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Laworder

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#319843 7-Jun-2025 00:06
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I currently have a Sony Vaio Pro I3 i7-4500U SVP13218PGB laptop, its over ten years old, and cant be upgraded to Windows 11. It also has a number of other issues - all the USB ports are dead bar one, the screen flickers, the battery is knackered and some keyboard keys are a bit intermittent, and the sound sometimes buzzes or goes out. I paid $850 for it second hand in 2017, and it has been fantastic but I have to face up to the fact that it is now end of life.

 

The great thing about it is its light! Its only 1 kg. I need a replacement around the same weight, same screen size or thereabouts (13.3 in), does not need to be a touchscreen, I wont be doing any gaming on it, but need something that can handle many browser tabs open as I use it for research. I also do a lot of streaming with it. More RAM would help with that, current one has only 4Gb. Current storage is only 128Gb which is adequate, although a bigger SD would be nice.  Battery isnt a big deal, I dont use it off battery much and I'm managing fine with my current machine that only runs 30 minutes off battery

 

I'd imagine anything I buy will have a performance advantage on a machine this old 

 

The Dynabook Portege X30L is available here but its expensive. The Acer Swift 7 doent seem to be here, nor any of the Fujitsu Lifebooks, or the Asus Expertbook B9. 

 

 

 

Any other ultralightweight contenders I'm missing?


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marpada
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  #3381480 7-Jun-2025 00:24
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A bit over 1Kg but MacBook Air 13"




Scott3
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  #3381488 7-Jun-2025 00:57
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I would look at the Lenovo X1 Carbon Range, likely the Gen 13 Aura Edition (14ʺ Intel).

Stats at 1.01kg, packs Luner lake processors, and generally highly regarded. Of course it is their flagship laptop so comes with a flagship price.


Would be a massive performance upgrade. On ram, 16gb is basically the minimum you would want to buy these days, but if you want to run 30+ tabs, than I would recommend 32gb.


Asus Zenbook A14, comes in at ~900grams, could also be worth a look.


MacBook Air 13 is ~1.24kg.


Scott3
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  #3381490 7-Jun-2025 01:29
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Missed the price guidance in the headline. X1 carbon is north of $3k. Zenbook A14 is $2.4k.




Laworder

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  #3381495 7-Jun-2025 05:08
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Scott3:

 

Missed the price guidance in the headline. X1 carbon is north of $3k. Zenbook A14 is $2.4k.

 

 

No problems, thank you for the suggestions. If the A14 has been around a little while I will see if a used one pops up, my Sony was over $3-4K new, I bought that used so am happy to buy another used machine


SpartanVXL
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  #3381541 7-Jun-2025 10:50
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“and cant be upgraded to Windows 11”

 

If you can put up with the other issues then there are methods to install win11. Haswell especially should be fine to run it. Or linux if you don’t need anything special.

 

The most in line with your requirements is a M series macbook. It has the battery life and performance with the weight you want. Only potential problem is macos and arm cpu.


shk292
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  #3381570 7-Jun-2025 14:42
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Slightly more that 1kg, but I’ve had an older version of this Lenovo for a few years and it’s been very good.  I think it meets your criteria

 

https://www.harveynorman.co.nz/computers/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-slim-5-9th-gen-14-laptop-qualcomm-snapdragon-x-plus-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-cloud-grey-83hl000cau.html


Batman
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  #3381571 7-Jun-2025 14:49
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Do they still sell MS Surface 


 
 
 

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Laworder

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  #3381586 7-Jun-2025 15:50
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shk292:

 

Slightly more that 1kg, but I’ve had an older version of this Lenovo for a few years and it’s been very good.  I think it meets your criteria

 

https://www.harveynorman.co.nz/computers/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-slim-5-9th-gen-14-laptop-qualcomm-snapdragon-x-plus-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-cloud-grey-83hl000cau.html

 

 

 

 

Almost 1.5 kg though, but good price I have to say

 

 

 

Batman:

 

Do they still sell MS Surface 

 

 

 

 

Yes I saw these at PB tech the other day. Unfortunately the ones that meet my weight criteria are in tablet format so the bulk of the weight is in the screen portion which makes it hard to use in some situations


Scott3
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  #3381664 7-Jun-2025 20:33
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This is a decent deal at the moment.

 

https://www.lenovo.com/nz/en/p/laptops/yoga/yoga-slim-series/lenovo-yoga-slim-7i-aura-edition-gen-10-14-inch-intel/83jxcto1wwnz2?

 

$2099

1.19kg (non touch version)

 

Lunar lake 258V processors

 

32 GB ram

 

1TB SSD

 

2.8k OLED screen

 

 

 

Wife has basically this laptop with the prior intel CPU generation (155H) and has been quite happy with it. 

 

 


loceff13
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  #3381682 8-Jun-2025 02:03
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Always worth asking the lenovo chat/phone rep for a discount too, can sometimes knock off more 


Laworder

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  #3381689 8-Jun-2025 06:21
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Just got a HP Pavilion Aero 13 Ryzen 7-5800U off Trade Me, will be around $900 with a 2TB SSD, its got 16GB RAM which should be enough given I've been battling with 4Gb the last 8 years. And its less than a kg, about 950 grams, has a 2560X1600 display too, way better than what I have currently No touchscreen though, but I never use the one on my current one so no big deal

 

 

 

Chuffed with that, its got two USB A ports too, plus HDMI, no SD card reader which is a minor niggle, I've got an external reader kicking around somewhere or I can just buy one, they're cheap enough


noroad
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  #3381711 8-Jun-2025 09:55
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Batman:

 

Do they still sell MS Surface 

 

 

 

 

ARM only, no thanks


toejam316
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  #3381809 8-Jun-2025 20:45
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Found a pretty ideal option on Cheapies, https://www.cheapies.nz/node/51918.

 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (14", Gen 10): Lunar lake 258V, 32gb ram, 1 TB ssd, 2.8k oled screen, wifi 7





Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.


Scott3
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  #3382122 9-Jun-2025 14:43
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Laworder:

 

Just got a HP Pavilion Aero 13 Ryzen 7-5800U off Trade Me, will be around $900 with a 2TB SSD, its got 16GB RAM which should be enough given I've been battling with 4Gb the last 8 years. And its less than a kg, about 950 grams, has a 2560X1600 display too, way better than what I have currently No touchscreen though, but I never use the one on my current one so no big deal

 

 

 

Chuffed with that, its got two USB A ports too, plus HDMI, no SD card reader which is a minor niggle, I've got an external reader kicking around somewhere or I can just buy one, they're cheap enough

 



Sounds like a decent purchase.  Being a late 2021 release date laptop (with a cpu launched Q1 2021), performance will be a lot less than a modern laptop higher end laptop, but also it is less than half the price.

It will be a dramatic step up from your current laptop 4GB of ram must be painful in 2025.

And it meets your weight needs.


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