Trying to narrow down the field

lancing

Honorable
Feb 26, 2012
3
0
10,510
Hey everyone, noticed this seemed to be the place to get some decent advice on shopping for a notebook so I figured I'd ask myself.


I'm trying to find a small footprint notebook with a lot of power, I do spend a fair bit of time gaming but I also travel and I don't want to have to drag a large brick around with me everywhere. I currently have very powerful 17" notebook but its way too cumbersome to travel with so I need to grab something smaller over the next week. I am not interested in any Apple products and I can't stand the Alienware laptop cases as I find they look like they were designed by a 12 year old and would just be embarrassing in public.

My requirements are:
- Must be about 13 inches or smaller (14 is ok under certain conditions if the case is small and light).
- Needs to have a decent video GPU at least a 6630M.
- Needs to be slimmer and lighter than a Macbook Pro.
- At least 1600x900 resolution.
- Must be $2000 or less before taxes.
- Would prefer SSD and backlit keyboard but I can flex on these.

After several days of researching on my own I've found:
- Samsung Series 7, 14 inch (video card is too weak)
- Sony Vaio SA, 13 inch (meets all the minimums but is a little thick)
- LG P330 (can't seem to source it in North America).

The other two options that I can't look at because of prices are well out of my set range:
- Sony Vaio Z
- Razor Blade


Right now I'm leaning towards the Vaio S because there just doesn't seem to be anything else available that meets the minimum requirements. If anyone is aware of other options I would appreciate any suggestions.

For the sake of hardware comparison this is what I've currently priced out at $1,929 from Sony.ca.
"13.3" S Series Customizable Laptop VPCSA490S
Imagination Studio Suite 2
English only
Internal lithium polymer battery (4400mAh)
Platinum Silver
Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
No Engraving
CD/DVD Player / Burner
Intel® Core™ i7-2640M processor (2.80GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.40GHz
Norton Internet Security 2012 (30 day subscription)
13.3" LED backlit display (1600x900)
Microsoft Windows® 7 Home Premium
256GB (128GB x2) solid state drive with RAID 0
AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M (1GB) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
No Fresh Start
8GB (4GB fixed onboard + 4GB removable) DDR3-SDRAM-1333 "
 
13" with 1600x900 and HD 6630/HD 7590M or GT 540M/630M graphics is a very narrow spec.
So far I haven't seen anything that covers all those requirements.
There are some 14" business class models that come close but fall short of the thin and light category.