CVByrne Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 (edited) Especially with the Iris 5100 graphics. That'd be a $1500 laptop I'd say. It's top of my list at the moment. But we'll see what Samsung, Dell, HP et el release in coming months too. Edited June 11, 2013 by CVByrne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Ok Haswell is confusing. I've read an article on the verge there about is it really that revolutionary. From what I've gleaned. The Iris graphics are excellent, come on some i7 chips but are very power hungry. It's the lower integrated 5000 graphics coupled chips that have the huge power gains. But I imagine these can't power the super high res screens. So we're stuck in a land where we get either the big power gains or we get super high res screens now in super thin bodies. I will always plump for the better battery life. But I worry that the best spec ultrabooks will plump for the super high res screens. Like the Asus Zenbook Infinity. I don't think a company will go for a 1080p screen with epic battery life in a premium slim body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted June 14, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 14, 2013 Which explains the Airs super-battery and somewhat below par screen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Yes as I said to refresh the Air this soon with Haswell they are chucking in the 4600 graphics to keep cost and power requirements down. From what I've read (Anandtech is some genius site) it will require a bit more time to get a new crop of ultrabooks to get the best from the new chipsets. there are 3 integrated graphics chips. 4600, 5000 and the Iris 5100. The former to are Max TDP 15w while Iris is 28w. So I think the best performance / battery combo is the i7 4550U which has the 5000 graphics. But it remains to be seen what screen resolution this can power efficiently. My guess it can't power the ultra high res screens well enough. Meaning Iris will be required and as such a big battery hit will happen. We're not there yet to have it all, 10 hours battery, 1440p screens and 1kg ultrabooks. We'll need to make compromises. I have a feeling Apple know this and will put the Iris into the 13 inch Macbook and slim it down a shade. Saving the Retina Air for next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Acers S7 with Haswell has a 1440p screen with i7 and 4600 graphics. It is rated for 7 hours by Acer. Anandtech ran down the battery in 5.2 hours in PC Mark and 8.2hrs in light web browsing test. Haswells power gains are scaled to the task it performs. As it hit peak performance it's power savings are near nothing over Ivy Bridge. Which means higher res screens will see less performance gains (due to more stress of the processor) than lower res screens. To be honest Apple has made the right decision. I retract most of my earlier criticisms. But still think it's way too big, heavy & bulky for an ultra portable. I am keen to see if Samsung does simply refresh the Series 9 with Haswell to match Apple. Samsung has never called their devices ultrabooks so don't get any money from intel and so aren't bound by the touch screen needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Macbook air review http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/13/macbook-air-review/ Shade under 13 hours battery life. Wow. Lets hope we can get a 1080p ultrabook with 10 or 11hrs battery and I'm sold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 (edited) **** sake Samsung. What the fck does anyone need with a 3200 x 1800 res screen in an ultra portable laptop???? Morons better offer a lower res option. New Aliv book 9 plus and a stupid over the top screen has me pulling my hair out. They say it will get 12 hours battery. But I know they are full of shit. I bet there is performance hits like the 13 inch macbook pro with retina was. I bet I won't get a premium ultra book with over 10 hours battery. Nobody will do one without a stupid spec war on screen res. Edited June 20, 2013 by CVByrne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 Ah knew there was a trade off. It's heavier. They've bumped the weight up to fit in a bigger battery it seems. Annoyed. But I'll wait for reviews of all these new Ultrabooks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 Ok excuse my ignorance. Could someone explain to me scaling? From what I've read because of Win 8.1 and the fact the new Samsung Ultrabook is exactly double the res of the older one 1600x900 becomes 3200x1800 that the drain on the battery to push those pixels for 2D is minimal. Which means high res screens won't hit batterylife to the degree you would think. Meaning that the 12hours battery advertised by Samsung could be true? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Scaling exists so a computer can render a very high resolution display (ie, 3200 x 1800) but still have text that is readable and a UI which isn't tiny. It's good for photoshop and stuff like that, or if you use your computer to look at photographs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 I get what it is, but the reasoning behind it not being as big a power draw is a bit confusing. Is it down to Haswell being able to do this without the power draw of a discreet gpu? How can Samsung make a touchscreen as high and bright res as that yet claim it has the same batterylife as the much lower res macbook Air despite a tiny bit bigger battery 54.6wn to 55wh ?? Is it that the new screen is IGZO and the new tech reduces power consumption? It just seems like Samsung is dishing out a complete hardware beatdown here to Apple. There has to be a catch somewhere. The two devices weigh within a few grams of eachother and are near identical in dimensions. What's the catch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 I would assume it is just down to improvements in Haswell. Quite a bit has been written about it, but basically the new Haswell chips have more power states than older chipsets, so instead of being "on" or "off" they can be somewhere in between. This means they can sleep more often, wake more quickly and use hardly any power when idle. You should find more if you do a search for C6 and C7 Haswell power states. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted June 21, 2013 Administrator Share Posted June 21, 2013 Off the top of my head, the power for the screen is mainly in the backlighting which doesn't change with resolution. LCD only requires additional power to be applied to flip (sub)pixels, so although there are more flips on a big screen, the backlighting doesn't change so I wouldn't expect there to be much additional battery drain for more pixels. Like I said, this isn't based in research, just my understanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 Cheers guys, that makes sense. The power drain was based on cpu/gpu being active to power a high res screen. But it seems Haswell power features combined with Win 8.1 taking advantage of those power saving features and DPI scaling means the power drain jump we associate with higher res older devices isn't the same. Comgrats to all 3 for working in conjunction if that's the case. Makes my ranting about high res screens look foolish due to my ignorance. I still have to shake my head in disbelief that the Verge gave the new Air a 9.2 rating and no doubt this will be 8.2-8.5 Nilay Patel shouldn't have been allowed review it. David Pierce does all the laptop reviews but they like the super fan boy review the apple device. They need to sort out their credibility now the site has grown in popularity. Engadget & Anandtech wipes the floor with them on reviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 Anandtech review of the i7 - 4500 shows that batterylife was improved by 57% over the Ivy bridge version. So it seems more than reasonable to believe the 12 hours battery claim from Samsung. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7047/the-haswell-ultrabook-review-core-i74500u-tested/5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Condimentalist Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) EDIT - just seen the 'which laptop' thread Edited June 24, 2013 by PatrickCousens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted August 21, 2013 Author Share Posted August 21, 2013 Can some of ye more knowledgeable people answer for me. The Ativ Book 9 Plus has had it's battery life estimate reduced to 9 hours and the guess is because it is now launching with Windows 8 and not 8.1 so it doesn't have the improved dpi scaling and Haswell hooks. Will those software improvements actually push the battery up to the 11 hours they still claim it can get? I hope Anandtech run 8.1 preview version on it to measure battery life changes and give a full explanation of perceived improvement to expect with 8.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted August 22, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted August 22, 2013 Been looking at these Samsung things - it says for memory it has 4gb 'on BD' WTF does that mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted August 22, 2013 Author Share Posted August 22, 2013 I assume it's on board and non removable and non expandable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Simon Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Very new to Ultrabooks, (this thread introduced me to them!), but they sound ideal for what I would be using them for: Microsoft Office, web browsing, Football Manager and playing music. I also commute a lot on the train so a light and mobile device would be great. So, my budget is £700 tops. Can anyone offer up any suggestions as to what fits the bill? As ever, really appreciated guys and gals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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