Need help finding a portable Laptop (samsung 9 series?)

[omfgwtfingbbq]

1. What is your budget?
$850

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13-14in

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1600x900

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?
5+ hours

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you
want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
None

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Office work, streaming, downloading, 1080p videos, multi-tasking (i.e netflix + browsing web)

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Prefer to have 128gb SSD if within budget, size is not an issue

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
N/A

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3+ years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
None

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
No lenovo and dell due to poor previous experiences with them. Heating problem sound problems etc.

13. What country do you live in?
usa

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Needs to be very light, weight within 3.5 pounds.

So far the laptop I am looking at is this

http/www.amazon.com/Samsung-NP900X3D-A01US-13-3-Inch-Premium-Ultrabook/dp/B0098O6HGK/ref=sr_1_11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1356725622&sr=1-11&keywords=samsung+9+series

Please find any options that match or excel. The biggest problem I have with this laptop is that it is a Sandy Bridge (tho not sure how heavily that will affect performance)


Thanks in advance!

 

[Tibbs01]

Something like this Sony might be worth considering as well: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127870

Edit: I think if you configure from Sony you can get the upgraded screen resolution you are looking for.

 

[omfgwtfingbbq]

Something like this Sony might be worth considering as well: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127870

Edit: I think if you configure from Sony you can get the upgraded screen resolution you are looking for.

Are sonys reliable? From what I've read or seen it appears that a good portion of the money is just for the brand.

 

[Tibbs01]

Well much of it is subjective as you have had a bad experience with Lenovo and most people would consider them to be a pretty reliable product (in particular the thinkpad line). The last retail charts I looked at had Asus near the top and Sony somewhere in the upper middle.

The fact is that most of the internal parts regardless of brand all come from the same places and the meaningful differences across most name brands are in the keyboard, screen hinges, and chassis design for proper cooling, and warranty/support etc.

I agree you slightly overpay for the Sony brand name, but in my opinion they tend to be a pretty reliable product. My first recommendation would be a thinkpad, but you are anti-lenovo so I would probably look at either Asus or possibly the Sony. I have seen quite a few problems with Samsungs (screen hinges and keyboards) so I personally would not go with one, but take that with a grain of salt as I haven't had any personal experiences with the 9 series.

Good luck!!

 

[RetiredChief]

Also http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230770

Note the biggest dif between the SB and IB will be the iGPU. The IV Look for HD4000. The SB i5's are normally the HD3000. CPU Performance is not a biggy probably only a 10 % real life performance increase.

My pref in laptops, Best to least:
Asus->Toshibia->Samsung->Sony->Dell....->HP/Acer.
NOTE Dell and HP make some very good "Corporate" Laptops, BUT you pay thru the NOSE for them, and Acer has improved their reliability.

For a resolution of 900 on Sub 14" panels requires a "quality" panel (preferably a IPS vs a TFT) which jacks the cost up