UKC

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on ultrabooks? They're small (I'm looking at 13.1") powerful for their size laptops, currently I'm thinking of one of the Samsung ones.

I'm going to be using it while backpacking around Asia to edit photos & video, the video editing won't be any thing intense. I guess the main features of the device should be (in order):
- Not a Mac (don't think them)
- Weight
- Battery life
- Power / performance

If anyone has any thoughts it'll be greatly appreciated ,
Neil.

In reply to ElBarto:

Recently got a Fujitsu Lifebook U series Ultrabook w Core i7 which has been very good, with the exception of the screen which I dont find as clear as my old laptop. Great battery life and performance and very slim, but it wasn't cheap.

In reply to ElBarto:

I have a Samsung series 9 Ultrabook and I love it. It's thin and light that I barely notice I am carrying it (even at 15" for the one I have). I would thoroughly recommend it.

The only slight niggle is that due to the slim form-factor you need adaptors to connect to a network cable or to an external monitor - these are small and easy to lose. Ultrabooks are also relatively expensive - I got mine cheap because it had been returned due to an intermittently dodgy pixel, otherwise I might have bought a standard laptop. Having said that though, I don't regret buying this one for an instant.

In reply to kathrync:

Oh, the Asus ones come well recommended as well btw - although again, pricey. I was looking at those and had decided I couldn't afford it when the Samsung came up. I know a couple of developers who use Asus Ultrabooks and think they are great though.

In reply to ElBarto:

See if you can watch last night's Gadget Show on chanel 5. They had a review of them.

In reply to kathrync:

Thanks a lot for those recommendations, I too was looking at the Asus but was leaning more to the Samsung due to price but now you mention developers you know use it (I'm a software developer too) I might actually consider spending the extra to get it as they think highly of it.

Thanks!

In reply to mh554:

I'll see if I can find a repeat / find it online to watch, would be perfect.

Thanks!

In reply to ElBarto:


I should add the caveat that most of the developers I know have stripped Windows off the Asus and replaced it with their favourite flavour of Linux - one of the reasons the Asus is popular is that it seems quite amenable to this. Having said that, I have done the same on my Samsung and the only things that didn't work out of the box were the keyboard controls for contrast/volume/keyboard backlight/wireless etc - I got all of them bar the wireless shortcut working with minimal hassle.

In reply to ElBarto:

I got the Acer Aspire S7 (Haswell) which I absolutely love - but it wasn't cheap! These days with hardware lasting longer I figured it was worth the extra for something really nice.