Sony Vaio S or an ultrabook?

I've been looking for something 13.3", light, with some gaming abilities to replace my fat and heavy Dell M4400.

Ideally: I wanted an ultrabook (under 4lbs), 13" FHD IPS Panel, Nvidia 640M or better dgpu, for under $1500
Reality: it doesn't exist. the ones that have a good video card dont have FHD IPS panels, and the ones that do have FHD IPS have no video card or entry level ones. The Vaio Z was the closest but its out of production and the ones on the internet with the power dock are up to $2000!

Thus I think I need to compromise.. should I sacrifice FHD IPS requirement and go for the Vaio S? or an ultrabook like the Gigabyte u2442n?
or give up the Nvidia 640 dgpu for fhd ips ultrabooks?
or wait until summer to see if Haswell brings something better?

 

Go for the gigabyte one.. U2442F or V series. hope it helps

 

Sony Vaio T is the one you should get. That is the one I have and it is the best computer I have ever owned. It is simply amazing,

 

That has basically nothing to do with the OP's criteria.

There are three roads before you, OP.

1. Excellent display, thin and light, little gaming ability (Asus UX31, Samsung S9 and S7 Ultra, Vaio Z)
2. Excellent display, not quite as thin, moderate gaming ability (Asus UX32VD)
3. Average display, moderately thin and light, above-average gaming (S13, u2442f)

Is gaming important to you? If it is, I would strongly lean toward #3 (I did). Playing modern AAA titles on high settings on a 13" laptop is nothing short of impressive. If you want to game, what good is a nice display if the laptop it's attached to can't run anything?

On the other hand, if you don't game much, you don't really need the dGPU in the first place and may as well go for the best display quality.

 

If you want gaming ability, you do really have to go with kanuk's recommendation of the S13 w/the nvidia 640 IF you can't possibly wait for Haswell. My Z has a full blown HD 4000 and I'm impressed with it's ability to run certain titles, but keep in mind that ultrabooks for the most part run slower HD 4000 parts. The HD 4000 as impressive as it may be for what it is, doesn't get close to matching the 640M LE especially with the BIOS mod.

If there's any title you want to see run on a HD 4000 LMK, I have a large gaming library.

Here's an examble I made of running BF3 on the HD 4000. These are with very old Intel drivers, runs slightly smoother now with the latest drivers.

 

thanks. I will have to lean towards the latter two as I play World of Tanks on a near daily basis and would like to play Ace combat once it hits the PC
however at the same time, I travel pretty often (4x a year) for long periods (2 weeks - month) where I need to carry my notebook often.
however for class I keep my notebook at home because I carry an ipad with a keyboard.

I've also thought of the S13P in gold too and I noticed you have it :thumbsup: Had I gone the Vaio route it would be either the gunmetal or gold one.. perhaps the latter because its unique and reminds me much of my old Zelda and Link NES cartridges.

As for the UX32VD that too is also nice and I like how its accessible in the back. Did Asus make an AMD version?

 

Well the S13 and u2442 aren't exactly huge either - both are only 3.7 lbs. This isn't an 8.5 lb Sager with a 1.5 lb power brick

Haha it's funny that you mention that, I remember those cartridges. The S13P is actually a bit darker in person though, almost halfway between "gold" and "copper" colour. It's a lot more subtle than those chrome-yellow cartridges. I chose the gold because it doesn't show fingerprints as much as the black and gunmetal, but I've grown to love it. People's reaction to it is always funny.

No, it only has ULV Intel CPUs.

 

thanks! my only reservation about the Sony is my own past experiences.. I've owned two F models and two S in the past and while I've sold all of them.. they always seem to break down shortly after the warranty! all 4 of them! thank goodness I sold it before it broke but still.. I sold it to friends so they are probably reluctant to buy anymore electronics from me. In Japan there's the term Sony Timer that's popular.

 

Today did 5 hour session of Skyrim - awesome game

Anyway high/ultra mix on max resolution and also have 127 mods installed. All this with zero lag and in 13'' Laptop.

Here are temps on idle and the absolute max with fan not even 100%.


Best super portable gaming rig so far imo.

btw: you can change s13p screen to IPS. Only minor modification is needed.

 

Take note of the upcoming Samsung Series 7 ultrabook. I don't know how its AMD GPU compares to the 640M tho.

 

There are two versions - the 13 is quite a bit less powerful than the S13, but the 15" is pretty beefy (a bit better than the GT 650M)