Surface Pro Ultrabook Competitors

[kingfurykiller]

Good day all; looking for recommendations from the community on my next laptop purchase.  My Surface Pro 2, after 5 years of heavy use, is starting to wear out and isn't up to task. I plan to save until it finally dies, but I'm planning for my next purchase.

 

Use case: highly portable device for personal computing, light productivity, and light gaming. I have a desktop at home for real gaming and work, but having a portable device that can help me get some personal work done and also play a few games is important to me. I do travel a bit, and I do carry my dedicated work laptop (Lenovo X1 Carbon) with me as well, so battery life and portability (weight and thinness) are somewhat important. Unlike many, the Surface form factor worked for me, as I would use the device as a media-consumption tablet around the house, or just an extra screen to monitor my stream. However, the biggest reason I'm not running out and buying a Surface Pro 6 right now? no USB Type-C  Therefore, I'm seeing what other options are out there.

 

Requirements: i5, 8gb RAM, 128gb SSD is fine. I/O is pretty important, ideally USB Type C, USB Type A, and then dedicated display options, SD card slot, more USB, in that order. Battery life must be around 7-8 hours of medium use, as airline travel isn't good for power availability, and carrying 2 bricks suck (hence the desire for USB-C; i could reduce to 1 brick AND potentially use the docking station I already own as well). Portability is key, so the thinnest and lightest of whatever gets these specs.  Gaming performance doesn't need to be much more than running FTL or Into The Breach, but being able to run something like Civ V on low settings wouldn't hurt. My budget is between $1000-$1500 USD.

 

Please let me know if there are any questions, and thank you in advance. So far, the other options I've seen lose out pretty harshly on battery life.

[genexis_x]

On 3/4/2019 at 10:56 PM, kingfurykiller said:

highly portable device for personal computing, light productivity, and light gaming

I/O is pretty important, ideally USB Type C, USB Type A, and then dedicated display options, SD card slot, more USB, in that order

around 7-8 hours

Civ V on low settings wouldn't hurt

$1000-$1500 USD

Must it be convertible/tablet? Mind non-upgradable RAM and low sRGB display? Need dGPU?

[kingfurykiller]

On 3/9/2019 at 6:50 AM, GeneXiS_X said:

Must it be convertible/tablet? Mind non-upgradable RAM and low sRGB display? Need dGPU?

It doesn't have to be a convertible/tablet, but that's a huge plus, as I often use my surface in "tablet mode" for media consumption or as a portable 'bigger screen'. If it's not a convertible, then it must be very thing since i'll be carrying it with another laptop (x1 carbon, work only).

 

Non-upgradeable RAM is fine; I've accepted this as a trade-off for portability. 8-16gb is what I'm going for. I have my home desktop for heavier workloads.

 

dGPU is not an essential requirement; I don't plan on pushing it harder than what Intel's integrated graphics can handle on the gaming side of things. I'd prefer longer battery life over dGPU.

[genexis_x]

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga 3rd gen customize - no SD card slot

Dell Latitude 7390 2 in 1

Lenovo Thinkpad X380 Yoga customize / 20LH000LUS

Lenovo Thinkpad L390 Yoga customize / 20NT000JUS

HP Spectre x360 13t customize - no dedicated display output port

Asus UX370UA 16GB - no USB A, no dedicated display output port, no SD card slot

Lenovo Yoga C930 81C4004WUS - no dedicated display output port, no SD card slot

Lenovo Yoga C930 Glass customize - no dedicated display output port, no SD card slot

Lenovo Yoga 730 13 customize - no dedicated display output port, no SD card slot

Asus UX461UA

Acer Spin 5 SP513-52N-52PL / SP513-53N-56CR

HP Probook x360 440 G1 - low sRGB IPS

 

I excluded 15 inch models due to weight

[kingfurykiller]

4 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga 3rd gen customize - no SD card slot

Dell Latitude 7390 2 in 1

Lenovo Thinkpad X380 Yoga customize / 20LH000LUS

Lenovo Thinkpad L390 Yoga customize / 20NT000JUS

HP Spectre x360 13t customize - no dedicated display output port

Asus UX370UA 16GB - no USB A, no dedicated display output port, no SD card slot

Lenovo Yoga C930 81C4004WUS - no dedicated display output port, no SD card slot

Lenovo Yoga C930 Glass customize - no dedicated display output port, no SD card slot

Lenovo Yoga 730 13 customize - no dedicated display output port, no SD card slot

Asus UX461UA

Acer Spin 5 SP513-52N-52PL / SP513-53N-56CR

HP Probook x360 440 G1 - low sRGB IPS

 

I excluded 15 inch models due to weight

Awesome! I will check these out; i've heard good things about the Yoga models. I could also use it with my existing Lenovo docking stations...

 

And yes, i think 15in models would be too big for this use case.