I’m thinking of buying a laptop/notebook/ultrabook. I don’t mind if it’s new or refurbished (I’d probably prefer the second option since they’ll be cheaper, as long as they give me at least some months of warranty).
It should have this minimum specs:
- intel i3-i5-i7
- support 4GB RAM
- integrated graphics intel HD4000 or better. If it has discrete graphics, they should be nVidia, not AMD/ATI
- 720p+ screen resolution
- Either an SSD or an HDD with the possibility to swap it for an SSD.
- SD card reader (for the data)
- WiFi n/ac
- USB 2.0+
- Bluetooth
- Able to boot from USB/SD card reader
Doesn’t need to have a DVD/Bluray player (Better if it doesn’t, since it’ll be thinner and lighter), and it doesn’t need to have touchscreen (I won’t use it). I don’t mind if it’s a PC or a Mac, since I’ll most probably install linux on it.
Any suggestions?
The most important thing to know is how big it should be. Are you looking for a petite 10", a svelte 12", a moderate 14" or a large-but-still-portable 15.6"? Or is it going to stay in the home/office most nights and 17" will be fine? A secondary point to size is weight - do you need it to be very light?
A ball-park budget would be nice, too.
If you’re looking at 14" or bigger, 720P really is quite a low resolution - are you sure that’s enough?
I’ve been keeping my eye on this particular notebook, but it doesn’t have 11ac.
http://24h.pchome.com.tw/prod/DHAH45-A90053OI6?q=/S/DHAH45
[quote=“PenguinJim”]The most important thing to know is how big it should be. Are you looking for a petite 10", a svelte 12", a moderate 14" or a large-but-still-portable 15.6"? Or is it going to stay in the home/office most nights and 17" will be fine? A secondary point to size is weight - do you need it to be very light?
A ball-park budget would be nice, too.
If you’re looking at 14" or bigger, 720P really is quite a low resolution - are you sure that’s enough?[/quote]
Big enough to have a comfortable keyboard. I guess 11-14" would be an appropriate size, and any weight under 2,5 Kg should be fine. The only laptop I’ve had (years ago) was 3,5Kg and everytime I had to carry that around I ended up with back pains.
Budget… that’s a delicate issue. I’m sure that, whatever the price is, it’ll be too much in the eyes of my wife. If I had to choose, I’d go for System76’s Galago Ultrapro system76.com/laptops/model/galu1 , but they don’t sell in Taiwan.
That said, I don’t know when (or if) the Surface 3 will be available in Taiwan, because it seems a pretty good alternative, the i5-128GB model is very reasonably priced for what it is, and it would allow me to use it as a sketchpad. Even the i3-64GB could be useful to me…
Well, if you’ve got an interest in Wacomming, my laptop might be relevant. I’ve got one of those Acer R7 hybrids, the 571G. On January 1st a 3C next to Nova in Taichung offered it for $28,300, and as I’d come close to pulling the trigger at $33,600 the week before, I took it. It’s great value, and the hinge works surprisingly well (as in, I can’t imagine getting a laptop without one in future). The spec was generous for the price. The “G” in the model number used to mean it included the Nvidia GT 750M, but this is being replaced by the faster and more-efficient GTX 850M any day now (if it hasn’t already). From model number 572, it has a digitizer in the screen for use with proper pen things (the 571 just has a capacitive touchscreen), so you can sketch on it. The other thing about the screen is that it’s 15.6", 1080P, and absolutely gorgeous (IPS, and a good IPS!). It has an msata port as well as a 2.5" drive bay - I took out the 750GB HDD and put in a 128GB msata SSD instead. The 572G has a 1TB HDD and the digitizer, the CPU is the i5-4200U, and I can see it on findprice.com.tw for $30K, so you should be able to get it a bit cheaper instore somewhere. They still list it with the GT 750M, not the new GTX 850M.
Problems:
NO NUMPAD. Grrr. This would be perfect for me if it had a numpad. :fume:
Touchpad placement - if you’re a touchpad user. I always hated the touchpad on my previous laptop and it spent 98% of its time switched off. I prefer it to be relegated to the back for the 2% of occasions I might use it.
It’s 2.4KG (but I got it to replace a chunky 2.6KG laptop, and the difference in weight is much bigger than I expected, possibly due to the slim chassis on the R7).
Normal battery life is 4-5 hours, but seems closer to 90 minutes for gaming! 
The screen is 15.6" (which is bigger than you specified, sorry!).
The i5 Surface 3 model really does look price-competitive (I was complimenting that particular spec just the other day!), and I’m really pleased they went for a 3:2 aspect ratio. I hate how predominant 16:9 has become in the computer world, considering it’s only ‘best’ for TV. I’m not looking forward to sourcing a new 16:10 monitor when mine dies… but I digress. 
I also looked extremely closely at the Lenovo Yoga Ideapad 13" for my partner around the same time. It doesn’t have dedicated graphics, but it has a 13" 1600x900 screen, which is a good resolution/size balance. The newer ones are QHD or something stupid (annoying if scaling is relevant to you), but the older ones were being discounted to about $33K, and I can see them starting from $30K on Findprice now. It’s a hybrid.