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Stupid to buy an ultrabook today? With Windows 8 coming?

amdhunter

amdhunter

Lifer
Thinking of buying an X1 Carbon since there is a 10% deal floating around. I cannot find anything about new Windows 8 ultrabooks anywhere, and I am wondering if it's because they don't want to jeopardize current ultrabook sales.

Is it stupid to buy something so close to Windows 8 release? Does anyone know of any upcoming touch-enabled ultrabooks on the horizon? I've seen the Zenbook with touch demonstrated, but nothing from anyone else.
 
Unless you want touchscreen, I doubt it will matter much.
And honestly, I don't want greasy finger prints all over my ips screen. I played with their preview, and 8 is still fine with a conventional computer.
Touch will be nice for something at the coffee table or what have you. But for my personal business machine? Negatory on the gimmicks. Just get me to word and excel with the least amount of clicks and bs possible. Ty.

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kelco said:
Unless you want touchscreen, I doubt it will matter much.
And honestly, I don't want greasy finger prints all over my ips screen. I played with their preview, and 8 is still fine with a conventional computer.
Touch will be nice for something at the coffee table or what have you. But for my personal business machine? Negatory on the gimmicks. Just get me to word and excel with the least amount of clicks and bs possible. Ty.

.02
Click to expand...

Yeah. I couldn't stand using Windows 8 on my Macbook. I couldn't stand the UI, the way you moved around and so on. I guess if I want a touch-screen PC, I'd wait for a RT, or Atom based touch laptop.

I considered a Zenbook 1080, but I'm so sick of seeing them, I thought I'd go with something new. I have about 15 or so at work that I futz around with occasionally, and I think I'd like the 14" screen on the Lenovo better.
 
amdhunter said:
Yeah. I couldn't stand using Windows 8 on my Macbook. I couldn't stand the UI, the way you moved around and so on. I guess if I want a touch-screen PC, I'd wait for a RT, or Atom based touch laptop.

I considered a Zenbook 1080, but I'm so sick of seeing them, I thought I'd go with something new. I have about 15 or so at work that I futz around with occasionally, and I think I'd like the 14" screen on the Lenovo better.
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The Zenbooks are that successfull? Wow, didn't realize non-geeks used asus products. Good for Asus.

These days I think the QC is so good with the major players it will come down to the little things that match your personal criteria. Asus hit on all mine, so the choice was easy. I'd be just as happy on the HP envy or the lenovo offering though. I think the ultrabook thing was a great move for the pc industry as a whole.
 
kelco said:
The Zenbooks are that successfull? Wow, didn't realize non-geeks used asus products. Good for Asus.
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I buy all the laptops for people at work. The Zenbooks became really popular fast, and I bought a couple of Toshiba z830s (one failed battery already) and people are happy. The biggest problem with them is when they stick the MicroHDMI in the VGA port. I've had to send 2 back to ASUS to have them repaired.

My job doesn't know how good they have it to have a geek who makes purchases for them. 🙂
 
I just ordered an X1 Carbon (the base model) for $985 CAD (including a mini-DP to VGA cable). Lenovo often posts coupon codes for the Red Flag Deals forums up here, and their most recent one (whether intentionally or by accident) worked with the X1, got me nearly 30% off. At that price I couldn't resist! Ship date is Sep. 3rd.

I didn't hesitate at all because of Windows 8--in fact, I'd rather order before the release date so that I'm not forced to use it if I don't like it. If I decide I must have Win8, I can pay $40 and get the upgrade when it releases.
 
I wouldn't worry about it. Just get Windows 7. It will be fully viable for at least the next couple years. In the consumer market Windows 8 will roll out rapidly, but in the business world things move much more slowely, and Windows 7 will stick around for a while.

On another topic, I'm not sure I'd even want a touch enabled LCD. My Android with gorilla glass is one thing, but unless they figure out a way to keep finger prints off the screen I doubt I'd ever use it.
 
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Is this a personal PC as well? And how long will you be using it?

Personally I'm still iffy on the ultrabook platform, mostly because Intel still hasn't perfected getting their chips down to fit properly in a 17W TDP size. All of them throttle like crazy due to TDP constraints in lengthy and intensive workloads. If you don't care about the dips and drops in performance or won't notice them depending on what you're doing then I wouldn't worry about it. If you do, though, you may want to wait for haswell or buy a small notebook. The weight isn't really that different than a small notebook either and the price is usually too damn high.

You should sign up to this Barnes and Noble thing and you can take advantage of some wicked discounts. If you don't want an Ultrabook and would rather have an IPS screen with a full i5 then you can pick up an x230 for less money. Outside of "thin", I just don't see the point of Ultrabooks at the moment. I have a feeling that Haswell might change that, along with the standardization of batteries and mSATA cards that's all coming next year, resulting in decent price drop and increased battery life.

Win 8 notebooks/ultrabooks are coming out soon and there's supposedly 40+ touch-capable designs already in the works. If you're going for productivity, though, I wouldn't want a touchscreen nor win8, so don't let either of those factors influence your decision making.
 
birthdaymonkey said:
I just ordered an X1 Carbon (the base model) for $985 CAD (including a mini-DP to VGA cable). Lenovo often posts coupon codes for the Red Flag Deals forums up here, and their most recent one (whether intentionally or by accident) worked with the X1, got me nearly 30% off. At that price I couldn't resist! Ship date is Sep. 3rd.

I didn't hesitate at all because of Windows 8--in fact, I'd rather order before the release date so that I'm not forced to use it if I don't like it. If I decide I must have Win8, I can pay $40 and get the upgrade when it releases.
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Nice deal. Just looking right now, even with their sale the lowest priced one is $1,329 usd
 
I think now is the perfect time because really, the first W8 notebooks won't be touchscreen and if they are they'll prob charge more

Plus they'll be using mostly the same interiors as current ultrabooks.

Nothing a driver update can't fix
 
Just a note, if you get a PC today, you're eligible for upgrade to Win8 with a $15 charge. That's for USA. For those who live in a different territory, prices may differ. Check link for your location.

I agree with happysmiles that the early Win8 notebooks mostly won't be touchscreen. There will probably be a couple but nothing that would attract most buyers. The real selections would likely come in Q1 or Q2 of 2013.
 
You want to buy now to avoid windows 8. You can always do the $15 upgrade to 8 pro from now to janurary though. Perhaps you could sell one of your license keys online. I don't know if that is illegal selling used but now unused windows keys. Well, your win 7 will be used at least.
 
The X1 Carbon comes standard with a 128GB SSD. Upgrade to 256GB is $299. The SSDs are Sandisk X100s, especially designed by Sandisk with a smaller than normal form factor for the X1 Carbon. The controller is by Marvell. The USB3 Dock as a highly recommended accessory - about $173 USD. I'm leaning - but not until November. 🙂

The standard OS is Win7 Pro. Win8 is an easy upgrade for those so inclined. I prefer the unlayered access to apps on the desktop w/o going through Microsoft category folders.
 
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festa_freak said:
You want to buy now to avoid windows 8. You can always do the $15 upgrade to 8 pro from now to janurary though. Perhaps you could sell one of your license keys online. I don't know if that is illegal selling used but now unused windows keys. Well, your win 7 will be used at least.
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Totally agree with the first part. I want stability and performance now, not the first year spent waiting for drivers to fix the bugs. And if I'm wrong, and Windows 8 is the bomb right out of the gate, I can spend $15 to upgrade...but there's no "go back to Windows 7 for $15" option.

As to the second part, it doesn't work. Microsoft starting working out something with the OEM's so that you can't use the product key from a purchased laptop on another computer. I tried it with my daughter's Windows 7 laptop...was disappointed to learn this.
 
Rio Rebel said:
As to the second part, it doesn't work. Microsoft starting working out something with the OEM's so that you can't use the product key from a purchased laptop on another computer. I tried it with my daughter's Windows 7 laptop...was disappointed to learn this.
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OEM licenses are tied to the motherboard.

festa_freak said:
I don't know if that is illegal selling used but now unused windows keys. Well, your win 7 will be used at least.
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Once you've used it you can't sell it. Also the $15 upgrade option requires win7 (might be other versions as well, I'm not sure), meaning it's not a standalone installation thus nullifying any possibility of giving it to somebody else.
 
My brother just got himself an ultrabook for school. Windows 8 was never even factored in, he likes Windows 7 better.
 
amdhunter said:
Is it stupid to buy something so close to Windows 8 release? Does anyone know of any upcoming touch-enabled ultrabooks on the horizon? I've seen the Zenbook with touch demonstrated, but nothing from anyone else.
Click to expand...

The Acer Aspire S7 is coming soon, but touch-enabled models will come with Windows 8. I assume few models will launch with Windows 8(Oct 26 launch). Personally, I'm looking for the Asus Taichi, hoping it'll have even less problems than the Zenbook Prime.
 
I'm patiently waiting to see how the Transformer Book is priced and how it is. I'm a little worried because I haven't heard a peep about it apart from the original announcement, and that was pretty lean too. The idea of a full spec Win 8 tablet that works like the current Transformers is awesome and I want it. Especially since the original announcement included 14" units.
 
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