Ultralight laptops

I've been shopping around for a new laptop lately, and then gave up the idea.

Primarily I just use my laptop around the house for web surfing. I am currently using the Panasonic Toughbook Y4, which I bought a few years back.

It's a 14-inch (1400x1050) laptop with built-in DVD drive. At 3.4 lbs it's about 25% lighter than a current 13-inch laptop with DVD, for example a Macbook Pro 13-inch.

I tried an 11.6-inch widescreen laptop (no DVD) that weighs about 3 lbs, but for some reason, it's just not as comfortable to use as my old "full size" laptop.

I thought with today's technology (and all these netbooks and tablets around) I could get something that can replace my old laptop, for a small price. But after shopping around, I couldn't find it. If it has everything my old laptop has - big screen and keyboard, high res, light weight, long battery life - then it's expensive, at least $1200 or more (e.g. $1300 for a Macbook Air 13-inch).

Anything cheaper, and something is missing. The small ones (11 to 12 inch) are usually too small. Either the screen has too little space (both physically and in terms of pixels), or the palm rest is too little. The big ones (13 to 14 inch) are usually too heavy, and very few have acceptable resolution (at least 1440x900, instead of the usual 1366x768, to replace my current 1400x1050).

I am not spending $600 to $800 for something that has noticeable usability sacrifices compared to my old laptop (which, I admit, costed me $2000 a few years ago). I am not even spending upwards of $1200 for something that works just as well, but no better than my old laptop, other than computing speed.

I must be spoiled by Panasonic. If I had the money, I'd rather spend another $2000 for a new Toughbook F9, which is truly the only laptop I can find that is an improvement over my old Toughbook Y4.

Am I crazy? Is there any ultralight, full-size, laptop that can really compare to what Panasonic is making?

I agree, 800 bucks for something that has cut corners in terms of functionality is insane. I swear I've read at least two articles about the kind of computers you're looking for. Tried looking for them right now, but can't find them again except for this one: The Dell Vostro: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390893,00.asp#fbid=Gai8UrvJMmK

I haven't really been following the Windows pc market for ages since Sony announced the Vaio P which was ages ago.

Ah yes I like the V131 as well. I very much prefer the just right thickness of the base. It's functional and stylish. Also like the long battery life (altho the battery sticks a bit out of the bottom).

If it had a higher res screen it would be great. It also has too much bezel around the screen, although that's pretty common. If Dell updates the laptop to fix either or both, that'd be awesome. At 4 lbs it's not very light, but lighter than most 13-inch (usually around 4.5 to 5 lbs) which is acceptable.

Price wise it starts at $400 for a Celeron with Ubuntu. But if I were to get one I'd probably go for the i5 with 4GB so it can last you a year or so longer, and I saw it on sale for $680. Not bad, but in the end I didn't go for it because my old one is still better

By the way, right now I'm watching eBay for a new battery for my old laptop. I won't get one yet, but I feel I might have to replace it very soon... as I mentioned above it's got half its original capacity, so it's a matter of time now

That sounds like a nice laptop you have there takwu. Is there any way to upgrade it? It just sounds like the perfect machine except for the outdated hardware. When buying my laptop, I had to make a sacrifice with the video card because laptops with good video cards are too expensive for me.

Nah, most laptops cannot be upgraded anyway. My RAM is maxed out at 1GB (included when I bought it). I guess I could replace the harddrive with a faster one, which I'm just using in an enclosure anyway.

I wouldn't call it a perfect machine overall, but in terms of form-factor it's pretty darn close to perfect. The specs might just be enough to last another year or two, if I only use it for internet, as it is slightly faster than an Atom netbook (single core). Therefore considering the new battery

One thing I find awesome about the light weight of the Toughbook is single-hand handling. I don't *use* the laptop while holding it with one hand, however, I do move the laptop between the couch, coffee table, kitchen counter, and dining table.

During these "movements", I pick up my open laptop with my right hand, holding it by the front right portion. I find the weight very manageable, even natural. It's similar to putting a book or magazine down as you move around the house.

So if I want to replace the Toughbook, I'd like to find a similarly weighed laptop - 3.4 lbs. However, it might not be that simple.

The other day I walked by an Apple dealer, so I looked at the Macbooks. I did the single hand lifting test on them - try to lift the laptop, holding it by the right palmrest area. The Macbook Pro 13" (4.5 lbs) is expectedly too heavy. And I expected the Macbook Air 13" (2.9 lbs) to be much better. However, the very thin metallic body made it extremely uncomfortable to hold it in that fashion. Even the Air 11" (2.4 lbs) did not fair much better for the same reason.

Needless to say I was really surprised at how uncomfortable a Macbook can be in the home. It can only be used at a desk or conference table.

The Toughbook exterior is all plastic. So maybe I'll look at the plastic laptops, hoping that'd make it more comfortable to hold. It looks like the new ASUS U36 (13" no DVD, 3.6 lbs) is a pretty good one:
http://ca.asus.com/en/Notebooks/Superior_Mobility/U36SD/#specifications
The new one with 2nd gen core i5 has better battery life than the last one with first gen core i5. But as I said before $800+ is not exactly loose change.

On that note, I looked at the MSI X370 (3.8 lbs with 8-cell), which goes for $630:
http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?cid=8&id=330
Obviously the AMD E450 is no match for the core i5 and GT520M in the Asus. However I do like details such as the textured palmrest on the MSI.

In any case, compared to the Toughbook, these new laptops are still "downgrades". Mostly just the resolution, which is 1366x768. That's like cutting off the bottom quarter of my screen. And there's no DVD (which is not crucial, but still a "doh!" when you do need it). The weight is slightly increased, and dimensions are slightly wider but shorter.

To make sure I'm not being unreasonable with the resolution thing, I made screenshots of 1400x1050 and 1280x768 a while ago for a side-by-side comparison.







Attachments
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1400x1050 (half).JPG (80KB - 1 downloads)
1280x768 (half).JPG (55KB - 0 downloads)