Notebooks Ultra thin laptop?

Im looking at buying a new laptop, and am after something thin and good looking.

I really really like the Vaio Z series - I really don't care about an optical drive and the amount of space they take up inside a laptop is silly.

I was just wondering if there was anything similar out there?

I know there's ultrabooks, but they use much slower CPU's - whereas the Sony is a full speed affair.

Any ideas?

Cheers

 

what are you looking for?
price? size? weight? CPU speed/cores? GPU?

or just get a MB air ;P

 

13-15", just looking for something thin/light really - I dont want to be carrying round an optical disk drive with me all day for no reason.

CPU needs to be a full i5/i7 - not the slow speed ones in ultrabooks...

 

The ASUS Zenbook UX31 is an i5 ultra thin notebook. Is that the kind of thing you're thinking of?

http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/asus-zenbook-ux31.aspx

 

I love my 15" rMBP, it's seriously fast.

(It's still on the BT geekbench leader-board - http://www.david-gregory.co.uk/geekbench 19-12-11-64.htm)

 

Ultrabooks are being held back, until Windows 8 is released.
So waist for that.

Also, have a look at the Samsung Series 9. It comes with a non-glossy, IPS panel. While it won't compete with a desktop IPS panel, it is better than the ultra junk TN panel found in most laptops.

 

It runs an ultrabook chip unfortunately
It really bugs me that they call them i7 chips when they run at like 1.6ghz...

 

Retina macbook is a very good shout, although it's quite pricey (esp considering I'd need to buy a windows license for it). It seems the Z series is the only ultra portable out there running full spec chips

 

Retina Macbook is a good piece of kit if you can afford it its something you wont regret.

 

I've got the z series. It's seriously fast, but kinda expensive.

I'd take a look at the Lenovo x1 carbon and Samsung Series 9 tho. Depends if you're going to be doing anything on it that requires the extra processor omph.

 

I was looking at a Z on eBay as they seem to drop in value quite a lot. Which z have you got? Any problems with heat?

Ill have a look at the x1, not a fan of the series 9..

 

Not sure why you're raging on the Ultrabook CPUs - they're actually plenty fast enough. I used my MacBook Air (SandyBridge 1.7Ghz i7 dual core) for Photoshop work on a regular basis without any problems in the slightest. They still TurboBoost to past 2.0Ghz with ease after all.

Of course, if you told us what you intended to use the laptop for, and why you need a specific CPU then we might be able to help more...

 

Can they turbo even when both cores are under full load?

The laptop will also be used for light gaming and Solid works (currently in my 2nd year of an engineering degree). The solidworks is the main draw towards a full power CPU. I also encode videos occasionally, which the extra grunt would be great for.

Ill have a closer look at an ultrabook I think

 

Yes, they can turbo under full load.

I think you should look at the benches of the ultrabooks, and see if they meet your needs - they might not, as I've never used Solidworks, but they may well do.

 

Yeah they do, I got mine basically new off eBay too. It came to £750 once delivered and customs tax paid etc. I got the z2 with i5 sandy bridge and 128GB ssd along with the power media dock.

Not had any problems with heat so far, although I've not done much on it that would be considered hugely hardware intensive yet.

 

[QUyo=McDuff32;3175407]Yeah they do, I got mine basically new off eBay too. It came to £750 once delivered and customs tax paid etc. I got the z2 with i5 sandy bridge and 128GB ssd along with the power media dock.

Not had any problems with heat so far, although I've not done much on it that would be considered hugely hardware intensive yet.[/QUOTE]

Oh you got yours from the states? Anythingg worth knowing about ordering one from over theree?

 

Err yeah sure. Be prepared to pay customs tax. The seller just marking it as a 'gift' doesn't work. What kinda worked for me is the seller labelled the box as an lcd screen worth $200, rather than a Laptop worth $1200.

Otherwise you won't really save any money compared to just getting it from someone here. I think it was about £40 in the end. It takes a couple of weeks to arrive as well. The delivery company (was Parcelforce for me) like to send the customs charge information by letter, but if you ring them you can pay by phone as soon as you see a charge attached on the tracking and speed up the process.

I've heard that if marking the box as a defective unit being returned for repairs means it generally passes through. But I have no idea if this is just hearsay etc. Good luck