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Ultrabooks


CVByrne

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Agreed with all that, but consoles != ultrabooks. Also hardcore gamers are always likely to want their own rigs. For the majority, remote sesssion gaming will be the norm, but it's not just around the corner.

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Why? With everything moving to online services, why is the "most powerful" important? You'd be better choosing based on the screen/keyboard you find best for you. You can't buy a laptop that can't display video in fullscreen.

Cause the more powerful a Pc is the longer it will stay future proofed, also he likes to watch movies and GFX take up more CPU and memory than anything else.

Also as far as powerful goes you only have to look at PC games to see how that works.Look on the back of any game box and it tells you the minimum and recommended specs for that game.Compare that to any old game and you can see the difference.So as I said GFX and CPU power are what matters for futureproofing. :)

Exactly

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Ordered the Toshiba Z830-10U.

From the reviews I've read it seems to have plenty of connectivity, 3 usb ports, ethernet, hdmi and even a vga port which would be useful to me. Also the weight of 1.1kg is a big plus for me. Also the keyboard and track pad are supposed to be excellent. Which is also a positive. Batterylife is good too.

Negatives seem to be the screen can be bent, it feels a bit flimsy, but I assume this is a deliberate side effect of the low weight. while pre installed software is a negative too, something easily fixed.

All this added to the fact it's the best value of the ultrabooks on offer means it fits the bill for me.

Thanks for the input lads. I'll let you know how it turns out to be.

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My Toshiba arrived today.

First things I've noticed is how light it is, it feels much lighter than both my Samsung NC10 netbook and my Asus Transformer tablet. They should draw the line here on weight, wouldn't ever want it lighter. The brushed metal finish is very nice and the whole thing looks like an expensive piece of kit.

Next thing is they keyboard is a lovely back lit one. I thought keyboards might suffer from how thin the ultrabook is, it doesnt. Also the track pad is very spacious and lovely to use, the same cant be said about the mouse buttons which need a bit to much pressure to click.

The screen looks plenty nice but I wouldn't have too much experience with top laptop screens, but it is thin and as a result does bend a bit when you grab the top corner to shut the lid. I'll be grabing from the centre to close the lid of this from now on.

I'll post info on battery life later when I have a better idea of how it performs. So far so good, no real grips with it yet. :D

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Ok further update, the batterylife seems excellent, you can get 6hrs of normal browsing, word processing and watching a 1hr .avi use out of it and that's with screen brightness on 6/8 and no power saving.

Next the track pad deserves another mention, it's the best I've ever used on a laptop. It's so responsive and really nice to the touch.

I find the battery doesn't charge that fast when you are using the laptop while charging, maybe this is normal for ultrabooks or some laptops but my netbook charged faster from memory.

Given the main gripes I saw in reviews of the ultrabook were price (It's got this for £200 less than the £999 it was when reviewed 3 months ago) and bloatware (I've yet to see all this bloatware of have it irritate me) then I'm more than happy so far.

I accept the screen isn't the most solid but I understand this is a trade off for this being the lightest ultrabook on the market.

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Presumably the first thing you did was reformat the machine to a) ensure you have all the installation media and B) remove the bloatware. Better to find out now then when windows needs re-installing.

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  • 4 months later...

Ok, I want to see this new Samsung Series 9 with my own eyes before I can make up my mind. It seems it's only available online in the Uk though. Would anyone have any advice on a store that might have it in London? PCWorld is charging a joke price for the 2011 model, they don't have it. Even Samsungs uk site has the only has 2011 model.

2012 model is NP900X3C.

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I'm getting the Asus UX32VD-R4002V ultrabook. It's the only 13 inch I know of that has 1920*1080 resolution. Swappable HDD, 10 gig of RAM and a non-glossy display, that sealed it.

Only complaint I've seen is that the trackpad is a bit on the sensitive side.

Clicky

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I'm pretty sure it has 4gb of Ram and having a HDD a huge negative and a bit archaic these days. It does have discrete graphics though if you are interested in playing games, but that along with (the awesome) screen resolution and HDD will hammer the batterylife. But it is more of a classic notebook made into a ultra portable. Price is very nice.

The Series 9 is 1.1kg and has epic batterylife, plus is mega thin and by far and away the best looking laptop I've ever seen. Utterly stunning. I'm after portability and battery. Hence my liking of it.

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I'm pretty sure it has 4gb of Ram

Yes, from the store, change the swappable 2 gig module and you have 10

having a HDD a huge negative

Yes, that's why I said swappable. 256 gig SSD goes in and voila

But it is more of a classic notebook made into a ultra portable

That makes no sense at all to me, specs are specs. And 1.45 kg is hardly a cannonball either :-)

The Series 9 is 1.1kg and has epic batterylife,

Thats a good one I agree

plus is mega thin

There is one similar Asus, thinner and lighter than the one I want, but it's not upgradable. Everything is soldered onto the board.

by far and away the best looking laptop I've ever seen.

Looks is a non issue for me. Performance is all. I'd buy a pink one if needs be.

I'm after portability and battery. Hence my liking of it.

I would never argue that. Choice FTW

There, how's that for a quote-fest! :mrgreen:

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I meant the discreet graphics and hdd are more akin to a notebook, and by getting those into an ultrabook size and weight means it's more akin to a notebook made into an ultraportable. If you get what I mean?

But yeah if you're after getting power, putting in a SSD and smashing the ram up to 10gb, to go with the best ultrabook screen there is. That'd be a nice machine alright, high performance. You'd imagine the batterylife would take a hit, but then these ivy bridge generation have a few hours better battery life over sandy bridge so you'll still have a decent 5 hours maybe. But that;'s always a trade off with performance anyway.

I've the Toshiba Satellite Z830-10T, It's such a great all rounder. I love how it weights 1.1kg yet had best in class batterylife for the Sandybridge gen. The two key things for me in ultrabooks. But it's no looker.

The new Series 9 has mind boggling boot and wake times, best in class batterylife, a top notch screen (second only to the Asus 1080p one according to engadged and theverge), is the thinnest ultrabook, also the lightest 13.3 inch. Plus it looks **** gorgeous, which matters to me.

Only problem is its a bonkers price. It all depends on how much I can sell my current Toshiba for and how much my Asus Transformer tablet can make too. I'll be pawning them in the hopes of making £550-600. then just £500 more gets the Series 9.

Plenty of choice indeed :D

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My Toshiba cost £700 in April, it's in perfect condition and still has the protective cover on the top. It's still £650 to buy new on Amazon and £590 2nd hand. There's a 2nd had all but new one up on ebay now, with a day and a half left to bid. I'm keeping my eye on that to see what it goes for.

£500 is a fair price for a next to new device that retails for £650 no?

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I'd sit tight and wait on Haswell chipsets now. People keep suggesting that the integrated graphics capabilities jump from Ivybridge will be significant, which mean we might see a wave of 'retina' displays on ultrabooks and laptops in general in Spring 2013. I know you like the new and shiny, but do you really need a new laptop every six months?

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Well it took till the Summer of this year to get all the Ivy bridge ultrabooks, so I'd assume it'd be summer next year before you had enough Haswell chipsets in Ultrabooks to make a decision on which one was best. So at worst if I feel like I need a shiny new one it'd be a year before I upgrade. There is also the side that I was unemployed back from travelling when I got the Toshiba, and now I've a good job I feel like I can justify to myself getting the Samsung. It all depends on how much I can sell unused devices for, to at least make me believe its justifiable.

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Some forum said:

NP900X3C-A02UK

- Has a better battery life

- Windows 7 Home Premium operating system

- 1 HDMI port

NP900X3C-A04UK

- Windows 7 Home Professional operating system

- A Better graphics card

- 1 micro HDMI

Dunno how accurate that is though

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I'm getting the Asus UX32VD-R4002V ultrabook. It's the only 13 inch I know of that has 1920*1080 resolution. Swappable HDD, 10 gig of RAM and a non-glossy display, that sealed it.

Only complaint I've seen is that the trackpad is a bit on the sensitive side.

Clicky

It's miiiiine!! Drive and memory upgraded. What a beast of a machine it is! :flag:

V4tML.jpg

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