Need an Ultrabook that is thin and light!

[Smashed Ixnay]

I know Ultrabooks are that, thin and light, but we have decided to buy an ultrabook opposed to a laptop. We expanded our budget from about $1,000 to now $1,700. We have an Acer Aspire S7-391-9427 in mind and a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch. Those are both near our high end price range, but those are the best two we have found that we like. I'm going to try to find a place this weekend that has them so we can test them out and get a feel of them if possible.

On the Acer Aspire S7-391-9427 some pros are cons are:

Pros:
- Thin and light
- Sleak look
- Back lit keyboard
- 13.3" screen
- 256gb SSD
- i7-3537U processor


Cons:
- Battery life is only 5-6 hours
- Price (for an Acer)
- 4gb RAM


This is the laptop we are leaning towards the most. This Ultrabook is probably one of the lightest and thinnest we have come across. The back lit keyboard is a must, which it does have. A few of the bad things is that the battery life is only 5-6 hours, but we could probably manage with that. I don't consider Acer ' high-end,' so it's kind of hard to swallow the fact that I'm paying high-end price for an Acer. Also due to the fact that it only has 4gb RAM. Most Ultrabooks seem like this is the norm to have.



On the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch some pros and cons are:

Pros:
- Thin and light (.1 lb more than the Acer)
- Back lit keyboard
- 14" screen
- 8-9 hour battery life
- 35 minute quick charge to 80% (5-6 hours) of battery life
- 8gb RAM (4gb more than Acer)
- i7-3667U cpu (100mhz faster than the Acers's when in

Cons:
- Not as nice looking as the Acer, IMO.
- 5 week wait
-

Neutral:
- Standard 128gb ssd (Can be upgraded to 180gb or 256gb)


This has about the same as the Acer, but a little better in some areas. It is 2.99lbs (basically 3lbs), so it is thin and light, which my wife wants. It also has a back lit keyboard, but a tad bit bigger screen. My wife really wants a 13.3" screen, but a 14" screen should be fine. If the Acer had this kind of battery life, then we'd of already ordered the Acer. This is a HUGE + when it comes to this Ultrabook. I love the fact that if I'm going to pay this much, then I'm getting 8gb of RAM. I don't know if that'll really come into play as she'll only be surfing the web, doing Word documents, and occassionly play The Sims 3 (if this can handle it). The CPU in this Ultrabook is a tad faster than the Acers when it is is running at full turbo speed.

The few bad things with this is that it's not as nice looking as the Acer to my wife. I kind of told her if she rather have looks than appearance, then go with the Acer, but if she wants the best one for our money, then the X1C is the better buy. The fact that there is a 4-5 week wait also kind of sucks, but we could live with that.

One thing I'm not crazy about it only has a 128gb SSD, but it does come about $133+- cheaper than the Acer b/c of this. Really thinking about it, 128gb may be more than enough space. I could always upgrade it to 180gb for another $170, which would make it $20 more than the Acer, but with a smaller SSD still compared to the Acer.



Is there anything else you guys could recommend to us? $1,700 is our high end, but I wouldn't mind spending less if possible, lol. There aren't many needs, but they are:

Needs:
- Thin and light (around 3lbs)
- Touch screen
- Back lit keyboard
- 13.3" - 14" screen




I would appreciate any help given. Like I said earlier, we are going to try to find some stores that carry these to try to get a feel of them. If we can't, then we'll just pick one of those two, unless there are some recommendations.

 

[Smashed Ixnay]

Nothing? :-/

 

[OrangeWolf]

I'm a big fan of Thinkpads, particularly the X, T, and W series. So I'd second the X1 just based on that. I don't know much about the other one.

I will ask though if you're considered the Thinkpad x230. It's not marketed as an Ultrabook but it's a lot cheaper, 12.5" screen, and reasonably thin/light (especially with the 4-cell battery -- 4cell is flush with the laptop, 6 cell is a little thick on the bottom, and 9-cell juts out the back if I remember right?).

You can get a full power i5, backlit keyboard, buy/toss-in your own SSD (the ones on the site are a bit highly priced iirc, but still options there). Plus it has a fantastic IPS screen if you take the $50 upgrade.

Can probably get all that for your original $1000 budget.

But of the two you mentioned? I'd get the X1 probably. I don't really know any Ultrabooks in the $1k+ range to suggest to you otherwise, as it's not a segment I seriously follow atm (being a bit out of my price range).

 

[Etherton]

Cons:
- Not as nice looking as the Acer, IMO.
- 5 week wait
.

Try the Lenovo Outlet for a in stock X1.

 

[kevinsbane]

The X1 Carbon touch only has 5 hours battery life. It will not get 8-9 hours (although I'd drop the money on it right away if it did).

 

[Smashed Ixnay]

Try the Lenovo Outlet for a in stock X1.

Thanks. I'll look into that.

The X1 Carbon touch only has 5 hours battery life. It will not get 8-9 hours (although I'd drop the money on it right away if it did).

Honstly, as long as we can get about 5 hours I'll be happy with that. I think most ultrabooks can get that or very close to that.

ASUS Zenbook
Samsung Series 9

Zenbook has bad reviews on Amazon. I looked at the Samsung before and they look nice. They are also lighter than that Acer I listed. This is definitely on our list.

with your budget, check this site with the specs
http://ultrathinlaptops.org/best-ultrabook/

Thanks. I'll look into that






Atm, we are still up in the air. The Acer doesn't ship till 3-5 weeks, which we just noticed that. I don't know how we didn't notice it earlier. Hopefully by Saturday we'll have a decision.

 

[Rune75]

S7-391-9427

I just bought this exact model through Adorama Camera via Amazon.com

I'm in love with it so far. Damn fast with the raided SSDs. I have not tried my own battery drain test yet, but so far, I'm very impressed. The 9427 is their newest model and from what I read, it has a larger capacity battery than the the rest of the S7-391 series. What do you want to know?

 

[Smashed Ixnay]

I just bought this exact model through Adorama Camera via Amazon.com

I'm in love with it so far. Damn fast with the raided SSDs. I have not tried my own battery drain test yet, but so far, I'm very impressed. The 9427 is their newest model and from what I read, it has a larger capacity battery than the the rest of the S7-391 series. What do you want to know?

Amazon got some in stock. That's weird because I looked at it last night and it said shipping was 3-5 weeks. Today I looked at it and they have 2 in stock. She said since I got the 15.6" laptop I wanted that she wants something 'cute' and still be fast, so I ended up buying 1 of the 2 Amazon had in stock. We'll get it on Tuesday, so she can't wait to get it. We needed one soon also b/c we both start school on March 7th and wanted the Ultrabook before then. I'm sure she's going to love it.


The only thing she really wanted to know was if she'd be able to play Sims 3 on it. I couldn't give her an answer on that, but I think it will handle it.

A question on my part though is, how are the speakers and keyboard on it? From the reviews I've read I noticed there was a lot of bad criticism on both of those. What do you think about them?

 

[Rune75]

Dunno about Sims3, but it plays the shit out of 1080p MKV movies... The sound is better than my last laptop. Voices are good. Mids and highs are clean. Lows are muted as expected. I set it on a table or laptop trayall the time which helps a lot with bottom firing speakers.

Keyboard is great actually. Keys have enough travel to feel natural. You (she) will have to get used to having the DEL key on the bottom right of the keyboard. Backlight works well. Keys are sized and spaced well for me - and I got some damn big hands. Arrow keys are kinda small (especially the up/down), but I'm getting used to just swiping the screen instead of using the arrows

 

[Smashed Ixnay]

We got this about an hour ago. This thing is pretty sexy and very light. She already loves it. She had to go to school, but when she gets back she can mess with it some more. The only thing I don't like about this is for what it cost it didn't come with 8gb RAM and didn't have the newer i7-3667U. Granted it's only 100mhz slower, but for what we paid I think it should have had those 2 things in it. Either way, I know she's happy so that's all that matters.

 

[Rune75]

It's 100Mhz faster (and bigger battery) than the S7-391-9886 that I returned because of a sticky W key. Digging the thin and light. 4 gigs is the minimum amount of ram I want. Agreed, I much would have rather had 8 (and dual 256GB SSDs!) from the factory for the price.

 

[Smashed Ixnay]

After playing with it some more the keyboard is kinda annoying at times. I think that is going to take some time to getting used to.

 

[Rune75]

I think my old HP's key press / size / spacing was just that shitty to make this ones feel good to me. The layout is always an issue on smaller laptops. I'm about up to speed after a week. Keep updating this thread, wouldja?

 

[Smashed Ixnay]

My wife is going to be the primary user for it and she is loving it. She said she is fine with the keyboard. In her words, the ultrabook is 'perfect!' If it was me I would have bought that X1 Carbon Touch because it had 8gb RAM and the faster i7-3667U. She didn't want the X1 b/c it wasn't 'cute.' Since she was going to be the primary user I didn't try to convince her to get it. Anyways, she told me the MSI GE60 laptop is now mine and the Acer is hers. I'm fine with that. I don't know if it'll be able to play it or not, but I'm going to throw The Sims 3 on it and see if it's able to play it or not.


Anyways, I paid $1,539.99 for it on Friday. I got an email today from Amazon and it was listed in there for $1,456.99. I went and did a quick chat with Amazon and they refunded me the $83.00 difference no questions asked. They said you can do that within 7 days of it being delivered, so if it drops in price again I can do another chat. I <3 Amazon!