Ultra portable for college

[Freddy1765]

Hi,

I'm in the market for an ultra portable to use for college, but haven't yet decided on a particular model. It has to be a sub-14'' screen, 16:9 aspect ratio, preferably no optical drive, 4lb max weight, power conserving (Intel's i3 look good to me), and HDMI output is a must.

I'll be using it for school and playing 1080p movies on my HDTV, so it does need a bit of GPU power - the nVidia Optimus thing seems quite nice for that. It's also important that access to the HDD is easy, as I'll be dropping an SSD into it myself (probably an Intel 320 120gb, though I haven't decided on that yet either).

Im thinking ~200$ for the SSD and max 1000$ for the laptop. Lightweight and batterylife are very important, as well as the physical size of the computer - anything thicker than an inch is too much.

I've had my eye on the Asus U35JC RX040V;
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3948/asus-u35jc-jogging-in-place

I think it meets all of my requirements, but I'd like some input from more experienced laptop users. I've read about a whining noise that has something to do with the Intel CPU, any thoughts on this?

Cheers in advance

 

[erikistired]

hp dm1z?

love mine, the only thing i can't comment on is watching movies on my hdtv. it does have hdmi out tho.

 

[whoiswes]

I'm pretty happy with my Lenovo x120e, and I had a number of the same requirements you did, save for the 1080p playback.

I have the 3 cell version, I get around 4 hours of battery life, mainly browsing and remoting into the office for work. Weight is right around 3 lbs. Paid around $325 (got in when the No-OS option was still valid).

Very happy for the money!

 

[flensr]

Try the toshiba portege 830. Or go for one of the older 700s if you can find one for a discount. They have optical drives but are very small/light with a 13"ish screen and plenty of both cpu power and battery life. If you get the basic core i3 version you should have enough left over for the SSD.

 

[Freddy1765]

Has anyone reviewed the portege 830 yet? Looks pretty interesting tbh.

 

[ncalipari]

lenovo x201 tablet.


Perfect for college, ultradurable, high end display.

You can find it with the ssd for 1450 $

 

[Brainonska511]

If you're just doing movies and 1080p content, a Sandy Bridge notebook using integrated graphics is more than enough and you'll get better batterylife to boot.

 

[Bacstar]

Another vote for the Lenovo X120e. After swapping out to a SSD drive, I'm extremely happy with this ultraportable.

I also got the HP DM3t to give to my niece for college. I haven't gotten any feedback from her yet, but it was perfect for her needs, 13" screen, light, and good battery-life.

 

[Freddy1765]

I'm not a huge fan of the conservative Thinkpad design, something a little more 'modern' looking is preferable to me
I'm definitely not looking for anything with dedicated graphics, but the Optimus tech seems to bring the best of two worlds - if I can play back 1080 movies with stand-alone integrated graphics, I'm perfectly fine with omitting the Optimus though.

 

[Freddy1765]

Has anyone tried dropping an SSD into the Toshiba R830/R835?
I hope it's somewhat accessible, would hate to pay someone to do it for me..

 

[erikistired]

Has anyone tried dropping an SSD into the Toshiba R830/R835?
I hope it's somewhat accessible, would hate to pay someone to do it for me..

it looks like it's under a door on the bottom from some of the youtube videos.

 

[Freddy1765]

So it does, well that nice.
Still haven't found a review of it though.

 

[Erudite21]

Definitely consider the Asus 1215b. Out of everything on the market, this best fits the requirements for the price. I upgraded the RAM to 8GB, replaced the HDD to an SSD, and it is sailing. I can run Office '10, Lightroom 3, and multi-tabbed IE 9 without a hitch. It also outputs 1080p video through the HDMI port with no problems whatsoever.

The only qualm with this model is that it is a bit tricky to replace the HDD. But I watched this youtube video and it was a rather straight forward process. Replay the video as many times as you need to during disassembly. You just need a small screwdriver for the job. Thirty seconds use with a hair dryer keeps the warranty sticker intact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkPEmToWYrs

 

[jihe]

I'm not a huge fan of the conservative Thinkpad design, something a little more 'modern' looking is preferable to me
I'm definitely not looking for anything with dedicated graphics, but the Optimus tech seems to bring the best of two worlds - if I can play back 1080 movies with stand-alone integrated graphics, I'm perfectly fine with omitting the Optimus though.

A 'conservative' thinkpad from 7 years ago still looks like it belongs whereas a 'modern' laptop from 7 years ago looks like garbage. I say the new x220.

 

[Freddy1765]

Don't know the price of the x220 in the US, but unfortunately I live in Denmark where the cheapest model goes for ~1500$. That's way out of my budget, especially considering I'd need an SSD on top of that.

 

[Freddy1765]

I checked the Asus out, but it looks too tall - its like 1½ inches, simply way too much. Also, I'm not crazy about the formfactor, 12.1'' screen is too small - I would like 13.3, as well as a more powerful CPU. Might as well take advantage of Sandybridge, now that it's here.