Which Ultrabook to Purchase? (

[Divardo]

My friend is looking at purchasing a new laptop for around the ?500 - ?650 price range. She was looking at the 15.6" screen sizes but is now considering 13.3". Samsung has caught her eye, although she is torn between the Samsung Series 5 NP530U3C and the Samsung Series 5 530U3C.

The main difference between the two is the Intel i3 and i5 processors. She will mainly be using the machine for word processing, web browsing, music and films etc, nothing to intensive.

The Samsung Series 5 NP530U3C which is set at ?529.99 has the Intel i3 -3217U processor where as the Samsung Series 5 530U3C at ?634.98 has the Intel i5-3317U.

Would you suggest the i5 processor is worth the extra ?100 odd? What would the benefits be?

She was quite keen on an SSD Ultrabook, so any suggestions of these, or other Ultrabooks entirely would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

You can always buy a separate SSD, so that isn't a problem.

As for what she is doing, she won't gain much from the i5.

But, as for the price, I would get this: http://www.ebuyer.com/501249-exdisplay-acer-timeline-m3-laptop-ebr1-nx-rykek-011

I just love the Acer Timeline series. Several of my friends have them.

[mkol]

what about lenovo

[Astra.Xtreme]

I honestly wouldn't recommend Acer, Toshiba, or Dell. Those 3 consistently rank as the worst PC brands each year.

Keep in mind that with most (if not all) ultrabooks, the battery isn't user-replaceable, so if you get a cheapo brand and the battery burns out after a year, you are pretty much SOL.

Asus or Lenovo are the best brands to go with. Samsung is decent too.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

In my experience, yes the older models, as a few years ago, Acer was one bad company, but lately, they have been rather good.

[PlanetMyHero]

I honestly wouldn't recommend Acer, Toshiba, or Dell. Those 3 consistently rank as the worst PC brands each year.

Keep in mind that with most (if not all) ultrabooks, the battery isn't user-replaceable, so if you get a cheapo brand and the battery burns out after a year, you are pretty much SOL.

Asus or Lenovo are the best brands to go with. Samsung is decent too.

+1 for Lenovo and Asus, they are great, Samsung are good though

[Zlain]

Always go for strong build quality with laptops. In my mind, that has genuinely put Lenovo right up there. I'd recommend getting the i3 and save her the ?100. Why? Because Laptops aren't really upgradable anyway and it will go out of date within the next 2 years regardless. So might as well save the ?100, given the fact she isn't going to be using it for anything too intensive.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Always go for strong build quality with laptops. In my mind, that has genuinely put Lenovo right up there. I'd recommend getting the i3 and save her the ?100. Why? Because Laptops aren't really upgradable anyway and it will go out of date within the next 2 years regardless. So might as well save the ?100, given the fact she isn't going to be using it for anything too intensive.

I'd actually say in a month. As Haswell is right around the corner.

[Zlain]

I'd actually say in a month. As Haswell is right around the corner.

Fair enough. I don't know much about hardware technology.