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Ultrabook/Ultraportable, moderate gaming
With 3rd-gen Core i-series (Ivy Bridge) and GeForce 600m series (Kepler) released, I am strongly contemplating purchasing an Ultrabook or Ultraportable with moderate gaming capabilities. After extensive research, however, I'm pretty disappointed with what's actually out there.
Sony stands alone as the only manufacturer with a compelling balance of gaming performance and mobility with the S series, which offer sub-inch-depth, sub-5lbs weigh, high res LCDs, GeForce 640M LE, Core i5 and i7, and good battery life. They're not quite ultrabooks, but they're what I will officially classify as Close Enough(TM). However, they're not cheap to get configured with good specs, even using aftermarket parts, and the 640M LE is just a little shy of what I'm looking for (but Close Enough). I'm really tempted to get one now.
All of the other 1st and 2nd tier OEMs offering IVB Ultrabooks don't offer them with discrete graphics and have pretty much nothing that would provide sub-5lb ultraportable moderate gaming.
Now the Gigabyte U2442 series will have similar specs, but slightly better graphics (640M non-LE) and will actually be ultrabooks. Really, these specs are almost perfect to me (650M or 660M with 1080p would be nice, but we can't have everything). But Gigabyte is a relatively new and untested player to this market AFAIK.
I'm really thinking of getting something in the Sony S series, but I figured I'd see if anyone else here has done any research as well. What I don't want to do is get something now to have a much more compelling line of Kepler/IVB Ultrabooks release in 2-6 weeks, which is what I'm worried about.
Sony stands alone as the only manufacturer with a compelling balance of gaming performance and mobility with the S series, which offer sub-inch-depth, sub-5lbs weigh, high res LCDs, GeForce 640M LE, Core i5 and i7, and good battery life. They're not quite ultrabooks, but they're what I will officially classify as Close Enough(TM). However, they're not cheap to get configured with good specs, even using aftermarket parts, and the 640M LE is just a little shy of what I'm looking for (but Close Enough). I'm really tempted to get one now.
All of the other 1st and 2nd tier OEMs offering IVB Ultrabooks don't offer them with discrete graphics and have pretty much nothing that would provide sub-5lb ultraportable moderate gaming.
Now the Gigabyte U2442 series will have similar specs, but slightly better graphics (640M non-LE) and will actually be ultrabooks. Really, these specs are almost perfect to me (650M or 660M with 1080p would be nice, but we can't have everything). But Gigabyte is a relatively new and untested player to this market AFAIK.
I'm really thinking of getting something in the Sony S series, but I figured I'd see if anyone else here has done any research as well. What I don't want to do is get something now to have a much more compelling line of Kepler/IVB Ultrabooks release in 2-6 weeks, which is what I'm worried about.
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Complete: 55/120 credits SPAN 201, LIT 100, ETHS 200, AP Lang, MATH 120, WRIT 231, ICS 140, MATH 215, ECON 202, ECON 201, ICS 141, MATH 210, LING 111, ICS 240
In progress: CLEP US GOV,
Next up: MATH 211, ECON 352, ICS 340
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mattlee09
Member Posts: 205
The Asus Zenbook Prime (only 620M) perhaps.
Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD Overview & Specs - Laptops - CNET Reviews
The Gigabyte probably won't be bad, but...i5 and 1600x900,
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ptilsen
Member Posts: 2,835 ■■■■■■■■■■
Yeah the 620m is just a bit too weak. There was an ASUS or an Acer -- I forget which -- that had roughly the hardware specs I'm looking for, but only a 1366x768 resolution on both the 13.3'' and 15.6'' models, which is horrible. I can handle 1600x900 on 13.3, but 1366x768 is just too ten years ago to be usable. The specs on the Gigabyte are just about perfect, IMO. The screen is small enough that 1920x1080 wouldn't really be an improvement over 1600x900 for most applications. But who knows if it will be any good or when it will actually be available?