notebook Premium Built Quality Ultrabook For Everyday Use

[Trendsin]

I'm looking to buy a ultra book for my everyday use, which is lots of tabs (30+) + excel + light photo editing for social media  

 

I'm going with ultra books just because of their premium builds.

 

I've shortlisted 2 Options.

 

1st Option - https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B076N6K19D/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A31IW80MLISZMQ

 

2nd Option -  https://www.compuindia.com/dell-xps-series/new-xps-13-xps13937058256is.html ( i7 8th gen model with 16 gb ram and 512gb ssd )

 

 

I'm looking for a ultrabook with these four things being most important:

• Good battery life 8+ hours
• Graphics card no worse than an MX150
• 16gb of ram
• A quad-core i7 processor (I'm especially having a hard time being willing to sacrifice this one)

 

Budget: $2500 (USD Approx) Because everything is heavily taxed in India  

PS: XPS line has coil whine issue and Spectre X360 15 seems to be a toaster, runs pretty hot and fans makes a lot of noise even on moderate usage 

 

 

[kelvinhall05]

XPS 13.

[General Winter]

if possible i would recommend the LG gram

 

both the 2017 and 2018 variants have 8th gen cpu's and mx150

 

http://www.lg.com/us/laptops?cmpid=social|HE|laptop|gram_IRM|Catpage|Youtube|AustinEvans

[NelizMastr]

This one is pretty nice for the money:

 

https://www.amazon.in/VivoBook-S510UN-BQ132T-Intel®-GeForce-Warranty/dp/B077RYZ11G/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1521032912&sr=1-1&refinements=p_n_feature_browse-bin%3A1485947031%2Cp_n_operating_system_browse-bin%3A7350855031%2Cp_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A7005024031

 

 

[aeroencychris]

My XPS 13 9343 has been a great daily driver but I actually have a HP Spectre x360 13t coming in the mail today so they're both certainly good options

 

Just FYI the XPS 13 you have linked does not have a GPU

[Himommies]

Surface Book

What are you doing?

A macbook may also be a good option

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

48 minutes ago, General Winter said:

if possible i would recommend the LG gram

 

both the 2017 and 2018 variants have 8th gen cpu's and mx150

 

http://www.lg.com/us/laptops?cmpid=social|HE|laptop|gram_IRM|Catpage|Youtube|AustinEvans

I agree. Also for the non floatplane guys, there should be a video coming about the new version soon. Got some pretty compelling arguments going for it.

[Trendsin]

1 hour ago, kelvinhall05 said:

XPS 13.

9360 or 9370 ?

[genexis_x]

Could you provide some links of online stores in your country? I can help. Also, could you state your budget in your country currency?

[Trendsin]

1 hour ago, General Winter said:

if possible i would recommend the LG gram

 

both the 2017 and 2018 variants have 8th gen cpu's and mx150

 

http://www.lg.com/us/laptops?cmpid=social|HE|laptop|gram_IRM|Catpage|Youtube|AustinEvans

Unfortunately LG Gram with 8th gen processors isn't available in my country ( India ) right now

[kelvinhall05]

3 minutes ago, Trendsin said:

9360 or 9370 ?

9370.

[Trendsin]

1 hour ago, NelizMastr said:

This one is pretty nice for the money:

 

https://www.amazon.in/VivoBook-S510UN-BQ132T-Intel®-GeForce-Warranty/dp/B077RYZ11G/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1521032912&sr=1-1&refinements=p_n_feature_browse-bin%3A1485947031%2Cp_n_operating_system_browse-bin%3A7350855031%2Cp_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A7005024031

 

 

I'm not comfortable with the idea of buying asus laptop/notebook, due to their bad service record in my country (India)

[Trendsin]

52 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

My XPS 13 9343 has been a great daily driver but I actually have a HP Spectre x360 13t coming in the mail today so they're both certainly good options

 

Just FYI the XPS 13 you have linked does not have a GPU

I know XPS 13 don't have dedicated gpu but still 9360/9370 are workhorse 

[Trendsin]

29 minutes ago, Himommies said:

Surface Book

What are you doing?

A macbook may also be a good option

Surface book 2 isn't available in my country ( India ), Not comfortable with Macbooks as I'm working on windows most of the time, moreover Macbook refresh is around the corner so if I've to buy one then I'll go with the new one with 8th gen processor

[Trendsin]

4 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

Could you provide some links of online stores in your country? I can help. Also, could you state your budget in your country currency?

Sure, 

Store 1 - flipkart.com

Store 2 - Amazon.in 

Store 3 - compuindia.com/dell-xps-series.html

Budget - $2500 ( USD ) or Rs. 1,50,000.

[genexis_x]

Are you sure you need dGPU? If yes, looks like the only option is Asus UX430UN. There are other options like Asus UX331UN and Acer Swift 3 but the 8GB RAM (not upgradable) may be a limiting factor in multitasking. Also, if you can find HP Spectre x360 15, it's a good option if you don't mind the bigger footprint. It sports a 25W MX150 BTW (which runs a bit warm)

 

FYI, MX150 in most Ultrabooks is the 8W variant which is only slightly faster than 940MX. Also, i5 and i7 don't have much performance difference in ULV CPUs due to TDP and cooling limitations. Don't expect Ultrabooks have excellent cooling to cool the dGPU.

Edited March 14, 2018 by ZM Fong

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, NelizMastr said:

snip

But with mediocre build quality and battery life which is no no for me.

[Trendsin]

1 hour ago, ZM Fong said:

Are you sure you need dGPU? If yes, looks like the only option is Asus UX430UN. There are other options like Asus UX331UN and Acer Swift 3 but the 8GB RAM (not upgradable) may be a limiting factor in multitasking. Also, if you can find HP Spectre x360 15, it's a good option if you don't mind the bigger footprint. It sports a 25W MX150 BTW (which runs a bit warm)

 

FYI, MX150 in most Ultrabooks is the 8W variant which is only slightly faster than 940MX. Also, i5 and i7 don't have much performance difference in ULV CPUs due to TDP and cooling limitations. Don't expect Ultrabooks have excellent cooling to cool the dGPU.

may be I don't as I'm into just light gaming that too once in a while, but I wanted to be safe  I'm not convinced with asus laptops due to their poor after sales track record in my country.

 

Hp spectre x360 15 seems to be a good option and it has legacy ports as compared to XPS 13 9370 but people aren't happy with cooling solution of HP X360 and they told me it really runs hot and loud even on moderate usage.

[genexis_x]

19 minutes ago, Trendsin said:

people aren't happy with cooling solution of HP X360 and they told me it really runs hot and loud even on moderate usage.

It's an Ultrabook. You can't have decent cooling inside such thin chassis. Moreover it packs a regular 25W MX150 while MX150 in most Ultrabooks is the 8W variant. For me, the inner temps under load, surface temps under load and fan noise under load are still acceptable.

[aeroencychris]

4 hours ago, Trendsin said:

I know XPS 13 don't have dedicated gpu but still 9360/9370 are workhorse 

If you don't mind that then perhaps the HP Spectre X360 13t would be a good choice? I'm in the process of setting mine up right now but it's running the latest Coffee Lake i7 8500u which supposedly has significantly better performance than last gen's 7500u

[Trendsin]

9 hours ago, cdsboy2000 said:

If you don't mind that then perhaps the HP Spectre X360 13t would be a good choice? I'm in the process of setting mine up right now but it's running the latest Coffee Lake i7 8500u which supposedly has significantly better performance than last gen's 7500u

if I'll go with spectre x360 then I'm gonna pick the 15 inch model because it has dedicated gpu ( MX 150 ) 

[aeroencychris]

16 hours ago, Trendsin said:

if I'll go with spectre x360 then I'm gonna pick the 15 inch model because it has dedicated gpu ( MX 150 ) 

Go for it

 

I can tell you from my 24 hours of experience with the HP Spectre x360 13t (w/ i7 8500u) that's it's overall really nice. It was running a bit too hot for my liking and hitting 95c under synthetic load, but after undervolting and repasting it's at a cool 70c.

 

I'm not sure how the 15-inch model will be but repasting on the 13-inch was a pain; I had to entirely remove the motherboard (which required about a dozen ribbon cable disconnections) to reach the heatsink which was a bit too much stress than I would have liked. In the end it was certainly worth it but do this at your own risk.

[Trendsin]

8 hours ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Go for it

 

I can tell you from my 24 hours of experience with the HP Spectre x360 13t (w/ i7 8500u) that's it's overall really nice. It was running a bit too hot for my liking and hitting 95c under synthetic load, but after undervolting and repasting it's at a cool 70c.

 

I'm not sure how the 15-inch model will be but repasting on the 13-inch was a pain; I had to entirely remove the motherboard (which required about a dozen ribbon cable disconnections) to reach the heatsink which was a bit too much stress than I would have liked. In the end it was certainly worth it but do this at your own risk.

Thanks for the update  I'm going with XPS 13 ( 9370 ) for the moment, will update the thread once i'll get my hands on it  

PS: I love the screen of XPS 15 but last gen i7 keeps telling me to get the newer i7 processor  duh, so much confusion  I'll update the thread within few hours, going to get one of these. Cheers