I need help picking out a laptop. Asus' branding is confusing...

I am currently a G51 Asus user and loved this machine. As my life has progressed forward gaming has become less important and now I need portability and long battery life. In particular I am using a light tuning software in my car and I do not want to charge this machine during my time at the track. I also need it to be relatively small so I can maneuver inside of a small sports car.

My secondary requirements are to surf the net, power points and word processing, play HD video off of Netflix and whatever else I load on the computer.

Battery life needs to be 5+ hours. My current machine is 8.5lbs (I think) and it is just atrocious to carry around.

Backlit keys are a nice bonus, but not a necessity by any means.

A cd-rom is not needed as I have an external.

Size can be anywhere between a 11-15 inch. 11-13 inch seems to be the sweet spot, but if price or a slight size upgrade gives me a better bang for the buck I will consider it.

I was considering the HP Slate and Ep121, but with shipping problems and battery life not living up to the hype I am passing them by. Lastly the machine is required to be Mac or Windows based machine. My tuning software does not support anything else so I am bound to that.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to the education.

 

Try the UL series, those should best meet your stated needs.

 

Can you add some clarity to the descriptions?

 

The U series is a god send, the U41 and the U31 being the new guys in town. I would wait however for the SB chips

 

Can you educate me on the Sandy Bridge MM? I have heard a lot of lingo and discussion tossed around, but what is it? How soon will these come to market and what gains are we looking at? What cost?

 

1. New cpu design and chipset, the "tock" in Intel's biannual performance cycle.
2. Spring.
3. Slightly better battery performance, big gain in video framerate and gpu performance with the gpu unit being integrated onto the cpu die.
4. Very likely same price, or maybe $100-200 increase at most - Asus doesn't adjust their model pricing much as new technology comes to market, they just adapt their components.

As always, if you have the need now then buy now ... the existing models are very capable and the SandyBridge changes won't be that astonishing and amazing even though they should be pretty significant. If you can wait 3-4 months, however, the delay might be worth your time to get the newest cutting edge tech.

 

I still don't understand. The on die GPU is a dedicated or a integrated? I'm confused... If it is a IGP, then how would you get higher FPS? I seriously don't understand point 3)...

 

3-4 months is a bit more wait than I feel like tolerating with the slates letting me down left and right I m eager to get a new rig. The current machines seem to meet my demands, but how do I make a decision? Do any models have higher problems than others? Seems like a ton of choices to consider.

 

Technically it's integrated, but it functions as a discrete GPU with FPS comparable to current mid-level discrete notebook GPUs according to early benchmarks posted in the last week since Intel removed the press embargo on reviews. How SB accomplishes this is a matter of engineering, which is beyond my expertise to explain or understand in detail.

AMD has a similar on-die GPU solution (I forget the name at the moment) that is released later this year also.

 

I would recommend the U or UL series for your application. One question though, will the laptop be powered on while the car is in motion (for telemetry or tuning on the go) or only while you are stationary? My buddy uses a UL50 in his car and the computer is dedicated to the car. He plugs it in before he goes to the track and leaves the charger at home. He runs the computer most of the day and when not in use it is on standby. However since he uses it while the car is actually racing he had me put a SSD in it so he would not have to worry about the hard drive going out because of the vibration and jerking that all come along with a high performance car

 

The car will be tuned inbetween passes.

Installing a SSD is a definite consideration for faster boot time (time is short in the staging lanes with a car). Reduced heat and improved battery life.

I am not stuck on Asus, but they seemed to fit the bill. I have honestly considered the Macbook Air, but I am unfamiliar with MacOS and not sure if I want that headache.

 

What tuning program do you run?

 

Dsmlink it is basically a stand alone for my car.

 

Yea you should be fine with either the U or Ul series and you will have all the battery life you will ever need.