Light-gaming / Light-weight multitasking ultrabook

NemesisHunter

Honorable
Jan 28, 2014
2
0
10,510
Hi all,

I'm on the market for an Ultrabook for work/school/home use. Battery life, CPU power and weight are important factors in my decision.

1. What is your budget?
$800-$1,400

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13.3" or less

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1080P FHD, mini-HDMI/HDMI output is a must for home use with external monitor (1080P)

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
I need a portable laptop. The lighter, the better.

5. How much battery life do you need?
5 hours +

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

-I will only play the occasional low-demanding game from Steam, as I have a dedicated gaming rig for the more demanding titles (games to played like Starbound, Rogue Legacy, Diablo 3, Spelunky HD, etc.). Low-Med would be fine, though High is always preferable if its within my budget means (as long as the weight/battery life isn't drastically shifted negatively).

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)

-Video encoding/conversion, video streaming, photo editing via Photoshop/Lightroom, heavy multitasking through multiple tabs and windows on Firefox/Chrome/Excel/Word/Powerpoint (most extreme cases, all open).

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

-As long as it supports 2.5" SSD Sata III, storage is meaningless, I will immediately replace the drive with my own 1TB Samsung 840 Evo SSD Drive.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

-Canadacomputers.com
-NCIX.com
-Amazon.ca
-memoryexpress.com
-newegg.ca
-Costco.ca

-Other canadian retail/online vendors, such as Futureshop & BestBuy

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

-4-5 years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

-No need for optical drive.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

-Preferred:
Sony
Asus

-Disliked:
HP (heat and driver issues)
Acer (cheap hardware)

-Neutral
Dell (I generally don't like Dell designs or their aesthetics, unless there is a viable well-built option)

13. What country do you live in?

-Canada

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

-2.5" SSD Sata III support is a must
-Intel Core i7 is preferred, due to my multitasking and CPU-threaded needs
-Weight factor is very important (Sony Vaio 13 Pro, Macbook Air, Asus Zenbook types)
-Weight > CPU performance > Battery Life > GPU performance, in that order.

Thanks for your help!
 
Solution
Here's a link to the ThinkPad X240 in Canada.

http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x240/

The price is $1,034 and the 1920x1080 screen is a $330 option bringing the total to $1,364 before tax.

NemesisHunter

Honorable
Jan 28, 2014
2
0
10,510


Thanks jaguarskx & LummusMaximus, the Lenovo ThinkPad X240 looks great!

Any chance there might be a revision to its product line anytime soon? Since this would be a pretty large investment, I'm wondering if its worth the wait for the SKU shuffle.

Secondly, do these ultrabooks support 2.5" SATA III drives? I'd like to swap in my 1TB SSD in.