Ok..lets make it 3.5k..i think xps is quite overprice? How about your suggestion on laptop with HD+ then upgrade HDD to SSD?

Apple do provide pretty good user experience for the premium they charge
But is your old man a business man? Or is this for his leisure usage?
My personal experience is that for business, it's better to get windows based laptop, or he may run into situation whereby certain file types not handled well in OSX.
And why the 15" screen if he travel around much? May be you could show him some of the 13" ultrabook? There are some very good looking / specs models

umm, he is actually a..heart surgeon. basically it is used mainly for doing some light documents, listening to songs and stuff.
I might bring him to an Apple store to check out the macbook pro. What 13" ultrabook are there in the market?

something sleek and sexy will be good cos he loves to hang out at those coffee joints with his buddies and talk for hours.

I am not a pro here, but I think sleek and sexy ultrabook are:

13"
Asus
[Ultrabook] UX31A-R4005V, i5-3317U + Intel HD4000 + 128GB SSD + (1920 x 1080)@RM3499[1.3kg], 4GB, W7HP, 4-cell (6840mAh) battery, 2 years international warranty
[Ultrabook] UX31A-R4003V, i7-3517U + Intel HD4000 + 256GB SSD + (1920 x 1080)@RM4499[1.3kg], 4GB, W7HP, 4-cell (6840mAh) battery, 2 years international warranty

Dell
[Ultrabook] XPS13, i5-3317U + Intel HD4000 + 128GB SSD@RM3299[1.36kg], 4GB, W8, backlit, spill resistant keyboard, build-in battery, no ODD
[Ultrabook] XPS13, i5-3317U + Intel HD4000 + 256GB SSD@RM3999[1.36kg], 8GB, W8, backlit, spill resistant keyboard, build-in battery, no ODD

HP
[Ultrabook] Envy SpectreXT 13-2018TU, i7-3517U + Intel HD4000 + 128GB SSD@RM3399[1.39kg], 4GB, 4 cell 45WHR, no ODD, backlit keyboard

All these use Intel built-in graphic and SSD, can last hours.
If your father just sit in the coffee joints, then maybe you can look at some of the 14" as well

damn, the Asus one is gooding. but only have 2 models that come with SSD? prefer a SSD one, he stores like crapload of data. Or is it due the ultrabook design that limits the space for a HDD to be squeezed in? I have Asus K43 in mind already. I'll KIV SpectreXT. Dell no lah, very fugley.

thanks for the recommendation btw!

Would like to ask, is i5-3317U with GT640LE/GT620M/630M suitable to use vmwareplayer, and visual studio 08/10, netbeans, dreamweaver, photoshop and others dev tools?? Not opt for gaming..

Greeting all.
I am looking for a laptop and need your help to recommend which laptop that have these requirments:
Preferred 15.6" screen.
Budget: RM1500 to RM2000.
For: video streaming of Korean tv series. No online gaming.
Must have good after sales support.
Thank you.

If you wanna scratch the Nvidia GPU, then:
14"
HP Envy [Ultrabook] (Spectre) 14-3111TU, i5-3317U + Intel HD4000 + (1600x900 Radiance) + 128GB SSD@RM3999[1.8kg], 4GB

Otherwise,
14"
Samsung NP700Z3C, i5-3210M + Nvidia GT630M + (1600x900)@RM3599[2.07kg], 6GB, 1TB, W7HP

Sony Vaio SVE14A15FGB, i5-2450M + AMD HD7670M + (1600x900)@RM3099[2.3kg], 4GB, 640GB(5400rpm), W7HP

Sure can use
Its just a matter of how smooth it runs... don't expect the programs to run as smooth as normal notebooks

Don't really need a very powerful one if you're not into gaming
15.6"
Dell
Inspiron 15, i3-3110M + Intel HD4000@RM1459[2.4kg], 4GB, 500GB(5400rpm), W7HB

Inspiron 15, i5-3210M + Intel HD4000@RM1709[2.4kg], 4GB, 500GB(5400rpm), W7HB

Both are good. Use the remaining money to extend warranty to 3 years onsite

Thank you again for the rec . I just check out the store and they rec another one. Asus U36SG-RX072V. What do you think about it?? Which one is better?? The U36SG or K46CM??

Asus do have a 13" ultrabook with HDD
[Ultrabook] UX32VD-R3001V, i5-3317U + Nvidia GT620M + 24GB mSATA SSD + 500GB HDD@RM2999[1.3kg], 4GB, W7HP, 6-cell battery (6570mAH), 2 years international warranty

SSD is very much part of the "sexy" appeal (as in "whoaa, so fast"). HDD is the bottleneck of performance. Unless your father is into movies, uncompressed image format, uncompressed music format, 256G SSD is pretty good. If he like, upgrade to 512G SSD, which cost around RM1300.

Asus K43 is 14", around 2kg. You may also want to look at the following 14"
HP
[Ultrabook] Envy4-1043TX/1053TX, i5-3317U + AMD HD7670M + [32GB mSATA + 500GB(5400rpm)]@RM2599[Beats][1.75kg], 4GB, W7HP
Lenovo
[Ultrabook]S400, i5-3317U + Intel HD4000 + 24GB mSATA + 500GB(5400rpm)@RM2099[1.8kg], 4GB, W7HB

Did you look at the old XPS or the new one on Dell site? I find the new one has a understated elegance about it.

The Asus Zen, Dell XPS, HP Envy & Spectre all have pretty decent speakers for their size. But if your father really like to listen to music from laptop, other than a headset or portable speakers, your best bet is those laptop with built-in 2.1 sounds. But those models normally is not very "sleek & sexy"

If you are not in a hurry, wait for those new fancy W8 models. Lots of sexy, not sure if they will be practical

This post has been edited by nexus2238: Oct 22 2012, 09:57 PM

hello guys, i would like to get a laptop but need recommendation from u all.

budget : rm1k~1.5k
brand : Asus
uses : surfing, word processing, and normal usage.

When I was at LowYat, one of the sales man said that I should get an i5 at least and some graphic card so that I can use the laptop for many years.

But in my case, I only use it for work (MS Excel and Word) and surfing (reading news and Youtube) and sometimes HD football matches that I missed.

So I basically won't turn into a gamer overnight or next year or anytime in the near future.
1) So I don't really need a high spec laptop right since my tasks doesn't require high specs. I don't mind spending a bit more for an i5 but I seriously don't need a high spec graphic card right since I don't play games at all.

2) A high spec graphic card is a must for video games but does it have any influence in the smoothness in the running of the laptop? According to another sales man, a low spec graphic card will result the laptop in lagging when watching HD movies. Is that true?

Correct me If Im wrong.

Thanks

If you buy laptop with Ivy bridge processor, (eg. i5-3xxx, 3rd gen), it basically come with Intel HD4000 graphic built-in. If the most graphically intensive thing that you do with your laptop is Youtube and HD football matches, HD4000 can handle it easily.
If you have a laptop with Sandy bridge processor (eg. i5-2xxx, 2nd gen), it come with Intel HD3000, which is worse than HD4000.
HD4000 is scalable with CPU, ie HD4000 with i5 is slightly faster than HD4000 with i3.
i5 can definitely handle your MS Excel and Word.

Well said T.J! Thanks!

i'm buying laptop for my wife.

1. Preferred Brand: asus, or suggest any reliable brand
2. Budget: RM1500
3. Usage: microsoft office stuffs(words,excel), surfing with alot of tabs opened (using 3 browsers. firefox, chrome, and chrome canary)
4. Preferred laptop/screen size: 12"-14"

This post has been edited by blackorange: Oct 23 2012, 10:00 AM

lenovo g480

not a big fan of W8 tbh, I tried their Beta and it just doesn't feel Windows. S400 was in my list, but removed cos there is no ODD.
UX32VD, K43 and Envy, alright mate. thanks for the recommendation, will go and have a look at them this week.

Assuming you would want a 14" notebook:
Asus
X44H-VX262, i3-2370M + Intel HD3000@RM1399, 2GB, 500GB, FreeDOS * 1 year global warranty [B820@RM1099]
X401-WX091R/092R/134R, B820 + Intel HD3000@RM1299, 2GB, 500GB, W7HB; colors: black/white/green
X45U-VX024, AMD E2-1800 + AMD HD6320@RM1299, 2GB, 500GB, FreeDOS
A43Sd-VX216, B960 + Nvidia GT610M@RM1399[2.2kg], FreeDOS, 2GB, 320GB(5400rpm)

Do take note that most do not come with Windows, and you'd have to get a copy yourself