News First ultrabook on sale

I think a lot of folks experience the same as we did: The more you try something else, the less you tend to fire up windows...

 

LOL!!! You nailed it!!!

 

Hmm, I'm inclined to dispute that as they have a couple of flaws - glossy screens and the wrong aspect ratio. The gloss bit is the main sticking point, the displays may be nice enough but matte just works better where you have any light source hitting the screen (window behind me both at home and work).

Saying that though, I reckon I'd prefer a Macbook Air over this one. I'm neither a fruit factory fanboi nor a wintard (although Windows is my primary OS in various incarnations as well as the one I support) but it does look to me like Asus have made some of the same mistakes as Apple do (<rant>polish the outer shell to a mirror finish if you like but make the display non reflective, not the other way round FFS! Most of us want to see what we're working on, not our own faces. If we want to see ourselves we use this device known as "a mirror"!</rant>) as well as some entirely new ones of their own (have you seriously looked at that keyboard? *shudder*) and they appear to have failed dismally where the battery life is concerned.

TL,DR: The aesthetics and battery life on the Macbook Air are better, still a shiny screen and the keyboard earns a "WTF?" all on its own. Spec is nice enough but doesn't overcome the other issues. On a scale of "Ugh!" to "Want!" this one only rates a "meh" (the Macbook Air gets a "Shiny!" and the Razer Blade gets "How much was it for a kidney again? I have one spare!")

 

...but can it run CRYSIS?


Ok, kidding, but seriously- if it could run a de-tuned EVE client at 1600x900 I'd be grabbing my coat and heading for the door to get one now.

 

You have the possibility out of the box, yes, but there are also disadvantages which then have to be weighed when actually implementing such a setup. Primarily, the cost of buying a copy of Windows must be considered. Secondly, hard drive space must be considered. A base model 11" MBA only comes with 64GB of storage space*, running two operating systems will limit your amount of free space, quite possibilty below the amount needed for a given user's applications. The increased cost and lessened storage capacity may still be worth it for some users, but it should be remembered when considering what to buy.


*Upgrading the 11" MBA to 128GB of storage also means upgrading to 4GB of RAM. This can be had for an additional $200 but changes the performance and requires even more consideration of what is "worth it".