I did have a look at the 5460 over the weekend. However, I am not convinced that it is the best option if you are looking at it spec wise.

All IT, Lowyat Plaza.

Both spec wise and price wise. At the RM1700 - RM 2100 range you have a lot of other options that I feel are better spec wise, price wise, heck, even upgradability wise.

Take a look for example at the K46CB from Asus, still thin, still light, sports a 740M, heck, it sports a DVD writer if it comes to that. Downside probably that it is Asus, and you need to at least add another 2GB RAM to get full dual channel speed. This is ultimately what my customer decided to buy. And price is not much different if you factor in preinstalled OS, in this case, Windows 8.

Of course, if you are looking at the ones without windows, then the RM1700++ is tempting, but if a few hundred more gets you better specs at better value, should you just look at Dell and the name?

I do agree with you on some points but if your battery life runs 3-4 hours, with a lot of tweaks and compromises, that means you need to bring your bag and the charger, which negates the whole super portability thing.

It would have been better for Dell to design the 5460 without the discreet graphics, add more battery power and utilize the good enough HD4000. By sticking the 630M, Dell invites the unavoidable comparison with other sub RM2K laptops with discrete graphics, and drains more power. It seemed that Dell just stuck the 630M in there probably because they may have just a lot of those chips lying around.

Of course they do. What I meant is don't put the 630M at all. Use whatever space you save and put more battery power in. Get at least 5 hours battery life.