiple part failures during the one year warranty period.

It sounds like the CPU fan is about to fail on it... again. I wanna throw the damn thing out the window.

The discrete graphics also cause the system to overheat if you play on it for more than 15 minutes. Lame.

My advice? Pay the extra money for a Lenovo T series Thinkpad. Those suckers are built like tanks.

 

[r0n]

I'll say this... Dell's consumer grade notebooks suck. My two year old Dell XPS 15 looks like it's been through a war even though it's only two years old and never leaves the house. It also had multiple part failures during the one year warranty period.

It sounds like the CPU fan is about to fail on it... again. I wanna throw the damn thing out the window.

The discrete graphics also cause the system to overheat if you play on it for more than 15 minutes. Lame.

My advice? Pay the extra money for a Lenovo T series Thinkpad. Those suckers are built like tanks.

I have a T430s it's light and sturdy have a bay battery installed gives me good 5 - 6 hrs of battery life and I don't have to worry about bumps and falls when I travel..... love that mean machine.

 

[Sequences]

I've taken apart my GF's MBP and my own Thinkpad. I would have to say that when it comes to "build quality", my Thinkpad has given me more. Build quality to me means the ability of my laptop to withstand use - meaning the quality of the materials used and the engineering behind it.

I have sat on my Thinkpad, thrown it around, carried it by its screen, etc. I don't try to abuse it, but it has taken quite a beating through my years of school. It was designed well. The cover was not glossy, which made holding it easy. The red nub was amazing to use, the keyboard is great. Battery life (when new) was upwards of 6 to 7 hours, and this was a few years ago. I like my very utilitarian laptop. It is thick, bulky, and ugly in many people's eyes. But it still works, I can throw Linux/Unix/Windows at it and it handles it like a champ.

My GF's MBP is about the same age as my Thinkpad. I haven't used it so I can't comment on the OS comparisons. I tried installing Linux on it and that was a pain. I couldn't get it to work. I can't get Windows on it unless I bootcamp. Without putting too much effort into it, I cannot get away from the Apple offering. This is how their model work. Once you buy into it, you can't get out. I don't like that and for that reason I won't buy a MBP. They have great screens, great battery life, and a familiar terminal for me. But I'm not about to sell my soul to the Apple world.

I like to tinker, so whatever hardware I buy I would like to do what I like with it so their products are not for me.

 

[GTRagnarok]

i bought this recently:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...5US-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/productID.289564800

tested out the yoga, x1 carbon, asus ux301, nothing in the windows sphere comes close to the ativ which rivals mbp for looks, build quality and screen sharpness.

sure its about $200 overpriced but worth it in my mind. aesthetics are important.

This is why I went with a 13" MBP after looking at Ultrabooks for a month. For the same price, I got the same amount of RAM but a 512GB SSD and a faster 4288U CPU with the much more powerful HD 5100 Iris graphics. I would have love to get the Ativ Book 9+ or the Zenbook UX301 but they're asking way too much for the specs. You can't compete with Apple like that.

 

[haiwai]

I've taken apart my GF's MBP and my own Thinkpad. I would have to say that when it comes to "build quality", my Thinkpad has given me more. Build quality to me means the ability of my laptop to withstand use - meaning the quality of the materials used and the engineering behind it.

Too bad the new ThinkPads are getting worse and worse. Redesigned keyboard, lack of physical trackpoint buttons with huge touchpad instead, lack of hardware wifi switch and above all worse build quality.

Don't know how is this with new MBP's, as it's been quite a long time since I have taken apart any of them. But I've been testing new Precisions and EliteBooks, and have to admit, they're still rock solid.

 

[r0n]

I think the last decent ThinkPad that was made was the T430s

 

[Zodiark1593]

Unless you're looking for cheap, or looking for a particularly powerful GPU, I too recommend going for the Macbook. Aside from relatively weak GPUs, they're easily among the best balanced machines on the market.