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I'm going to be in the market for a new laptop in the next couple of weeks, so I was hoping to get some advice first. I'm going to be using it entirely for university work, so OneNote, Word, Endnote, etc. I will not be gaming at all, not one bit, although I may watch 1080p movies from time to time. I live quite a way away from campus and so I have to do a lot of travelling back and forth, so my number one priority is thinness and lightness, and I'm looking for either a 13 or 14 inch machine. 12.5 inches might be a bit on the small side so I think that counts the XPS 12 out of the running. My second priority is the display. I hate using 1366x768 on a 13/14 inch screen. I'd really be looking for 1600x900 minimum, 1920x1080 preferred. EDIT: I don't care about touchscreens either way. If it's there fine, but I will literally never use it. My third priority is the trackpad, I really need it to be as good as possible because I get really really frustrated by poor controls. I know I could always get a mouse too but I'd like to keep the amount of stuff I carry around to an absolute minimum. Looking at the T440s the trackpad looks just awful so I'm not sure it'll be for me. I don't really like the Trackpoint on Thinkpads either. My fourth priority is battery life. I'd like to get as much out of it as possible bearing in mind all the above constraints. I'm guessing getting a Haswell laptop will get me better battery life than Ivy Bridge but please correct me if I'm wrong about that. I need to have the laptop in my hands by the end of September, so I'm guessing models like the T440s and the Zenbook Infinity would be outside that window. I've been looking at either the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus or the new Haswell Dell Latitude 7000. Is there a reason I should pick one of those over the other? Are there any models I'm neglecting? I'm willing to consider the models I ruled out above if I'm wrong about what I said about them. In terms of price range the above models give an idea of the maximum I'm willing to spend. I'd really like something with good build quality that'll last me the next 3-4 years so I'm willing to spend a premium if it gets me greater reliability. TomWaitsForNoMan fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Aug 31, 2013 |
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Aug 31, 2013 00:44
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I had a question about these ultra high res displays we're seeing now. The Ativ Book 9 Plus for example has a 13" screen with a 3200x1800 resolution. Now surely at that size everything on the screen would be two small to see comfortably? I know they recommend using Windows pixel scaling, but then what advantage is there in having a 3200x1800 display with 2x pixel scaling rather than a 1600x900 screen? Is there any point?
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Aug 31, 2013 11:11
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Cream_Filling posted:But if so you still have to pay a lot more money to at best use pixel doubling (assuming your drivers do it properly) which is going to look exactly the same as a 1600x900 display. So why bother? I don't think I would be paying a lot more money though, because as far as I can see the Ativ Book 9 Plus is the same price range as the other laptops I mentioned in my post at the top of the page TomWaitsForNoMan posted:I'm going to be in the market for a new laptop in the next couple of weeks, so I was hoping to get some advice first.
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Aug 31, 2013 19:04
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DrDork posted:not terribly impressive features Can you clarify what you mean by this? I was strongly considering getting the Ativ but if there's something just as portable with Haswell and a >768p screen that's better value for money I'd definitely consider it Naffer posted:I'm actually deciding between the same laptops as you, and right now I'm leaning towards the Latitude 7440 pending the final price. The images of the model with the 1080p touch screen make it look fantastic. I know it's a bit heavier and doesn't have the high resolution of the Ativ Book 9 plus, but I'm hoping it'll hold up better over time. Plus the non-chiclet keyboard and 3 year standard warranty wins points. Do you know when the 1080p model will be out? Right now they've only got a launch date for the 768 model which is why I'm leaning towards the Ativ TomWaitsForNoMan fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Aug 31, 2013 |
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Aug 31, 2013 19:13
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RVProfootballer posted:4GB ram and 128GB SSD for $1400 is really not good. It's pretty embarrassing that they didn't at least step up to 8GB ram baseline for that price, and 128GB SSD is less egregious but still pretty weak. Hmm, are there alternative Haswell ultrabooks I should consider that have a >768 screen? I think the XPS 12 would be a bit too small at 12.5 inches but I'm open to other suggestions
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Aug 31, 2013 19:22
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RVProfootballer posted:I'm not sure, I'm not in the market for one now so haven't been too vigilant about what's been refreshed with Haswell. Whenever the Zenbook Infinity comes out, it should be decent, but who knows. If you decide you do quite like the Ativ and want more ram or SSD space, I'm sure you'll be able to spend an extra couple hundred for them. Then you're getting into kinda crazy $1600+ territory, though. The only thing is the Infinity probably won't be out until mid-October and I need the laptop by the end of September, unfortunately
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Aug 31, 2013 19:31
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Other than the lack of driver updates, is there another reason not to get a Vaio Pro?
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Aug 31, 2013 21:18
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What's it like using a 1080p 14 inch screen? Is it comfortable to type on/read from for long periods of time or is the text just too small? Windows doesn't handle DPI scaling that well so I was wondering if that high a resolution on that size screen would be worth it
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Sep 13, 2013 09:11
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TomWaitsForNoMan posted:What's it like using a 1080p 14 inch screen? Is it comfortable to type on/read from for long periods of time or is the text just too small? Windows doesn't handle DPI scaling that well so I was wondering if that high a resolution on that size screen would be worth it I figured it would actually be easier to go to a shop and look at the laptops on display and see for myself, so I spent some time today doing just that. Long story short, just in case anyone else is wondering, it's pretty much fine. Sometimes text when typing or browsing can be a bit too small, but zoom functions on either the web browser or Word mean it's not a problem really. And if anything else is too small bumping up the native Windows scaling to 125% makes things big enough to read without breaking anything too badly.
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Sep 13, 2013 15:48
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Duck and Cover posted:Here's my review of the Samsung Ativ 9 Book Plus Deep fried Edition. Are you ready? Windows 8 is poo poo. Samsung installs garbage on it. Is it just the new start screen or is there more wrong with it? What's the super high-res display like to work with?
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Sep 13, 2013 23:02
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