DenverBrian

What, there are only subtle ways to make changes?

(discrete graphics)

ScottC

Oh please. It is a $1000 laptop - most people here have luggage that costs more than this. I prefer my computer to come with some oomph - and a laptop with a 1.2GHz Core M and integrated graphics won't cut it.

boltjames

So you're an Apple hater and a Microsoft hater, a Google guy it seems.

No wonder you can't be objective.

I'm an SVP for a company of 1000s that uses Windows exclusively, and these OS wars have never been my thing, never will be. So long as 90% of the world uses Windows my company will use Windows and so will I. Windows 10 is very good, I have no issues with it on my Macbook.

Back to the OP, the reason for an "ultrabook" is to gain a slimmer/lighter form factor with great battery life and the new 12" Retina is a great choice if shedding pounds and thickness matters to you.

BJ

boltjames

Again, this is a Travel forum, right? No Windows notebook can be best-in-class powerful and best-in-class slim/light. It's why the savvy Traveler has two notebooks, one for the office, one for the road.

I have a powerful notebook, tons of ports, beefy processor. It sits under my desk in a docking station for when I'm in the office. But on those 12 weeks a year that I'm traveling through international airports and foreign hotels, I need the sleekest and lightest Windows machine available and that's what the new MacBook Retina is for. On the road, I'm not gaming, I'm not constructing videos, I'm not stressing a processor. I'm doing email, web, Slingbox, Skype, Powerpoint, Excel, the typical executive businessman tasks. And for that, the new Mac running Windows 10 is perfecto.

It's half an inch tall (at its peak) and weighs 2 pounds. It passes through airport security as if it's an iPad, doesn't need removing from my backpack. I can carry it around all day on my back and not even notice it's there. I'm getting 14 hours of battery life, I can do a full day of business meetings, note taking, and presentations and leave the power adapter and cord back at the hotel without concern. No other Windows machine offers this feature set. It's not a "cute fashion accessory". It's the best Windows 'ultrabook' on the market for the Traveling executive who already has a primary computer back in the office.

BJ

boltjames

Configured appropriately it's a $1,600 laptop and it has plenty of oomph for its intended purpose. It blows the doors off the Sony Pro13 ultrabook it just replaced, the weight and height and battery life are astounding and unless you're producing complex videos or are a game developer there's nothing this travel powerhouse can't do,

If one only has 1 notebook in one's life, yes, I wouldn't choose this machine. However, most traveling executives leave their heavy and bulky computers in the office where they belong when they travel, and a notebook like the new MacBook is an excellent choice for those weeks while out of the office.

BJ

maortega15

How are the following brands as of late in terms of support, quality and durability?:

Toshiba
Samsung
Dell
ASUS
Lenovo
HP

I've tried Dell, HP and Toshiba years ago and they were prettu much the same in terms of durability. Crap. Never tried Samsung, ASUS and Lenovo before. So I'm wondering if anyone has some recent first hand accounts on how they are recently.

And please, enough with the Macbook flights! I've settled on Windows so I won't be considering a Chromebook or Mac. Too much hoopla to go through.

Thanks

aster

Oh my, so many shots and they've all missed the target...

I am an Apple USER. I have a Macbook, as a family we SOLELY use iPhones, as also SOLELY use iPads as well. I am as close to being an Apple fan as you will find.

I am a Microsoft USER. I have used Hotmail for a decade and still do (even as my Google ID - something which they probably don't even allow nowadays). I also use loads of other Microsoft products (not just Office), like OneDrive, I also use Skype to communicate.

Google is in fact the company I use least. I ONLY use their maps.

Recently I got my wife a Chromebook and bought myself one and have been very happy with them. So chances are I will drift towards Google products as I like their hardware more than anything else. But in the meantime I am an Apple and Microsoft user far and foremost.

And yes, I can be very objective... which is why I plainly state my opinions without beating around the bush so to speak.

MaxBuck

I'm a pretty savvy traveler, and I have no need whatever for a second laptop computer reserved only for travel. Sounds like an expensive nuisance to me.

I'm not trying to dissuade you from your Apple fan status, but your opinions are not shared by a lot of us who've found the Apple products to fall short of our needs as Windows machines. Let it go.

DenverBrian

I can speak for Lenovo as I'm a lifelong ThinkPad Guy. Currently on a T440s. Lenovo seems to have done well in leaving most of the ThinkPad design and support in North Carolina, and the few times I've needed them, they've been quite good. On the T440s, there have been occasional, minor issues with things like the TrackPoint, always fixed within days or weeks by software updates. You do get what you pay for - ThinkPads are definitely more expensive than other ultrabooks. A T450s might run you past your $1300 budget. But ThinkPads don't break.

theshaun

Just ordered an Asus Zenbook a few min ago.

maortega15

So I'll be considering the following:

Dell XPS13
HP Spectre x360
Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus
Lenovo Yoga
ASUS Zenbook

So both Dell and HP I've tried in the past and it was pretty bad. I still have a Dell StudioXPS 16 from 2008 and it keeps on breaking down. I'm real skeptical however to give both Dell and HP a try again. I have never tried Samsung, Lenovo or ASUS. Hopefully some members have some recent firsthand accounts on the above brands.

Thanks

maortega15

Let me know how it is mate.

anrkitec

Lenovo's ThinkPad line is every bit as solid as it was when they bought it from IBM. I can't speak personally to their other lines.

Samsung and ASUS are also very solid in my experience.

The Toshiba KIRAbook is also very nice, though it lacks a discrete graphics option.

maortega15

So I recently had the chance to look at both the Dell XPS 13 and the HP Sceptre.

The Dell was small and light. Maybe a tad too small despite the border-less screen. The screen was nice.

The HP size was just right. However, a bit heavier than the Dell. Screen was nice as well. Maybe nicer than the Dell in my opinion. The trackpad is abit too wide in my opinion.

Basically, I'm still having a hard time deciding. Price seems almost the same but the reason I'm having a hard time is both brands have a bad rap. I'm not sure what to get. I don't want to go through the hassle dealing with customer service and technical support when things go wrong.

I yet have to look at the ASUS Zenbook.

Curious to know however if Dell plans to make a 14 inch screen on a 13 inch footprint.

Also, should I wait for Skylake? If so, when should we start seeing it in notebooks?

Thanks

nkedel

All PC brands have relatively poor support and customer service; if you care a lot about these, spend the money and get a Mac. And I say that as a PC user.

Model matters more than brand for quality; buying a slightly heavier and more expensive business-line machine is generally going to get you something much better than a maximally-light model, or a lowest-priced consumer model.

Dell has the least-bad combination of service + warranty support on the PC side of the industry, but it's a low bar. If you don't mind paying for the better grade of service ("ProSupport" + Accidental Damage service), their service+support is still not up to Apple's, but almost pleasant to deal with.

If you can tolerate a compact 14" model rather than a 13", Dell has some wicked good (< $600) deals on the E7440 and E7450 refurbs. They have same warranty as new, and tend to actually have fewer issues than new because the post-return quality control is better.

With Windows 10, you can do a "reset" as soon as it's booted up, and get rid of bloatware that way. It's much nicer than on Windows 7 or earlier where you had to do a reinstall by hand.

Depends on the model; for a consumer model or one bought from a third party, I'd probably get SquareTrade. For a business model bought directly from Dell or Lenovo, I'd get their accidental damage service, and a warranty length to match your expected retention time -- although most of the business machines have a 3-year warranty to begin with.

Given your expressed needs, I would not wait for Skylake; the incremental speed and better video over Broadwell (and the unavailability of quad-core models on Broadwell) is unlikely to matter for you, and whether there's any appreciable battery life improvement is an unknown. It's also less clear which groups of chips will be included in the first release.

The first laptop Skylake chips are released sometime in Sept but I haven't heard a specific date, and the first machines should be available sometime within a month after that (although for build-to-order companies, there will probably be ordering within a few days of announcement.)

I've had Dell machines with their current incarnation of "soft interior" and it's not bad.

It picks up a bit of a shiny patina more quickly than a hardier matte plastic, and much more quickly than brushed metal as on Apple. If you handle it when your hands are particularly greasy it can leave a permanent spot. OTOH, it has not peeled or shown surface damage under normal use, and it held up relatively well to an (accidental) outright gouge with a screwdriver - the one spot that got gouged off showed the metal underneath, but the edges are still not peeling after close to a year of heavy use..

Build quality has always varied between lines. Which line of Dell did you have? Their Latitude line remains great; with the latest round of materials-cheapening on Lenovo's part probably the best business notebooks out there (although you pay for it in weight and bulk compared to other manufacturers.)

Lenovo also sells two lines. Most of their stuff is very good.

There's no relation between the XPS 13 (which is the newest version of a model that's been selling for several years) and the XPS 11 convertible. The XPS 13 has always been a bit overpriced (compared, for example, to similarly spec'ed ASUS Zenbooks) but it's been a well-made premium ultraportable all the way back to the early-2012 Sandy Bridge model.

They are clickpads, which have virtual buttons along the bottom edge. Which are, I should add, a bloody nuisance.

1) Discrete. Unless it's a very stealthy graphics chip.
2) Given his desire for "as long as possible" battery life and virtually no mention of performance, none of those sound like features the OP is likely to care about -- except maybe the number of ports, because that really is an abomination on the part of the new Macbook.

8gb is enough for the kind of use he talked about, HiDPI support under Windows is still somewhat iffy, and integrated graphics are only "slow" if you play non-casual games, do professional-grade video/photo editing, or do professional 3D work (in this last case, a consumer grade discrete graphics is only a little better, for lack of ISV certification and generally having gimped OpenGL.)

OTOH, for the OP, what about the Yoga 3 Pro? Nice HiDPI convertible, same Core M processor, at the high end of the price range but quite the nice machine.

I'd find both uncomfortably slow, even for general use, but the trade-off for battery life might be worth it for the OP.

Toshiba - haven't used in long enough that I can't comment on their quality; support is entirely 3rd-party retail in this country, essentially non-existant.

Samsung - their newer premium machines seem to be above-average in quality. Haven't used any of their cheaper models. Support is entirely 3rd-party/retail in this country, essentially non-existant.

Dell - quality on their Latitude business line machines is good (and has been), quality on their consumer-line (Inspiron/XPS) and small-business line machines (Vostro and "Latitude 3000-series" which is a recent rebadge of Vostro varies model to model but in general is a relatively poor bet. Support on the consumer side is poor, but at least offered directly. Support on the business side is poor-to-fair unless you pay for the upsell to Prosupport, which gets you a shorter queue and US-based support agents during the business day. Well worth it on a higher-end machine.

ASUS - quality on their higher-end Zenbook machines is above average. Quality on their cheaper models is poor-to-average, and best avoided. Support is entirely 3rd-party/retail in this country, essentially non-existant.

Lenovo - quality on their Thinkpad models, and a few other premium models like the Yoga are excellent -- arguably the best in the industry. Quality on their cheaper models is average, and probably still best of the cheapies, not that it's saying much. Support is about on par with Dell if you buy direct, and pretty much "you're on your own" if you buy through retail channels -- so buy direct.

HP - haven't used in long enough that I can't comment on their quality or support.

Their 14" models have shrunk with the last generation, and they've demo-ed a 15" model in a footprint that was smaller than their last-generation 14" -- so the odds of it are very good. If not, the next-generation (Skylake) XPS 15 might just be small enough for you anyway.

Processor-wise, no. OTOH, it might be worth waiting for the new models that come along with it, for exactly the reasons you just asked about.