CVByrne Posted September 4, 2013 Author Share Posted September 4, 2013 Well advice right now would be to hold fire and wait for 5 or 6 weeks. We'll then see all the newest Ultrabooks come out. But if you're happy with approx 5 hours battery then you can pick up a superb ultrabook using last gen Intel processor quote soon. I'd say you could get a Samsung Series 9 with the 1080p screen for your budget. Most gorgeous piece of hardware I've ever seen. You should be able to find one to view in Curry's or PC world. Don't buy from there of course. So advice is bide your time for at least a month. Price drops of last gen and the latest crop of new gen ultrabooks will be out soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted September 16, 2013 Author Share Posted September 16, 2013 The plot thickens. Details on the Zenbook Infinity, renamed UX301. You can get an i5-4200 version of it, meaning it can rival Samsungs Book 9+ on batterylife. There is even the option to get a 1080p screen on the Zenbook. I'd consider getting that tbh if there is tangible improvement in battery. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7271/asus-announces-zenbook-ux301-and-ux302-haswell-ultrabooks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 9, 2013 Author Share Posted October 9, 2013 Bought the Ativ Book 9 Plus today from Amazon for £1099 which is £100 less than it was supposed to be. Will be with me tomorrow so can't wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted October 9, 2013 Administrator Share Posted October 9, 2013 Bought the Ativ Book 9 Plus today from Amazon for £1099 which is £100 less than it was supposed to be. Will be with me tomorrow so can't wait. I like this, but it comes with Windows, so simply "no". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 9, 2013 Author Share Posted October 9, 2013 Well the alternatives are what? Apple or inferior hardware and Linux. I'll give win 8.1 a chance, I liked some of the features of windows 8 with what time I spent with it. I really like the idea of touchscreen laptop. One of the only things I liked about the Asus transformer was ability to just poke the screen and not need to move a mouse pointer with a track pad to do the same thing. Samsungs hardware at that price point (given the fact they'll be paying licence fees to Microsoft) puts Apples Macbook Air to shame. Only £100 difference in price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted October 9, 2013 Administrator Share Posted October 9, 2013 I'm not sure why Linux needs inferior hardware. Linux would run just fine on that hardware (better than Windows would), but I don't have the option. Stupid marketing decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwan Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Got a 13.3" Zenbook and put Linux on it. Runs beautifully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted October 9, 2013 Administrator Share Posted October 9, 2013 Which Zanbook do you have? Do Asus support it officially? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 9, 2013 Author Share Posted October 9, 2013 Linux would be a waste of the touchscreen. Also doesn't have the software hooks to take advantage of Haswell so battery life would be inferior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted October 10, 2013 Administrator Share Posted October 10, 2013 Linux would be a waste of the touchscreen. Also doesn't have the software hooks to take advantage of Haswell so battery life would be inferior. I call bullshit on both of your claims. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwan Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 (edited) Officially supported - UX31A. The i5 with 128GB SSD. Mint 13 is the distro. There's no touch screen but I call bullshit on the battery life. Edited October 10, 2013 by Kwan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 10, 2013 Author Share Posted October 10, 2013 Played around with my new Ativ Book 9 Plus for 30 mins at lunch. First impressions. It’s noticeably heavier and thicker than the Series 9 but given that was crazy light in the first place not many people will notice. It’s the same weight as the Macbook Air and Zenbooks have always been. Like the Series 9 the build quality is out of this world. Though the fact it’s slightly thicker means the keyboard has more travel and the trackpad is bigger. The hinge is also sturdier than the Series 9 without being stiff. The screen is glossy reflective which having come from a matt screen on the Series 9 is very noticeable, but this is a factor of all touchscreens. After getting through the initial bootup I get the first glimpse of the screen in all it’s glory. It’s stunning. I got straight to IE to get some 4k video clips and get to the biggest surprise of my 30 mins with it. IE is absolutely BONKERS fast, I mean not just noticeably better than chrome, but so fast I wouldn’t even be tempted for 1 second to go back to chrome. Wow, Microsoft did a superb job with IE in Windows 8. WOW. Then came the 4k video clip from youtube, oh my dear lord this is incomprehensible how gorgeous it looked, nearly 4k on a 13.3 inch screen. I’d read reviews about the screen, not only is it high res but it’s IPS and has amazing contrast ratios. The acid test was have a couple of mins with my old series 9 afterwards, you see pixilation where you didn’t before. In Desktop mode resolution was set to 1080p but I cranked it up to the full Quad HD+ res and it was hilarious, icons were tiny. Thankfully Win 8.1 is out in 7 days which will sort this out. Touchscreen is so handy for times when a poke is much quicker than moving a mouse pointer with your finger on a trackpad. For me the weight, slight increase in size and the glossy screen will take adjusting to. But everywhere else this is such an improvement over last years Series 9. For £1099 this is a superb piece of kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 10, 2013 Author Share Posted October 10, 2013 (edited) Linux would be a waste of the touchscreen. Also doesn't have the software hooks to take advantage of Haswell so battery life would be inferior. I call bullshit on both of your claims. Let me clarify, Linux touchscreen support is shit. I'm not of the mind to prick around like a computer programmer calibrating the toucscreen on a new laptop. Secondly, on the Haswell hooks, Linux is worse on Batterylife than windows 7 and 8, before we get to the new hooks for 8.1 for Haswell, So bullshit refuted. But you're going to throw a repost and back and forth it'll go etc.. to pointlessness. So in the interest of this topic on Ultrabooks not being sidetracked into a Windows vs Linux discussion lets leave it there. Edited October 10, 2013 by CVByrne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted October 10, 2013 Administrator Share Posted October 10, 2013 Please read this for actual benchmarks of Windows vs Linux Haswell performance. "Doesn't have the software hooks" my arse ad with the much faster development cycles and the fact that Intel are heavily backing Linux, those benchmarks are only going to move one way. Please read this for a single example of how a major distro uses touch on Linux. Not that most users have the slightest use for touch on a laptop. I'm genuinely interested in whether Linux works on Ultrabooks as I'm in the market for a new laptop and I won't make myself suffer with Windows. I don't understand why you felt the need to take this off topic by bashing Linux with the sowing of FUD. Please don't attempt to moderate this board. If your debate style is "this is true because I said it and you can't refute it and I won't debate it", then that is not acceptable. Do not tell other posters what they can and cannot post. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted October 10, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted October 10, 2013 I ran Linux on my UX32VD. Apart from the disaster that was the Intel 6235 Wireless card (has since been replaced) it bloody flew! Great laptop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted October 10, 2013 Administrator Share Posted October 10, 2013 Hmmm. Getting very tempted now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwan Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Linux runs great on the Zenbook. Upgrade the kernel and you're good to go. Ran a VM taking about 1.5G of RAM for Windows 7 and still ran everything great side by side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Slightly OT but my work laptop is a Dell e6330 with a Core i5 3340M, 16GB RAM and a Kingston HyperX SSD. With Windows it's so-so. With Kubuntu it bloody flies. Runs like a smartphone, everything's instant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 I have to say, Windows 8 on this laptop is a bloody dream, I know the little foibles that annoy me are being fixed in 8.1 but the IE browser speed is blindingly fast. I love touchscreens in laptops. It's not a gimmick that is for sure, looking at photos for example, broswing the web when lying down in bed are the two use cases from yesterday. But the hardware, man Samsung, whoever is in charge of making their high end laptops deserves some serious praise (aside from putting a Toshiba SSD in here, wtf is that about Samsung you make like 80% of the worlds flash memory!!!) My mate is set on the Zenbook Infinity with the Iris graphics chip. That thing is a stunnding beauty and can't wait to see it. Aside from the Asus and Samsung none of the others really float the boat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted October 16, 2013 Administrator Share Posted October 16, 2013 I'm thinking about this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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