Thoughts on this Asus Zenbook (UX303LN-C4123P)?

LOliverKlozoff on 01/02/2015 - 23:11

help out a computer retard?

I need a portable laptop (thinking no more than 14") with good battery life, fast processor and at least a dedicated 1GB graphics card for running software for work. SSD preferred. Been recommended the asus zenbook and am thinking about this one

http://www.warehouse1.com.au/epages/shop.sf/en_AU/?ObjectPat…

Am open to other suggestions, comments or plain abuse.

Anyone have experience with these guys?

Wanna get the best bang for my buck. Budget around 1.5k, less would be better but I wouldn't mind shelling out a little more for the best my money can buy.

Computing

Comments

  • bargainbloke on 01/02/2015 - 23:28
    +2

    Hey Zuggy,

    We bought an ASUS Zenbook UX31e a couple years ago when my wife and i went backpacking around the world. The laptop took a flogging including several changes in temp and humdity and getting dropped from waist height and survived it all. best thing was we bought is for like 1300 and sold it 6 months ago for 800.

    The only issue is that becuase of its size you had to carry little adaptors for VGA display, LAN etc but otherwise it was a perfect little Laptop for what pauline and i used it for.
    what do you want to use the Zenbook for?

    • OliverKlozoff on 02/02/2015 - 08:15

      Pretty much work use, not hoping to put it through hell but best if it can take a beating now and then :p

      What do you guys use now?

    • Ramrunner on 02/02/2015 - 08:58

      Why the hell did this comment get negged? Here you go a plus vote. I have a UX31A and it's rock solid. I normally replace my notebooks every two years, but this one I've skipped replacing as it's hands down the best notebook I've ever owned and I have no reason to upgrade it.

  • ProspectiveDarkness on 02/02/2015 - 00:39

    This looks like a pretty good option. You won't find many other ultrabook type notebooks with discrete graphics

    • OliverKlozoff on 02/02/2015 - 08:17

      Any thing else you can think of that does? And in this price range?
      I'd like to consider a few more options before settling.
      Buyers remorse hits me hard hahah

      • Ramrunner on 02/02/2015 - 08:59

        Mate buy it. That;s the best price I've seen on that model yet and is actually the one I was considering if I DID upgrade.

        • OliverKlozoff on 02/02/2015 - 16:43

          Damn they're out of stock. will need to see how long before I can get one. have you had experience with this site?

        • OliverKlozoff on 02/02/2015 - 16:46

          Whirlpool says its a complete sham of a site and not to use them.
          damnit. guess my search continues.

        • Ramrunner on 02/02/2015 - 17:09

          @nuggy: Look, I thought it was to good to be true unfortunately. The i5 version of that model is $1498.21EX through one of the major Australian Distributors (wholesale price) so I could not really see the i7 version being readily available for less than that retail.

          The going rate on the official Australian Released version is closer to $2k retail. The distributor I mention does not even have the i7 version at the moment.

          Of course you will get better pricing getting the grey import version.

        • OliverKlozoff on 03/02/2015 - 09:20

          @Ramrunner: Damn. Well, if I wanted australian stock. where would be the best place to buy it?

        • Ramrunner on 03/02/2015 - 11:28
          +1

          @nuggy: LOL - you want me to find a competitor to my company selling it cheaper?

          Look my company doesn't actually like to sell that i5 model as the RRP is $1699, and our buy price including getting it delivered to our office is $1662. $37 is not really worth it for us.

          So for the i5, if you can pick it up for significantly less than that you're doing pretty good.

          They DO have a promotion of 3 years extended warranty included in that price. Bad news is I can see no stock anywhere in Australia at the moment so could only get it on back order at the moment.

          Some of the other distributors might, and of course retail stores would keep some stock also.

        • OliverKlozoff on 03/02/2015 - 12:34

          @Ramrunner: LOL sorry I didn't even know you worked for the company, must not have read your prior messages through properly. haha my bad.

          Well, if I were to purchase through your company and I wanted something with the following specs, what would you recommend:
          - 13-14" screen preferably
          - 128-256 GB SSD
          - at least 1GB dedicated graphics
          - i5 4th gen minimum
          - portable (less than 2kg?)
          - good battery life

          again 1.5k give or take a hundred or so…

        • mrmarkau67 on 03/02/2015 - 23:04

          @nuggy:

          No such laptop if you buy new. You would be lucky to find one even secondhand.

          I compromised on battery life and portability, but not quality or performance by going with a secondhand dell Precision. Very happy with it because it doesn't throttle due to overheating.

        • mrmarkau67 on 03/02/2015 - 23:05

          @nuggy: have you considered alienware? http://www.dell.com/au/p/alienware-13/pd

        • OliverKlozoff on 04/02/2015 - 09:14

          @mrmarkau67: I haven't actually, always thought they were ridiculously expensive so I didn't even click into it when i was at the dell page. How is it with battery life and overheating, being a gaming laptop?

  • Ramrunner on 03/02/2015 - 18:56
    +1

    Mate the fly in the ointment is the dedicated graphics card. You just don't really see them on the smaller screens. The UX303LN was the ONLY one I've heard of that does that. I mean, there's some really beautiful machines out there other than the fact they have no dedicated graphics.

    I'm doing some 17 and 15.6" quotes for others at the moment. While I have the distributor's price lists open I will scroll through and see if there's anything like that in the 13.3-14" units around.

    Leave it with me. I'm pretty busy. Should be done by tomorrow, Friday latest.

    • OliverKlozoff on 03/02/2015 - 21:11

      Yeah, I know and they run pretty hot as well so usually you need a bigger body with a fan etc etc to get it in…
      Would appreciate anything you can find.

      Cheers mate.

      • scrimshaw on 04/02/2015 - 03:02
        +1

        Horize ultranote $1,479

        Horize W230SS-SE2 13.3" with 3200x1800 display
        2.0 KG weight

        i7-4710MQ quad core processor (yes, real quad core, not a dual core i7)
        256GB SSD
        8GB DDR3 RAM
        GTX860M 2GB discrete GPU
        3 year RTB wrty

        http://www.logicalblueone.com.au/store/615-horize-w230ss-cle…

        The specifications are super overkill considering you don't play games, but you did say you want the best money can buy…

        I personally would go with a Surface Pro 3. Very portable for work, battery can last 9 hours if used on power saving mode and the HD5000 graphics is good enough even for light gaming.

        • OliverKlozoff on 04/02/2015 - 09:03

          Yeah had my eye on that one, but I was seriously hoping that for the money I could sacrifice the overkill graphics and processor for battery life and portability.

          The SP3 I don't think will work well with some of the programs I have to use, plus I've never been a fan of a dockable keyboard, makes it tricky to use on trains/planes/buses

          The horize is defo on my shortlist though, thanks scrimshaw :) but I would much rather something that gets be 6-7 hours of battery life (real battery life not "quoted")

          Will keep looking for now.

          Cheers for the input!

        • Ramrunner on 04/02/2015 - 12:15

          LOL make that TWO 13.3" units I've heard of with dedicated graphics. Thanks Scrimshaw. While I'm on the subject though, dedicated graphics and 6-7 hours battery life generally don't go together. nVidia Optimus has been a pain in the butt with the Dells I've dealt with actually getting games to recognize one or the other even with the control panel installed and distinctly choosing the graphics card you want for each game. Ideally I'd want an Ultrabook with a hardware switch on the side to switch between integrated/discrete.

          Does that holy grail exist?

        • mrmarkau67 on 04/02/2015 - 17:12

          That Horize is amazing - and very close to his requirements, but goes over $1500 once you put Windows on it.

          Depending on whether OP needs sustained performance, heat may be an issue with this model.

          http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Clevo-W230SS-Schenker-XM…

          Do you have personal experience with gaming on the Surface Pro 3? I've been reading about throttling issues with this machine as well.

        • mrmarkau67 on 04/02/2015 - 17:13

          @nuggy:

          I was seriously hoping that for the money I could sacrifice the overkill graphics and processor for battery life and portability.

          Are you SURE you need dedicated graphics?

        • scrimshaw on 04/02/2015 - 17:18

          Considering how thin the SP3 is, a fan that's made so thin cannot cool the CPU sufficiently.

          according to reddit the i5 and i7 CPU's will throttle down to core i3 speeds, and even if you have a HD5000 it's going to perform like a HD4000 when it starts getting hot.

          At best, these are gaming tablets and not gaming laptops. Games like Portal2, SC+DOTA, and CS:GO would run ok on it, so at best it'll be decent for a quick game when you're out on lunch break but not for fulltime gaming when you're at home.

        • OliverKlozoff on 04/02/2015 - 20:22

          @mrmarkau67: That's the thing, I've been told by the company that uses the software that it needs to have:
          "Graphics card with full compliance with directX 10.1 with 1GB video memory"

          which, to me, sounds like dedicated 1GB card?

        • scrimshaw on 04/02/2015 - 20:24

          @nuggy:

          "Graphics card with full compliance with directX 10.1 with 1GB video memory"

          Doesn't need to be a dedicated GPU. Intel HD graphics are actually pretty good nowdays and there are discrete GPU's that are weaker than HD5000.

        • OliverKlozoff on 04/02/2015 - 20:27

          @scrimshaw: Wait I'm sorry let me type the exact writing, before I was paraphrasing, despite my incorrect usage of the quotation marks.

          actual quotｅ：
          ＂ATI/AMD or NVIDIA graphics card with full DirectX 10.1 compliance and 1 GB of video memory"

          the first 6 words were underlined too.

        • scrimshaw on 04/02/2015 - 20:30

          What software is this? Have you tested this software out on a computer with Intel graphics? Does it run?

          Sounds to me they are adamant on Nvidia or AMD GPU's because the developers were too lazy to test it on Intel GPU's, or maybe the spec requirement hasn't been updated since Intel GPU's have improved considerably over the years.

        • mrmarkau67 on 05/02/2015 - 09:33

          @nuggy:

          So maybe you need it for compatibility rather than performance?

          This is one reason why Dell Precisions and HP Zbooks are so expensive - they are actually certified to run specific professional graphics packages.

        • OliverKlozoff on 05/02/2015 - 09:59

          @mrmarkau67: Fair point scrimshaw… I'll be honest with you. I'm not sure, not computer savvy enough to know. Also I'm running out of time as I need to get it soon if I want it delivered before the 19th.

          Moreover, I don't really wanna risk it by getting an ultrabook/laptop with lesser graphics and finding my life that much harder cause things won't work properly, wont look good, will be slower. The extra couple of hundred bucks will seem like a an unworthy saving in that case

  • Ramrunner on 04/02/2015 - 18:44

    Nuggy - I've just finished up the quotes for the other customers while keeping an eye on all the distributor lists for a 13.3" with dedicated graphics.

    Sadly can't see any bar the Asus. None of my distributors do the Horize.

    So sorry - manufacturers don't seem to put dedicated graphics high on the priority list when they build an ultraportable 13.3" laptop.

    Good luck. Let everybody know how you get on.

    • OliverKlozoff on 04/02/2015 - 20:07
      +1

      I appreciate what you're doing.

      Guess the Asus it is then, shame all the sales are done and over with.. wonder how much wiggle room there usually is in the price instores.

      Might have to bite the bullet and just pay for it.

      Once again, thanks a lot mate, appreciate it! Will defo post once i buy something.. hopefully it'll be soon and for a bit less than the advertise price

      • mrmarkau67 on 05/02/2015 - 09:35

        1.You may find it hard to actually get stock of the Asus
        2.See Scrimshaw's point above. It may be worth trying the software in question on a modern Ultrabook without dedicated graphics and see if it works ok.

        • OliverKlozoff on 05/02/2015 - 09:57
          1. any idea why its so difficult? seems to be out of stock most places i check
          2. yeah the thing is most of my friends have pretty kickass laptops with decent graphics cards. don't really know anyone who'd let me install a huge program on it haha
        • mrmarkau67 on 05/02/2015 - 11:48

          @nuggy:

          1. Corporates buy Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba and HP. Apple dominates mid to high end home, education and enthusiast markets. Asus needs to find niches that Apple don't already dominate.

          The UX303LN competes with Apple MBP, so it sells in dribbles, with very low margins to the reseller. So they don't keep stock.

          If you didn't need the dedicated card, on your budget, you'd find it hard to go past a 13" Macbook Pro with Retina Display.

          1. Don't be afraid to reach out to the software vendor and ask them if you REALLY need those dedicated graphics. Assuming you are fully licensed of course.
  • OliverKlozoff on 06/02/2015 - 16:59

    Just to keep you guys (and anyone else that may be on a similar path as me) updated, I'm now considering this laptop:

    http://www.mediaform.com.au/products/toshiba-z40-ulv-i5-4300…

    Thoughts?

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