Mac book air alternative

[Mouse-Potato]

My gf has completely given up on her Mac, she wants a windows ultra-book that doesn't suck.

I don't know much about what is available, is the dell xps 14 or 13 any good? Anything else one might recommend?

[Oshino Shinobu]

Asus Zen Book? 

[MattP123]

I got this today, it doesn't suck that much. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-vivobook-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-6gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-silver/2990013.p?id=1219085427753&skuId=2990013&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=2990013&extensionType=pla:g&s_kwcid=PTC!pla!!!37678873159!g!!49989913399&kpid=2990013&k_clickid=6d4a9e4d-8885-4fa8-aae4-00004a91c004

[DJ H2 Mk2]

Acer aspire series?

Particularly the aspire s7?

It's one of linus' fav ultrabooks

[ohJey]

The Yoga 2 Pro from Lenovo is good

The XPS laptops are also good though

[Coombzy]

Asus Zen Book? 

This, Zenbooks are literally the macbook pro of the windows world.

[Flyguygamer]

Bust install win7 on it.

[Mouse-Potato]

I've seen the zenbooks, I have an asus laptop myself and love it. I think the aspire is practically the same thing though too.

I do like lenovo's yoga pro, and believe the brand makes really good quality products.

[Mouse-Potato]

I got this today, it doesn't suck that much. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-vivobook-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-6gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-silver/2990013.p?id=1219085427753&skuId=2990013&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=2990013&extensionType=pla:g&s_kwcid=PTC!pla!!!37678873159!g!!49989913399&kpid=2990013&k_clickid=6d4a9e4d-8885-4fa8-aae4-00004a91c004

Have you had the chance to see how long the battery lasts? Looks good for the price!

[MattP123]

Have you had the chance to see how long the battery lasts? Looks good for the price!

No, I have had the charger in it all day, but I'm guessing around 5 hours. 

[Mouse-Potato]

No, I have had the charger in it all day, but I'm guessing around 5 hours.

Ok thanks for the heads up, I'll check it out as well as the zenbook and the aspire.

[MattP123]

Ok thanks for the heads up, I'll check it out as well as the zenbook and the aspire.

I just checked and it lasts around 4.5 hours. 

[Ursad0n]

XPS 12? Linus loves his, they're fairly priced, lightweight, touchscreen and convertable

[Diljot]

I own a zenbook, its pretty good.

[Mouse-Potato]

XPS 12? Linus loves his, they're fairly priced, lightweight, touchscreen and convertable

 

 

I own a zenbook, its pretty good.

Thanks for your answers!

 

Anyone interested in a Mac book air 13"?

[Ursad0n]

So I'll preface this by saying I'm quite against apple as a company so this may be biased, but I'm going to try to focus on specs. 

 

My problem with the macbook air is that for the money you're not getting the specs you should be getting. Neither the 11.6" nor the 13.3" macbook air has a 1080p screen. The 13 has a max resolution of 1440x900 which in my opinion is unacceptable for a $999-$1.199 machine. My other problem is that I believe base you're getting 4GB of ram which these days is becoming less and less acceptable. And finally unless you get the more expensive model you're only getting a 128GB SSD which is a tad small. 

 

Aside from that, much to my dismay the apple computers have great quality, look nice, and people claim they're well built (the mobo on my pro died randomly).

 

My last major gripe is that I absolutely hate their customer support, they were impossible for me to deal with and I ended up going to best buy and getting it repaired for $200 less before I eventually sold it. But I'm sure there's a mac lover around here that will have counterarguments so you might wait for that

[Mouse-Potato]

So I'll preface this by saying I'm quite against apple as a company so this may be biased, but I'm going to try to focus on specs. 

 

My problem with the macbook air is that for the money you're not getting the specs you should be getting. Neither the 11.6" nor the 13.3" macbook air has a 1080p screen. The 13 has a max resolution of 1440x900 which in my opinion is unacceptable for a $999-$1.199 machine. My other problem is that I believe base you're getting 4GB of ram which these days is becoming less and less acceptable. And finally unless you get the more expensive model you're only getting a 128GB SSD which is a tad small. 

 

Aside from that, much to my dismay the apple computers have great quality, look nice, and people claim they're well built (the mobo on my pro died randomly).

 

My last major gripe is that I absolutely hate their customer support, they were impossible for me to deal with and I ended up going to best buy and getting it repaired for $200 less before I eventually sold it. But I'm sure there's a mac lover around here that will have counterarguments so you might wait for that

I agree on your ananlogy, I too feel like these days the screen should be at least a true 1080P display. I believe it is for practical reasons that they don't put ultra high resolution screens in ultrabooks because otherwise they would be too powerhungry and the battery life would be decreased immensely.

 

She has the Haswell version, I believe it is an i5, not sure though. But yeah the SSD is way to small, and itunes sucks, not too mention I got her an external hdd and it is sooooo complicated to put her tv shows on it and not mess up itunes. It keeps wanting her to download all the shows over and over.

 

I just don't get why anyone would bother with the Mac OS over a PC.

[menendez1293]

Dell XPS12 gets my vote, have used those things on and off for the past year and a half and it has been great. Maybe if she wants something more like a tablet, a Surface Pro 3 is also an option.