Recommend fast and portable 14"-15.6" multimedia laptop

[dryphi]

■ Budget: less than $1000
■ Size: 15.6" preferably, no smaller than 14" acceptable.
■ Resolution: 1080p (1920x1080). Touch screen optional.
■ Portable. Less than 5lbs.
■ Battery: 6 - 8 hrs battery life.
■ Games: Sure, the option would be nice. Medium settings fine.
■ Tasks: Everything. Photo editing. MS Office. Basic computing stuff.
■ Storage: No preference. This can easily be upgraded.
■ Specifics: Dedicated graphics card. Considering something in the Asus Zenbook or N56 line. Don't really need an optical drive, I can get an external one. If touch screen - Win 8. If no touch screen, Win 7 is fine.
■ Longevity: I've had my current laptop 6+ years, so... Put it this way - until the hinge breaks on the monitor.
■ Optical drive: Not necessary. I'd prefer the weight savings and battery life.
■ Brands: I like Asus because of the build quality. Lenovo is nice too but I'd like an aluminum case / magnesium chassis. I'd consider any others but no experience with them.
■ Country: USA
■ Additional info: Number keys! Because why not?
3rd Gen Intel Core i5 or i7; 6-8GB RAM; 15.6" full HD (1920x1080); dedicated GPU; aluminum chassis; Bluetooth; WiFi; HDMI; WiDi would be cool.
I'd look at an AMD processor if someone convinced me it were comparable.
I'm considering this: http/www.amazon.com/dp/B009M2X8OW/
And this: http/www.amazon.com/dp/B00B6VLYSE/
The latter is perfectly aligned with my desires but out of my price range. I don't need that much processing power either. Anything similar in terms of build quality but maybe with an i5 would be awesome. Why are the Zenbooks unavailable in the US?

 

[elrui]

Hi There,

I am in a similar market as you and I can share my experiences. So far I have not been able to find anything better than the Q550LF (http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+15.6%26%2334%3B+Touch-Screen+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/8937158.p?id=1218954926513&skuId=8937158). However this is heavily weighted by the fact this thing has a beautiful screen, decent discrete graphics and a sub 1,000 price. If there are any other laptops out there with a beautiful Full HD screen + discrete graphics I have yet to find one at a sub 1,000 price.

I ended up returning it due to no expansion capabilities on the hard drive and the 5400rpm that it comes with kind of sucks. So you would have to replace it with an SSD if you wanted true "fast" performance.

 

[dryphi]

So far I have not been able to find anything better than the Q550LF (http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+15.6%26%2334%3B+Touch-Screen+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/8937158.p?id=1218954926513&skuId=8937158).

Hi back! Thanks for the recommendation. That laptop does look like a beast indeed. Haswell processor and all.
In your experience, how was the battery life? The sound quality? The overall build quality?
Also, according to the tech specs, that thing weighs in at 6 lbs. Yet it is only 1.1" in height. How is that possible? Are the specs wrong? All the reviews say "super light".

What laptop did you end up going with?

Why were you unable to upgrade the hard drive? I might be willing to live with a 5400 RPM drive, given the other specs.

 

[elrui]

So far I have not been able to find anything better than the Q550LF (http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+15.6%26%2334%3B+Touch-Screen+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/8937158.p?id=1218954926513&skuId=8937158).

Hi back! Thanks for the recommendation. That laptop does look like a beast indeed. Haswell processor and all.
In your experience, how was the battery life? The sound quality? The overall build quality?
Also, according to the tech specs, that thing weighs in at 6 lbs. Yet it is only 1.1" in height. How is that possible? Are the specs wrong? All the reviews say "super light".

What laptop did you end up going with?

Why were you unable to upgrade the hard drive? I might be willing to live with a 5400 RPM drive, given the other specs.

Hi Dryphi,

The battery life was pretty good, I never did a full run down but I had it off the cord for over 4 hours and still had 40-50% battery left. That was just browsing/diablo 3 tests runs. The sound quality was pretty nice(no notable distortion between 60% - 100% volume), and it also comes with an extra external subwoofer you can hook up (I did not try this out). The thing felt very solid. The keyboard traveled well and all of the edges were smooth. The specs sound right, it was not overly thick but it felt very solid, I would say that the weight is accurate. I did not feel unwieldy so I could see people calling it super light as long as they weren't comparing it to an ultrabook or anything.

I was able to upgrade it but I didn't want to. I want the speed of an ssd and storage so this laptop just can't check both of those boxes.

I haven't yet found a laptop that is what I need. The latest contender is a clevo based notebook from xoticpc (it costs around 1200 the way I have it config'd). The difference is the Clevo has a lot more muscle with the 4700wq processer vs the ULV in the Asus, a much stronger video card (765m vs 745m) and the combo of ssd + hdd. I haven't bought it yet because I have no been able to find reviews of it.


I did not mention this before because it was above your requested price range, but if you are interested here is the configurator page http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7352-clevo-w350st-p-5842.html . At it's base spec it has way better performance than the Asus at 988.43, but I would need to add an ssd which bumps my price up. I cannot testify for the build quality, screen quality etc. I do know just from pictures it looks like it uses way more plastic and is nowhere near as thin and sexy as the asus

 

[dryphi]

I did not mention this before because it was above your requested price range, but if you are interested here is the configurator page http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7352-clevo-w350st-p-5842.html . At it's base spec it has way better performance than the Asus at 988.43, but I would need to add an ssd which bumps my price up. I cannot testify for the build quality, screen quality etc. I do know just from pictures it looks like it uses way more plastic and is nowhere near as thin and sexy as the asus

Very cool. Wow you really get a lot more control over what you get by ordering from XoticPC.
One main difference I noticed is that it does not include a touch-screen monitor.
Also it looks like it does not ship with an operating system standard? That's a potential cost saver actually. I have Win 7 on my machine currently and I imagine I could port that over...

 

[elrui]

I did not mention this before because it was above your requested price range, but if you are interested here is the configurator page http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7352-clevo-w350st-p-5842.html . At it's base spec it has way better performance than the Asus at 988.43, but I would need to add an ssd which bumps my price up. I cannot testify for the build quality, screen quality etc. I do know just from pictures it looks like it uses way more plastic and is nowhere near as thin and sexy as the asus

Very cool. Wow you really get a lot more control over what you get by ordering from XoticPC.
One main difference I noticed is that it does not include a touch-screen monitor.
Also it looks like it does not ship with an operating system standard? That's a potential cost saver actually. I have Win 7 on my machine currently and I imagine I could port that over...

Yeah, touch screen isn't really all that great unless you are running win 8 in my experience. If you decide to get it let me know what it's like as I am still considering it.

 

[dryphi]

Yeah, touch screen isn't really all that great unless you are running win 8 in my experience. If you decide to get it let me know what it's like as I am still considering it.

I'm not sold on touch screen either to be honest. It seems gimmicky. But since that's "the future" and Win8 likes it, I figure maybe it'll help future-proof. We'll see...

This Asus on XoticPC looks very similar specs wise to the one at BestBuy. Maybe you could start here:
http/www.xoticpc.com/asus-n550jvdb72t-touch-p-6116.html
Hard to tell b/c BestBuy sucks at listing specs but, the only major differences I can see is that this one has a GeForce GT 750M (vs 745M) and i7-4700HQ. Otherwise identical weight and dimensions wise.
EDIT: The one from XoticPC lacks IPS display as well.

 

[dryphi]

If you do end up purchasing from XoticPC, please let me know. There is a referral discount!