Sorry about the mixup in sony vs vizio, I was looking at a bunch of pages in rapid succession and lost track. Also I'm a noob.
Well, the #1 thing I'm looking for is reviews/opinions on the Asus u47vc. I'm happy to talk about my preferences in a laptop though:
#1. I found that there was no significant difference in portability between the u47a in the store and the smallest ultrabooks. Yes some of the ultrabooks were insanely thin and light, making me want one just so I could feel like I was living in the future, but realistically the only added portability I could see from that was being able to walk around carrying the ultrabook in one hand and controlling it with the other. I don't think I would ever want to do that, so it doesn't represent any advantage to me. Based on comparing multiple 14" models in the store, the Asus u47a was small enough to still feel ultra-portable to me, but that wasn't true of all 14" laptops. So I'd avoid anything significantly bigger than that.
That means Dimensions=32.8 x 22.5 x 2.49 ~3.09 cm (WxDxH) (w/ 6cell battery), Weight=1.98 kg (with 6 cell battery)
#2. I want decently powerful internals for a decent price (I'm willing to pay for value, no real hard set limit). Most every ultrabook I've looked at has <2GHz clock speed cpu. I'm thinking something 2.3GHz or better would be ideal. I'm willing to bend a little on this though because I don't have a lot of experience comparing performance when only the clock speed changes, so I'm not sure what real effect it has. I don't want something noticeably slower than my work laptop though, which is a couple years old Thinkpad with somewhere in the 2+ range for clock speed.
#3. It must run games. Obviously this means I'm looking for Windows, as that has the best selection. Beyond that, I'd like to be able to run The Walking Dead and Legend of Grimrock. Being able to run Guild Wars 2 would be a nice bonus, but I don't see myself using this heavily for multiplayer gaming as I already have a desktop. It just needs to be able to play something light and fun when I want it. Also, I have no problems with low graphics settings. A lot of people say a game "won't run" on a particular laptop when really what they mean is it won't run on ultra. I'm used to turning the graphics down for competitive gaming, so low graphics settings don't bother me.
#4. Backlit keyboard and SSD heavily preferred. Probably the number one thing I hate on my current laptop is the lack of a backlit keyboard. And I think all laptops should have SSD's because the "quick wake up and do something" is part of their usage model.
#5. The largest possible screen in the smallest form factor. A 13" screen is the smallest I would consider, but frankly the 14" is preferred. I will even look at 15" if the laptop is small enough (such as the one you mentioned, I'll look into that). Also I do prefer glossy over matte screens. My current laptop is glossy and glare has never been much of a problem, and the matte screens don't look as good. That's one knock against the u47vc, but it's one I'm willing to live with.
Note on the 15" size, and many 14" notebooks: I feel like a lot of these would warrant a large laptop bag or backpack to carry. And I would constantly be debating whether I want to bring them with me when I go somewhere. I think at that point they're no more portable than a 17" laptop for me, and therefore they aren't worth looking at. There is a Samsung 15" ultrathin laptop that I'm aware of, but I think I remember the internals being unimpressive for the price, and most of the Samsung laptops had poor keyboards and terrible mouse buttons.
#6. A good keyboard and trackpad. That means key travel not too shallow, keys have a decent click-y-ness to them, they are firm in resetting when you release the key. I want to feel just as comfortable typing on my laptop as my desktop. Asus and Lenovo keyboards were the best in the store for this. Also the trackpads vary surprisingly between manufacturer, but not as much as the keyboard. As long as it's not on of the high-friction trackpads from Lenovo, anything works. The mouse buttons have to be good though, not feel like "mushy".
#7 Ports are good, the more the merrier. I don't have any specific requirements at this time though. A thunderbolt port for a possible external graphics card in the future would be awesome.
I see you made some suggestions and I'll look into all of those today when I have time. Also still considering the HP dv4t, as the GT 650M is a lot of graphics card in a small package. Thanks for the help!
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