Help! Suggestions for a good mid range ultrabook

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › Help! Suggestions for a good mid range ultrabook

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

172 posts

Master Geek

#1011059 22-Mar-2014 15:40

is there any others apart from the Dell XPS? Had a few bad experiences with dell before so not too keen to get them again unless its really worth it

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1011060 22-Mar-2014 15:58

What about the Surface Pro 1 combo with Type Cover 2 or with Surface Pro 2? It's really good for note taking and it's a very powerful and capable ultra book and tablet at the same time. Build quality is great and monthly firmware updates for whatever bug fixes or enhancements are delivered. With your use case that you have described, you can get away with Surface 2 and Type Cover 2.

Do whatever you want to do man.

panda123

172 posts

Master Geek

#1011061 22-Mar-2014 16:00

yah that combo sounds good. how is it for preparing presentations on powerpoint and and using powerpoint for viewing slides in lectures and note taking?

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1011063 22-Mar-2014 16:18

Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 1 do NOT come with Microsoft Office. OneNote however is now a free application to download from onenote.com. You can download and install applications from the both the Windows Store or whatever desktop applications you can find on the internet, USB stick etc that you are use to installing right now on a Windows 7 machine.

Your university might be able to hook you up with free MS Office if they are enrolled in the Student Advantage program. If not, you can buy Office 365 University between $100 ~ $140 from various online stores in NZ like PBTech which is a 4 year license for MS Office 2013 Pro and that includes 60 minutes free Skype calling every month and 20GB extra OneDrive storage. You can also load this on 2 machines be it even 1 PC and 1 Mac.

Surface 2 does comes with full version of Microsoft Office 2013 Student version which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote but you can only install applications from the Windows Store. Personally I use a Surface 2 because it fulfils my needs.

If you need PEN and note taking support then you need Surface Pro 1 or Pro 2. They both have a built in Wacom digitizer to accomplish this task.

Microsoft Office in both the Surface Pro or Surface 2 works like any other Office suite would in Windows 7. You can do presentations etc as you normally would. Below is a video of Surface Pro 1 + OneNote. OneNote also supports ink to text so it will convert your handwriting into text if you want it to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hLVxdB9yn4

Do whatever you want to do man.

jarledb

Webhead
3253 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1011064 22-Mar-2014 16:33

panda123: I was thinking of a mac too but how is the PowerPoint /Microsoft word equivalent for macs? Some problems might be some software I use for biomed only have a windows version and not mac. Is the mac book air specs good enough to dual boot windows?

No problem dual booting to windows on a Macbook. Only thing is that you will use up some hd space if you want to run both OSes.

The Airs are fairly powerful and updated Intel chipsets (Haswell processor)

There are also a couple of virtualisers that you can use to run Windows, such as Parallels and VM Ware. Which means you can run Windows on top of OS-X and have it have its own window. Its the way I would go if I needed to run both Windows and OS-X on my machine.

Jarle Dahl Bergersen | Referral Links: Want $50 off when you join Octopus Energy? Use this referral code
Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by making a donation or subscribing.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1011067 22-Mar-2014 16:36

You will regret a 10" system

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1011068 22-Mar-2014 16:39

It's 10.6". It's .4" smaller than 11" machines.

Go to Noel Leeming. Have a play with Surface devices. See if you like the design, screen size etc with Type Cover 2 and make up your mind.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1011093 22-Mar-2014 18:01

my minimum is 13.3"

doesn't mean it should be everyone's minimum :D

don't forget it's not just the screen it's the keyboard and the trackpad as well - have a play with those too

blakamin

4431 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1011133 22-Mar-2014 20:07

Try Asus.

panda123

172 posts

Master Geek

#1011535 23-Mar-2014 22:48

Quick update everyone. my budget have just increased, can spend up to $2000 now. Any new products you guys can suggest for me now?

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1011538 23-Mar-2014 23:00

xps 13

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1011539 23-Mar-2014 23:02

or macbook air 13 256gb

Technofreak

6530 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1011542 23-Mar-2014 23:24

joker97: my minimum is 13.3"

doesn't mean it should be everyone's minimum :D

don't forget it's not just the screen it's the keyboard and the trackpad as well - have a play with those too

Yep I'd agree, anything else to too small for serious work.

You should also consider if you need a CD/DVD drive, most ultrabbooks don't have them.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1011547 23-Mar-2014 23:45

Dell XPS 13 with i7 Haswell CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 1080p touchscreen for $2000. It's 20% off atm until 27th March.

http://www.dell.com/nz/p/xps-13-9333/pd?oc=w5110s3nz&model_id=xps-13-9333

Or Surface Pro 2 with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD with Type Cover 2.

Do whatever you want to do man.

panda123

172 posts

Master Geek

#1011627 24-Mar-2014 10:17

What about other brands like samsung, acer, asus etc?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5