Netbook/Notebook Recommendations? Ask For Advice Here! - Page 118

millsy_c · 21st August 2012, 4:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hlokk

Seeming to have trouble looking for something I want. Looking for a portable laptop (not too heavy) with decent grunt. Price not specifically an issue.

Dedicated graphics, SSD, 8gb ram, 1080p pref (under 2.4kg) or if 900 res then <2kg. 15" or 13" I guess.

Struggling to find good options. Sony has a 15" with 1080p that would be perfect if it wasnt for the only option having a slow processor

Cant find any others under 2.4kg with 1080p. Are a few options for 900res in 13", but nothing higher res.

Looked into Apple (would load windows), but the standard Macbook Pro is 2.5kg and only 1680x1050 (fine res for a 13", but i'd rather 1080 if a 15"). 13" res is poor. The retina ones are only 2kg and thin, but i've heard the res can push the graphics card a little much, and not quite sure how it would operate under windows...

TBH, not bad specs: 2.6ghz, 256gb ssd, high res 2kg, dedicated graphics, 8gb for $2600.
Cant find anything equiv. (although dell XPS15 if you replaced the hdd yourself, or lenovo T530 if you also replaced the ssd would be about the same price, but 2.5kg+).

ASUS's site is absolutely usesless. You need to click each confusing model name to get the specs.
All over manufacters seem to mostly do 900pix max, and if they are 1080, they're 2.6kg+. Why cant I get 1080p and 2kg

(Sony would if they had one more model option).

The Vaio Z is nice though. 1080P 13.1", 8gb, 256gb ssd, 17mm thick and 1.175kg! (dedicated graphics for 0.69kg more). Price is scary in Aus

Oddly, the Aussie Vaio site only has it as 2.1ghz processor, but reviews say 2.7.
In Singapore they have a equiv model (diff model name though

) for $1k less.

Anyone else to try?

Maybe check out the clevos from logicalblueone?

http://www.logicalblueone.com.au/sto...-notebook.html as an example

(I know it exceeds your weight requirements I'm just too busy to look hard

)

hlokk · 21st August 2012, 5:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by millsy_c

(I know it exceeds your weight requirements I'm just too busy to look hard

)

Defeats the point being over 3kg. Seem to be a number of 2.6kg+ 15" laptops, but i'd need it portable for travel and it just ends up being too much weight to cart around too often.

Theres a W25B that seems alright. 1080p, 2.3kg. Specced out similar to that $2600 MPB, it was $1800 or so. Save a massive $500 for an i5 at the same ghz though.. Not available til Sept 7 it says.

mtma · 21st August 2012, 6:48 PM

Thinkpad Edge S430?

900 res only but the starting weight is 1.8kg so fairly good chance to meet that requirement. Seems to have the processing wants covered as well.

hlokk · 21st August 2012, 7:36 PM

Cheers for the replies guys.

There are a few 900 res laptops in the 13" range that would be fine, but you
just cant put two pages on the screen like you can with 1080p res

(well, 1920x1200 would be better but no chance of that in a laptop).

The edge S430 seems pretty cheap, says usual $2200 or so, but discounted to $1200. The T430S is $2800 disc to $2300 for pretty much the same specs

The edge seems thinner by being 22mm throughout instead of going to 26mm?

Graphics are "N13P-GLP" for the edge S430 which I have no idea what that is. The PDF says 620M though. The T430S says HD4000 (integrated), but the next model down has a nvidia 5200

Why is the T430S so much more expensive?

Lenovo have terrible HDD options though. Comes with 128gb ssd with no upgrade options, and if you pick another laptop option, to go from 128gb to 256gb costs $600+

(though most seem to charge $500 for an upgrade to 256gb even though the ssd cost around $300 standalone..)

The Sony 15" only has a 2.1ghz i7 (1080p, 2kg), but then my desktop is an i5 2.8ghz, so perhaps its still fast enough...? So confusing comparing and i7 mobile to a i5 desktop. Used to use toms hardware but doesnt seem recently updated...

mtma · 22nd August 2012, 6:53 PM

Don't bother with the lenovo SSD options unless they're on massive discount. A lot of the options are a bit of a rip... and the 'valued at' price is BS as you already know

The reason why there's such a huge difference between the T430s and the Edge S430 is because the Edge line is designed with a commodity 'consumer' level chassis (mainly plastic, albeit the previous E*20's I thought were pretty good quality - don't know about the S and E*30's) without specific roll cage and spill proof keyboard and that other stuff you're more inclined to expect in a Thinkpad branded product.

The T430s is the works, roll-cage (in the case of the 430s it's carbon fibre not alloy like the other T's), drive shock protection, anti-spill protection etc. and also lightweight compared to the others in the same series. Along with far more battery options, docking options etc. Not entirely sure about screens, but from what I have seen the last T*20 and E*20 series, the part quality was better there as well, in terms of vibrance and viewing angle (even though they were both TN). The IPS on my X220 betters even those screens though for viewing as you'd expect.

On the magnesium cage Thinkpad T's you can open them up in an A shape and stand on the hinged edge and it won't panic too much

... until the floor lets it slip and it collapses that is

kesawi · 29th August 2012, 8:55 AM

I will be travelling over to the USA for a month and am looking for a cheap and light notebook. I'm after something bigger than a netbook. It will primarily be used for downloading photos off my camer, web browsing, email and watching the odd movie. I've found the following notebook for $329 that I can pick up when I arrive:

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versat...ormance/X401A/

I'd appreciate any other recommendations.

JBF · 8th September 2012, 12:30 AM

That ASUS will do all the things you want it to do and for that price I'm going to guess it'll be the dual core model.

If say sub 400-500 is your budget then you are more or less restricted to a netbook (tiny laptops with smart phone like processing power) or the loss leader/entry level fuller sized (14"-15.6") laptops.

If you can scrape a tad more $ you could get yourself an ultrabook and gain the added advantage of a thinner lighter laptop with better battery life....although having said that an ultrabook is not really an ultrabook (imo) without an SSD harddrive and they can be closer to 800-2000+. They also have smaller screens (11"-13.3")

I recently purchased a HP Folio 13-1016TU for under 700 which is a great SSD ultrabook and you may find them going on the cheap as I think they are technically end of life.

All in all if you only need it for a month and you're ok with average battery life, that ASUS is fine. Any other brands for that price are more or less the same.

icewind · 9th September 2012, 9:36 AM

yeh looking for something with half decent battery life, but can stand up to a bit of photoshop/lightroom. pref. 15in with min 1600x900 res. Something that can handle a bit of handling so needs to be of decent build quality. Probably get laughed out if i say budget is no more than approx 1000-1200?

JBF · 9th September 2012, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by icewind

yeh looking for something with half decent battery life, but can stand up to a bit of photoshop/lightroom. pref. 15in with min 1600x900 res. Something that can handle a bit of handling so needs to be of decent build quality. Probably get laughed out if i say budget is no more than approx 1000-1200?

http://www.sony.com.au/product/vpcse15fg

Good CPU, good Graphics, full HD screen, 4GB RAM but you can easily turn it into 8GB for PS etc.

Decent battery life considering the specs and you can get the bonus slimline extended battery to make it as good as an ultrabook.

Nice looking laptops as well and their build quality aint too bad from experience (no toughbook though...so still be careful

).

icewind · 9th September 2012, 7:30 PM

mmm... looks good from specs. time to read up.

aussie-revhead · 9th September 2012, 7:40 PM

Guys, my daughter wants a laptop just for net use and has a budget around $700, what would you guys recommend?

pippin88 · 18th September 2012, 2:44 PM

Hey all.

I'm going away for work for 3 months and will need some PC access. I was initially thinking a tablet given how light, good battery life and long-term may be more useful as I'd perhaps do more reading on it.
However I think I'd find a tablet too limiting and I'd like to do a bit of CAD work if possible. Not worried about gaming.

My current desktop is a C2D E6600 at 4ghz, 4gb ram, 750gb hard drives.

I think what I'm looking for is:
Something that will handle some Solidworks use (therefore 4gb ram + decent processor)
Lightish (don't really want something that weighs a ton, but won't be carting this around all day every day)
Good screen - size I'm not fixed on, maybe 13.3" to 15"?
Decent trackpad with multitouch etc.
HDD size is not important, if it doesn't come with SSD I'd probably swap in a 120gb SSD.
Budget - flexible, but ideally not more than $1000

I know what I've given is fairly vague, but I haven't owned a laptop before and my needs aren't that specific. Options / recommendations would be appreciated.

power · 18th September 2012, 2:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aussie-revhead

Guys, my daughter wants a laptop just for net use and has a budget around $700, what would you guys recommend?

just for the net? (code for facebook)

considered a tablet?

pippin88 · 19th September 2012, 7:31 AM

Further to my post above, I've had a good look around.
Looking primarily at the ~1.8kg laptops.

Lenovo S430 is quite attractive:
Intel Core i7-3520M Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz)
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
14.0" W HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit, AntiGlare Glass, Low-light sensitive HD Webcam (w/oWWAN), Mocha
NVIDIA 620M
8 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (2 DIMM)
128GB Solid State Drive, 2.5"
DVD Recordable
4 Cell Li-Polymer 48.8Wh
ThinkPad a/b/g/n Wireless & Bluetooth 4.0 (2x2 ABGN & BT 4.0)
~$900 with education discount

Downsides: Poor battery life

Other main option: Dell Outlet
Inspiron 14z
i5-3317U Processor (3MB cache, up to 2.6 GHz, with UMA Graphics Card)
Windows(R) 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (English)
8GB 2 DIMM (4GB x 2) DDR3 1600Mhz
128GB Solid State Drive 9.5mm SATA tray load DVD+/-RW
Internal 10/100 Fast Ethernet Intel(R) HD 4000
6-cell 44Whr Prismatic Internal Battery
Intel(R) 2230 802.11n + Bluetooth v4.0
14.0" HD WLED TrueLife (1366x768) No OS media included. Unit has minor
scratches. LCD Back Cover - Silver
[/b]Second hand (refurbished). Screen not as good. ?battery life?[/b]
$615

Thoughts?

alexc2005 · 19th September 2012, 8:03 AM

OK so the gf is looking for a laptop.

I have had a bit of a look around, but don't really keep up with laptops as much as i do PC gear.

We love the look of the samsung ultrabooks but not sure it will do what she wants:

must have 1080p screen
Light and portable
15" ish screen
very rugged (she is pretty rough with it haha)
Must be able to use architecture software (not sure of the requirements, im used to 3d modelling and that can be a little taxing)
Batterylife must be reasonable, 4hrs ish is a good goal.
budget isn't too important, although she would like to keep it under 1500

I think that's about it. The 15" ultrabook looks great, but not sure how well it will run architecture sotware (and also not even sure what program she wants to get), she isn't an architect but wants to play around with designing a house.

Any advice is appreciated guys

Alex

21st August 2012, 7:36 PM	#1759
hlokk Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: WA Posts: 3,951	Cheers for the replies guys. There are a few 900 res laptops in the 13" range that would be fine, but you just cant put two pages on the screen like you can with 1080p res (well, 1920x1200 would be better but no chance of that in a laptop). The edge S430 seems pretty cheap, says usual $2200 or so, but discounted to $1200. The T430S is $2800 disc to $2300 for pretty much the same specs The edge seems thinner by being 22mm throughout instead of going to 26mm? Graphics are "N13P-GLP" for the edge S430 which I have no idea what that is. The PDF says 620M though. The T430S says HD4000 (integrated), but the next model down has a nvidia 5200 Why is the T430S so much more expensive? Lenovo have terrible HDD options though. Comes with 128gb ssd with no upgrade options, and if you pick another laptop option, to go from 128gb to 256gb costs $600+ (though most seem to charge $500 for an upgrade to 256gb even though the ssd cost around $300 standalone..) The Sony 15" only has a 2.1ghz i7 (1080p, 2kg), but then my desktop is an i5 2.8ghz, so perhaps its still fast enough...? So confusing comparing and i7 mobile to a i5 desktop. Used to use toms hardware but doesnt seem recently updated... __________________ Oh, for the love of science!

22nd August 2012, 6:53 PM	#1760
mtma Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 2,596	Don't bother with the lenovo SSD options unless they're on massive discount. A lot of the options are a bit of a rip... and the 'valued at' price is BS as you already know The reason why there's such a huge difference between the T430s and the Edge S430 is because the Edge line is designed with a commodity 'consumer' level chassis (mainly plastic, albeit the previous E20's I thought were pretty good quality - don't know about the S and E30's) without specific roll cage and spill proof keyboard and that other stuff you're more inclined to expect in a Thinkpad branded product. The T430s is the works, roll-cage (in the case of the 430s it's carbon fibre not alloy like the other T's), drive shock protection, anti-spill protection etc. and also lightweight compared to the others in the same series. Along with far more battery options, docking options etc. Not entirely sure about screens, but from what I have seen the last T20 and E20 series, the part quality was better there as well, in terms of vibrance and viewing angle (even though they were both TN). The IPS on my X220 betters even those screens though for viewing as you'd expect. On the magnesium cage Thinkpad T's you can open them up in an A shape and stand on the hinged edge and it won't panic too much ... until the floor lets it slip and it collapses that is Last edited by mtma; 22nd August 2012 at 6:56 PM.

29th August 2012, 8:55 AM	#1761
kesawi Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Brisbane Posts: 597	I will be travelling over to the USA for a month and am looking for a cheap and light notebook. I'm after something bigger than a netbook. It will primarily be used for downloading photos off my camer, web browsing, email and watching the odd movie. I've found the following notebook for $329 that I can pick up when I arrive: http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versat...ormance/X401A/ I'd appreciate any other recommendations. __________________ Main: i7-3770K@4.3GHz, Megahalems, Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H, Corsair Vengeance 8GB, 2xOCZ Vertex 3 120GB(RAID0), Liteon IHBS312 BlueRay, Gigabyte GTX670 2GB OC@1267, Seasonic 860W Platinum, Fractal Design R3, AQ5 XT HTPC: i3-2100, Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3, G.Skill 4GB, Asus GT430, Crucial RealSSD C400 M4 64GB, WD CaviarGreen 2TB, Liteon IHBS212 BlueRay, SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ PSU, DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Tuner, nMediaPC HTPC 7000B

8th September 2012, 12:30 AM	#1762
JBF Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 34	That ASUS will do all the things you want it to do and for that price I'm going to guess it'll be the dual core model. If say sub 400-500 is your budget then you are more or less restricted to a netbook (tiny laptops with smart phone like processing power) or the loss leader/entry level fuller sized (14"-15.6") laptops. If you can scrape a tad more $ you could get yourself an ultrabook and gain the added advantage of a thinner lighter laptop with better battery life....although having said that an ultrabook is not really an ultrabook (imo) without an SSD harddrive and they can be closer to 800-2000+. They also have smaller screens (11"-13.3") I recently purchased a HP Folio 13-1016TU for under 700 which is a great SSD ultrabook and you may find them going on the cheap as I think they are technically end of life. All in all if you only need it for a month and you're ok with average battery life, that ASUS is fine. Any other brands for that price are more or less the same. __________________ \| 3930K @ 4.4GHz Water Cooled - P9X79 Pro -16GB Vengeance 1600 - GTX570 SLI - Vertex SSD - Lots of HDD's - Xonar DX - Silent Pro Gold 1Kw - Corsair 800D \| Last edited by JBF; 8th September 2012 at 12:32 AM.

9th September 2012, 7:40 PM	#1766
aussie-revhead Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Western Sydney Posts: 13,690	Guys, my daughter wants a laptop just for net use and has a budget around $700, what would you guys recommend? __________________ Bench 1- R4F - 3930K - Team 2400c9 - Sapphire 7770 Ghz Edition - Enermax Revo1250 - water cooled tech bench - Samsung S27A950D Netbox - waiting on Haswell parts ... - 4x2TB on Highpoint RAID - Lian Li v354 matx - Water cooled BF3: OZrevhead

21st August 2012, 6:48 PM	#1758
mtma Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 2,596	Thinkpad Edge S430? 900 res only but the starting weight is 1.8kg so fairly good chance to meet that requirement. Seems to have the processing wants covered as well.

9th September 2012, 9:36 AM	#1763
icewind Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Toowoomba Posts: 2,379	yeh looking for something with half decent battery life, but can stand up to a bit of photoshop/lightroom. pref. 15in with min 1600x900 res. Something that can handle a bit of handling so needs to be of decent build quality. Probably get laughed out if i say budget is no more than approx 1000-1200?

9th September 2012, 7:30 PM	#1765
icewind Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Toowoomba Posts: 2,379	mmm... looks good from specs. time to read up.

18th September 2012, 2:44 PM	#1767
pippin88 Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Newcastle Posts: 7,309	Hey all. I'm going away for work for 3 months and will need some PC access. I was initially thinking a tablet given how light, good battery life and long-term may be more useful as I'd perhaps do more reading on it. However I think I'd find a tablet too limiting and I'd like to do a bit of CAD work if possible. Not worried about gaming. My current desktop is a C2D E6600 at 4ghz, 4gb ram, 750gb hard drives. I think what I'm looking for is: Something that will handle some Solidworks use (therefore 4gb ram + decent processor) Lightish (don't really want something that weighs a ton, but won't be carting this around all day every day) Good screen - size I'm not fixed on, maybe 13.3" to 15"? Decent trackpad with multitouch etc. HDD size is not important, if it doesn't come with SSD I'd probably swap in a 120gb SSD. Budget - flexible, but ideally not more than $1000 I know what I've given is fairly vague, but I haven't owned a laptop before and my needs aren't that specific. Options / recommendations would be appreciated. __________________ Solar Facts - all the info on solar 7xCNC.com - mini lathe CNC

19th September 2012, 7:31 AM	#1769
pippin88 Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Newcastle Posts: 7,309	Further to my post above, I've had a good look around. Looking primarily at the ~1.8kg laptops. Lenovo S430 is quite attractive: Intel Core i7-3520M Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz) Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) 14.0" W HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit, AntiGlare Glass, Low-light sensitive HD Webcam (w/oWWAN), Mocha NVIDIA 620M 8 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (2 DIMM) 128GB Solid State Drive, 2.5" DVD Recordable 4 Cell Li-Polymer 48.8Wh ThinkPad a/b/g/n Wireless & Bluetooth 4.0 (2x2 ABGN & BT 4.0) ~$900 with education discount Downsides: Poor battery life Other main option: Dell Outlet Inspiron 14z i5-3317U Processor (3MB cache, up to 2.6 GHz, with UMA Graphics Card) Windows(R) 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (English) 8GB 2 DIMM (4GB x 2) DDR3 1600Mhz 128GB Solid State Drive 9.5mm SATA tray load DVD+/-RW Internal 10/100 Fast Ethernet Intel(R) HD 4000 6-cell 44Whr Prismatic Internal Battery Intel(R) 2230 802.11n + Bluetooth v4.0 14.0" HD WLED TrueLife (1366x768) No OS media included. Unit has minor scratches. LCD Back Cover - Silver [/b]Second hand (refurbished). Screen not as good. ?battery life?[/b] $615 Thoughts? __________________ Solar Facts - all the info on solar 7xCNC.com - mini lathe CNC

19th September 2012, 8:03 AM	#1770
alexc2005 Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 2,151	OK so the gf is looking for a laptop. I have had a bit of a look around, but don't really keep up with laptops as much as i do PC gear. We love the look of the samsung ultrabooks but not sure it will do what she wants: must have 1080p screen Light and portable 15" ish screen very rugged (she is pretty rough with it haha) Must be able to use architecture software (not sure of the requirements, im used to 3d modelling and that can be a little taxing) Batterylife must be reasonable, 4hrs ish is a good goal. budget isn't too important, although she would like to keep it under 1500 I think that's about it. The 15" ultrabook looks great, but not sure how well it will run architecture sotware (and also not even sure what program she wants to get), she isn't an architect but wants to play around with designing a house. Any advice is appreciated guys Alex __________________ My Workout Log