Any 13" non-ultrabook worth buying?

[yottabit]

Hey guys- I'm looking for something basically similar in functionality to the 13" rMBP or even the 13" non-retina MBP but cheaper

Something with a 13" screen, a 1440x900 res or better, and a non-ULV CPU

Mostly all I see now in the 13-14" segment is ultrabooks with ~1.8 Ghz ULV CPUs. I'd really like to have the extra processing power and I don't care so much about the thickness.

I thought there used to be an HP Envy 13? I see the Dell XPS 13 but that's also an ultrabook. Any good alternatives out there for what I'm looking for? Might be able to do a 14 not sure, just looking for something small enough to use on an airplane (current 15.6" is way too big) would prefer 13 though...

 

[TheStu]

There's the Razer Blade 14, and don't forget to look at business class machines.

 

[996GT2]

Dell makes a 13" Latitude E6330 with standard voltage CPUs. It's 1366x768 though.


However, if you're willing to go up in size a bit, the 14" Dell E6440 has a 1600x900 screen option, as well as normal voltage mobile i5 and i7 CPus.

http://partnerdirect.dell.com/sites/channel/Documents/Dell-Latitude-E6440-Spec-Sheet.pdf

Lenovo also offers several 14" Thinkpads, Ultrabook and non-Ultrabook, with 1600x900 displays. If you want more than that, Lenovo also has a 14" Thinkapd T440p with a 1920x1080 IPS panel, plus the option of either dual or quad core CPUs.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t440p/

 

[yottabit]

Thanks guys. Doesn't seem like there's any compelling alternative for 13" I've seen so far. Even at 14" the prices start to get close enough to the rMBP I'd rather just get that, unless maybe the Dells go on sale for $6-800 (I'll keep an eye on Dell Outlet too)

The Razer Blade 14 is really nice but too expensive and I don't need the dGPU

Any other offerings you can think of? Seems 13" is getting unpopular

 

[yottabit]

I'm kind of liking the Vaio Fit 14E:
http://store.sony.com/vaio-fit-14/cat-27-catid-All-14-Ultrabook-Fit

It starts at $550 with a Pentium CPU but it's got a 1600x900 LED screen standard

Can upgrade to a i5 at 1.8/2.7 for $100 and 8 gigs of ram for $60, bringing the total price to $709 for a pretty decently equipped 14"

It's still a U series CPU, not sure how I feel about that, but at least it seems to be in a chassis decent enough it won't be thermal throttling all the time

Downsides seem to be poor battery life (~ 4 hrs from reviews) and supposedly an awkward keyboard. That would be a deal killer if true, I'll have to get my hands on one. Maybe there will be a Haswell version soon with better batt. life.

 

[yottabit]

An even better value seems to be the Toshiba Tecra R940 (14"):
http://www.toshiba.com/us/computers/laptops/tecra/R940/R940-SMBN23

Comes base with a i3 dual core (not ULV) 4GB of RAM for $599, and you can upgrade to a 1600x900 display for $40.

Seems to have a better keyboard but similarly bad battery life from reviews.... however there's an extended battery for $30. And the tecra has a removable battery vs vaio's integrated.

Why aren't there cheap Haswell notebooks yet? I've had my 4570 for a while now for my desktop :/

 

[Commodus]

I'm not going to help much, because I really like my 13-inch Retina MBP (Haswell) so far.

It's pretty quick, and it lasts seemingly forever on battery. I had a day in November where I spent 5-6 hours working (browser, Photoshop, messaging apps, a bit of iMovie and iPhoto) and still had about half my battery left by the time it was time to pack up. For something with a 2560x1600 screen and a non-ULV processor, that's exceptional.

 

[996GT2]

I'm kind of liking the Vaio Fit 14E:
http://store.sony.com/vaio-fit-14/cat-27-catid-All-14-Ultrabook-Fit

It starts at $550 with a Pentium CPU but it's got a 1600x900 LED screen standard

Can upgrade to a i5 at 1.8/2.7 for $100 and 8 gigs of ram for $60, bringing the total price to $709 for a pretty decently equipped 14"

It's still a U series CPU, not sure how I feel about that, but at least it seems to be in a chassis decent enough it won't be thermal throttling all the time

Downsides seem to be poor battery life (~ 4 hrs from reviews) and supposedly an awkward keyboard. That would be a deal killer if true, I'll have to get my hands on one. Maybe there will be a Haswell version soon with better batt. life.

One thing to keep in mind is build quality. Short of a business-class laptop like a Thinkpad or Dell Latitude, very few PCs can rival build quality of the rMBP. From the looks of it, the Sony and Toshiba don't even come close.

 

[yottabit]

One thing to keep in mind is build quality. Short of a business-class laptop like a Thinkpad or Dell Latitude, very few PCs can rival build quality of the rMBP. From the looks of it, the Sony and Toshiba don't even come close.

Yeah build quality is definitely far superior on the rMBP. It's funny, I thought maybe I could get the same features but for a lot less in a PC equivalent but there doesn't seem to be anything that comes close to matching the rMBP feature-for-feature. It's not really a bad value at all.

It's definitely what I would buy if I was going to be using it a lot, but this is going to be a 2nd laptop for me that I'm not really going to use that often and I can't seem to justify the rMBP cost

I'm curious if they are going to release a cheaper non-retina 13 that is in the same thin housing ever. As it is right now I don't really see why anyone should get a 13 Macbook Air over the 13 rMBP since the prices are so close and you get way more power in a similar form factor, with almost as good battery life...

I technically don't need the retina display. Even a 1440x900 or something would be ok... I might even look at getting a last-gen 13 MBP used, I'd just hate to miss out on Haswell

 

[TheStu]

Yeah build quality is definitely far superior on the rMBP. It's funny, I thought maybe I could get the same features but for a lot less in a PC equivalent but there doesn't seem to be anything that comes close to matching the rMBP feature-for-feature. It's not really a bad value at all.

It's definitely what I would buy if I was going to be using it a lot, but this is going to be a 2nd laptop for me that I'm not really going to use that often and I can't seem to justify the rMBP cost

I'm curious if they are going to release a cheaper non-retina 13 that is in the same thin housing ever. As it is right now I don't really see why anyone should get a 13 Macbook Air over the 13 rMBP since the prices are so close and you get way more power in a similar form factor, with almost as good battery life...

I technically don't need the retina display. Even a 1440x900 or something would be ok... I might even look at getting a last-gen 13 MBP used, I'd just hate to miss out on Haswell

The MBP13 (non-retina) has a 1280*800 display.

 

[996GT2]

The MBP13 (non-retina) has a 1280*800 display.

The non-retina one is an older model, weighs a pound more, and is thicker than the current 13" rMBP. Not to mention it doesn't come standard with a SSD and has worse battery life and much worse screen resolution. The difference in starting price is only $100, so the rMBP is a no brainer at $1299.

 

[Matt1970]

1440x900 on a 13" screen makes everything really tiny. Yes, you can adjust text size DPI and all that but things start looking goofy when you do that.

 

[yottabit]

1440x900 on a 13" screen makes everything really tiny. Yes, you can adjust text size DPI and all that but things start looking goofy when you do that.

It's not too bad... many of the applications I will be using just don't work well UI wise with a x768 or x800 screen so I don't really have much of a choice. 1080p on a 13/14 inch screen is when it gets a little intense.

Good catch on the 1280x800 screen! I thought for sure the 13 MBP would have a 1440x900 screen like the 13 Macbook Air. Couldn't check it on Apple's website because they removed the tech specs on that one, although they still sell it on their store

Guess my vote is still on the Tecra right now, but I'd like to wait and see if they do a Haswell version in the next couple months. Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[halw]

The non-retina one is an older model, weighs a pound more, and is thicker than the current 13" rMBP. Not to mention it doesn't come standard with a SSD and has worse battery life and much worse screen resolution. The difference in starting price is only $100, so the rMBP is a no brainer at $1299.

FWIW, MBP non-retina is user upgradable for memory and hdd/ssd's. rMBP's are not.

 

[yottabit]

Thanks again for all the feedback. I ended up going in a different direction and getting the really cheap ASUS 11.6" deal at Best Buy for $199. Kind of small for what I wanted but at least I have a little notebook I can tote around for now. Looks like I'll be saving up for a rMBP long term.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Thanks again for all the feedback. I ended up going in a different direction and getting the really cheap ASUS 11.6" deal at Best Buy for $199. Kind of small for what I wanted but at least I have a little notebook I can tote around for now. Looks like I'll be saving up for a rMBP long term.

A tip if you want to extend its life: consider replacing the HDD with an SSD. I know it increases the price by at least 50%, but it will feel much, much faster that way.

 

[hans007]

I just bought an hp probook 430. Uses a ulv CPU but it's pretty cheap. Go mine new on eBay for $650 with ssd and core i5.