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Laptop with 8+hrs batter n backlight keyboard

C

cuti7399

Platinum Member
I'm looking for a new laptop, 12/13/14 inch screen size. I'd like something with long battery life 8+hrs and backlit keyboard. Other spec is not an important factor. Well as long as it's not a celeron 🙂. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
 
8+ hours battery? All I know is Atom based netbook with 6 cell battery I believe Acer netbook has the better longer battery?
 
Alienware m11x. Only "netbook" or 11.6" ultraportable with a backlit keyboard that I know of. Also the only one I'm aware of with Firewire built in. And it definitely can put a hurt on the gaming capabilities of the ION & Intel GMA-based portables with its GeForce GT335M.

ALso, you can toggle back to the integrated Intel video to save on battery life. The Alienware BIOS has built-in overclocking functionality. Other than only having a 10/100 Ethernet port , there's not much to fault on this machine at all.

Finally, those CULV Celeron & Pentium CPUs are nothing to sneeze at. The SU4100 that's standard in that Alienware will handle most anything you can throw at it, especially if you overclock it in the BIOS. I'd buy one of thes in a heartbeat if I had the $ and didn't already have a sweet CULV machine that fits my needs a bit better.

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/alienware-m11x/pd.aspx?refid=alienware-m11x&cs=19&s=dhs

P.S. Edit: I researched the subject HARD back in December (prior to the Alienware announcement) and I basically came to the conclusion at the time that the Dell 14z was the most affordable ultraportable with a backlit keyboard. I think Best Buy sells a few Toshiba/Dell machines (their exclusive "Blue Label" line) with backlit keyboards, and I think they have a Core i5 Toshiba with a 13.3 screen and backlit keyboard and wireless video for under $900. Here's a link where you can customize your own Toshiba machine with a backlit KB:
http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/U500
 
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Rottie said:
8+ hours battery? All I know is Atom based netbook with 6 cell battery I believe Acer netbook has the better longer battery?
Click to expand...

CULV notebooks, such as the Acer Timeline series and Asus UL series can achieve 8+ hours of battery life. My UL30A with the 5600mAH battery regularly gets 6-8 hours while multitasking or playing videos, and 8-10+ hours when left somewhat idle. I don't know of any that come with a backlit keyboard, though.
 
hkklife said:
Alienware m11x. Only "netbook" or 11.6" ultraportable with a backlit keyboard that I know of. Also the only one I'm aware of with Firewire built in. And it definitely can put a hurt on the gaming capabilities of the ION & Intel GMA-based portables with its GeForce GT335M.

ALso, you can toggle back to the integrated Intel video to save on battery life. The Alienware BIOS has built-in overclocking functionality. Other than only having a 10/100 Ethernet port , there's not much to fault on this machine at all.

Finally, those CULV Celeron & Pentium CPUs are nothing to sneeze at. The SU4100 that's standard in that Alienware will handle most anything you can throw at it, especially if you overclock it in the BIOS. I'd buy one of thes in a heartbeat if I had the $ and didn't already have a sweet CULV machine that fits my needs a bit better.

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/alienware-m11x/pd.aspx?refid=alienware-m11x&cs=19&s=dhs

P.S. Edit: I researched the subject HARD back in December (prior to the Alienware announcement) and I basically came to the conclusion at the time that the Dell 14z was the most affordable ultraportable with a backlit keyboard. I think Best Buy sells a few Toshiba/Dell machines (their exclusive "Blue Label" line) with backlit keyboards, and I think they have a Core i5 Toshiba with a 13.3 screen and backlit keyboard and wireless video for under $900. Here's a link where you can customize your own Toshiba machine with a backlit KB:
http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/U500
Click to expand...

OP, this is about as good as you're going to get probably.
 
zerogear said:
except the m11x is ugly as sin. :]

That ul30 w/ backlit is hot
Click to expand...

The person hinted that it's fairly easy, so I can't imagine that they opened it up and placed LEDs under the keys themselves. I'm wondering if the keys already have backlighting, but they're software or hardware disabled... otherwise, maybe the swapped out the keyboard from a different notebook?

Either way, they haven't posted a guide yet. I think I'm going to start foaming at the mouth. 😱
 
So far the only laptop that fits what I want is UL30JT, and I'm waiting for MacBook Pro refresh.. if that happens, I might end up getting MBP and loading Win7 on there. (Yes, yes yes macfags, please don't reply to this)
 
I was considering doing the same, but the price and big Apple logo were the only thing holding me back.

Mark my words, if I could buy a Macbook Pro without the Apple logo or other obvious Apple branding, I'd already have my next notebook picked out. Of course the chassis would be easily recognized, but it's more of a principal to me - they make great products, but I do not support the cliche that surrounds them.
 
CurseTheSky said:
Mark my words, if I could buy a Macbook Pro without the Apple logo or other obvious Apple branding, I'd already have my next notebook picked out. Of course the chassis would be easily recognized, but it's more of a principal to me - they make great products, but I do not support the cliche that surrounds them.
Click to expand...

I'm not too worried about the logo, I'm worried about the... people (read Macfags) that it would attract if I bring it to any place public. :/
 
CurseTheSky said:
I was considering doing the same, but the price and big Apple logo were the only thing holding me back.

Mark my words, if I could buy a Macbook Pro without the Apple logo or other obvious Apple branding, I'd already have my next notebook picked out. Of course the chassis would be easily recognized, but it's more of a principal to me - they make great products, but I do not support the cliche that surrounds them.
Click to expand...

Yea, I know you feel. But I got one as a gift to use for a few days (before I had to give it back) and while it was different, it was built pretty well. The only thing I didn't like was the aluminum casing had sharp edges and you can cut your wrists after a while. The OP wanted X and Y requirements so I gave the OP the laptop that satisfied most of the criteria without modding. He didn't mention price either.

Another good laptop would be the Vaio Z, those have the 1080P screens in a 13.3" and have Nvidia GT 335M along with core i5/i7 processors but they start at $2k.
 
Anonemous said:
Yea, I know you feel. But I got one as a gift to use for a few days (before I had to give it back) and while it was different, it was built pretty well. The only thing I didn't like was the aluminum casing had sharp edges and you can cut your wrists after a while. The OP wanted X and Y requirements so I gave the OP the laptop that satisfied most of the criteria without modding. He didn't mention price either.

Another good laptop would be the Vaio Z, those have the 1080P screens in a 13.3" and have Nvidia GT 335M along with core i5/i7 processors but they start at $2k.
Click to expand...

Proprietary SSD drives on those things is a deal killer. (For me)
 
Anonemous said:
Yea, I know you feel. But I got one as a gift to use for a few days (before I had to give it back) and while it was different, it was built pretty well. The only thing I didn't like was the aluminum casing had sharp edges and you can cut your wrists after a while. The OP wanted X and Y requirements so I gave the OP the laptop that satisfied most of the criteria without modding. He didn't mention price either.

Another good laptop would be the Vaio Z, those have the 1080P screens in a 13.3" and have Nvidia GT 335M along with core i5/i7 processors but they start at $2k.
Click to expand...

1080p on a 13"? Honestly, I am not sure how I would feel about that. I have 1080p on my 21" desktop monitor, and although that pixel density is fine, significantly more than that and I think I would have problems in most OSes. Unless there are any good resolution independant resolutions OSes out there, which to the best of my knowledge, there aren't, that res is probably too high.
 
around here macbooks don't attract any attention as they're ubiquitous. anyways, from personal experience the 13" macbook pro wont get to 8 hours, 6.5 is more realistic. Several reviews have the m11x reaching 8 hours but in my hands it'd probably get more like 6.5 since I use my notebooks for work. You should be looking at UL80s and ul30s. I think they're supposed to be in the 10-14 hour range, though you have to take that with a grain of salt until you try it out.
 
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