About to buy an ultrabook, thoughts?

[SeductivePig]

Having trouble deciding between samsung series 9 (15", 8gb ram, 256gb ssd, $1500) vs asus ux31a black (13.3", 4gb ram, 128gb ssd, $1100 at best buy).

My main concern is that this is a lot of money for me and I'm not sure if it's a smart move to buy now with Haswell so close to release (~2 months). I have a desktop now.

 

[TheStu]

Wait for Haswell, it is supposed to have a better GPU than Ivy Bridge.

Definitely wait if you don't need the system RIGHT NOW. If you can afford to wait, especially with Haswell just around the corner, then do so. If you cannot, do not.

 

[SeductivePig]

Wait for Haswell, it is supposed to have a better GPU than Ivy Bridge.

Definitely wait if you don't need the system RIGHT NOW. If you can afford to wait, especially with Haswell just around the corner, then do so. If you cannot, do not.

Yea I can wait, but will there even be a decent selection of ultrabooks upon Haswell's release, in your opinion? And if there is, are there typically lots of bugs that plague a fresh release?

Edit: Based on my own findings, Haswell's main advantage is better battery life. Is there anything that says how much of an increase we can expect?

 

[Danstek]

Haswell should give you about 30% increase in GPU performance for ULV processors. Better battery life comes from lower power consumption in idle, active power should be relatively the same as Ivy Bridge so its hard to determine how much more battery life you'll ultimately gain depending on how demanding you use it.

Edit: Keep in mind that Haswell is a staggered rollout. Only desktop and standard voltage mobile SKUs launch in Q2. ULV parts should arrive in Q3 and ULx in Q4. So my guess would be that you'll see Haswell ultrabooks in full volume in early Q4 for the holiday season since Intel will launch ULV in Q3 but it will take OEMs a little bit longer before hardware starts shipping.

 

[SeductivePig]

Haswell should give you about 30% increase in GPU performance for ULV processors. Better battery life comes from lower power consumption in idle, active power should be relatively the same as Ivy Bridge so its hard to determine how much more battery life you'll ultimately gain depending on how demanding you use it.

Edit: Keep in mind that Haswell is a staggered rollout. Only desktop and standard voltage mobile SKUs launch in Q2. ULV parts should arrive in Q3 and ULx in Q4. So my guess would be that you'll see Haswell ultrabooks in full volume in early Q4 for the holiday season since Intel will launch ULV in Q3 but it will take OEMs a little bit longer before hardware starts shipping.

Doesn't seem like there's any real point in waiting.. I rarely travel and I think greater than 5 hours of battery life is fine.

Only real reason I can see is if current gen laptops drop in price upon release of Haswell, but based on your thoughts that won't happen until Q3/Q4 right?

If so, whats the better pick from the above two in your opinion? I'm mainly concerned with build quality, battery life, specs (ram/hdd), screen size/resolution not a big deal.

 

[TheStu]

Doesn't seem like there's any real point in waiting.. I rarely travel and I think greater than 5 hours of battery life is fine.

Only real reason I can see is if current gen laptops drop in price upon release of Haswell, but based on your thoughts that won't happen until Q3/Q4 right?

If so, whats the better pick from the above two in your opinion? I'm mainly concerned with build quality, battery life, specs (ram/hdd), screen size/resolution not a big deal.

Specs wise they are about even. Since they are ultrabooks, the RAM is almost certainly NOT user-replaceable, so bear that in mind.

What is the resolution on those two?

 

[Danstek]

Doesn't seem like there's any real point in waiting.. I rarely travel and I think greater than 5 hours of battery life is fine.

Only real reason I can see is if current gen laptops drop in price upon release of Haswell, but based on your thoughts that won't happen until Q3/Q4 right?

If so, whats the better pick from the above two in your opinion? I'm mainly concerned with build quality, battery life, specs (ram/hdd), screen size/resolution not a big deal.

Do you absolutely need a laptop right away? I generally recommend waiting until summer and the back to school season when new models and good sales are thrown out to consumers. (The new models will still be Ivy Bridge of course. OEMs update there products independent of Intel's release because they want the new stuff out to sway students/parents.) The two that you suggested are both excellent build quality and it really comes down to whether or not you need the higher ram and storage. They're both good laptops but personally they seem sort of run-of-the-mill at the moment. Again, your spending a lot of money so I recommend waiting for more exciting stuff later on if you can.

 

[kbp]

The new Haswell will roll out at a premium price. Just be prepared to pay a little bit more than the two you have listed.
The 8gb of RAM would be nice but not at a $400 premium. Does Best Buy have them both in stock? If so, take a good look at both and choose the one that feels right to you.
Good Luck -

 

[crab0]

The ASUS because screen is massively important (at least to me).

 

[SeductivePig]

The new Haswell will roll out at a premium price. Just be prepared to pay a little bit more than the two you have listed.
The 8gb of RAM would be nice but not at a $400 premium. Does Best Buy have them both in stock? If so, take a good look at both and choose the one that feels right to you.
Good Luck -

It's not just 8gb of ram.

- ram is 8gb vs 4gb
- ssd is 256 vs 128
- screen is 15" vs 13"
- battery life is better supposedly

 

[ponyo]

You just missed the Asus ux31a on sale yesterday for $800 new shipped from Adorama. And last week, both Groupon and Buydig had refurb Asus ux31a for $550. I was tempted by the refurb Asus deal at $550 but instead went for the refurb Lenovo Yoga 13 for $637 deal because I wanted a convertible. Prices are dropping and there are deals out there for ultrabooks if you're willing to expand your list or buy refurb.

 

[SeductivePig]

You just missed the Asus ux31a on sale yesterday for $800 new shipped from Adorama. And last week, both Groupon and Buydig had refurb Asus ux31a for $550. I was tempted by the refurb Asus deal at $550 but instead went for the refurb Lenovo Yoga 13 for $637 deal because I wanted a convertible. Prices are dropping and there are deals out there for ultrabooks if you're willing to expand your list or buy refurb.

I was looking at the black ux31a only dold at bestbuy

 

[corkyg]

Unless the unit allowed user change to the storage drive, I would not buy it. Very few do.

 

[Madpacket]

I would wait until Haswell, or wait until a blow out sale on the existing platforms are offered. Haswell will offer significantly better graphics capabilities and battery life, if either of those two things are unimportant then just grab an existing ivy at a low price.

 

[Nintendesert]

I picked up a Lenovo Yoga 13 for $650. It's much nicer than I thought it was going to be. The touch screen really goes great with Windows 8 and the IPS screen is much nicer than what you usually get in a laptop. The RAM is easily upgradable too if you want to do that. 4 gigs seems fine for now. I guess it supports 2 HDDs too if you want to add more. For what it's going to be used for the 128gig is fine.

I was never really sold on the Ultrabooks and all that but this thing is pretty dang nice and was a good price. I'm not sure I could go back to a non touch screen laptop/ultrabook after using this thing either.

 

[lagokc]

I was looking at the black ux31a only dold at bestbuy

$1100 constitutes a lot of money for you yet you are willing to pay a $300-$550 premium in order to get the color you want? :whiste:

 

[holden j caufield]

what ultrabook or close to the thinness of an ultrabook allows for 2 ram slots, 1920x1080 and user upgradeable HD.

 

[IntelUser2000]

what ultrabook or close to the thinness of an ultrabook allows for 2 ram slots, 1920x1080 and user upgradeable HD.

You can upgrade the Lenovo Ideapad Yoga on the RAM and HDD. For the HDD I believe it has additional slot for an extra one.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Edit: Keep in mind that Haswell is a staggered rollout. Only desktop and standard voltage mobile SKUs launch in Q2. ULV parts should arrive in Q3 and ULx in Q4. So my guess would be that you'll see Haswell ultrabooks in full volume in early Q4 for the holiday season since Intel will launch ULV in Q3 but it will take OEMs a little bit longer before hardware starts shipping.

Intel is going to announce Desktop/High end Laptop/Ultrabook chips at Computex.

I'm guessing that you'll see few, usually top tier manufacturers get it by July/August with mass availability around October/November.