Ultrabook (~50K budget, light weight, good battery, 13" or lesser, office use)

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Mohit

Mohit

Forerunner
I am looking for an Ultrabook or an extremely light weight laptop which will have the following:

13" or lesser screen size
Light weight
Good battery life
Optical Disc Drive preferable if possible
Powerful enough for daily office use and surfing
USB 3.0 Support

Please advise. Thanks.
 
Save money get HP Dm1, or other similar laptops. ( Sony yb, ThinkPad x120/130e)

Ultrabooks is just a gimmicky phrase for costly macbook air like clones which doesn't have optimized os nor do they have powerful processor. Seriously with so less expandability options and higher price tag it's not worth considering until and unless you likes to flaunt! On a serious note ultrabooks have even lower connectivity option than a netbook!

Dm1 will serve you good for your casual/office work.


Sent via Sony Xperia Sola using Tapatalk 2
 
So which is the best netbook out there now? Is it still the HP DM1 / Sony YB ? Nothing else?
 
Almost all the netbook/ultra portable featuring the apu got refurbished with latest E450 / E2 1800 (Brazos / Brazos 2.0 +USb3) , along with home grown goodies.

Sony has pepped up few new models under E-series moniker featuring the ubiquitous 11'6" screen with the same 768p resolution.

So if you are in the market look for updated models, even hp has refurbished the already updated dm1 (e450/4002au) model with E2 1800(4020 something model no) however USB3.0 support seems to be missing.
 
dont look below 13 inch if u r going to stare at it for a longer period of time. atoms and its competitors might suffice for very basic use. if u r going to take it with u to office and home only, weight doesnt matter much. but if u travel with it whole day weight and battery life becomes important.
 
Not sure about availability in India and how good in quality they are but i would suggest Toshiba Portege R835 for your needs. I am personally using the Portege R700 which is my office laptop. It is 13.3" 768p screen, has all the required ports, also has optical drive, weighs 1.5Kgs or so and is truly portable. I had almost finalized on getting the R835 as my personal laptop but i decided to go for a 15.6" one and hence dropped the plan.
The R835 is an improved version with USB3 ports, better processor (full voltage).
The sound is bad on these, so dont expect to listen to music / movies. You will need external speakers.
Battery life is superb for me. Easily get more than 5 Hours. Claimed battery life is 9 Hours.
 
The Lenovo u310 if you can sacrifice optical drive, else the u410. You could also look at Dell Inspiron 14z.
 
Dark Star said:
Almost all the netbook/ultra portable featuring the apu got refurbished with latest E450 / E2 1800 (Brazos / Brazos 2.0 +USb3) , along with home grown goodies.

Sony has pepped up few new models under E-series moniker featuring the ubiquitous 11'6" screen with the same 768p resolution.

So if you are in the market look for updated models, even hp has refurbished the already updated dm1 (e450/4002au) model with E2 1800(4020 something model no) however USB3.0 support seems to be missing.
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that USB 3.0 is a must and definitely required feature. I could not find the HP DM1 with the USB 3.0 feature though it has the E2 1800 CPU. Does the Sony YB series have USB 3.0?

raksrules said:
Not sure about availability in India and how good in quality they are but i would suggest Toshiba Portege R835 for your needs. I am personally using the Portege R700 which is my office laptop. It is 13.3" 768p screen, has all the required ports, also has optical drive, weighs 1.5Kgs or so and is truly portable. I had almost finalized on getting the R835 as my personal laptop but i decided to go for a 15.6" one and hence dropped the plan.
The R835 is an improved version with USB3 ports, better processor (full voltage).
The sound is bad on these, so dont expect to listen to music / movies. You will need external speakers.
Battery life is superb for me. Easily get more than 5 Hours. Claimed battery life is 9 Hours.
Click to expand...

I will try searching for the Toshiba R835 here. What is the approximate price of the same?

iaudio said:
The Lenovo u310 if you can sacrifice optical drive, else the u410. You could also look at Dell Inspiron 14z.
Click to expand...

Not interested in buying Lenovo. Just don't like the brand personally. I will have a look at the Dell Inspiron 14Z. Thanks.

dafreaking said:
Check out the SVS13112EN : S Series : VAIOâ„¢ Laptop & Computer : Sony India

Recommended by another member here its about 4k over your budget but should tick the right boxes
Click to expand...

This one looks really good. I can get some small discount on Sony too as the retailer here is a friend. But it weighs 1.72 Kgs? Is that fine? Any reviews of this notebook? Thanks.
 
@Mohit

Lowest price on amazon is 700 $. Not sure where else it might be cheaper as i have not searched about this. There are various submodels of R835 and price differs as per what submodel you choose. I suggest you check amazon.com.

You might not get these on toshiba.com as they have introduced the upgraded version which is R935 with Ivy bridge and all. But if you don't care about the processor being 2nd generation then go for R835. R935 is far more expensive than the former model.
 
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Mohit said:
This one looks really good. I can get some small discount on Sony too as the retailer here is a friend. But it weighs 1.72 Kgs? Is that fine? Any reviews of this notebook? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Sorry wasn't able to find any. I was looking for a laptop gir my dad with similar requirements and this popped up. However, he didn't need the ODD but this model comes with a 3rd gen i5 as opposed to the Vaio ultrabooks (T series ) which I can only find with a 2nd gen.

The difference in weight is a mere 120 grams between the two.
 
@Mohit , the Dell and Lenovo models I mentioned are also around 1.8Kg. Imo, thats the main reason I would look towards these laptops, when you want to lug as little weight around as possible but cannot manage with 10 or 12 inch screeens!
 
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@Mohit if you want to settle for brazos, give a look to Asus U32U. I own it and its very good. It has all the features minus ODD. But personally, I wouldn't suggest you to go for brazos. After using mainstream processors, they feel very slow, still good enough for office purposes.

PS: Chipping a SSD in,with brazos may not help much.
 
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Mohit said:
I forgot to mention that USB 3.0 is a must and definitely required feature. I could not find the HP DM1 with the USB 3.0 feature though it has the E2 1800 CPU. Does the Sony YB series have USB 3.0?
Click to expand...

The only usb 3.0 capable ultraportable with Brazos 2.0 is from Sony Vaio e11 and offerings fron Lenovo, Asus.

Other models are either locally not available or not yet release for prime time.

Sent via Sony Xperia Sola using Tapatalk 2

JuGGa said:
Mohit if you want to settle for brazos, give a look to Asus U32U. I own it and its very good. It has all the features minus ODD. But personally, I wouldn't suggest you to go for brazos. After using mainstream processors, they feel very slow, still good enough for office purposes.

PS: Chipping a SSD in,with brazos may not help much.
Click to expand...

That's because Brazos 1.0 has slower Sata controller while the refurbished offering comes with Sata 3.0/6gbps.

It does feels slow but using general task such as word and stuff doesn't feels sluggish, even compiling using gcc (simple programs) doesn't seems to bother, but ofcourse it will feel sluggish compared to a mainstream CPU,.
 
@Mohit

I would suggest Vaio SVS13112EN if you are okay spending 50k as you get a lot more performance for your money with it than the "ultrabooks" and yet it is the same size as any ultrabook with a full power 3rd gen Core i5 CPU. And has a slot in optical disc drive as well. Battery life is good as well and you can extend it to even 10+ hours by getting the additional sheet battery.
 
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