Do all Ultrabooks suck or what?

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
So I've been thinking about retiring my MacBook (OS X is trash to me now) and have been trying to research the latest Ultrabooks out there, from Lenovo to Acer. I've come to find that it's an incredibly frustrating endeavor. Why is there a problem with EVERYTHING?

Either the screen looks bad, or the battery life sucks, or the keyboard feels horrible, or the build quality is flimsy and cheap. It's like everything I show interest in has a single deal-breaking issue.

Lenovo x240? Whiny fan. Lenovo X1 Carbon? Bad battery life. Acer S7? Cheap keyboard and feel. And the stuff from HP and Dell simply look awful to me.

I don't think I have any choices left except for the Samsung ATIV Book 9. But of course it has a super high-resolution screen that I want nothing to do with.
 
I think the zenbooks are supposed to be the best, though the screen is high Res. Supposedly 8.1 is better at scaling. I've been looking too, between x1 carbon and zenbook infinity. Zenbooks screen is meant to be best in class but I want a trackpoint...
 
Because that's how it is. People always say the MacBook Pro's are a shit value, but if they actually look for an ultra book they come up empty. You could always use Bootcamp and ignore OSX, although you do sacrifice some battery life.

The Zenbook looks pretty nice, but it can get expensive really fast.
 
The Lenovo T440s does look good. HP's Spectre also looks pretty sweet. But the thing that annoys me is that none of the souped-up versions are available at big box stores. It would make swapping so much easier in the event I get one with backlight bleed.
 
I have researched too and I came back with HP Zbook 14 / Elitebook 840 depending whether you are red or green GPU wise, otherwise same machines. What's the problem with those?
 
I'm struggling to find an Ultrabook I like as well. Spent a couple days at the Microsoft playing with what they have available.

$999 ASUS UX31LA, i5-4200U, 8GB, 128GB, 1080p.
This is an older gen model, recently replaced with the UX301LA. But for the price it seemed okay. Has a aluminum body that feels nice. "Only" 1080p display, but scaling still sucks in Windows 8.1, so that isn't necessarily a bad thing (not sure I'd see much difference at laptop distance anyway). Keyboard felt good. So I bought this, took it home and saw the worst case of backlight bleeding and the A and Spacebar keys were also broken. Maybe just bad luck. But I opted for a refund, because it does seem like I hear more complaints about backlight bleeding from ASUS laptops than others.

$1450 Samsung Ativ Book 9 Pro, i5-4200U, 8GB, 128GB, 1800p.
Also an aluminum build, looks really nice with it's dark black-bluish color. Feels good, I think I like the keyboard on this the most, the keys feel more solid and don't wiggle as much as some keyboards do. Only problem is this is by far the most expensive for something that only has a 128GB SSD.
There is an $1800 model with an i7-4500U, 8GB, and 256GB SSD, but that's probably more than I want to spend. The Microsoft Store also has $400 off sale on the i5-4200U, 4GB, 128GB model for only $1000 now. Sadly they didn't have this in the retail store I was at (despite the guy on the phone saying they did). And I'm still debating if I really want to spend $1000 on something with only 4GB of soldered RAM.

$1500 Acer Aspire A7-392, i7-4500U, 8GB, 256GB, 1440p
It's about $300 cheaper than a similarly equipped Samsung laptop. So I wanted to like it. That was good besides the price is that it's also quite light feeling. Unfortunately it looks kinda cheap and it feels kinda cheap. I thought the damn thing was made of plastic, but a review I read said it's aluminum, so I guess that white paint gives it a plastic feel. There are some seems that stick out and don't feel good either

$1500 Toshiba Kirabook, i5-4200U, 8GB, 256GB, 1440p
This seems kinda inbetween the Samsung and Acer laptops in specs. I confess, I couldn't give this one the time of day because it was the ugliest, IMO, laptop of the bunch. A silver/gray brushed aluminum lid that was rounded instead of tapered like most. A keyboard, trackpad, and power button that has chrome accents around it. I think this would have been in style a few years ago.


Sadly no ASUS UX301LA at the store on display. It looks really nice, but I'm a bit worried that it uses a lot of glass in the build, on the lid and on the palm rest. And still nervous about the ASUS reputation for backlight bleeding.

Another thing is most of these came out half a year ago. I'm thinking of just wait longer for the next refresh this summer/fall. I'm open to the idea of even getting a 2014 Macbook Air or Pro. But I think they'd need to use IPS displays and preferably touch. No idea of touch is something Apple is working on for laptops or not.

Still thinking about that $1000 Ativ Book 9 Plus though.
 
There is a "2014 Edition" of the Ativ Book 9 coming out that is 15". I'm interested because it's only 1080p, which (probably) means better battery life and no need for DPI scaling.
 
Everything has trade offs. I had a 13" asus ultra book that I really liked, battery life kind of sucked and I wanted a 15" screen. I got 15" retina macbook pro (I get %25 discount, too much otherwise). I really like it, even with it there are trade offs, like only 2 usb ports, seriously that drives me nuts. Any external hard drive that requires power from 2 usb ports and wont run only on one I have to get an extenstion cable and hook it into the other port on the opposite side. I wish it would have had just 1 more usb port.

Find one you like the most and just go with it. Kind of the same way with phone now days. I will never find an android phone with physical home button and headphone jack on the bottom with good specs.
 
samsung ativ books isn't bad ...

acer s7 is also not bad at all

asus zebooks looks also good , but it's asus :D it would have problem with either touchpad or webcam (i haven't seen any asus product without problem with it , really!)
 
Also important to note, supposedly the touch panel version of the 1080p screen for the t440s is made by LG and is much worse than the non touch version made by AUO. Supposedly you can buy the screen separately if you want for $100 and install is meant to be easy... could be worth buying a cheapo model with HDD, 4gb ram, and base screen and then install the upgrades yourself.
 
I remember reading that. It's exactly the kind of crap that was annoying me.

I think I was a little premature on outing Dell, as I just did another round of searching and came up with the XPS 13" ($1299.99 before coupons), which seems to be exactly what I'm looking for.

4th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-4200U processor (3M Cache, up to 2.6 GHz)
8GB DDR3L-RS 1600Mhz (On Board)
128GB Solid State Drive
Intel® HD Graphics 4400
13.3 inch LED Backlit Touch Display with Truelife and FHD resolution (1920 x 1080)
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 + Bluetooth 4.0
55 WHr, 6-Cell Battery (integrated)
USB 3.0 with PowerShare (2); mini DisplayPort (1); Headset Jack (1)

Dimensions & Weight
Height: 0.2” – 0.7” (6mm - 18mm) / Width: 12.4” (316mm) / Depth: 8.1” (205mm)
starting at 2.95lbs5 (1.34kg); touch starting at 3.035 (1.37kg)

And I can't seem to find a bad review of it. I am truly impressed, aside from the idiotic font they chose for the keyboard...
 
The XPS 13 is decent from what I've heard. A few folks I know have the Lenovo x240, and like it.
 
I am writing to you from an rMBP late 2013. I HATE it for a few reasons:

ONE: Windows (edit: windows 8.1) can't scale worth a shit on High DPI screens and a lot of my work applications require windows.
TWO: Battery life in windows is around 5 hours vs 8+ in Mac OS doing the same activities.
THREE: The powercord is SUPER sensitive and always falling out. Their previous magsafe design was MUCH better.
FOUR: The finish on the screen is fragile as hell. I had it open on my desk all day and night. Some dust accumulated on the screen. I took it home that night and when I got home some of the dust was EMBEDDED into my $1000 screen. You've got to be kidding me. It's like I have a few dead pixels scattered on my screen now.
FIVE: There are mac applications, which again, can't scale worth a shit on the retina display. It's big enough alright, but it's super blurry and almost unusable. Until the vendors catch up, I'm screwed.
SIX: The case is creaky. I exchanged it once and the new one was the same way... $2600 and all metal SHOULDN'T CREAK!
SEVEN: I WANT MY DAMN DELETE, HOME, END, INSERT BUTTONS BACK!!! On the same note of hating the missing keyboard keys, I keep getting confused jumping between mac and pc when it comes to Command vs Control. In apple, Command prefaces all shortcuts, In windows it's control. And they are in different spots on the keyboard... Oh, an F-Lock that actually worked would be nice too.
EIGHT: I have been using MAC OS since 1996. I have been along for the ride. There are some things that Mac OS really does better like handle fonts. Macs are way better at handling fonts (which I don't care about personally, I am not a designer, I only support a bunch of them). But there are a lot of things Windows does better, most notably, the file management. Finder. Sucks. Their search feature is laughable as well. I also like my context menus. On Mac's they are bastardized in a lot of places. Anyways, this is about laptops now my hate for how MAC OS does stupid shit.

So why did I get it and keep it anyways? Because there isn't a 15" PC laptop that can even come close. If I had the rMBP but with 8+ hours windows battery life, better windows trackpad support, and a 1080p screen, (and fix the power cord connector, but it's not bad enough for it to be a deal breaker for me, 1.5 stars on apple.com under reviews for that powercord, HA!) I would be in heaven. But it just doesn't exist in PC land.

I love the weight, the design, the speed, the trackpad, and the awesome tiny power cable. But damnit, my complaints makes it a nuisance every day that I use the damn thing.

I hope your search turns up something I may have missed. Note: Dell's xps15 was the closest I found but the battery life sucks and to get the nicest 5ish hour battery, it would force the 3200x1800 screen... You know, the one windows can't scale legacy (read:nearly all) programs in?
 
Last edited:
Megalith said:
I don't think I have any choices left except for the Samsung ATIV Book 9. But of course it has a super high-resolution screen that I want nothing to do with.
Click to expand...

Uh there is an easy solution to that. Either set windows scaling to 200% (this will break some legacy programs) or set your resolution at 1600x900 (perfect halving so it will look just like a 1600x900 without scaling artifacts)
 
JTY said:
The XPS 13 is decent from what I've heard. A few folks I know have the Lenovo x240, and like it.
Click to expand...

yeah, check out the XPS13... It's been, by far, the best laptop I've ever owned. Very light weight, solid construction, great materials (Glass, Aluminum and Carbon Fiber), awesome battery life and it's stout enough to handle some gaming duties (i5, HD4000).

My only real complaint is that I dislike the screen (1366x768). Dell addressed this with a refresh and now offer a 1080p screen that's supposed to be higher quality as well. Been tossing around the idea of swapping one into mine, but can't seem to find anyone selling the screen assemblies.

The keyboard also leaves a bit to be desired, but I'm not a fan of laptop keyboards in general. I've gotten used to it though. On the plus side, it is backlit. Trackpad is good too (multitouch)
 
Yeah, I ended up ordering an XPS 13 last night. I like how Dell offers leather or vinyl sleeves specifically for it; I picked up the latter so I can throw it into my messenger bag without worrying about potential scratches as it fumbles around.

I was actually watching a YouTube video demonstrating its gaming abilities (L4D), which I thought impressive until I realized it was actually the older model. I figure the new version will run games significantly better, which is exciting.

And in regard to screens, I would prefer to avoid scaling, period. I just don't understand the rage of ultra-high-res screens in laptops, as 1080p is perfectly fine and would draw less battery.
 
awesomo said:
I am writing to you from an rMBP late 2013. I HATE it for a few reasons:

ONE: Windows (edit: windows 8.1) can't scale worth a shit on High DPI screens and a lot of my work applications require windows.
TWO: Battery life in windows is around 5 hours vs 8+ in Mac OS doing the same activities.
THREE: The powercord is SUPER sensitive and always falling out. Their previous magsafe design was MUCH better.
FOUR: The finish on the screen is fragile as hell. I had it open on my desk all day and night. Some dust accumulated on the screen. I took it home that night and when I got home some of the dust was EMBEDDED into my $1000 screen. You've got to be kidding me. It's like I have a few dead pixels scattered on my screen now.
FIVE: There are mac applications, which again, can't scale worth a shit on the retina display. It's big enough alright, but it's super blurry and almost unusable. Until the vendors catch up, I'm screwed.
SIX: The case is creaky. I exchanged it once and the new one was the same way... $2600 and all metal SHOULDN'T CREAK!
SEVEN: I WANT MY DAMN DELETE, HOME, END, INSERT BUTTONS BACK!!! On the same note of hating the missing keyboard keys, I keep getting confused jumping between mac and pc when it comes to Command vs Control. In apple, Command prefaces all shortcuts, In windows it's control. And they are in different spots on the keyboard... Oh, an F-Lock that actually worked would be nice too.
EIGHT: I have been using MAC OS since 1996. I have been along for the ride. There are some things that Mac OS really does better like handle fonts. Macs are way better at handling fonts (which I don't care about personally, I am not a designer, I only support a bunch of them). But there are a lot of things Windows does better, most notably, the file management. Finder. Sucks. Their search feature is laughable as well. I also like my context menus. On Mac's they are bastardized in a lot of places. Anyways, this is about laptops now my hate for how MAC OS does stupid shit.

So why did I get it and keep it anyways? Because there isn't a 15" PC laptop that can even come close. If I had the rMBP but with 8+ hours windows battery life, better windows trackpad support, and a 1080p screen, (and fix the power cord connector, but it's not bad enough for it to be a deal breaker for me, 1.5 stars on apple.com under reviews for that powercord, HA!) I would be in heaven. But it just doesn't exist in PC land.

I love the weight, the design, the speed, the trackpad, and the awesome tiny power cable. But damnit, my complaints makes it a nuisance every day that I use the damn thing.

I hope your search turns up something I may have missed. Note: Dell's xps15 was the closest I found but the battery life sucks and to get the nicest 5ish hour battery, it would force the 3200x1800 screen... You know, the one windows can't scale legacy (read:nearly all) programs in?
Click to expand...

Best rant ever.

OSX Finder is shit, always has been, which is why I left after 10.2. I do not know why people put up with it. Deal breaker for me.
 
Was just at microcenter grabbing some sata cables, checked out the ultrabooks while there. GD are the sony vaio pros light! if i buy an ultrabook itll be one of them
 
Funny thing is, I'm in the exact opposite camp to awesomo and schizrade.

Windows 8 isn't terrible, but it's currently, shall we say... very conflicted. At least up until the impending update to 8.1, basics like closing apps required either a touchscreen or keyboard mastery to be done quickly. The interface elements that are actually suited for a laptop are in the desktop environment, but of course you lose a lot of touch optimization if you go that route. It's fairly telling that Microsoft is bringing back a semi-traditional Start menu to the desktop UI -- when Windows PC sales have been on a steady decline and many users purposefully avoid Windows 8's primary change, you know there's a problem.

Meanwhile, I really like OS X's overall workflow, particularly Spotlight search, Reminders and Dashboard. Finder isn't always so hot, but I like the simplicity of installing and removing apps. I'm used to the Mac's keyboard shortcuts and move very quickly; I find its trackpad design and interface far superior to what you usually see on the Windows side. All of the apps I use are Retina-friendly... and since I don't have to use a Windows partition, I get exceptional battery life. I suppose I should also be thankful that I haven't had some of awesomo's gripes, such as the creaky display and screen finish issues (I'm on a 13-inch rMBP from late 2013, for what it's worth).

I can certainly understand why some would prefer a Windows laptop, especially if you need certain Windows-only work apps or want to do a lot of gaming on the side (although with an Ultrabook, that won't involve many intensive games). But Apple seems to 'get' ultraportables in a way its rivals frequently don't.
 
Aurelius said:
Funny thing is, I'm in the exact opposite camp to awesomo and schizrade...
Click to expand...

Question: Does finder search actually work for you? Example: Open a folder, in the upper right search box type something, it could even be in the damn root of the folder, you select "search this folder" when the stupid thing defaults to "everything on this mac". I rarely get results. But spotlight search can search my entire mac in seconds and I can usually find what I want. This has been happening to me since I jumped to OS X at 10.3. It's been a constant gripe of mine.
 
awesomo said:
Question: Does finder search actually work for you? Example: Open a folder, in the upper right search box type something, it could even be in the damn root of the folder, you select "search this folder" when the stupid thing defaults to "everything on this mac". I rarely get results. But spotlight search can search my entire mac in seconds and I can usually find what I want. This has been happening to me since I jumped to OS X at 10.3. It's been a constant gripe of mine.
Click to expand...

I can get results from Finder, and it does tend to default to the folder I'm looking at. I may have set a preference a while back, but that's how it works for me. Mind you, I tend to use Spotlight more often as a general rule -- Cmd-Space (to open Spotlight) and Cmd-Return (to launch the top hit) are my friends.
 
Megalith said:
So I've been thinking about retiring my MacBook (OS X is trash to me now) and have been trying to research the latest Ultrabooks out there, from Lenovo to Acer. I've come to find that it's an incredibly frustrating endeavor. Why is there a problem with EVERYTHING?

Either the screen looks bad, or the battery life sucks, or the keyboard feels horrible, or the build quality is flimsy and cheap. It's like everything I show interest in has a single deal-breaking issue.

Lenovo x240? Whiny fan. Lenovo X1 Carbon? Bad battery life. Acer S7? Cheap keyboard and feel. And the stuff from HP and Dell simply look awful to me.

I don't think I have any choices left except for the Samsung ATIV Book 9. But of course it has a super high-resolution screen that I want nothing to do with.
Click to expand...

All laptops suck not just ultrabooks. This is the reality of computers as appliances. You must decide what is the lesser of evils. You find any, I mean any laptop out there and I will find a deal breaking flaw if you are picky. If looks are the only flaw you can come up with for a dell then buy that shit because that is a pretty minor concern. I could care less what a laptop looks like because if I start getting picky there then there will be ZERO laptops that even look good. In all the ultrabooks only the Asus looked decent to me.

Ultrabooks are disposable anyway so buy one cheap and be done with it.
 
Megalith said:
Yeah, I ended up ordering an XPS 13 last night....
Click to expand...

Let me know how it works out. The 15" version was the ONLY other laptop I considered. I have a bad taste in my mouth from the reliability of my XPS from 2011 though, that coupled with being forced into the top model for the better battery, ultimately pushed me away.
 
Turned it on and was immediately greeted by a loud coil whine and backlight bleeding in the lower edges. Pure trash.
 
How much battery do you need? My Asus Q501LA lasts around 5-6 hours and goes for around $480 all the time on ebay refurbished.
 
hajalie24 said:
How much battery do you need? My Asus Q501LA lasts around 5-6 hours and goes for around $480 all the time on ebay refurbished.
Click to expand...

Megalith returned like 10 surface pro 2s, you are not going to please him.
 
Is the new x1 carbon battery life bad? I have the 1st gen and I get 5-6 hours out of it. The new ones are supposed to be much better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top