Powerful portable laptops

steerpike

I currently have a new-ish powerful Dell XPS 17 which is very large and unwieldy and an small but old IBM thinkpad which is robust but now slow and outdated. I'm thinking of selling both and getting one laptop that fulfills both purposes - small, thin and lightweight but also powerful enough to run resource hungry applications. I should add I'm not a gamer but would like something powerful enough to run Tacx video training software and some video editing software. Ideally, I'd like 8GB RAM.

Any tips or recommendations? Portability is key for me.

chrisaonabike

Does it have to be full HD? If not, you might consider something like this Samsung Chronos series 7.

I've had mine for a month or so now, it's brilliant. And the matte screen is superb - bright, sharp, and usable in sunlight. I don't work for PC World, or Samsung, btw

owenlars

Go to these guys and spec your own laptop.

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

beverick

Is there such a thing as a non-portable laptop?

Gotta be a MAC.

Bob

Hoopdriver

Macbook Pro - 13 inch, with the extra fast processor. A lovely piece of kit.

steerpike

sorry, should have said - don't want a Mac.

The samsung is interesting though.

ben@31

steerpike wrote:

sorry, should have said - don't want a Mac.

The samsung is interesting though.

I'm writing this on a Macbook.

An amazing piece of kit that I use everyday for internet and college work. It's very fast, simple to use and never crashes. You can get Microsoft Office for Mac, so compatibility with transferring documents between a Macbook and college PC's hasn't been an issue.

I would never buy a PC again. With PC's that i've owned in the past I had nothing but issues, bugs, crashes, hardware compatibility problems, driver problems and it getting bogged down.

The only cons to MacBooks are the ridiculously high price and the mid range models are poor value (a worst of all worlds compromise).

If you want a compact and lightweight laptop buy the cheaper Macbook Air, if you want performance buy the 15inch Macbook Pro with Retina. The 13 inch is only a little cheaper and to upgrade it to the 15 inch spec would cost more than the difference in price.

steerpike

thank you but....I DON'T WANT A MAC. And I don't want to be converted / browbeaten.

Any more suggestions for Windows Laptops - Ultrabooks?

Hoopdriver

Suit yourself. You talk about video editing etc - well, let me tell you something, as someone who is in the media/publishing industry: there is a reason we nearly all use Macs

chrisaonabike

steerpike wrote:

The samsung is interesting though.

The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that it's too thin to have a proper VGA output. It has a mini-VGA port, which they apparently do a connector for, and the blurb says it's included, but it wasn't. Since most of what I use the thing for is demoing software (.NET and SQL Server), projector output is a must.

So I ended up paying 20 quid (probably more than I needed to pay, but I needed it quick) for an HDMI to VGA adaptor. Which works fine, so I'm good to go.

If I'd known about it at the time, I might well have specced up a 15 inch HD one from pcspecialist, since I love hi-res screens. Looking at the prices there, it would have been about another 100 quid or so, even for a matte screen. Too late now - but I'm happy with the Samsung.

Not that I usually bother about looks, but it is very nice, with a very classy feel to it. Sure, if I was made of money, I might buy the Mac and put Windows on it, but for not much more than 600 quid I'm really quite impressed.

If you're really thinking of getting one, feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.

steerpike

Hoopdriver wrote:

Suit yourself. You talk about video editing etc - well, let me tell you something, as someone who is in the media/publishing industry: there is a reason we nearly all use Macs

Yes, thanks for that. I know.

steerpike

ChrisAOnABike wrote:

steerpike wrote:

If you're really thinking of getting one, feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.

Thanks for the info - I may do that.

dynamicbrick

Okies.

First of all you need to define 'portable' - weight, size, battery life. Secondly you need to consider the compromise between RAM, CPU, Storage, and whether you want DVD/CD drive etc, balanced against the above.

An ultrabook isn't necessarily going to have the slots sufficient for 8gb, but whether you'd consider an 8gb + DVD drive laptop portable is also a consideration.

Then there's your budget.

proto

King of the Ultrabook hill at the moment seems to be the Samsung 9 series, lighter and with a higher spec than the Macbook Air, and arguably better looking. Very high quality and very nice indeed.

It only has 4Gb of ram and has integrated graphics board, but is supposed to be pretty speedy. I think Crucial do memory and SSD upgrades if you think they are necessary.

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/pc-peripherals/notebook-computers/ultra-portable/NP900X3C-A05UK-spec

Another highly regarded Ultrabook is the HP Spectre XT, with a similar spec to the Samsung.

I've been going through this dilemma of what to buy this week as my ancient HP laptop fell aprt. Bewildered by choice, I've spent hours exploring the option in the hope that I can actually decide what I want out of a laptop. I don't need a desktop replacement (got a decent desktop at home), so I want something smallish and light. 13"-14"
looks about right. Ultrabooks possibly compromised, but I'm not exactly a powwer user.

I went to John Lewis thinking I was going to buy a Samsung, as above, but when I looked at the apple range, for similar money, the 13" Macbook Pro seems to cover all the bases. Small and light enough, very powerful, well made, and a joy to use. There's a couple of bits of windows only software I might need to run on it (sage accounts and payroll), but Bootcamp should sort that out. So, I think that's what I'll be getting.

Or a Samsung! :? :roll:

ben@31

proto wrote:

I went to John Lewis thinking I was going to buy a Samsung, as above, but when I looked at the apple range, for similar money, the 13" Macbook Pro seems to cover all the bases. Small and light enough, very powerful, well made, and a joy to use. There's a couple of bits of windows only software I might need to run on it (sage accounts and payroll), but Bootcamp should sort that out. So, I think that's what I'll be getting.

Or a Samsung! :? :roll:

If you already have the Macbook, open up the App store and look at iBank. It gets some good reviews, which say iBank is just as good as MS Money.

RDW

Hoopdriver wrote:

Suit yourself. You talk about video editing etc - well, let me tell you something, as someone who is in the media/publishing industry: there is a reason we nearly all use Macs

Herd instinct?

Hoopdriver

RDW wrote:

Hoopdriver wrote:

Suit yourself. You talk about video editing etc - well, let me tell you something, as someone who is in the media/publishing industry: there is a reason we nearly all use Macs

Herd instinct?

A lot of years of experience and a need to get the best out of your equipment. No sense in paying thousands of pounds on lenses and camera bodies and skimp on second rate computers that can't get the job done as sweetly and neatly as you can on a Mac. I cannot think of a single other photographer with whom I work who does not use a Mac, as I do myself.

metronome

Noticed you're not interested in a mac but if you're after portability and power, a Retina pretty much tops it. I've got a 15" which I use when I need a portable work station (Video / MotionGraphics). They're decent machines - powerful, SSD, compact... The 13" models look good too but there's a power compromise.

Of course a lot depends on your definition of video editing.