Which Ultrabook?

dreamypuma

Currently looking to replace my ageing Dell Inspiron 1525 (core2duo T5750, 4GB Ram, Win 8)

I know I can get better spec for my money by not looking at Ultrabooks, but quite like the form factor.

I'm looking at either the Asus S400CA or Lenovo U410

Both similarly priced, the Lenovo offering Core i7 over the Asus's Core i5.

Has anyone got any experience of these machines and can help me choose? Any suggestions for alternatives? I have around £200 of Amazon Vouchers so would prefer to use these.

Thanks in advance.

jaydeeuk1

We have the 11" asus at work (otherwise exact same spec), bought a year or so ago and its a good little machine, but was a lot cheaper. The asus isn't that good value, it was £500 in april last year! A good price then, not so now, although you do have £200 vouchers to make it more of a bargain.


Don't understand why the Lenovo has the geforce 710, it will be barely any quicker than the built in intel chip and use more power too. Its also been £50 cheaper in the recent past, so again you're paying well over the odds for the level of spec. Granted you don't have a time machine, but I would hate to pay more for something that depreciates in time, it aint a house!


Gun to my head, I'd choose the asus, its well built and although has an older CPU now its not a bad little machine.


Unless you're desperate for it now, I'd wait. 64bit 8.1 windows with instant on coming soon (currently only 32bit), with a load more tablets, convertibles and I'd imagine ultrabooks with better specs (and more importantly battery life) to follow.

Handsome90

A 3 kg laptop shouldn't be called an ultrabook! Personally I would go with the Asus as it's lighter. One thing I've noticed is that none of the specs mentioned that hours of usage you'll likely to get. This might be an important deciding factor if you are buying a laptop.

Cisco001

Handsome90 wrote: »

A 3 kg laptop shouldn't be called an ultrabook! Personally I would go with the Asus as it's lighter. One thing I've noticed is that none of the specs mentioned that hours of usage you'll likely to get. This might be an important deciding factor if you are buying a laptop.

U410 is around 2 kg

Cisco001

Reviews

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-IdeaPad-U410-Touch-59372989-Ultrabook.97809.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-VivoBook-S400CA-Ultrabook.84582.0.html

Cisco001

By reading the review, Asus is easier to upgrade RAM/ HDD/ changing battery.

But Levono is faster & having better screen and cooler

bsms1147

I'd recommend the Samsung Series 9s (ATIV Book 9s).

I've got a model from last year which is brilliant. They split the range since then into a higher (Plus) and a lower end (Lite) model (and renamed them from Series 9s to ATIV Book 9s), but the fundamentals are the same.

The Lite is both thinner and lighter than the ones you proposed and has an SSD so boots in ~8 seconds. However that comes at the sacrifice of 1'' of screen real estate, smaller storage capacity (as it's SSD not HDD), and an AMD chip not Intel which shouldn't matter. The point of Ultrabooks is to be thin, light, fast and with good battery life; not to be excessively powerful.

I will admit that mine is more similar to the Plus version and I have not personally played with the new, Lite version but the reviews for it hold well.

Thought I'd throw it into the mix if it's not one you'd thought about before.

9/10 on TrustedReviews http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-ativ-book-9-lite_Laptop_review

dreamypuma

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

We have the 11" asus at work (otherwise exact same spec), bought a year or so ago and its a good little machine, but was a lot cheaper. The asus isn't that good value, it was £500 in april last year! A good price then, not so now, although you do have £200 vouchers to make it more of a bargain.


Don't understand why the Lenovo has the geforce 710, it will be barely any quicker than the built in intel chip and use more power too. Its also been £50 cheaper in the recent past, so again you're paying well over the odds for the level of spec. Granted you don't have a time machine, but I would hate to pay more for something that depreciates in time, it aint a house!


Gun to my head, I'd choose the asus, its well built and although has an older CPU now its not a bad little machine.


Unless you're desperate for it now, I'd wait. 64bit 8.1 windows with instant on coming soon (currently only 32bit), with a load more tablets, convertibles and I'd imagine ultrabooks with better specs (and more importantly battery life) to follow.

Thank Jaydeeuk.

I hadn't realised that the Windows 8.1 was only 32 bit. I would like to shift to 64 bit if possible. I'm not particularly desperate to switch my machine. The battery for my current Dell is on it's way out, and I don't particularly want to replace it again. Thought I'd use this as an opportunity to overhaul and get replace.

My only concern with future machines that may be in the pipeline is that they will command a premium on launch, whereas these machines I've looked at seem to have dropped significantly from their launch prices. I noticed on camelcamelcamel that the Lenovo was about £50 higher than than it's historic low at Amazon. got it on watch just in case.

dreamypuma

Cisco001 wrote: »

By reading the review, Asus is easier to upgrade RAM/ HDD/ changing battery.

But Levono is faster & having better screen and cooler

Watched a tear down on Youtube of the U410 and it looked fairly easy to upgrade. The screws are concealed behind the rubber feet. Seen a few comments about the poor WiFi on both these machines, so I was keen to make sure that both WiFi Adapters are easily accessible. I'd probably void the warranty doing so, but never mind.

The 3kg weight for the U410 also seems to be the bundled weight rather that the unit

For me the attraction is the i7 processor on the U410. I was originally only looking at i3 as I though this was all my budget would meet.

Aesthetically the Asus is my preference. the Lenovo, looks too much like a Mac, and is predominantly plastic finishes, whereas the Asus seems to feel more premium.

dreamypuma

bsms1147 wrote: »

I'd recommend the Samsung Series 9s (ATIV Book 9s).

I've got a model from last year which is brilliant. They split the range since then into a higher (Plus) and a lower end (Lite) model (and renamed them from Series 9s to ATIV Book 9s), but the fundamentals are the same.

The Lite is both thinner and lighter than the ones you proposed and has an SSD so boots in ~8 seconds. However that comes at the sacrifice of 1'' of screen real estate, smaller storage capacity (as it's SSD not HDD), and an AMD chip not Intel which shouldn't matter. The point of Ultrabooks is to be thin, light, fast and with good battery life; not to be excessively powerful.

I will admit that mine is more similar to the Plus version and I have not personally played with the new, Lite version but the reviews for it hold well.

Thought I'd throw it into the mix if it's not one you'd thought about before.

9/10 on TrustedReviews http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-ativ-book-9-lite_Laptop_review

Just had brief look at the ATIV book 9 Lite. Seems around the price I was looking at. Plus sides being the 128GB SSD.

Not to sure about the AMD processor though. I've only had one before (Athlon 64) and wasn't entirely happy. I know it's a different gen, so will read up on this and take a look at the comparable benchmarks between intel and AMD.

Not seen one in the flesh so may take a look at some Youtube reviews tonight and seem If I can pop into PC world as see one in the flesh. From the pictures it does look Slim and in true Ultrabook territory.

Thanks for the suggestion.