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I'm thinking about getting an ultrabook. My budget is around €1500. First of all, I want to say that I'm NOT looking for a MAC or Android. I need Windows. I mainly want it for leisure, when I travel, watch movies on the plane, play games, and process photos from my camera, but I also want it to be professional when I travel for work (that's why I need Windows)
I've looked at the following:-
Microsoft Surface 3 pro. Intel I5, 8Gb, SSD 256Mb Surface Pro 3 - Microsoft Store Spain online shop
Pros: It has the power of a good laptop, maybe the SSD is a bit tight but everything is powerful and of quality. The screen is 12 inches, ClearType Full HD Plus 2160 x 1440 3:2. The size is 292.1 × 201.4 × 9.1 mm which is very good because it's more of a tablet than a laptop, although internally it's a complete laptop. It weighs only 800 kg without a keyboard, the announced battery life is about 9 hours. As it's a Microsoft product, it's more than optimized to work with Windows 8.1. There's a more powerful version with an I7 and 512Mb, but it reaches €1950 just for the tablet!
Cons: It doesn't include the keyboard as it's an accessory that goes separately like a case and costs about €150 more!!! It doesn't have HDMI, only 1 USB 3.0, and the card reader is microSD (not SD which I need for the camera). -
Lenovo Yoga 3 pro. Intel M 5Y70, 8Gb, 512Mb
Lenovo YOGA Laptops | Lenovo 2 in 1 Convertible Laptops | Lenovo
Pros: It has a great design. The hinge allows you to fold it 360ºc and convert it into a tablet. The screen is an impressive 13.3-inch IPS multi-touch 10-point resolution of 3200x1800. It weighs only 1.19kg and has a thickness when closed of only 12.7 mm. It's really a laptop with a keyboard and all the features that can be converted into a tablet just by folding it. It has 2 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI output (mini, but HDMI after all), and SD card reader which is great for the camera.
Cons: Mainly the power of the micro (Intel M at 1.1GHZ with boost to 2.6Ghz) which is not for rocket science. Although it's able to play 1080P videos smoothly, I'm satisfied. They are more oriented to very low consumption (4W nothing more), but they really don't take advantage of it in this laptop, because they have reduced it so much that the battery is smaller than the Yoga 2 and only has an announced duration of 7.2H (in the reviews they say that with normal use it lasts between 4 and 5 hours) which I see as quite poor.
In short, which one would you recommend???
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Well, if you have to spend the money later on accessories that you'll need, like the Surface, or that will be very tight on performance/autonomy (Yoga), I would take a look at the Acer S7-393.
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Thanks. I'll take a look to see how it is, but for now it looks good. Although it is portable as such. Nothing about turning it into a tablet like the others (which are also touch-sensitive).
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Yes it does have a touchscreen, but I see that what you are looking for is a tablet pc or one of those 2 in 1s.
Of all the ones I have seen, none go beyond 5 hours (being generous) of "no tricks" autonomy (for example, in the case of the Surface they state that 9 hours is only dedicated to watching video), and the ones that mount a decent i7 go over, or cut back on other elements such as RAM or the size of the SSD.
As I begin to assume that those two have been the best you have found after an extensive comparison, and you do not want a Mac, then go for the Lenovo. It is a fairly versatile device, and of all the ones I have seen it is one of the best in terms of quality/price.
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let's see what you think of this one, it already comes with the keyboard included
Toshiba Satellite Click 2 Pro Intel i5/8GB/256GB/13.3" - Tablet - 1,100 euros
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Check out the new Dell XPS 13.3. I was able to tinker with it a bit a month ago and it's really spectacular.
XPS 13 Laptop with InfinityEdge Display | Dell SpainI think it perfectly meets the profile you're looking for as it's lightweight, has enough power with the intel i5 or i7 and a quality screen with good resolution.
As for the Yoga 3 pro, as you indicate, they are very beautiful, but having the first processor in the M series weighs down the final result a lot. This type of product is designed to have great autonomy, more than to get good performance.
The Surface 3, although I haven't tried it personally, I know people who have it and they think that, if you need Windows yes or yes, it's the best option to take it on a trip and work on the road, from airports or from anywhere since they offer a good balance between autonomy and power.
As for convertibles, as you can see in my signature, I have one and I can tell you that, although mine is low-end, they offer surprising performance, but in terms of connectivity they fall short since, depending on the model, the number of full-size USBs is scarce and none have a network cable connection. Something very useful if you want to take advantage of fiber or high-speed connections.
Best regards
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I recommend the latest Lenovo Yoga (the laptop) they are fantastic, without being Apple it would be my recommendation. But remember that you can use Macs natively with Windows and I can vouch that the MacBook Air are super durable and the Retina ones are amazing, even though it's riskier I would go for the new MacBook (without the Air).
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I would stay with the XPS13
But if you don't mind having an apple with windows, the Airs are ultra-resistant and have powerful equipment.
I have an 11.6 Air with an i7 8gb of ram and the SSD and it really flies. It has withstood 3 beers on top (with one of them it suddenly shut down…) and it works like the first day. It weighs nothing and they have decent batteries of 8 or 9 hours.I give it a lot of use and I travel a lot with it and you hardly notice that you are carrying it. It does 400km weekly and it's still there.
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I had no idea that Macs could run Windows without problems.
But do you just live with the MAC OS or do you wipe it and do a clean install like with any other laptop? -
Coexisting with MacOS.
You can do it as virtualization (running the corresponding program Parallels, VMware…), or in its own partition with the BootCamp, (link to Apple) which is the one I would recommend since it is the way in which Windows would have 100% of the hardware resources.
If this makes you reconsider the issue, I would also suggest an Air. If not, I keep the Lenovo.
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Man power you can delete OSX without any problem, but it would be a crime :troll: besides you could not install the firmware updates from Windows.
I don't know what software you use but I assure you that OSX is one of the most complete systems that exist it has the advantages of the variety of software/drivers of Windows along with the possibilities of a kernel base and opensource software of Linux, I don't change it and anything I need from Windows I use Wine or in its default Parallels (although I haven't needed it for a long time) and occasionally I use BootCamp to tinker. I now don't consider buying anything other than a mac mainly for OSX, I won't say anything more.
If not, better than Dell maybe I would even be interested in the new HP Spectre x360 which is in the style of the Lenovo Yoga but at a more reasonable price.
PD. Another admirable thing about OSX is even better than Linux managing RAM, this Air has 2GB and has 4 years, it goes like a shot!, recently I was doing 3D designs with SketchUP, I usually use it with Lightroom, and I don't remember the last time I looked at the system monitor to see the RAM usage.
