High Res Laptop Advice

km991148

Hi,
Looking for some advice on a laptop. Ideally I want an ultrabook but with better performance (but not necesarily for games).

I would like the following:

~14inch screen, at least 900px high (would also consider 13/15, but nothing too heavy) NOT particularly wanting a touch screen laptop - I struggle to see the use case for this!
Fast processor
High amount of Ram (8/16gb) or ability to upgrade
SSD (or ability to add one)
preferably aluminium body

I have looked at the 15inch ultranote from pcspeialist, but something is telling me not to (mainly due to the plasticness of it and I would be concerned about the heat coming from it when configured with an i7).

I have also thought about a macbook pro, but as far as I understand they are not as easy to upgrade. I will also be primarily running windows, so seems that paying a premium for osx and not using it is a waste. I also think that I would be fed up if I end up with a laptop with non user serviceable battery.

Any other suggestions? Budget approx 1300, but I could find more for the perfect machine!

Torqay

I can assure you, overheating is not an issue with the UltraNote, they're using a low TDP Core i7 processor (35W).

If you want a superfast CPU and aluminum body, the new HP Envy 15t comes with a Haswell Core i7 4700MQ, 8 GB RAM, GT 740M, priced around 1,200 yoyos, unfortunately, it has a 1366x768 touch screen, not sure if the HDD is "user-accessible".

Then there the new SkyFire III, 14" 1600x900 display, Haswell Core i7 4700MQ, GT 760M, 16 GB RAM, 240 GB SSDD for €1,158... no aluminum though.

beno619

I have bouught from the dell uk outlet and would so again.

The Dell XPS 14 ultrabook tick all your requirements, the one linked comes with a 512gb SSD which makes it pretty insane value. You could also look at the XPS 15 or 13.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&puid=4cea249e

Torqay

beno619 wrote: »

I have bouught from the dell uk outlet and would so again.

The Dell XPS 14 ultrabook tick all your requirements, the one linked comes with a 512gb SSD which makes it pretty insane value. You could also look at the XPS 15 or 13.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&puid=4cea249e

Link is dead.

The XPS 14 is no longer on sale from Dell. Memory can only be upgraded to 8 GB. And the best available CPU was the i7-3667U, not exactly a "fast processor", the performance is comparable to a regular mobile Core i5 CPU.

beno619

Torqay wrote: »

Link is dead.

The XPS 14 is no longer on sale from Dell. Memory can only be upgraded to 8 GB. And the best available CPU was the i7-3667U, not exactly a "fast processor", the performance is comparable to a regular mobile Core i5 CPU.

Well it is a ULV and I would exactly call it "slow". Its pretty darn fast when you compare it to something that consumes twice as much power.

Had no idea it was discontinued, still a great machine for the price and comes with a massive SSD.

http://www.dell.com/uk/dfh/p/?~ck=bt&s=dfh

Torqay

Didn't say slow... the ULVs are just not up there with Intel's quad core CPUs when it comes to more demanding tasks such as 3D modelling or huge RAW image editing. But then, handling this kind of workload is not the general purpose of Ultrabooks.

Overheal

NOT particularly wanting a touch screen laptop - I struggle to see the use case for this!

Trust me, its handy. There are just somethings that are simply done much quicker with a touch or swipe or pinch. Even scrolling boards is a lot simpler with touch, it takes you a dozen swipes to use the scrollbar or one flick to slide down the whole page on the touchscreen.

km991148

ye - I aint bothered about the touchscreen at all.. I have survived with only keyboard so far - and I dont want a dirty screen due to constant fingerprints! (having said that I will probably end up with one and consider it to be the best thing ever... )

Thanks for the suggestions above - it seems that I will need to sacrifice something to get the machine I want.

For example - I was looking at the new vaio pros - seem not bad, new haswell chips - but only 1 ram slot, therefore max 8gb..

The skyfire III/ optimus V from pcspecialist looks like they fulfil the tech specs - but I wanted something that looked a bit better/was lighter than my old plastic Sony .