Laptop for Apple Defectee

http://www.amazon.com/VivoBook-S400...PDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1368393847&sr=1-1

1 year warantee, including accidental coverage, optional extended warantee, 4-5 hour battery life, ULV processor so runs pretty cool, 14", touch, hybrid drive, $590. Just has a bad screen res.

Or this:

http://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-Light-C...ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1368394224&sr=1-7

1080p res for $600.

Wait for the Haswell ultra books or you'll be kicking yourself hard.

Samsung Chromebook if your needs can be met within Chrome OS. It's similar in size, runs extremely cool and handles the web extremely well. Comes with 100GB Google Drive free for 2 years. Has SSD (32GB) and 2GB RAM.

Not at all a powerhouse and quite possibly not what you're looking for, but if you haven't used one they are quite nice for many purposes if you stick to web, email, word processing, spreadsheets, some image work (not powerful image work like Photoshop) and other things. Offline apps are growing as well.

Just a possibility on the cheap if price is hugely important and you want to live virus free and not revert to Windows (Chrome OS is a Linux distro, but unlike any other distro).

Other than that, Acer's versions of smaller computers in the ultrabook range "look" nice but not sure about quality since Acer does not have a history of high quality machines. I haven't had luck with HP or Dell in recent years, but I also have not used their ultrabooks so take that with a grain of salt.

0bone said:

The processor will be released in less than a month, but will there be actual machines using it available from the release date? Or could it take several more months for the manufacturers to come out with laptops using Haswell?

As for the Chromebook machine, I haven't used ChromeOS so I'm not sure how fully featured and capable it is compared to Windows or Ubuntu. A typical day in the life of my laptop involves running a basic programming IDE, a netflix browser window, a regular web browser window with multiple tabs, a Skype chat and of course a Gmail notifier, typically all at the same time. Can a Chromebook handle that?

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Only thing I'm not sure about is the IDE. Otherwise yes.

0bone said:

The processor will be released in less than a month, but will there be actual machines using it available from the release date? Or could it take several more months for the manufacturers to come out with laptops using Haswell?

As for the Chromebook machine, I haven't used ChromeOS so I'm not sure how fully featured and capable it is compared to Windows or Ubuntu. A typical day in the life of my laptop involves running a basic programming IDE, a netflix browser window, a regular web browser window with multiple tabs, a Skype chat and of course a Gmail notifier, typically all at the same time. Can a Chromebook handle that?

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I know apple is definitely releasing soon afterwards. I've heard that samsung and asus are waiting in the shoots. If you can hold off I'd definitely wait.

0bone said:

Will the current gen models be greatly discounted when the new ones are released?

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I know in Australia you can get upto 15%-20% off from Apple resellers.
Have you tried the refurb store?

Why didn't you just keep the MacBook Air?

Having said that, the Lenovo IdeaPad U510 is an option - 15" screen, 1.8GHz i5, 6GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, 6 hour battery life for $650. As it's 100% Designed and Made in China, it even looks like a MacBook with a number pad. I wonder how many people would suffice larger keys for a number pad, though.


Alternatively, if you're a little more patriotic than that, the Dell Inspiron 15z i15z-1200sLV. 1.9GHz i5, 4GB of RAM (you'll want to upgrade that to 8GB or 16GB eventually anyways), 500GB hard drive (and replace that with an SSD as well).


Those 15" Ultrabooks are rather rMBPs minus the retina, minus the MacBook and minus the pro, but really, just get a MacBook Air.
They may look like they'd cost $650, but won't be as snappy as the MacBook Air unless you add 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, and then you're looking at $850-900. A refurb 2012 1.8GHz MacBook Air on the other hand goes for $999.

B... said:

http://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-Light-C...ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1368394224&sr=1-7

1080p res for $600.

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That vizio is the best looking windows laptop I've ever seen, in my opinion. Im impressed. And for 600. NICE. If I would need a cheap slim laptop I would so get this one.
Pretty sure it doesn't have soldered RAM so you could stuff 8GB in there

0bone said:

Is "Square Trade" the best/only warranty option for a non-Mac computer?

Edit: And does it matter where I buy a computer nowadays? Amazon.com, Best Buy, Staples, NewEgg.com...

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Not really. Amazon has a good return policy, Best Buy is best if you have a Silver card membersip. I would steer clear of NewEgg.com and Staples, thougj, unless their price is unbeatable by a long shot.

Why not try to pick up a 2011 Air or Classic here on the Marketplace or Ebay? I've seen 2012 Pro's go for $800 so I know 2011's will go for $600-650. They have Sandy Bridge which is a little older but remember, OSX runs a lot better than Windows. My ex girlfriend has a 2010 Pro and I upgraded her to 8GB of ram and Mountain Lion and very few people notice the difference between her machine and a 2012 Pro.

Have a HP Envy TouchSmart then. I doubt that the touch screen can make up for OS X at all, though.

Here it is for $50 less. Or if you want something different than that, the Sony VAIO T, which is even less expensive and has a slightly faster CPU.


<$600 is technology from 2011, and you might be better off just looking for a used 2011 MBA. If you look around, you can even pick up a refurbished 2012 MBA for $899.

Giuly said:

Why didn't you just keep the MacBook Air?

Having said that, the Lenovo IdeaPad U510 is an option - 15" screen, 1.8GHz i5, 6GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, 6 hour battery life for $650. As it's 100% Designed and Made in China, it even looks like a MacBook with a number pad. I wonder how many people would suffice larger keys for a number pad, though.

Alternatively, if you're a little more patriotic than that, the Dell Inspiron 15z i15z-1200sLV. 1.9GHz i5, 4GB of RAM (you'll want to upgrade that to 8GB or 16GB eventually anyways), 500GB hard drive (and replace that with an SSD as well).

Those 15" Ultrabooks are rather rMBPs minus the retina, minus the MacBook and minus the pro, but really, just get a MacBook Air.
They may look like they'd cost $650, but won't be as snappy as the MacBook Air unless you add 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, and then you're looking at $850-900. A refurb 2012 1.8GHz MacBook Air on the other hand goes for $999.

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Not to get into a quasi political discussion. I am just asking to avoid buying from Lenevo. They have been dumping on the market and also are trying to truly destroy competition leaving us with only this Chinese company's offerings.

phrehdd said:

Not to get into a quasi political discussion. I am just asking to avoid buying from Lenevo. They have been dumping on the market and also are trying to truly destroy competition leaving us with only this Chinese company's offerings.

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Buy a MacBook, and don't have those problems. If you want to get something American, get a Dell from Round Rock, Texas, HP from Palo Alto or Mac from Cupertino.

Giuly said:

Buy a MacBook, and don't have those problems. If you want to get something American, get a Dell from Round Rock, Texas, HP from Palo Alto or Mac from Cupertino.

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While I don't fancy laptops of any sort unless absolutely needed for a job/gig, I would be happy to use a Mac offering. 90 percent of the time whatever the laptop item is, I would end up hooking it up to a real screen and use a real keyboard and (in my case) trackball.

0bone said:

590? Did they raise the price since you posted this or did you find it for that price elsewhere?

The resolution appears to be the same as Macbook Air.

EDIT: Oops, resolution is the same as 11", not 13". Ignore this post.

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Yes they raised it. I say bad screen since it has the same res as the 11" Air in a 14" body. Other than that, seems like a good comp. for around $600