Ultrabook recommendations

shiny76

My wife has asked for advice regarding purchasing an ultrabook. It's basically for a course she is doing, it'll need to be portable/lightweight (hence ultrabook), run Windows so she can use Office etc. Needs to be reliable and preferrably quick to start up.

Budget is max £500.

She's currently looking at the following:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lenovo-u410-14-ultrabook-blue-17056583-pdt.html
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-b005sa-14-ultrabook-17056533-pdt.html
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/asus-s56ca-xx024h-15-6-ultrabook-silver-17056521-pdt.html

Opinions or other recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Handsome90

The Asus one (the one in the last link) does weigh a bit. It's 2.3kg (not sure why Intel would still classify that as a ultrabook if it's that heavy). Worst of all, it has the worst battery life. So I wouldn't advice buying that one.

Lenovo, on the other hand, has the best battery life and also includes a discrete graphics card (not sure whether that would be relevant for your wife's needs). Moreover, you can increase the ram to 8GB if required later on.

HP cost the least but has a bigger hard drive. Moreover, it has a better web cam.

I would probably go with Lenovo but that's just my opinion. Other forum members will be able to give better advice.

Please check out the laptop first before buying to make sure it's fast enough for her needs. This is because i3 processors aren't the fast processors around (but may suffice for your wife's needs).

-TangleFoot-

Handsome90 wrote: »

discreet graphics card

It's discrete. A discreet GPU would be barely noticeable.

Other options:

• TrustedReviews (Sep. 2012)
• TechRadar (Nov. 2012)

shiny76

Handsome90 wrote: »

The Asus one (the one in the last link) does weigh a bit. It's 2.3kg (not sure why Intel would still classify that as a ultrabook if it's that heavy). Worst of all, it has the worst battery life. So I wouldn't advice buying that one.

Thanks, I hadn't noticed that.

As for price comparisons, as long as it's under £500 it doesn't really matter as the organisation are reimbursing her. Just has to be a price under £500 (we're not allowed to make up the difference ourselves)

shiny76

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

It's discrete. A discreet GPU would be barely noticeable.

Other options:

• TrustedReviews (Sep. 2012)
• TechRadar (Nov. 2012)

Thanks, I'll have a look at these later

jaydeeuk1

Bought the i3 vivobook this morning from amazon for £439. 11.6" which I find preferable to the 14" version. Will let you know on Friday what I think of it! Much quicker than the atom ultrabooks which I was tempted by - the hp envy x2 looked amazing otherwise. My budget was £500 which rules out 90% of the stuff out there. And the fact it is touchscreen is also a bonus.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-11-6-inch-VivoBook-Touchscreen-Integrated/dp/B009YUF4ZS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357142408&sr=8-1