The deal is that this is a machine is for business, which from time-to-time involves a fair bit of rough travel. The probook is too large/heavy to travel with, the emachine is pretty underpowered and can't handle doing any photo processing, never mind video which I would like to have the option on the road.
With win8 and toch coming to laptops not just tablets - I have a feeling it might be the time time to upgrade the probook is over 3 years old and the emachines is over 2 years old. From what's selling on Trademe - I can probably get around $500 for the probook and $150 for the emachine - which would be useful contribution to a new machine.
What I need from a machine is:
* at least as powerful as my existing machine which is a Intel core duo T6510 2.1GHZ 4GB memory
* touch - I may be wrong - but it's hugely appealing - particulary the easy zoom feature for surfing and for image work
* light - the emachine is 1kg - but I am prepared to carry up to 1.8kg
* I'd really prefer a matt screen, shiny screens are a pain, I do sometime want to use it in warm tropical countries near beaches - and this can be an issue - however I can't find a matt screen anywhere - is it not possible with touch?
* 13" or 14" - I have a large external monitor so I can live with the smaller screen on the laptop
* must be fast enough to handle my multi-tasking - I am very capable of having around 6-10 programs running simulatenously
* ability to do some basic video editing - I - I use moviemaker - but may upgrade to Adobe Premier Elements
* ability to do image editing - but obviously the video editing requirement covers this!
* budget - under $2000 - preferably $1700
* reliable - this is for work, not just play - on the other hand I may get it on lease to minimise this risk
* needs to connect to an existing monitor which has VGA and DVI ports only
* USB3 seems like a sensible bit of future proofing
What doesn't matter to me is:
* disk space - I am happy to add externals as required
* looks - who cares so long as it's functional
* keyboard - I usually use an external keyboard, can can type on practically anything
* battery life -they all seem to have awesome battery life 4 hours plus - I've lived with the 2 hours I get on the emachine and that's fine, it's inability to run more than 1 program at the time which irritates.
* optical drive - have access to one on my partner's machine at home - hardly ever use it as most of the software I use is online.
I'm quite in lust over the Samsung Series 5 Ultra Touch http://www.cnet.com/laptops/samsung-series-5-ultra/4505-3121_7-35427779.html and the Sony Vaio T13 Touch http://www.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vaio-t13-ultrabook/4505-3121_7-35483939.html
I normally buy HP - mainly because I've found them reliable - but the envy 14" touchscreen seems a bit expensive compared to these to (it's essentailly the same spec as the samsung which $1699 at NOel Leemings - while the HP is $1799 with only 4GB and so once you go to 8GB is will cost nearly $2k) http://www.cnet.com/laptops/hp-envy-touchsmart-ultrabook/4505-3121_7-35427782.html
Would love to hear anyone's opinions - on these 3 (and even if I've over-looked another contender) I keep going around in circles!
Particularly pros/cons of going entirely solid state - the Sony compared to the hybrid drives of the other two. The salesman said that the SSDs can fail more easily because of the lack of a fan. On the other hand the Sony seems to come out bestter than the Envy on photoshop tests (they don't seem to have tested the Samsung unfortunately)
Memory - I'm assuming I need 8GB - with running Windows 8 plus my desire to do many things at the same time, particularly the video/image work 8GB seems wise? Am I right?
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