Why is there a lack of ultraportables with Intel Iris graphics?

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › Why is there a lack of ultraportables with Intel Iris graphics?

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#1024699 14-Apr-2014 09:21

nathan: nice video card on the MBA but married to a crap low res screen

The screen is quite good tho.

The resolution suites the size, it has over 800 pixels vertical resolution.
The colour, brightness, and contrast are better than 95% of other laptop displays.

It's not QHD or anything but then windows ultraportables with that kind of thing have scaling/readability issues in programs, like Adobe Photoshop etc

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#1024700 14-Apr-2014 09:24

apple 'never' makes "crap" products nathan ;p

networkn

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#1024702 14-Apr-2014 09:27

d3Xt3r:
networkn: The answer to the OP Question : Price.

Very few consumers are prepared to pay the premium. I just bought the Asus UX301 which had the Iris, and it's AWESOME.

Where did you buy the UX301 from? I checked PriceSpy and no one has it in stock.
dasimpsonsrule: After looking at all the options last year, I ended up buying a macbook air, removing OSX (to free up space) and putting windows on it. Apart from not having a proper delete key (not backspace labelled delete), I have no problems with it.

Thanks, it's good to know the MBA can run Windows without any issues. I'll keep Apple as my last option in case I can't find anything else. :)

I bought it when I was in the US.

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#1024731 14-Apr-2014 10:11

I think I might just end up buying the MBA. Got a day off from work - really itching to buy one today lol. Anyone know of any retail store with the 8GB MBA in stock? PriceSpy says only the MBPs are in stock.

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#1024734 14-Apr-2014 10:11

DSE

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#1024737 14-Apr-2014 10:16

joker97: DSE

DSE seem to have only the 4GB versions.

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#1024745 14-Apr-2014 10:31

you are talking about macbook air? they come in 128 and 256gbs or 512gb online

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#1024755 14-Apr-2014 10:45

joker97: you are talking about macbook air? they come in 128 and 256gbs or 512gb online

Yes, but I'm talking about the RAM, not the HDD.

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#1024759 14-Apr-2014 10:50

There's no standard mass market MBA retail SKU with 8gb ram afaik, you can only get this from apple direct.
The 2013 pro retina however does have this, and weighs 400g more and is marginally thicker, but has Iris Pro.

Its important to distinguish HD5000 Iris in the MBA does not have the same performance as the Iris Pro, which has dedicated VRAM and more compute power.

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#1024769 14-Apr-2014 11:02

eXDee: There's no standard mass market MBA retail SKU with 8gb ram afaik, you can only get this from apple direct.
The 2013 pro retina however does have this, and weighs 400g more and is marginally thicker, but has Iris Pro.

Its important to distinguish HD5000 Iris in the MBA does not have the same performance as the Iris Pro, which has dedicated VRAM and more compute power.

Ah, didn't know the 8GB was an online-only option, thanks.

I don't mind the compromise on the graphics though - I'm more keen on the longer battery life with the MBA.

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#1024797 14-Apr-2014 11:38

and less than half the price of the windows equivalent which does not exist in any shape or form in this country!

the more I read this thread the more tempted I am to get a MBA! LOL *control yourself!*

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#1024812 14-Apr-2014 11:49

Note that if you have educational affiliation, you can use the educational store. Just worth mentioning if you're a student/teacher/whatever
http://store.apple.com/nz-hed

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#1024834 14-Apr-2014 12:22

joker97: and less than half the price of the windows equivalent which does not exist in any shape or form in this country!

the more I read this thread the more tempted I am to get a MBA! LOL *control yourself!*

LOL

I just switched. My coffee table Win 7 laptop to rMBP. i7, 2.3, 8GB, 512GB. The 12 second startup, from cold, ready to use, thats great. OSX I am growing into as well, lots to like

Sorry, back to topic..

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#1024838 14-Apr-2014 12:31

d3Xt3r:
eXDee: There's no standard mass market MBA retail SKU with 8gb ram afaik, you can only get this from apple direct.
The 2013 pro retina however does have this, and weighs 400g more and is marginally thicker, but has Iris Pro.

Its important to distinguish HD5000 Iris in the MBA does not have the same performance as the Iris Pro, which has dedicated VRAM and more compute power.

Ah, didn't know the 8GB was an online-only option, thanks.

I don't mind the compromise on the graphics though - I'm more keen on the longer battery life with the MBA.

Don't expect the full 11 hours battery life or what ever they quote for the Air if you run something other than OS X. My 2010 Pro gets around half the battery and runs way hotter running Win 8.1.

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#1024839 14-Apr-2014 12:32

lxsw20:
d3Xt3r:
eXDee: There's no standard mass market MBA retail SKU with 8gb ram afaik, you can only get this from apple direct.
The 2013 pro retina however does have this, and weighs 400g more and is marginally thicker, but has Iris Pro.

Its important to distinguish HD5000 Iris in the MBA does not have the same performance as the Iris Pro, which has dedicated VRAM and more compute power.

Ah, didn't know the 8GB was an online-only option, thanks.

I don't mind the compromise on the graphics though - I'm more keen on the longer battery life with the MBA.

Don't expect the full 11 hours battery life or what ever they quote for the Air if you run something other than OS X. My 2010 Pro gets around half the battery and runs way hotter running Win 8.1.

On the plus side you can work instead of playing :)

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