frankmehta wants ® an Ultraportable: 12-13" Lightweight Laptop

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frankmehta

Forerunner
Whenever I buy a gadget, I make sure I do a lot of research on it and it's competitors which can get mind numbing, sometimes. This time around, I would like to do the same and get something that provides me with the best of all worlds.

I want something thin, light, fast, good looking and reliable.

This time around, I also have one more criterion: Resale Value. As everyone on this forum might have noticed, I do go through a large variety of gadgets in a year and there are times when I feel like upgrading to a slightly (or wholely) better gadget within a short span of time. This would entail not losing a large sum of money over the gadget that is going out at that time.

Eg: An Acer laptop purchased last year at this time for 48k is going for around 27k. That's a huge loss for the seller and a KILLER deal for the person buying it.

This time around, I need something that holds it's value better than the others.

Stellar build quality, 3.5-5 hour battery life (i don't care about the 8-9 hours you get in an Atom single core since it actually takes the same amount of time to open an application in them :S) fabulous screen, atleast 3 USB ports, a core i3 or AMD K325 processor (NO ATOM bull**** for me), USB 3.0, Bluetooth 3.0, 320 gigabyte hard drive, minimum of 2 gb of RAM and decent hardware acceleration are required.

Budget: 20 k to 35 k. Depending on what catches my fantasy. Obviously, the lower the better.

My candidates are:

1. Dell M101Z (4GB, 320 gb version)

2. Asus 1215N (not available in India officially, damn :@)

3. Lenovo Thinkpad Edge (13 incher)

4. MSI 13 incher (am I mad or is it a worthy candidate?)

5. HP DM series/ Touchsmart series

6. Dell Vostro V13/V130

7. Dell Adamo XPS (at a KILLER rate in USA)

8. Toshiba Portege (13 incher I think)

9. Fujitsu Lifebook (13 incher)

10. Samsung (if any 13 incher is available in their range)

I intend to use this laptop for daily purposes (1080p movie watching, powerpoint, word processing, internet surfing, NO gaming, a little bit of photoshop etc) and I just cannot get myself to buy one of those Atom 'netbook' toys as they call them. My Samsung Galaxy S Android phone does a lot of things faster and better than them! What I need is quite a powerhouse, packed in a small package.

Order of preference this time,

Size>Looks>Performance>Build Quality and then Value for Money :bleh:

Thanks for reading. Go on , drop your 2 cents.
 
if money isn't an issue get the Thinkpad x201 ~ 12 inches of awesomeness - starts @ Rs.55000
 
macbook air is an incapable laptop compared to anything in the market. i don't know why people recommend it. mbp 13 would've been a better choice or even a mb 13.
 
you should look into CULV based notebooks. (under clocked core2duos)



Asus ul30a-A2 is my recommendation. Its non atom, aluminium body, 8-9hrs battery time. Its not available in india, and even in the usa stocks are running low cuz the model is an year old.
 
I am going for Asus 1215N thru ebay geb. I feel its the best bang for ever nanobuck spent. If u come across a worthy contender in a couple of days, please share. make it fast :D I gotta order
 
^^^MSI X340 is 17k with 2 years warranty, core2solo, 320gb, intel 4500mhd graphics,2gb ram.
 
sunny27 said:
^^^MSI X340 is 17k with 2 years warranty, core2solo, 320gb, intel 4500mhd graphics,2gb ram.
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Sunny is there any link where we can get the latest price list of other msi notebooks?

Any idea how may cell battery does the above price x340 have?
 
6 cell me thinks. x340 has been phased out by msi. dealerships are selling it cheap to get rid of stocks.
 
The X201, the MBP, MBA and the Dell Adamo XPS are out of budget. Hell, even the Lenovo Edge is kind of out of budget.

I have zeroed down to the Dell M101Z (which looks absolutely tempting) and the Asus 1215N (from USA but sadly ONLY usa models dont come with USB 3.0 which this notebook otherwise comes with).

The MSi is poor when it comes to build quality and resale value will take a hit.

The Notion Adam Ink is a FABULOUS option but sadly no windows :-(

The Asus UL30A2 is too expensive.
 
Look for 1215T, I got it last weekend from Lamington.. I guess that's the best purchase I've made.

frankmehta said:
Stellar build quality (yes),

3.5-5 hour battery life (yes)

fabulous screen, (12.1" 16:9 HD LED-backlit glare-type display)

atleast 3 USB ports (yes)

a core i3 or AMD K325 processor (NO ATOM bull**** for me), (1.7GHz AMD Athlon II Neo K125 processor)

USB 3.0 (some models),

Bluetooth 3.0 (yes),

320 gigabyte hard drive (yes),

minimum of 2 gb of RAM (yes)

decent hardware acceleration are required (ATI Radeon HD4250.. capable of running 1080p quite easily)

Budget: 20 k to 35 k. (Under 20k)
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I think the Adamo XPS followed by the M101Z are the best.

The Adamo is simply astounding to look at & feel. But it is too expensive to be value for money... :(
 
Budget: 20 k to 35 k. Depending on what catches my fantasy. Obviously, the lower the better.

My candidates are:

1. Dell M101Z (4GB, 320 gb version) Nice Build Quality, decent VFM, Good Resale

2. Asus 1215N (not available in India officially, damn :@)

3. Lenovo Thinkpad Edge (13 incher) Best Build quality, VFM, Good Resale

4. MSI 13 incher (am I mad or is it a worthy candidate?) Decent Build Quality, decent VFM,No Resale

5. HP DM series/ Touchsmart series Decent Build Quality, Good VFM, Decent Resale

6. Dell Vostro V13/V130 Good build Quality, decent VFM, Less Resale

7. Dell Adamo XPS (at a KILLER rate in USA) out of Budget, VFM (???)

8. Toshiba Portege (13 incher I think) I don't think the Budget will permit the Protege

9. Fujitsu Lifebook (13 incher) decent Build Quality, VFM, Less Resale

10. Samsung (if any 13 incher is available in their range) A.S.S is ultra pathetic, absolutely no Resale value
 
Looking closely at Dell V130; Going to call up Dell and ask why the hell I don't see it listed for sale on their website (only features mentioned)

If anything below 35k, then the V130 shall be ordered tomorrow itself ;-) The looks and the weight alongwith absolute VFM are reason enough for me to not even look elsewhere (yes, not even at the M101Z)

Also, if not, then I shall stick it out till Mid January to see if any more ultraportables are released.
 
sunny27 said:
macbook air is an incapable laptop compared to anything in the market. i don't know why people recommend it. mbp 13 would've been a better choice or even a mb 13.
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Dude,everyone knows MBP 13 is more powerful than air.have you seen the new 13"air?If portability is the main criteria and budget is flexible,the 13 inch air is much better option than the MBP.

BTW,I do not know what do you mean by incapable laptop,you dont expect workstation like performance in an ultraportable or do you?

Oh,Happy New Year to everyone!
 
Hi everyone, I just happened to speak to Dell today and they have NO idea about any model called the Vostro V130.

Somehow, EVERY single time I have tried to buy a product from Dell (not just this time, this has happened 3 years ago when I was interested in buying the newly launched Vostro 14, AND last year, when I was interested in picking up the Studio 17 which came on their website in India and never went on sale. This year too, I face the same problem!) I just get very turned off by the people at Dell.

I have been to the 'signature' shops where young Dell customer care 'executives' are just young college teens who are almost always hooked on to Facebook or Orkut on the display laptops at the showrooms. They don't give 2 hoots about whether you buy their products or not, but yes, they will JUMP at the first chance when they have to say NO to you for something or we can't buy something from there due to some unforeseen reason. It's been embarrassing, sometimes, when you walk in to a showroom with Rs. 50 odd k and no one cares to even ask you if they can assist you in buying something.

Even today, when I called, this person was willing to bump off an M101Z so desperately that he told me (in a hurry) that the V130 is no longer in stock. I asked again. He said, no sorry. It's out of production. Asked him to double check. Again, he said, it's outdated. Only when I mentioned the V13, he said he'll check and came back with the claim that the V130 doesn't reflect in their database. Then WHY mislead the customer into buying something you have presently rather than something he/she wants and can wait for it.

IT's not just Dell, it's almost every company in India that tries to empty their present production lines here in India without providing other more convenient choices to the customers.

I am peeved with Dell India, and I think I have exhausted my patience with them. If the V130 is not out in the next 2 weeks, I am going in for an Asus or a Lenovo or even an MSi.
 
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