Suggest me a 11-13" laptop with decent graphics

[DivideBYZero]

Gone off the idea of getting the wife a Netbook, so:

Requirements:

- Thin and light
- Great battery life 3+ hours
- Decent GFX, discrete if possible/necessary
- 250Gb min HDD
- 2Gb RAM min
- Should be able to game, but only stuff like Age of Empires 3, other comparable 3D RTS

Not looking at high end, price wise and no macs. Thanks!

 

[CurseTheSky]

ASUS UL30Vt.

- It's thin and light.
- It should be capable of 4-8 hours of battery life (my UL30A with a bigger battery gets 8-10 hours every time)
- GMA 4500MHD and discrete G210M (user-switchable on the fly)
- 320GB HDD (if I remember correctly)
- 4 GB of RAM
- should play all current RTS games (but don't count on high-detail shooters at high settings)
- $800 or so.

 

[Decembermouse]

Dunno if they're making 11-13" laptops with those new Radeon 4200 chips in them, but if they are (and if they're priced like the 15.6" ones) then you can get a good one for $400, like the one for sale at Best Buy right now, but that one's too big for you, just an example. Those have 40 stream processors at 500MHz, are DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 compatible and 40nm, all that jazz. The only thing is they use shared memory, but they perform darn well for not having dedicated memory. Idk what kind of CPU you're looking for...

 

[brainhulk]

check out the lenovo u330. there's some great deals on it right now

2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 Processor
13.3 WXGA (1280 x 800) LED backlit VibrantView Display. Built-in 1.3 Megapixel Webcamera with Microphone. DVD+-R/RW Drive with Dual Layer. Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500MHD Graphics. ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 with 256MB Dedicated Graphics Memory. Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN. 802.11a/b/g/n. Integrated Bluetooth. Intel 10/100 Ethernet LAN. ExpressCard 34 Slot. 6-in-1 Memory Card Adaptor. (MS, MS Pro, SD, SD Elite Pro, xD, MMC) Ports - 2 x USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, Headphone out; Microphone-in, VGA, HDMI, RJ-45

 

[maniac5999]

I believe that MSI Is planning on releasing the Wind U230 early next month, which will probably be another reasonable choice. I believe it's stats will be:
-12.1" 1366x768 LED screen
-Amd Athlon Neo x2 L335 (K8, 1.6ghz 512k L2 x2, 65nm)
-ATi HD3200 --Probably the 2nd best IGP out here behind the Nvidia 9400
-4gb DDR2 RAM
-Around 4 hours real life battery life
-Around $400

I'm actually looking for something similar myself. I'm looking to play older RTS (And Civ4) plus WoW on reasonable settings when I'm away from my desktop. The UL30vt is definately something that I've looked into, and I like it a lot, but it is on the larger side of ultraportable (13.1") and is about twice as expensive. I'm sure that the UL30vt would have much better battery life however (even if it is a good bit less than the UL80 due to a smaller battery) because the 65nm Athlons aren't to great energy-wise.

Personally, however, I'm going to hold off on my purchase, I want to see what Intel offers in 32nm, which will probably be much more energy efficient, and I'm also hoping that by the summer AMD will offer a 45nm K10 with a 5200 in a similar package to the U230.

EDIT: I went to Best Buy during lunch and looked at several different laptops. In my opinion the size difference between 12.1" and 13.1" is very dramatic. the 12.1" model (Asus) still felt like a netbook size wise, while all of the 13" models felt much, much larger.

 

[Decembermouse]

That doesn't sound half bad actually.

If you want to do gaming, even light RTS's, I would recommend you stay away from:

-all Intel graphics (and consequently, Intel Atom, Celeron, and Pentium Dual Core as they only come with Intel graphics chips as far as I know)
-Nvidia GeForce 6150, 7050
-ATi Radeon x1250, x1270

Anything from GeForce 8200 and up, or Radeon 3100 and up should do you just fine. And like maniac5999 illustrated (wow, his first post was really helpful) some of these can actually have pretty decent battery life.

 

[jaydee]

I believe that MSI Is planning on releasing the Wind U230 early next month, which will probably be another reasonable choice. I believe it's stats will be:
-12.1" 1366x768 LED screen
-Amd Athlon Neo x2 L335 (K8, 1.6ghz 512k L2 x2, 65nm)
-ATi HD3200 --Probably the 2nd best IGP out here behind the Nvidia 9400
-4gb DDR2 RAM
-Around 4 hours real life battery life
-Around $400

I'm actually looking for something similar myself. I'm looking to play older RTS (And Civ4) plus WoW on reasonable settings when I'm away from my desktop. The UL30vt is definately something that I've looked into, and I like it a lot, but it is on the larger side of ultraportable (13.1") and is about twice as expensive. I'm sure that the UL30vt would have much better battery life however (even if it is a good bit less than the UL80 due to a smaller battery) because the 65nm Athlons aren't to great energy-wise.

Personally, however, I'm going to hold off on my purchase, I want to see what Intel offers in 32nm, which will probably be much more energy efficient, and I'm also hoping that by the summer AMD will offer a 45nm K10 with a 5200 in a similar package to the U230.

EDIT: I went to Best Buy during lunch and looked at several different laptops. In my opinion the size difference between 12.1" and 13.1" is very dramatic. the 12.1" model (Asus) still felt like a netbook size wise, while all of the 13" models felt much, much larger.

The Wind U230 sounds like the $600 HP DM3 1030 with a 12" screen. How can they undercut by 50% with just slightly smaller screen size?

 

[jacktesterson]

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...0131403&catid=

Approximate Battery Life 5.5 Hours
Hard Drive Speed/Capacity 500GB 7200RPM
LED Backlit Display Yes
Optical Drive No
Processor Speed 1.60 GHz
Processor Type AMD Athlon Neo X2 Dual-Core Processor for Ultrathin Notebooks L335
RAM 4096MB DDR2
Screen Size 13.3 Inches
Graphics
Discrete Video Memory No
Expandable Video Memory No
Graphics Chipset ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics with 128MB Display Cache Memory AMD M780G with 64MB GDDR2
Integrated Video Memory Yes
Native Screen Resolution 1366 x 768

 

[randomlinh]

how is the neo x2? $400 for the U230 would be getting very close to what I'm willing to pay for these "netbooks." The current $300 options disappoint, I'd like to smoothly watch hulu in full scree, heh. THey usually handle normal non HD video fine though, like xvid stuff.

 

[maniac5999]

The Wind U230 sounds like the $600 HP DM3 1030 with a 12" screen. How can they undercut by 50% with just slightly smaller screen size?

Well, I just went to the HP store, and a DM3 with the L335, 3GB of RAM and a 320GB HDD is $550. In addition, I saw DM3s on special for $499 all over the place (Staples, Best Buy, etc.) so HP is probably makin gmoney on them even at $500. Finally, the DM3 has that metal chassis, which is probably more expensive than the wind's plastic one, which is even a carry-over from older 12" wind designs. For all of these reasons, and the fact that the current U210 is $430, I'd expect the U230 to come in in the $400-$500 range. (I'm still pissed that it's using a 65nm K8 instead of a 45nm K10.5 though)

 

[jaydee]

Does anyone have any sort of comparison of the AMD Neo X2 L335? How does that compare with the Intel SU line in terms of performance?

BTW, I'm looking for the exact same thing as the original poster, but I requre HDMI.

For the OP, if you don't need HDMI, the Asus UL20A (12") goes for around $580, and I would probably buy it if it had HDMI or even DVI. The ASUS UL30A-X5 (13") goes for $650. 8-cell battery for 12 hours life! Tomorrow you should see prices for the Lenovo Thinkpad x100E which also looks crazy good for the reported base price of $399, but again no HDMI. I don't think I'm going to wait for the Wind U230, MSI seem to have quality issues...

After a little looking around, at Office Depot right now, you can get the HP DM3 with 4GB of RAM for $499 AR, free shipping, but tax is applicable.

Right now I'm hung up between these two (prefer a 12" screen, but don't see any good options there at this point).

DM3-1030us for $499
AMD Neo X2 L335 @ 1.6GHz
4GB DDR2
ATI 3200HD
5 hours of battery life

UL30A-X5 for $650
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 @ 1.3GHz
4GB DDR3
Intel GMA 4500
12 hours of battery life

 

[maniac5999]

Does anyone have any sort of comparison of the AMD Neo X2 L335? How does that compare with the Intel SU line in terms of performance?

BTW, I'm looking for the exact same thing as the original poster, but I requre HDMI.

The L335 is going to be almost as fast as the SU7300, but of course, is a power hog in comparison. This review of the U230 compares it to a SU9400, which is just a bit faster than the 7300: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=21331&page=1

Also the Lenovo looks very tasty at 11.6" it's probably a bit smaller than the U230, which is definately a huge plus, although especially in a package that small their touchpad/dot combo is probably a love it or hate it proposal. here's a link to that (Though Tom's reports it at $449): http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Lenovo-AMD-ThinkPad-Edge,9339.html

I'm still torn, Although Arrandale's still mediocre IGP (remember the only IGP reviews we're seeing so far look at the 900mhz i5 661 piece, the mobile IGPs max out at 733 mhz) along with the fact that they haven't introduced any CULV processors, is swaying me towards purchasing a L335 ultraportable, I still think that holding off for AMD's 3rd gen ultrathin at 40/45nm may be a better choice.

Oh, and I hate to sound like a giant Wind fan. (I may be going for the Lenovo now) but the U230 spec sheet says that it has HDMI.

 

[jaydee]

The L335 is going to be almost as fast as the SU7300, but of course, is a power hog in comparison. This review of the U230 compares it to a SU9400, which is just a bit faster than the 7300: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=21331&page=1

Also the Lenovo looks very tasty at 11.6" it's probably a bit smaller than the U230, which is definately a huge plus, although especially in a package that small their touchpad/dot combo is probably a love it or hate it proposal. here's a link to that (Though Tom's reports it at $449): http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Lenovo-AMD-ThinkPad-Edge,9339.html

I'm still torn, Although Arrandale's still mediocre IGP (remember the only IGP reviews we're seeing so far look at the 900mhz i5 661 piece, the mobile IGPs max out at 733 mhz) along with the fact that they haven't introduced any CULV processors, is swaying me towards purchasing a L335 ultraportable, I still think that holding off for AMD's 3rd gen ultrathin at 40/45nm may be a better choice.

Oh, and I hate to sound like a giant Wind fan. (I may be going for the Lenovo now) but the U230 spec sheet says that it has HDMI.

The Lenovo I think is going to fall short of the Asus UL20A at the price point and features it offers. They both lack HDMI output and that´s going to kill it for me.

The wildcard that the L335 systems have over the Intel CULV is the ATI 3200. That review you posted was good, but I wonder how much the youtube 480/720p benchmark performance battery life will improve with the new Flash 10.1 and optimized drivers. That's the next question.

 

[jimhsu]

I'm just curious. Is the Nvidia 210M (UL30vt) THE most powerful graphics solution for this notebook size? I think anything bigger is physically impossible to fit in there.

I also happen to be looking for notebooks with great graphics and great battery life (an impossible combination) in the 12-14" size range. "Great graphics" meaning "older and some new games are at least playable on lower quality settings", not "competes with desktop" (I have a desktop machine to take care of that). My expectations are not too high as I only have a Radeon Mobility X1600 as reference in the mobile sector. So far, only the UL series and the Sony CW (with some caveats) fits this category.

 

[maniac5999]

Here we go guys, pretty much the same specs as the laptop I was talking about last month for $500: http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=464104 It doesn't look half bad in red either.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Hi Guys, update:

Today we got an HP DM3 with the Neo X2 335, HD3200 GFX, 4Gb RAM, 320Gb HDD and Win7 Premium 64bit. It came with a lightscribe USB DVD burner, too, which is pretty sweet as I can use that with my netbook if I ever need an optical device on that.