Ultrabook/Laptop for the Mrs. need some pointers.

[obababoy]

So I know Desktop PC's well and for me I am all set with a decent gaming setup. I bought my wife the Lenovo black friday special last year for $199 dollars and other than looks battery life and screen, it is just awfully slow. I wasn't expecting anything crazy but dang! She can't even watch hulu without it being jittery.

My last laptop was from 2005. It was a Toshiba Sattelite M45 S359. 2ghz single core 1gb ram, and an 80gb HDD. It survived 2 deployments and multiple drops, had 0 issues except for a couple of worn out USB slots and is still in use by my parents for their legacy pleasures. Im doubtful in hoping I can have something that will last that long.(Oh it streamed HD movies/shows better than my almost new Black Friday Lenovo).

Id like to get her something that she can actually use. She needs something around a 13-14 inch screen, definitely the newer i5 or i7 haswells. Just some random researching and reading of reviews landed me the following:

Acer S7-392-6807 variant...Not sure if the QHD screen is overkill or not.
Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus... Seems the Acer is very similar.

Most of her time on a computer is watching shows or movies, multiple browser tabs when studying or shopping, and this is never in a fixed area. It is either on the couch, at the counter/bar, or on the bed. Id like to be able to take it with us when we do travel and maybe do some quick GoPro editing(nothing crazy).

Order of importance:
1. Portability/Battery life
2. Performance(no graphic intensive games but maybe some GoPro editing)
3. Looks/ergonomics

 

[Prostar Computer]

i5 or i7 you say... Do you have an approximate budget? Samsung's build quality is fairly good. Acer has made progress in their build quality and reliability. Lenovo's build quality is also fairly good, but for $200 just about every OEM tends to scrimp.

 

[obababoy]

Well the two I mentioned are surely at the top of my budget. Id like to stay around $1000. I made the mistake with the $200 thinking it could be a decent web browser/word processor.

 

[hang-the-9]

You can get a basic good laptop for $500-600, for $1,000 you are looking at some fancier models like thin ultrabooks, or faster systems for gaming or heavy processing tasks like converting HD video.

The 3 vendors for reliability are ASUS, Lenovo and Samsung, they also have some pretty good designs.
Anything with a good modern CPU is good for almost anything short of gaming. A8 or A10 AMD system, i3 Intel, all good. No need to go to an i5 although that will be a bit faster, but in day to day use, even HD movies, won't really make a difference.

Few things you need to decide, SSD drive (very good and speeds up system noticeably), Windows 8 or 7, and touchscreen. Rest is almost equal for what you need it for.

Take a look at this ASUS model http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231455

Newegg listing sorted by best review under $880 http/www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006740%20%2050001315%20%2050010418%2050001077%2050042105&IsNodeId=1&PriceMin=100&PriceMax=880

 

[Prostar Computer]

Yes, $1000 will get you something really nice, but you can get an i5 or i7 equipped system for considerably below that. I think the Asus ultrabooks (Vivobooks or Zenbooks) would be suit you well.

http/www.asus.com/zenbook/us

 

[jaguarskx]

A 14" Lenovo Z410 should be fine for the "Mrs". It has an i5-4200m CPU with the Intel HD 4600 graphics core. The $549 version has a 1366x768 resolution screen while the $599 version has a 1600x900 resolution screen. I prefer spending extra for the higher resolution. However, I do not believe it has a backlit keyboard.

http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/z-series/z410/#customize

 

[obababoy]

I would prefer backlit and 1080p but specs wise that Lenovo sounds pretty good. Ill check it out more.