Portable Performance Laptop for College

[xaviator]

Hello,

I need some help choosing a good laptop for college. I will be in Engineering, so i need a relatively powerful laptop! In addition, Form factor, Portability, and battery life are all very important to me. A 15.6" full HD screen is ideal, but smaller could also work. also occasional casual gaming would be cool too! I have found that I really like the ASUS UX51VZ, however I am hesitant because it has an Ivy Bridge Processor, and would like the take advantage of haswell's better power consumption! I am really tired of big bulky laptops, so a thin notebook would be awesome since i will be taking it to class!

Any Suggestions? Thanks!

 

[xaviator]

ASUS UX51VZ is actually a good choice even though its too powerful for your need.
What kind of games do you play? and for how long? because you don't mix battery life and gaming. Serious games drain battery a lot.

If you are serious gamer, this one Samsung ATIV Book 6 15.6-Inch Full HD Touchscreen Laptop looks promising. It mounts Haswell processor and Radeon HD 870. Even thoughI don't know about Samsung the Laptop quality.
Beside, the touchscreen is really helpful if you plan to use Windows 8.

If you are casual gamers, who don't mind playing games at lower resolution and quality. choose Integrated graphic instead.

it is definitely not too powerful, I will need that kind of performance to run CAD programs etc. I do not plan on using this for serious gaming, like say Crysis 3 or Battlefield, but rather less intensive games that are easier to play on the go. I am not sure about Samsung build quality, but i am sure about ASUS'

Thanks!

 

[xaviator]

When we talk about performance and portability with good battery life, I could only think about McBook Air. It is already tested and proven that McBook Air got performance and portability in one. It could last up 11 hours so that's the best that you could get from a thin laptop nowadays. The only thing that you are losing here would be the storage (like all Apple gadgets). However you may upgrade it with adding an SSD for even better performance and clear some space for your files.

I am not looking for a Mac, but there are upcoming samsung ultrabooks I heard, that boast that battery life too! However, I would rather have more performance than that kind of battery life. Good battery life to me would be around 5-6 hours (with that performance).

My only two problems with the UX51VZ is that there is limited storage, and it is rather pricey. But otherwise I love everything about it.

The new ASUS N550 looks promising, but hopefully they will refresh the UX51VZ with haswell, just like they did with the Infinity 13.3".