Is getting a MBA to use it with Windows 7 worth it?

what notebook out there is actually similar to a Macbook Air and cheaper? Sure you can save some money if you do extreme corner cutting... a bigger machine or a HDD etc... but otherwise its hard to beat the price.

 

There are probably other options, but the u300s is $100-200 cheaper than the macbook air, and I believe it would give you a better experience overall if you were using windows 7 full time.

It's at least as small as the macbook air, possibly smaller, it has a 128GB SSD standard, and the battery life is 8 hours, and it has USB 3.0.

No major corners cut. It's not unilaterally better than the macbook air, but, again, if you're using windows, I think you're better off with something like the u300s vs. the mba

edit: and you're DEFINITELY better off with the u300s vs. running a VM full screen full time. There is no way the benefits of the VM (sandbox, simultaneous OS operation) outweigh the cost (compatibility, stability, performance). If you are using it 100% of the time, sandboxing it from Mac OS isn't helpful, and simultaneous OS usage is just wasted.

 

Lenovo U300s is going to be significantly cheaper than a Macbook Air 13 AND a copy of Windows 7, and unlike some ultrabooks (particularly Acer), it's got good build quality.

Hands on: Lenovo IdeaPad U300 S review | News | TechRadar

That's the ultrabook I'd recommend for someone who wants an MBA-like machine but wants to use Windows 7.

 

I like the Lenovo the best out of all of the Ultrabooks announced so far for running Windows only. In general Apple doesn't do the best of jobs on Windows graphics drivers (I don't use Windows very often on my MacBook Pro so this isn't a big deal), so I'd go with something built to mainly run Windows.

I like the Vaio Z (2) as well but I've heard of glitches and issues with the Z models - Sony stuffs so much technology into their systems which is good but they have to get it to work together and that seems hard to do.

 

The Z2 is a technology flagship meant to push the boundaries, and sometimes hiccups come with pushing those boundaries. But there are a lot of happy Z2 owners in the Sony forum.

The main issue with the Z2 is price. It's significantly more expensive than a typically-equipped Ultrabook or MBA 13. You get more (including an available 1080p screen, full-power CPU and GPU, etc), but you pay more too.

 

Well, of course.

It's a Sony!






....I wonder if people actually recognize that line, or am I giving away the fact that I'm an old fossil?

 

^ I think it is the later!

I think macbooks or perhaps the elitebooks that will come out will have better quality than vaio z's. I use one very carefully and I still have scratches developing on the carbon fiber body (mostly discoloration) while the macbook is fine.

 

I currently have a Lenovo T500 bought 3 years ago. I've upgraded it to 8GB RAM.

I use it for my SharePoint Development running SharePoint 2010, Visual Studio 2010 & Sql Server 2008 on VMWare. These are power hungry applications.

I'm looking for an Ultraportable (13") that run these applications confortability.

I'll prefer to have a screen ratio of 16:10. Can someone recommend one?

 

Honestly, I am not seeing a reason to get the upgraded MBA, for what you are doing. Get a MBP 13" and load it with a SSD. You'll find having the built-in drive useful (emergency OS re-installs).

The 13" is already pretty light (IMO), and having extra I/O ports is always good.

 

Better scratch resistance does not mean better quality. A laptop made by toddlers out of LEGOs will be more scratch-resistant than a laptop precision-engineered from carbon fiber, but that doesn't mean the manufacturing tolerances will be tighter, the keyboard will feel better, the screen will be nicer, etc.

My new Vaio F already has more cosmetic scratches in the exterior of the case than a Dell Inspiron I bought a decade ago (and still have laying around), but the Vaio is far better made than the Dell was.

 

or p330 looks like a nice option

LG's thin and mighty P330 laptop surfaces at Korean retailer -- Engadget

 

Sounds great on paper, but I'm afraid of a Series 7 Chronos sort of situation--where it offers so much on paper that they had to cut serious corners on everything that isn't apparent from the spec sheet (screen quality, audio quality, case flex).

 

true, id like to see a few reviews, which should be soon. but i cant see the ips screen being too bad, LG has been known to put out some good consumer grade gear. the al/ti/mg case from a chinese review was rated super strong. no idea on the audio though.

 

I'm not saying it'll be the same corner cutting, but it'll be something. You can't pack that much performance into that thin of a package at that price point without ruining something that wouldn't show up on a spec sheet. My gut reaction is it'll have severe overheating and throttling issues, and maybe a miserable keyboard and/or trackpad. They already rolled back the quad-core i7 to an i5, but they've still got the 555M in there, and that's a lot of heat for such a thin case and presumably-small fan.