Anyone want to choose what they think is the best deal? All are about the same price.

1. Toshiba Portege Z930 from LD
2. 13.3" Macbook Air (mid-2011)
3. 13.3" 2nd Generation Samsung Series 9

Ideally, I would get the Samsung Series 9. The design is amazing with great specifications. The only thing is.. I would have to go to Nanaimo. It's worth the hassle to save a couple hundred dollars, but it's fucking far.

Next would be the Toshiba Z930. The design is equally great IMO aside from the glossy touchpad (makes it look cheap). But it's the slower i3.

Lastly, the mid-2011 model of the Macbook Air. It's a nice and solid laptop, but it's running the older Sandy Bridge architecture with the Intel HD 3000. I want Ivy Bridge for the Intel HD 4000 so I could at least run DOTA2 occasionally. The Macbook Air does offer me the best resell value though if I wish to upgrade laptops in the future.

EDIT: Or should I just fuck the sexy Ultrabook craze, and get the Acer Aspire TimelineX 3830TG + throw in a 128GB SSD for $600?

The timelinex is way over priced I picked up the i5 version from memx for $569 boxing week sale.

So I ended up getting the MBA to try out OSX, most likely going to switch to a MBP or a something along those lines. So far the keyboard on the samsung series 9 was the best keyboard out of the three for me. I'm typing this out on the MBA and I'm constantly having to go back and correct spelling mistakes.

I wouldn't pick the Toshiba. It's so light it's flimsy. Screen's not so nice either.

Yeah, I went into LD today and looked at the model in person. I think I might just get the Zenbook UX31A-DB51

Good price? Or should I just get a MBA?

EDIT: I know that the IPS panel on the Zenbook is native 1080p, but can I also run it at 1600x900 without any distortion?

^Bestbuy in Coquitlam has a demo model for $799 (13", 4gb 128ssd. intel 3000) .. There's only one though (saw it today)

Which BB?

I think theres only one in Coquitlam.. LOL

Oh, LOL.. Do you think it's worth paying an extra $300 for the Ivy Bridge + IPS + HD4000?

I'm kind of debating since it's pretty important that I can run DOTA2.. LOL

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=72593&...S&promoid=1145

WHY U SO EXPENSIVE

Hmm...


Seems that the UX31A with the HD 4000 should be able to run DOTA2 fine from the looks of it. But the test model in the video is running an i7. Hope it's not a big difference!

1c2c.com has the UX31A-DB51 for $1062.60. You can get NCIX to PM it for a total of $1190.11.

Alternatively, if you wanted to wait for local stock at Memory Express, you can get them to price beat it by a difference of $9.35 -- bringing the price before taxes to $1053.25 / $1179.64 total.

The Asus has the ivy bridge advantage as well. Lcds are designed to look best at their native resolution so running it lower might make it look a bit off.

I'm also contemplating an upgrade. I have the exact acer time line you mentioned earlier and have also upgraded the ram and ssd. Deciding if I should sell and move into ultrabook territory since I no longer do any gaming.

WTF, I thought there's only two types of Zenbooks. The original first gen, and the upcoming Zenbook Prime (in 11.6" and 13" respectively). Is there a '5th' model in their lineup?

LOL @ Mikroft. I bought the Acer based on how many RFD guys jumped on the wagon. I picked up one just for kicks and to be honest, it has exceeded all of my expectations as a beater laptop. The keys have not faded, has a very good keyboard (much better than the new Dells IMHO), batt still holds 7+ hrs with my M4 SSD, and the display is OK for a little Lightroom 4 action (I had it collaborated with my funky monkey, or spidermunky thing).

The new Samsung Series 5 is quite tempting too (i5 + intel 4000 + 500gb + 24gb SSD cache; ram + hd can be easily replaced). It goes on sale for $799 in the US soon. It's considered an Ultrabook (only slightly thicker than the series 9) and has a full aluminum chassis.

Samsung - 13.3" Series 5 Laptop - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive + 24GB Solid State Drive - Light Titan - NP530U3C-A01US

The Zenbook Prime is already out. The one I linked above is a Prime.

I bought it today and it's amazing. I love the screen!

Having some troubles typing though because of the huge touchpad that I keep touching by accident.

BTW, for those buying the SSD Zenbook, it is formatted with a GPT partition table. You have to convert it to the standard MBR table first if you wish to do a clean install of Windows 7.

Can you give a mini review after you've used it for a few days? I have 14 days to return my mba to get the zenbook prime or the series 9.

Yeah I bought it during rfd days and used a $100 off coupon at staples.

The series 5 feels plasticy. I looked at one at best buy. However it's the 14" one so I'm not sure if they're the same.

I was just writing it, but then the touchpad caused me to fuck up and cancel it. I wrote a lot too, fuck!

I'll write it again in a few days :lol

Some touchpads have a palm detection setting where you can adjust it so your palm doesn't mis click or move the mouse.

FYI, Lenovo gives a 10% discount coupon that stacks ontop of another discount code (iirc there's a 30% Friends and Family discount codes thread on redflagdeals forums) when you sign up for their newsletter.

The Lenovo X1 Carbon looks promising. Here's hoping that they would release a 11.6"/12" model. My program doesn't start till March so I guess I will wait. LOL

The Lenovo X1 starts at $1,399 don't they?

You linked to both the UX31A and the UX32VD, which one did you end up getting?

I got the UX31A.

So after using the laptop for a few days, here's my take on the Zenbook Prime.

Design-wise, it's a very beautiful laptop. Thin and light, it's a perfect notebook for school (which I am primarily using it for). There are two USB 3.0 ports (one on each side), a headphone jack, a SD card reader, and two miniUSB ports for the HDMI/VGA adapters.

The 13.3" inch screen is the best size IMO for a notebook. It's not too big, not too small. The UX31A-DB51 model that I have comes with the IPS panel with a display resolution of 1920x1080. Because the pixel density is hig (I would've preferred a native resolution of 1600x900), it's hard to read text sometimes. Of course, I can run the laptop at a smaller resolution, but it looks off. You can increase the Windows DPI setting, but that doesn't help too much as some applications don't support it.

The keyboard is nice. Resembles the ones in current-gen Macbooks, but with a matte finish instead. It's even backlit! But because the laptop is so thin, the keyboard depth is very shallow. I often find the laptop not registering presses.

Speakers and touchpad are standard, no real complaints. The touchpad supposedly has palm detection technology, but I haven't really paid close attention to it.

Specwise, it's pretty snippy, but mostly due to the ADATA XM11 mSATA SDD on it. It's Sandforce based, so it registers very high read/writes. From the moment I press the power button, it takes about 18-20s to reach the desktop. Very fucking fast.

WEI index for reference:
Processor - 6.9
Memory - 5.9
Graphics - 5.9
Gaming Graphics - 6.4
Primary Hard Disk - 7.9

So overall, great laptop. I would recommend it if you don't mind shelling out extra dough for it.. quite pricey at $1200 after taxes.

I just saw the Acer S5 at Costco. $999. So much better than the first gen S3. It has a freakin motorized door for the IO ports on the back. I wonder how reliable that is.