Shopping for Ultrabooks for college. Any testimonials or suggestions?

[thatotherdude24]

Just you =P

I know I'm not crazy though. My mother had me tested.


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[ajst222]

Have you looked at the Lenovo U430 touch? It is 14 inches and comes in a couple different versions. I have the i5/8/500. It's all metal casing and the quality is fantastic.

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I have, but also kind of ruled it out not only because I'm really looking at a 13" laptop as a maximum (for portability) but also because the screen only goes up to 720p HD. For photo editing you really will want to be doing it on the highest res screen as possible. But it does look like a fantastic computer though. A few years ago when I was looking at laptops I was considering the U-Series from Lenovo.

Glad I could help out. I work at Best Buy so I know the ins and outs. It probably helps that I do Graphic Design and Photography and understand a lot of the things you're looking for.

Most Sony Vaios came with Windows 8. You would have to update the Vaio drivers then install 8.1 or they would practically become bricked machines. I've seen a lot of returns with the Touchscreens not working or the screen itself just goes out. Unit not powering on, etc. I've seen more Vaio returns than any other brand that I sell. If you really like the Vaio series I would recommend some kind of protection plan or extended warranty on it.

I like the design and look of the newer Vaios and I appreciate the slide/lock mechanism on it. The other cool thing about the Vaio series is that you can use their N-Trig digitizer stylus ( Like the Tap 11) on their laptops . It is pen pressure sensitive. but to my understanding does NOT work within PS if you're using it for sketching. There may be an update out already so I could be wrong. Pricepoint wise Vaio laptops are kind of expensive to other brands though.

I have the Surface Pro ( original ) and I have the Lenovo Yoga 11s (The Yoga pro does offer way more) . Both similar to what you're looking at. I'm almost done with my Graphic Design program and of the 2 units I use the Surface Pro more than I use the Yoga. My reason is the stylus offers WAY too many benefits for me when I want to do any kind of sketching/photoshop/ or just plain taking notes in class. Onenote works wonders for that reason. I can take the Pro unit as just a tablet and leave my keyboard at home or use it more as a desktop/workstation. For small editing I take it as a tablet. For bigger things I'll bring the keyboard and sit down. It's still not going to give me the same experience as my desktop computer, but it will be the closest thing to it. The stylus for me just sells the entire unit. If I need to run it as a cintiq 11' screen I can cause I can plug it to a monitor and duplicate(mirror) it if need be.

I always find it funny cause The Yoga and the Pro always seem to get compared to each other and when people ask me which I would pick. I always go back to the pro even though I want a bigger screen.

It really boils down to whether you want A tablet that is a PC ( The Pro ) or you want a Laptop that can turn into a tablet ( The Yoga )

If you're not gonna carry it as a tablet and do Lightroom / PS on the go I think the Yoga will give a better experience just cause it has the i7 / 8gb ram / 256 SSD and will give you better color/ resolution.
If you want that portable tablet with Wacom stylus support and Pen Pressure I'd say the Pro is the better option

Keep in mind that these units would be more of an extension of your desktop rather than a replacement. PS or LR is always going to be done more on a workstation.

Haven't heard about that from Sony but thank you for letting me know that. I really do like the design and all that but I'll keep that in mind. I haven't actually used a Vaio Pro in person yet along with the Toshiba KIRAbook, which I would probably say is my top choice but I obviously won't make a decision until I actually check it out in person.

I'm glad you mentioned this as this is another option, but I would recommend the u530 touch which would give him the bigger screen AND the dedicated graphics to help with PS and LR

Lenovo IdeaPad U530 Touch Ultrabook 15.6" TouchScreen Laptop 8GB Memory 1TB Hard Drive IDEAPAD U530 TOUCH - 59406478 - Best Buy

If you don't care about that tablet part this machine is going to be the best bang for your buck. 1920x1080, but still a good alternative if you're going to be sitting down.

The dedicated graphics will help with certain functions within PS like blur/liquify things that would usually take a few minutes or 15 seconds will get slightly reduced with the help of a dedicated graphics.

As I said earlier, the size/weight thing would kick a 15" laptop out of the running. I do like their U-Series a lot though. Even if the 14" had a higher screen resolution option I would consider it but I think 15" is just too large for me. I believe they used to make a 13" model but apparently not anymore.

 

[thatotherdude24]

I have, but also kind of ruled it out not only because I'm really looking at a 13" laptop as a maximum (for portability) but also because the screen only goes up to 720p HD. For photo editing you really will want to be doing it on the highest res screen as possible. But it does look like a fantastic computer though. A few years ago when I was looking at laptops I was considering the U-Series from Lenovo.



Haven't heard about that from Sony but thank you for letting me know that. I really do like the design and all that but I'll keep that in mind. I haven't actually used a Vaio Pro in person yet along with the Toshiba KIRAbook, which I would probably say is my top choice but I obviously won't make a decision until I actually check it out in person.



As I said earlier, the size/weight thing would kick a 15" laptop out of the running. I do like their U-Series a lot though. Even if the 14" had a higher screen resolution option I would consider it but I think 15" is just too large for me. I believe they used to make a 13" model but apparently not anymore.

If you plan on hooking up the Surface to an external monitor that will not go well. I had a Surface Pro 2 and the DPI scaling is horrible. When hooked up to an external monitor everything is so big, but if you adjust the scaling on the Surface for the monitor then the Surface is so small it's unusable.


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[jojoe42]

If you plan on hooking up the Surface to an external monitor that will not go well. I had a Surface Pro 2 and the DPI scaling is horrible. When hooked up to an external monitor everything is so big, but if you adjust the scaling on the Surface for the monitor then the Surface is so small it's unusable.


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Disable universal scaling in the screen resolution settings. Then you can set scaling individually for each monitor

 

[eruptflail]

Depending on what you want to spend, it might be smart to look into Asus. They make most of the motherboards that other computers run, so their computers tend to run a little cheaper for the same hardware. They also make beautiful ultrabooks.

 

[thatotherdude24]

Disable universal scaling in the screen resolution settings. Then you can set scaling individually for each monitor

Did it, doesn't work that simple. Scaling was still horrible.

 

[ajst222]

Luckily for me I don't plan on using a monitor. Sucks that the scaling is off though.

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[rdubmu]

The perfect device would be a SP2 that is 13 inched. Unfortunately they don't make them. Regarding the Sony VAIO series. I find the keyboards horrible. I have difficulty typing on them. Not all of them but some of the hybrids.

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[ajst222]

So guys I've made my decision. Today I took the long drive down to the Microsoft Store and bought the Toshiba KIRAbook. So far, very happy with my purchase. I wanted to get the Surface Pro 2 badly, but the lack of an SD card slot made it impractical for me. I'm also kind of banking on the Surface Mini with a pen as rumored which would be perfect for notes.

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[rdubmu]

So guys I've made my decision. Today I took the long drive down to the Microsoft Store and bought the Toshiba KIRAbook. So far, very happy with my purchase. I wanted to get the Surface Pro 2 badly, but the lack of an SD card slot made it impractical for me. I'm also kind of banking on the Surface Mini with a pen as rumored which would be perfect for notes.

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I swear the sp2 has a SD card spot. My OG SP has one.

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[KoreyTM]

I am currently in the same spot as the OP. I have scoured the internet for ultrabooks, and I came up with my ultimate decision: The ASUS Transformer Book TX300.

The Mobile Tech Reviews YouTube channel was absolutely invaluable for my searching. They compared all of the ultrabooks/2-in-1/convertibles mentioned in this thread, and the ASUS Transformer Book TX300 came out on top for me.

- Detachable keyboard from tablet
- Tablet and keyboard each have batteries
- Has a built in cat5 jack (HUGE for me as most ultrabooks usually don't have this built in)
- The tablet portion comes with a 128GB SSD drive loaded with the OS and the keyboard comes with an extra 500GB HDD (amazing!) The second drive is recognized as a mass storage device and communicates over USB 3.0.
- The tablet is running an Intel i7 and gets 6 hours of battery life (in practice)
- Micro HDMI (on tablet)
- Micro SDXC slot (on tablet)
- Two USB 3.0 jacks (on keyboard)
- mini DisplayPort (on keyboard)
- SD card slot (on keyboard)
- Aluminum construction
- 13.1" screen
- Beautiful looking machine!

I highly recommend watching this review and checking out their written article:
http://youtu.be/vkQKDQTdbjU

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Asus-Transformer-Book-TX300.htm

 

[ajst222]

I swear the sp2 has a SD card spot. My OG SP has one.

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It has a MicroSD, but not a full SD

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[ajst222]

I am currently in the same spot as the OP. I have scoured the internet for ultrabooks, and I came up with my ultimate decision: The ASUS Transformer Book TX300.

The Mobile Tech Reviews YouTube channel was absolutely invaluable for my searching. They compared all of the ultrabooks/2-in-1/convertibles mentioned in this thread, and the ASUS Transformer Book TX300 came out on top for me.

- Detachable keyboard from tablet
- Tablet and keyboard each have batteries
- Has a built in cat5 jack (HUGE for me as most ultrabooks usually don't have this built in)
- The tablet portion comes with a 128GB SSD drive loaded with the OS and the keyboard comes with an extra 500GB HDD (amazing!) The second drive is recognized as a mass storage device and communicates over USB 3.0.
- The tablet is running an Intel i7 and gets 6 hours of battery life (in practice)
- Micro HDMI (on tablet)
- Micro SDXC slot (on tablet)
- Two USB 3.0 jacks (on keyboard)
- mini DisplayPort (on keyboard)
- SD card slot (on keyboard)
- Aluminum construction
- 13.1" screen
- Beautiful looking machine!

I highly recommend watching this review and checking out their written article:
http://youtu.be/vkQKDQTdbjU

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Asus-Transformer-Book-TX300.htm

Glad you like it! There are so many computers so you gotta find the one that fits your needs.

I also love MobileTechReview. They, along with CNET, are my main sources of reviews. I was disappointed that Lisa (MTR) didn't review the KIRAbook though.

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[KoreyTM]

Glad you like it! There are so many computers so you gotta find the one that fits your needs.

I also love MobileTechReview. They, along with CNET, are my main sources of reviews. I was disappointed that Lisa (MTR) didn't review the KIRAbook though.

Posted via the WPC App for Android on my BlackBerry

I hear that! Finding a computer that fits your individual needs is key. Price ($1,100 on Amazon), features, and design - The ASUS Transformer Book TX300 was my choice!

 

[John20212]

Vaio is dead - I won't put my money on it. Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 or Surface Pro 2 are REALLY decent choices, next would be ATIV book. What's up with Dell ultrabooks? Not good enough?

This is a great summary; stay away from VAIO, not only is it dead, but Sony's customer support is the worst around. Surface is a great choice, but for photo editing, maybe you would need an external monitor, 10" just seems too small for that, but on the other hand you can't beat the surface when it comes to note taking in lectures, and with OneNote you can sync audio recording of the lecture with you hand written notes.

 

[Angry_Mushroom]

I found the Yoga 2 Pro to be horrid. My two biggest complaints revolved around the screen.
-Horrific light edge bleed. It bugged me to no end...
-Broken auto brightness adjustment. It wouldn't even turn off when I tried. The bloat on top of all other things annoyed me as well. A Lenovo sourced PDF reader? c'mon.
The color issue is fixed easily enough if you mess around with the color profiles... no biggie there. The Yoga 2 Pro is a tad on the budget side despite the price. While you do get a whopper of a screen, it lacks USB 3.0 all around, and has to work with no ac support on the wifi. Anyway... despite the cool idea, I ended up returning the Lenovo and got myself an Asus Zenbook.

I'd honestly recommend the Zenbook over the Surface 2 and Zenbook. Battery life is quite nice with a solid 4-6 hours of usage... not sure how they do the tests, but I tend to surf forums, and work on papers quite a bit. Nice 13 inch 1080p screen... so no scaling issues on my end. And apparently some of the Zenbooks have upgradable memory... huge plus in my books. Sure it lacks a SSD, but you do get a nice 500 gig spinny drive with an extra 24 gigs of attached solid state.

Honestly... only issue I have with my Zenbook is it doesn't cause me to relax in stressful times, and the onboard headphone out is a bit crappy. Otherwise I'm more than happy with this thing. The key travel is nice, and quite springy. I'd say it feels better than the Yoga's keyboard. Looks very nice as well.

EDIT: Just to add on to this. The Surface 2 Pro, while a really nifty device, failed to meet my requirements for a nice keyboard. The 10 in. form factor just didn't jive with me. I guess you could get used to it, but in my case, I found a standard integrated keyboard much more useful.
You could give a look to Dell and HP as well. While their reputation isn't exactly spotless, I'd say their higher end offerings are very competent. I found the HP Spectre to be quite a pretty looking device. Interesting ideas implemented, but a tad pricey. Dell I think as the XPS line which can convert over to a tablet mode as well. I'm assuming they are quite good... according to one of my friends at least.

 

[renegadeballer]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND YOUR SANITY, PLEASE STAY FAR FAR FAR FAR FAR AWAY FROM SONY VAIO FIT FLIP 13A

my first post on WPCentral - I felt strongly enough to create an account and post when I saw this post.
I can elaborate more if you have questions, but just take my word for it.... the 11A has been canceled because its too big of a piece of junk to function, and the 13A is not far behind.

 

[renegadeballer]

This is a great summary; stay away from VAIO, not only is it dead, but Sony's customer support is the worst around. Surface is a great choice, but for photo editing, maybe you would need an external monitor, 10" just seems too small for that, but on the other hand you can't beat the surface when it comes to note taking in lectures, and with OneNote you can sync audio recording of the lecture with you hand written notes.

~ nailed it

OP, a good digitizer is worth its weight in gold - keep that in mind as you shop around. Wacom is top of the line obviously, but there are also things to consider like pen ergonomics and functionality (e.g. how you might 'erase' with it: 2 button configuration, sensor @ top of pen, etc)

 

[Angry_Mushroom]

~ nailed it

OP, a good digitizer is worth its weight in gold - keep that in mind as you shop around. Wacom is top of the line obviously, but there are also things to consider like pen ergonomics and functionality (e.g. how you might 'erase' with it: 2 button configuration, sensor @ top of pen, etc)

Before you do buy a surface... I'd recommend you try it out in the store for a few minutes. I came into the store thinking that the Surface 2 would be the one device to replace all my paper ever. Sadly it did not live up to my expectations. Maybe I lacked the touch or having gotten used to it. Maybe my note taking style doesn't favor things with batteries, but I do recommend you at least try it before buying it.

As for the Sony Flip comment. Not sure what exactly made it the pile of junk that led you to create an account to hate on it, but I can't disagree too much. I question the long term durability of the flip hinge and the cables associated with it. Pain to tablet mode it as well. Looking back at my comment... it does appear you are mainly searching for a tablet with typing capability.

With this in mind... I'd guess the Surface 2 is the best option for you. While the battery life is not stellar, the digitizer is a great addition, and the form factor is excellent. Still wasn't enamored with the keyboards... touch or type. Just didn't give me the room or typing pleasure of the Asus or HP.