Ultrabook - which one?

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 16th Jun, '12, 14:33

Just been down to the Funan to have a look at the various Ultrabooks on offer. In general, the Ultrabooks are coming in at 13" monitor, 128GB solid state hard drive and 4GB RAM and are thin or thinner still. Some companies are offering different specs (Asus have an 11" version, several are offering larger standard HD and RAM at the same price or a larger SSD at increased prices).

Typical prices for the above are $1200-1500, with increases if you want 256GB SSD or i7 rather than i5 chips.

My thoughts - the typing experience on all was different to my current laptop. Only the Dell XPS13 to me seemed like something I can type on, wasn't too impressed with the Asus 11" but the 13" was a little better - are they the same keyboards or is there more space ont he 13"? Toshiba and Fujitsu are not yet into the SSD yet, but that means they offer far better specs like 500GB HD but it takes sometime to get one to boot up.

So far, nothing jumped out at me. If I HAD to buy one, then it would be the Dell, and may go for the upgraded SSD but not chip. Adds a couple of $$ to them. But in all honesty, I may just keep the current laptop for another year/until Win8 comes out (for $18, you can have the Win8 upgrade when available.)

I know Morro has the Asus Zenbook, anyone else tried? Thoughts from anyone?

baloo · Post by **baloo** » 16th Jun, '12, 15:00

I'd wait until this reches our stores.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/14/acer ... ilability/

If you're lucky they might do a red Ferrari version.

canuck · Post by **canuck** » 16th Jun, '12, 16:25

Yeah you totally blanked us....
I would wait for asus with the touch screen

Oooooo hmmmm

http://dvice.com/archives/2012/06/asus-taichi-ult.php

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 16th Jun, '12, 16:26

Good timing, been talking today about getting one so will watch with interest.

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 16th Jun, '12, 21:53

After my experiences with a coupe of Acer products I thought I'd never go back to one. However, that may change my mind!

The Asus dual screen looks good. Would I need it though? Hmmmm.....

avatarless · Post by **avatarless** » 17th Jun, '12, 03:42

That tabbook is what I've been waiting for!!!

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 28th Jun, '12, 17:55

OK, decided on not to wait. If I want a tablet, I'll buy the Windows one when it's available, but so far I've not figured out what I'd use it for outside of where I can take a light notebook.

There is a nice non-Ultrabook labelled by Samsung - the 9 series. Current offer for ~$1800 for i7 processor, 6GB RAM and 256GB SSD, 1.3kg I think. Like. Going to go get. Tomorrow I think.

CNet Review

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 29th Jun, '12, 05:36

We looked at a few at the weekend and it was a Samsung Neo was most interested in.

Just need to decide, do I really NEED a new one right now? Trying not to buy crap just for the sake of it, but I'm probably going to be unemployed again and home a lot soon and this netbook sure has its limitations (though definitely great for travelling).

Tas · Post by **Tas** » 29th Jun, '12, 08:09

that was a nice easy little article comparing netbooks to notebooks. I think I might want both. Which then lends me to thinking maybe if just want something for carrying around maybe actually want something else for online stuff - is that where the tablet thingies kick in? Now need to compare Tablets to Net books, and am I getting the impression that the netbook is still better for some file managing, better ports etc?
google is my friend: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... _tech.html

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 29th Jun, '12, 14:08

Samsung Series 9 computer purchased. So far so happy.

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 29th Jun, '12, 16:05

Haven't read those articles yet, Tas, but did read one a few weeks ago saying the netbook is dead. Deceased.

If you want something with guts, get an ultrabook; if you want something portable, get a tablet - that was the gist of it. My main gripe with the netbook is the screen dimensions. I realise that sounds stupid but I thought it would just be shrunk down. What I got is something where I can't actually get to the submit buttons of my on online banking, and yes I have tried tweaking the settings.

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 29th Jun, '12, 16:24

Kooky wrote:Haven't read those articles yet, Tas, but did read one a few weeks ago saying the netbook is dead. Deceased.

If you want something with guts, get an ultrabook; if you want something portable, get a tablet - that was the gist of it.

I'd agree with that sentiment, Kooky.

Liking this newbie on my coffee table anyhow.

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 27th Jul, '12, 07:55

OK, so nearly a month on from buying this baby - and liking the look and use of it a lot.

Good battery life: I tend to charge it once a day and use it quite extensively in the evenings. So must be getting 5+ hours out of it. Battery time management includes a low/no power sleep mode which is entered when I close the lid, and the restart time is quick (less than 10 sec) which includes the net link via my wireless.

Weight - I've not carried it anywhere yet, but feels lovely and light.

Options - can set the USB ports to still charge even when in sleep, which is good.

I'm happy I went with the larger HDD (256GB versus 128GB which seems to be more standard across competitors). If I need extra storage then I can either use a microSD card (up to 32GB) or USB thumb drives (of which I have plenty). I also managed to free up the hidden 21GB of HDD which is used to restore to factory settings (I backed the data up on an old external HDD and then some DVDs, so should have everything covered there). I've not noticed the extra RAM (6GB instead of 4GB) nor the better processor (a i7 rather than i5).

So, the Samsung Series 9 gets my thumbs up. I think they have some newer models out and have extended the range of screen sizes - if you're looking for a new one and are willing to spend the $$ then I can recommend these.

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 16th Sep, '12, 07:34

Hey Bob/anybody - if you're passing anywhere useful please could you price up the Samsung 900X3C-A01 for me? Cheers.

baloo · Post by **baloo** » 16th Sep, '12, 07:55

I was playing with one of those yesterday (13" series 9 right?)

Don't quote me but think HN had a 1.4k sticker on it. Or that could have been the 15" series 7.

The only thing stopping me from buying a laptop now is knowing that in 6 months touch screen laptops will be out in force.

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 16th Sep, '12, 08:25

Sounds like the one, baloo - had a tag on as AUD1599 but, when we asked what it had over the equivalent Mac to make it even more expensive than that (AUD1349) we were told it was tagged incorrectly and should be AUD1399 but, quelle surprise, they didn't have any in stock.

There was a Samsung windows tablet 700T next to it and we asked for a demo but, TBH, it didn't give me a warm feeling. It was actually showing an error message and the guy couldn't get it to work properly - and overall he seemed quite clued up.

edit: That's the one with a separate keyboard.

baloo · Post by **baloo** » 16th Sep, '12, 08:36

Yeah, give it 6 months for the touchscreen laptops. They'll iron out the bugs (hardware and software) by then.

Not sure who, maybe asus or Samsung, have demo'd a windows 8 laptop that is not only touchscreen, but the monitor part is detachable.

Looks like the perfect hybrid but need to see what it's like in the real world first. But that is the way of the near future reckon.

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 16th Sep, '12, 08:44

Sounds very similar and I agree, too early to risk it.

I've been putting off making landfill for the sake of it but currently having big problems with my 2 year-old netbook battery. Gets down to 30-odd % very quickly and then just shuts down, brings up an error message when I plug it in and reboot.

Trying to decide if it's worth buying a new battery and, if so, going HP or a cheapie, or just moving on earlier than I wanted to.

As much as it pains me to say this, I did for a minute yesterday actually consider the Mac.

baloo · Post by **baloo** » 16th Sep, '12, 09:14

Worcell Singapore battery place. Good prices. If you go the battey route feel free to ship it to my place and I can hand it over hen you get here.

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 16th Sep, '12, 14:51

Price depends on what specification you have. Courts has one at $2188 (i7 chip, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD - sounds expensive to me).

canuck · Post by **canuck** » 16th Sep, '12, 19:25

I'm excited for samsings slate laptops,,, not sure i can justify it tho

baloo · Post by **baloo** » 16th Sep, '12, 22:47

nice.

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 17th Sep, '12, 06:05

Thanks, chaps.

Toshiba Satellite's come a long way since we all had the clunky workhorses (much like the IBM ones) all those years ago

I've been thinking about this, and reckon I should probably get a new battery for this netbook and watch what happens with these hybrid thingies for a few months. Now let's see if common sense wins...

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 10th Oct, '12, 05:02

So here I am on my old IBM Thinkpad with the missing "U" key

Man it seems big! Netbook died yesterday. Been giving me the battery message for a while and shutting down with almost a full charge but yesterday would power up (on mains) but not boot up

Let it go through trying to fix itself and managed to back up the files before Neo came home and rebooted it, managed to get it to wake up but it's not safe to use. He said something about it having two batteries (one on the motherboard?) and both now shagged.

Hmmm, decisions decisions. Spent some time on Saturday playing with the Samsung Tab. Handy, inexpensive, can get a portable keyboard for it...still think an ultrabook would be a better bet. Put it on Neo's shopping list for Singapore

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 21st Nov, '12, 15:42

Just to update this, I got a Samsung Series 5, 13". It says it's i5-3317U f that means anything to you. 8GB.

So far so good.

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