[Sir Fox]

Okay, long story short:

Had an Acer Aspire 1810TZ, served me well for two years, endured tropical conditions etc. but never failed me. I chose it as a netbook seemed not sufficient but I did not want to risk taking something expensive to my year abroad in West Africa, so it has been some kind of a medium solution.

Now that I'm going to study I need some reliable laptop to serve me the four years of my (Scottish) BSc. I have some very specific ideas about what I want and wonder whether some of you might be able to help me on this:

I am somehow focused on aesthetics, some people might not understand it but it's pretty important to me. I'm looking for something which looks similar to a MacBook but isn't Apple (if though someone would convince me that a MacBook would be the best choice, I wouldn't generally exclude it). Should be something between 13' and 15' (smaller wouldn't provide the specs I want/need, bigger would seriously lower the mobility), decent specs, no gaming intended (except for some rather old titles like Stronghold Crusader or Anno 1701) but probably photo editing etc. However I love multitasking, so running a browser with like ten webpages in tabs, Gimp, Office, iTunes and maybe even some other programs simultaneously shouldn't bring it to its knees. It should still be able to perform decent (though not extraordinary) tasks in my fourth year as well.

One example for what I'm looking for is the HP Envy 15 - Intel Core i7 (Quad), 8 GB Ram, AMD Radeon HD 7690M (1 GB), Full HD ... Similar to MacBooks it features a metal unibody, also a DVD drive which just 'swallows' the discs, keyboard with distance between the keys, veeery good screen (although there is this issue with the red colour), good speakers. It's expensive but looks good, the build quality is on a similar level with Macs and the specs are not absolute high-end, but very decent. However it has the mentioned colour issue, people also complain about the fan's noise and the touchpad.

Other products I've been considering were the Asus Zenbook Series and Samsung Series 5 and 9. Those are ultrabooks however, but if the specs and the build quality are okay I would sacrifice a DVD drive for the sake of getting something light and ultra thin.

So ... any suggestions?! Any kind of help would really be appreciated!

P.S. Last issue: Ivybridge processors. Read that they are bound to be released within a couple of weeks. Should I wait for the new generation of laptops or will they be too expensive in the beginning anyway and manufacturers will only start to build them into consumer laptops in autumn (I need my new laptop by July or August) or winter?

[Repressor]

Yeah, you're pretty much limited to what you outline in your post if you want MacBook-esque looks.

Ivybridge doesn't offer much apart from reduced power consumption, which means longer battery life.

That Envy 15 has much higher specs than a MacBook, it's similar to the current 17" ones.

Ultrabooks are okay. Maybe slightly over-priced. They do usually have SSDs though.

The type of DVD drive you're think of is 'slot-loading'.

Why are you so focussed on buying something that looks like a MacBook?

[Sir Fox]

(Original post by Repressor)
Yeah, you're pretty much limited to what you outline in your post if you want MacBook-esque looks.

Ivybridge doesn't offer much apart from reduced power consumption, which means longer battery life.

That Envy 15 has much higher specs than a MacBook, it's similar to the current 17" ones.

Ultrabooks are okay. Maybe slightly over-priced. They do usually have SSDs though.

The type of DVD drive you're think of is 'slot-loading'.

Why are you so focussed on buying something that looks like a MacBook?

Thanks for the quick response

I'm not sure about SSDs. Yes, they are fast and I will certainly have an external hard disk with ≈ 500 GB, but I really don't know whether I could cope with only 128 GB of storage. I'm into photography and each picture I take has like 10 MB (jpeg + Raw), external hard disks have failed me before and I don't want to lose all my data or spend money for two or three of those to have identical data on each.

Ah, 'slot-loading' ... I know it in German, just didn't know the English name

Well, the MacBook look ... I originally planned on buying one but I particularly dislike Apple as a company. Than there's all this Apple vs. Windows 'war' and, well - everyone at university seems to run around with a MacBook. I'm not trying to be desperately individualistic, but I don't see the point of getting Apple just because everybody else thinks it's great. Besides it's overpriced (maybe not to the extent some people make it out to be, but still it is). I just like how it looks but prefer better hardware inside.

The laptop does not necessarily have to look like a MacBook, I just want it to be flat, have the characteristic keyboard (it's comfortable to type on those) and the material should be strong and fine -> metal. All characteristics of a MacBook.

[super.teve]

(Original post by Repressor)
Yeah, you're pretty much limited to what you outline in your post if you want MacBook-esque looks.

Ivybridge doesn't offer much apart from reduced power consumption, which means longer battery life.

That Envy 15 has much higher specs than a MacBook, it's similar to the current 17" ones.

Ultrabooks are okay. Maybe slightly over-priced. They do usually have SSDs though.

The type of DVD drive you're think of is 'slot-loading'.

Why are you so focussed on buying something that looks like a MacBook?

Ivy Bridge can offer up to a 10% improvement in Benchmarks (from the one's I've seen, some tech sites are reported up to 30% but I don't think that's wholly accurate), in some cases, but it's not really worth it. The difference would hardly be noticeable, especially more so day-to-date.

[NR09]

(Original post by Zyyz)
Just get a Macbook.

Reliable.

/Thread

Ooooooooo, you're gonna get negged!!!

[super.teve]

(Original post by Zyyz)
Just get a Macbook.

Reliable.

/Thread

Can you not even read!?

*My comment was meant to go in the thread below this one, sorry! There was pretty much the same comment, but the person was spending way less.

[Sir Fox]

(Original post by Zyyz)
Just get a Macbook.

Reliable.

/Thread

(Original post by super.teve)
Can you not even read!?

Mh, it's okay to suggest a MacBook as I did not generall exclude it, but I asked for some really good arguments in favour of it and your comment is not really helpful, is it?

[super.teve]

(Original post by Sir Fox)
Mh, it's okay to suggest a MacBook as I did not generall exclude it, but I asked for some really good arguments in favour of it and your comment is not really helpful, is it?

My comment was meant to go in the thread below this one, sorry! There was pretty much the same comment, but the person was spending way less.

[super.teve]

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-env...FQwjfAodHDFwQQ I'd go for that, it's a tiny bit more than your budget, but with good specs and it's a beauty. (you can get it cheaper elsewhere and in other configurations), but I personally love the design too.

I know you said you'd prefer portability, but i've got the same laptop and it's really not that heavy/bulky.

You'll find it hard to get a unibody in anything other than an ultrabook, so your choices are quite limited in that regard.

[James82]

(Original post by super.teve)
Ivy Bridge can offer up to a 10% improvement in Benchmarks (from the one's I've seen, some tech sites are reported up to 30% but I don't think that's wholly accurate), in some cases, but it's not really worth it. The difference would hardly be noticeable, especially more so day-to-date.

On paper it definitely seems worth it considering there really isn't any difference in price between the equivalent processors in Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. A small performance increase and reduced power consumption for practically the same price.

However, Ivy Bridge has been plagued by problems and delayed numerous times, I would wait and see how they hold up in the real world before I took the plunge, they'll revamp the whole range in a few months once the guinea pigs have done Intel's testing for them.

[super.teve]

(Original post by James82)
On paper it definitely seems worth it considering there really isn't any difference in price between the equivalent processors in Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. A small performance increase and reduced power consumption for practically the same price.

However, Ivy Bridge has been plagued by problems and delayed numerous times, I would wait and see how they hold up in the real world before I took the plunge, they'll revamp the whole range in a few months once the guinea pigs have done Intel's testing for them.

I've read there's been issues with the thermal paste that Intel decided to use, with some going as far as to use a more expensive product and reducing temperatures significantly. It's not worth the hype, or wait, but like you said, on paper it does look good.

[Repressor]

(Original post by Zyyz)
Just get a macbook, I have one because you look cool and hip. all the celebrities and music producers have them. They don't have virus's either, pc's are rubbish because they are cheap and tacky.


Oh and get some dre beats to go with your mac so you can have some swagger

-2/10

[Sir Fox]

(Original post by super.teve)
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-env...FQwjfAodHDFwQQ I'd go for that, it's a tiny bit more than your budget, but with good specs and it's a beauty. (you can get it cheaper elsewhere and in other configurations), but I personally love the design too.

I know you said you'd prefer portability, but i've got the same laptop and it's really not that heavy/bulky.

You'll find it hard to get a unibody in anything other than an ultrabook, so your choices are quite limited in that regard.

This one actually seems pretty good, it's the 17.3" which puts me off. I'm used to my Aspire with 11.6" and even find my dad's 15" laptop quite large, so 15" is probably the farest I will go in terms of size.

I know, I'm looking for the swiss army knife of laptops (I guess most people do) so it seems to come down to MacBook (unlikely) vs. HP Envy 15 (more likely) or maybe the Samsung Series 9 (very unlikely).

[super.teve]

(Original post by Sir Fox)
This one actually seems pretty good, it's the 17.3" which puts me off. I'm used to my Aspire with 11.6" and even find my dad's 15" laptop quite large, so 15" is probably the farest I will go in terms of size.

I know, I'm looking for the swiss army knife of laptops (I guess most people do) so it seems to come down to MacBook (unlikely) vs. HP Envy 15 (more likely) or maybe the Samsung Series 9 (very unlikely).

I'd do the HP but then I do have two HP laptops. I just really, really like the designs. I've got the one I linked above, and the one I take out as it was -£500, the DV6 3100SA.

But, i am biased towards HP bigtime.

[Jon of the North]

I'm not sure you'll get much for £3, to be honest.

[hslakaal]

http://h40059.www4.hp.com/uk/homelap...erience=direct


That should be good-ish for a daily uni life. AND it looks a lot like a macbook

[Dukeofwembley]

http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddeta...5SL-V2G-TY071V
Designed by bang and olufsen

new asus design- looks amazing, better than a mac in my opinion , especially with the silver trimming on the casing

GTX 635M is better than the radeon compared to benchmark tests

Its also on sale for £765 at asus website

Interesting fact: asus is more reliable than apple, and hp is seen as the least reliable
[URL="http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/laptop-reliability-survey-asus-and-toshiba-win-hp-fails/"]

that 10 % increase from asus to hp is significant
And this is expected when asus make graphics cards and motherboards

I wish i had waited for this laptop

Click to enlarge




What a beauty!!!

[Sir Fox]

(Original post by Jon of the North)
I'm not sure you'll get much for £3, to be honest.

[Deja Vu]

Just get a MacBook. I'm not going to provide a detailed argument why, as I can't be arsed and I'm under no obligation to do so, however, buying a laptop "because it looks like a MacBook" comes across as pretty damn lame/sad to me. If you want something that looks like a MB, get a MB and be done with it.

People will just assume (either rightly or wrongly, I have no idea how much the HP Envy and the other one you listed actually costs) you've bought it because it looks like a MacBook but you can't actually afford a MacBook... when clearly with a budget of £1200 you can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru8fqdR0aDU

[Sir Fox]

(Original post by Deja Vu)
Just get a MacBook. I'm not going to provide a detailed argument why, as I can't be arsed and I'm under no obligation to do so, however, buying a laptop "because it looks like a MacBook" comes across as pretty damn lame/sad to me. If you want something that looks like a MB, get a MB and be done with it.

People will just assume (either rightly or wrongly, I have no idea how much the HP Envy and the other one you listed actually costs) you've bought it because it looks like a MacBook but you can't actually afford a MacBook... when clearly with a budget of £1200 you can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru8fqdR0aDU

Why do you even bother posting if you're basically just telling that I should get a MacBook for no specific reason and that I'm lame?! What's actually sad about caring about design and having some kind of role model for that?

As I stated above it doesn't have to be exactly like a MacBook, I just like some of its features like metal unibody and a keyboard with spaces between the keys, it should also be thin. Why should I buy something overpriced from a company I dislike if I can get something of an equal built quality and design which's hardware wipes the floor with a MacBook (Pro) of a similar or even higher price?

I'm not an Apple hater, but telling me to get a MacBook because getting something which looks similar is lame ... Just because I can afford a MacBook doesn't mean I want to.

I got one of these old style alarm clocks with the two clock domes but it's actually pretty new. Why didn't I buy an old one or used the one from my grandmother? Because mine is more accurate, the batteries last long and it is radio controlled so I never have to correct it. Get the point?