Al_B on 1/5/2013 at 23:04
Have a play - I'm sure you'll go for whatever you feel is best anyway.
Renzatic on 2/5/2013 at 02:18
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
I'm not revising the budget, but I know that paying over 1500 is like getting a top end gfx card; they is a point of diminishing returns.
Mac book pros are still in the running. Gong to the Apple store to play tomorrow hopefully. The 13 inch Air looks like a contender too, because of how portable it is. My gf has an 11 inch one and I like it.
Have you thought about the Surface Pro? Having a lighter weight Macbook Air class ultrabook tablet sporting a 1920x1080 screen and a Wacom Cintiq quality digitizer onboard is a very, very tempting thing for me. The only thing keeping me from going out and grabbing one now is it's 5 hour battery life, and knowing Intel's new Haswell CPUs are just around the corner.
Plus you'll be able to play Civilization V with touchscreen controls. And that's awesome.
faetal on 2/5/2013 at 08:51
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
those 1960s portable record players.
I like to think that at some point in the '80s, someone somewhere was thinking about how to market a laser-discman.
On topic, I know that it may offset the light-weight aspect of whatever you're after, but regarding short battery life, it's always possible to consider one of
(http://www.energizerpowerpacks.com/il/products/xp18000/) these for stretching that out. I've no idea how much they weigh, but I'm guessing it isn't light, using my Anker phone/tablet charger as a reference.
SubJeff on 2/5/2013 at 12:58
Well I ended up with a Macbook Air 13 inch. I've just set it up and had a play. It'll take a little while to get used to but so far seems pretty suitable.
faetal, you never replied to my PM :(
I was really hoping you'd want to help out.
faetal on 2/5/2013 at 13:58
Oops! Didn't notice the PM - sorry :/
bikerdude on 2/5/2013 at 19:26
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Well I ended up with a Macbook Air 13 inch. I've just set it up and had a play. It'll take a little while to get used to but so far seems pretty suitable.
Hmm, glad I didn't spend any time doing any meaningful re-search on this then....
Renzatic on 2/5/2013 at 20:09
Yeah. The 13" MBA is pretty alright, but he could've gotten a 13" Asus Zenbook with a higher res screen for a little less.
My opinion on almost all Apple product is that their high end stuff is worth the money, but their entry to mid level computers are overpriced and underpowered.
SubJeff on 2/5/2013 at 21:37
Quote Posted by bikerdude
Hmm, glad I didn't spend any time doing any meaningful re-search on this then....
Aww, why? You sound... disappointed.
I know this machine isn't the most powerful, but the build quality, the trackpad and the keyboard are great. I dislike laptops in general and I've used a few. That's why it took me a while to decide; I'd been thinking about it long before I posted here. I'm getting used to the OS and the way it does things, some of which are a little odd to me of course - I downloaded a small piece of music, a 10s loop, and it was automatically placed in iTunes as well as being in the download folder. I haven't had iTunes since 2004 when I tried it for a first gen Shuffle and decided to replace it with MediaMonkey. I'm also a little baffled by the way this handles program DLs and the App store and everything. But I'm typing on it now and I'm surprised at how comfy I find it - my desktop has a MS Natural Keyboard (v2, the black one, which is much better than the white one I have as a spare/backup).
This is also just portable enough, and the screen is just the right size. I could cope with larger, natch, but not much smaller.
bikerdude on 3/5/2013 at 06:50
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
why?
Because it looks like what ever advice you would have been given, you have gone off on a tangent. In this instance you even went against your own misgivings about the macbooks.. Its not a problem and neither am I disappointed, but I dislike wasting time doing something for it not to be used.
SubJeff on 3/5/2013 at 22:15
It's not a tangent, it's suitable.
Now I've had a day to use it I'm convinced it was absolutely the best choice for me; it just works so well.
I was also researching other things and the info is used- this was the best choice.
