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Best current ultrabook?

which < $1,400, 13 inch ultrabook is best?

  • Dell XPS 13

  • Samsung Series 9

  • Acer Aspire S7

  • ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A

Results are only viewable after voting.
M

makewayhomer

Junior Member
I am looking for a very portable laptop, budget < $1,400ish, company will be paying for its so spending a few hundred less isn't really a big concern.

I currently have a latest gen MacBook Air. 13 inch, 128GB, 4gb RAM. I love the hardware, but I've gradually grown a bit annoyed with the OS - and think that the Office suite (which I use a lot) just works better on Windows. So I want to go back to Windows I think, but want something in a similar form factor as the MBA. I need to buy something in the next week or so. choices I have highlighted:


Dell XP3 13 (new release with 1080p screen). about $1,400 gets me 8gb RAM, 256GB SSD, awesome screen, and decently thin/light form factor. the initial reviews I read said the touchpad and screen were the 2 weakpoints, but I think these have both been corrected. No touchscreen but not sure I care about this?

Samsung Series 9. best of breed in terms of light/thin. Weak touchpad - is this still wonky? Not a great keyboard? $1,300 only gets me 4gb RAM and 128GB SSD - not even sure where I can buy an upgraded one or how much this would cost?

ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A. Looks nice, but honestly figuring out specs and where to buy is confusing.

Acer Aspire S7. Great specs, but likely over my budget.

so...any votes? I would love 8GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. Touchscreen is nice, but I don't think I would use it much? and going over $1,400 is probably a tough sell. bad keyboard/touchpad would suck as I use it a decent amount without external keyboard/mouse. peripherals and slots I don't care so much about. I do love a good monitor and tons of pixels
 
the X1 looks nice, but looks a good bit more expensive than the XPS 13 for instance

I see $1,574 for 8 GB RAM, 180 GB SSD (downgrade from 256gb) , i7 (upgrade from i5) and a lower res monitor
 
You should add the Asus UX32VD

1920x1080 IPS display, upgradable RAM (up to 10GB), upgradeable SSD/HDD, nVidia 620M, Bang & Olufsen speakers
 
One model that seems to be pretty under-rated is the Lenovo Thinkpad Twist (s230u). I have one and like it for what it is ("convertible" Ultrabook). It seems to tick the boxes you are looking for:

- Ultraportable @ ~3.4lbs
- 12.5" IPS Touchscreen (1366x768 res though, but has gorilla glass)
- 4GB to 8GB RAM (the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard for this model though).

You can go to most Staples stores and see a floor-model for yourself. Most retail stores sell the "lower-end" Core i5-3317U/4GB model though. For $1050 or so you can easily order the higher-end model with Core i7-3517U & 8GB RAM (they are configured together, you cannot get one without the other). This model also have a mSATA slot and a 7mm 2.5" HDD slot so you can put a 256GB (or smaller) mSATA SSD boot drive and a 500GB (or smaller) "data storage drive" in one small laptop. Plus this is a "Thinkpad" so has the awesome keyboard that Lenovo's are known for, as well as that little pointing stick (trackpoint) if you like that.
 
makewayhomer said:
the X1 looks nice, but looks a good bit more expensive than the XPS 13 for instance

I see $1,574 for 8 GB RAM, 180 GB SSD (downgrade from 256gb) , i7 (upgrade from i5) and a lower res monitor
Click to expand...

We got our CEO an xps 13. He came from a MacBook Air and is generally pretty picky with his devices. We got him multiple choices and he picked the xps 13.

Overall I was very impressed with the build quality, function, feel of the laptop, and keyboard. All were great. You won't find a trackpad like the macs but the xps was good. It can be had with 8gb and 256gb ssd. I know that's what we got but I forget pricing.
 
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