Should I buy the new MacBook Air or wait for an equivalent Ultrabook?

[kajunchicken]

I need a portable laptop because I'm going off to college in the fall. As of right now, the only laptop available with HD 5000 graphics is the MacBook Air. Should I go ahead and just buy that now, or should I wait and see what comes out on the windows side of the market?

Does anyone know when there'll be Ultrabooks with Iris graphics? I've heard Q3 2013 which is too late for me to buy one.

Thanks in advance

 

[shkspr1]

Is weight a major concern for you? If not, you should consider discrete graphics as they are much more suitable for gaming.
There are i7 quad cores with Iris out right now, but not official "ultrabooks"

 

[Raghnar]

If you want an ultrabook, and you're not concerned with the poor display of the Macbook Air, the MBA is quite an unbeatable ultrabook by many means not to be overlooked the support and guarantee, even when you're in college.

But take into account that, due to thermal reasons, the HD5000 in the Macbook Air is downclocked and thus practically equivalent to the HD4400 in a better ventiled system like the Asus S7 (see Anandtech tests), at least for the 11" model, at least for now.

If graphic performance is an issue for you take into account other notebooks, with discrete graphics (Samsung 7 Ultra!?) or at least wait for true Iris notebooks (can I suggest Galago Pro, to my knowledge the only iris soon to be available?).
If portability over performance is what you're looking for, consider the MBA that is always a safe shot, but if the OS, or the screen are dealbreakers maybe the new VAIO PRO line can do for you equally fine (or even better, considering the higher CPU clock) even with HD4400.

 

[lightsong]

Why do you need IRIS graphics again? MBA is only a 13.3" screen... what are you going to be doing on something so tiny that requires a lot of graphics power?

 

[Matthew Harper]

Hmm I'm confused why people are always sling the screen on the mba, at normal viewing angles and length, I have yet to pick out a single pixel, the colour reproduction to amazing on it...