Which laptop for frequent traveller?

[Foreigner]

Batteries have a habit of losing charge and efficiency over time, particularly if not regularly discharged and recharged.

Same scenario with my old Samsung S3 mobile phone, recently replaced by S5.

 

[serfty]

Same scenario with my old Samsung S3 mobile phone, recently replaced by S5.

At least Samsung make it easy to replace an aged battery.

---

Last year I bought an Acer aspire from Officeworks for $250 -Win7 with 1 Gb ram.

The memory was not really enough and after an interim solution using "Readyboost" with a 4Gb SD card in the slot, I installed a 2 Gb memory card I got off ebay for $22.

Nice and light with up to 10 hours battery life.

 

[Foreigner]

At least Samsung make it easy to replace an aged battery.

---

Last year I bought an Acer aspire from Officeworks for $250 -Win7 with 1 Gb ram.

The memory was not really enough and after an interim solution using "Readyboost" with a 4Gb XD card in the slot, I installed a 2 Gb memory card I got off ebay for $22.

Nice and light with up to 10 hours battery life.

$250 sounds good value. Win7 Home edition I guess?

I've bought Samsung Tab S 10.5in and that's unbelievable clarity over my old iPad. Though not a laptop, it is going to be used for trips. I won't be rushing to buy laptop.

 

[serfty]

$250 sounds good value. Win7 Home edition I guess? ...

Yep - I reckon they were cheap because the 1GB ram they came with was not enough to cope with Win7 which takes at 850Mb of the memory in the first place.

 

[Buzzard]

I never purchased a Mac because I was uncertain about learning another O S. My Pioneer laptop is a bit on the heavy side at 2kg and the battery life is cough. Maybe next time I will get a Mac

 

[moa999]

PC ultrabooks are great, just a shame Microsoft screwed up again with Windows8

 

[Buzzard]

PC ultrabooks are great, just a shame Microsoft screwed up again with Windows8

To true, I hate Win 8. Use Stardock to turn it into 7

 

[serfty]

Yep - I reckon they were cheap because the 1GB ram they came with was not enough to cope with Win7 which takes at 850Mb of the memory in the first place.

Anyhoo when it's all said and done, the devise that suits you is the one you want - as long as it does what you want (as in my case).

For me and given I had a plethora of options, it's the consideration of losing less than $300 value should something go awry.

 

[vetrade]

PC ultrabooks are great, just a shame Microsoft screwed up again with Windows8

Win 9 due for release early 2015........maybe!

 

[kt_kez]

I'm waiting for a retina MBA .... I may have to wait a while...

 

[amaroo]

Same scenario with my old Samsung S3 mobile phone, recently replaced by S5.

My S3 battery is a complete dud.....contract up in three weeks and I'm heading back to Apple.

 

[JessicaTam]

I'm waiting for a retina MBA .... I may have to wait a while...

There is talk of one 'soon'

New Retina MacBook Air release date and rumours - News - Macworld UK

 

[hossein_au]

Right mate wondering if can run both windows and Mac on the air that they have?
Looking at getting lenovo carbon 1 or better suggestion for a work laptop with windows on it please?
They had Sony Z1 that just died.
I have Z2 but Sony stopping laptops.... So no go there.

In very rate occasions I have to, I run Windows on my MBA 13" (through VMWare) without any issue.

 

[greenfish]

Anyhoo when it's all said and done, the devise that suits you is the one you want - as long as it does what you want (as in my case).

For me and given I had a plethora of options, it's the consideration of losing less than $300 value should something go awry.

I agree, low cost is great - you just don't need to fret so much when travelling.

I tend to go for 12" laptops that are slightly older - I'm typing this post on a $250 Lenovo X131e - 11.6" screen. Nowhere near as sexy as the Macbook Air, but cheap and small, all standard parts so can upgrade RAM and SSD (intended for the eduncation market). Ozbargain had a Lenovo X230 (12.5" screne) deal for sub $500 recently.

I tried Mac for about 18 months (original White Macbook), liked it but found I spent all my time in a Windows VM, so eventually swapped back to PC. Do like the MBA as a travel laptop though.

 

[serfty]

My S3 battery is a complete dud.....contract up in three weeks and I'm heading back to Apple.

You can get a new Siii batter off ebay for about $16 delivered.

 

[amaroo]

You can get a new Siii batter off ebay for about $16 delivered.

Lovely lady at Telstra gave me a great tip. Telstra let you break your contract within the last month of expiry......signup new contract/phone and then hand your old phone in under warranty (last month of warranty) apparently in most cases they just send you back a new phone

 

[serfty]

Lovely lady at Telstra gave me a great tip. Telstra let you break your contract within the last month of expiry......signup new contract/phone and then hand your old phone in under warranty (last month of warranty) apparently in most cases they just send you back a new phone

While Samsung do provide a 2 year warranty, that does not extend to batteries for which it is only six months. I guess one can't take a battery out of an iPhone while keeping the warranty intact.

 

[Flysense]

I was really looking forward to the new Lenovo Yoga 3 pro. But unfortunatelly it doesn't seem to meet my expectations. CPU seems to be pretty slow compared to competitors.

 

[flzdaley]

Win 9 due for release early 2015........maybe!

Windows 10.
9 is being skipped!

 

[Ewing]

The last time I posted in this thread (2012) I was using a Macbook Pro to travel with.

These days I use a Lenovo X1 Carbon. It's solid yet light (~1.3kg), has built in LTE/4G so I'm not dependent on wifi and has good enough battery life. Performance is more than adequate for me.

I also have a Surface Pro 3 which I'll take on trips where I don't expect to do a huge amount of typing.