Buy ultrabook now or wait for Haswell?

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Tazim123

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Mar 21, 2013
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you should look at the samsung series 7 ultra, it has good battery life , looks nice, has a dedicated gpu and 1080p touchscreen
 

St3amkiller

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Mar 25, 2013
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I am planning to buy a new laptop too with as CPU the i7 3630QM (2,4GHz to 3,4GHz) and as GPU the ATi Radeon HD 7970M. Should I also wait for the new generation of CPU's?
 

lxgoldsmith

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Sep 25, 2012
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haswell is rumored to be released early in june, with products following shortly after. It's not much of a benefit to wait if you don't need battery life. The biggest benefit of waiting goes to those who wish to get a boost in battery life and plan to use integrated graphics on a touchscreen laptop.
 

casparolesen

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Dec 14, 2012
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Definitely looking into that - thanks!
 

Trent Larson

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Apr 8, 2013
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Saw it at Best Buy today. Sweet machine and suppose to get a real 6 HR battery life. But I'm like you, wondering how much this would get with a Haswell? Maybe 8 hours? With better graphics power? But BB has the ultra series 7 now for 999 dollars. Hard decision.
 

Sakkura

Distinguished

There are no Best Buys in Denmark, unfortunately.
 
There are no Best Buys in Denmark, unfortunately.

Ah but your Viking ancestors would have forsaken their longships and registered their interest here http://www.samsung.com/uk/series7ultralaptop/

When it becomes available, a 10Kr bus ride across the strait to Malmo and a £12 flight to the UK and you could be back home in no time with a cheaper one than you can buy up there.

 

Sakkura

Distinguished

Assuming he actually lives anywhere near the strait.
But the Samsung 7 series ultra is available here, it just starts at $1565 or so. So there's no reason to visit the Danelaw other than to collect some Danegeld so you can afford it.
 

jagooch

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Aug 30, 2010
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The reason to wait just isn't to get the newer tech, but to get the current tech cheaper. When new hardware comes out, the price of old hardware goes down. This lets moves a system that was out of your price range into your price range, or at least lets you get what you want for less.

If depends on the value you place on being able to use the ultrabook between now and how long you would otherwise wait. Will you lose get $200 worth of productivity if you wait to save $200?
 

whyso

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Jan 15, 2012
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For an ultrabook I would say definitely wait. Sandy-> ivy was a major jump for ULV (like 30%+ both cpu and igp). Could be the same for haswell too.
 


There might be some typos in there...

I would guess that the Haswell Core i3 CPUs would have the GT2 variant of the new graphics core; the Intel HD 4600. Not a holdover of the the Intel HD 4000 from Ivy Bridge.

The high end quad core mobile Core i7 CPUs would likely have the GT3 variant of the new core along with eDRAM. Therefore, instead of the just a mere Intel HD 5100 it would actually be the Intel HD 5200 + eDRAM. That is also known as CrystalWell and it is likely to end up on in the BGA socket (meaning embedded) desktop Core i7 CPU as well.

Additionally, I would have thought that the "non high end" dual / quad core mobile Haswell Core i7 would be getting the Intel HD 5200 graphic core, not the Intel HD 5100 found in the mobile Core i5 CPUs.