Sub-1Kg, 10-hour notebook

[Vogelbung]

1) What is your budget?
Anything under £7,000 / $10,000 will be considered

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
10" - 12” screen. If a 13, great. Basically the biggest / highest-res while fitting into the other requirements.

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.
UK or Europe. If a particularly compelling machine exists US-only then I'll consider bringing one back or getting someone to buy it.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
This is an exploratory question so I'm not ruling anyone out.

5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistrubited?
No.

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Office-type work. Your regular slightly more strenuous, but nevertheless perfectly tacklable on a CULV type office work.

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?
Portable only.

8) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games or types of games?
No.

9) How many hours of battery life do you need?
10 real life Wifi-enabled usage with extensive power saving kicked in - so about 11 Sony 'up to' hours, 12-13 HP/Dell hours or 14-16 Apple 'productivity' hours. No lower - this is the whole point of the question in this post.

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?
Don't care

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista), Mac OS, Linux, etc.
Windows 7 Professional / Ultimate only

12) Screen Specifics
1366 x 768 is desired res. Will take 1280 x 800 at a pinch. No lower and yet not necessary to be higher, although as in 2) the more the merrier to be honest. I draw the line at the pixel density of the Sony full HD in 13" though - my eyesight is decent but I had to turn up the text size on that screen. The pixel density of the 1600 x 900 screen in a 13" suits me fine, so 1366 x 768 in 11" would do me fine.

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?
Matte hugely preferred, but I'll take the Macbook Air / Sony VAIO style glossy. The glass-fronted displays? A definite no.

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
Listen. I wouldn't commission a bag for myself (and I'm a bloke) that costs more than some cars if style wasn't important.

15) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?
Buying as soon as a plausible machine comes up. If the machine fits my prerequisites exactly I would like to keep it for around 2 years.

16) How much hard drive space do you need; 80GB to 500GB? Do you want a SSD drive?
256Gb SSD preferred, 128Gb SSD minimum. No platter drives.

17) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive?
External only, internal would be a bonus (and a miracle)

Other immutable prerequisites:
- No Atoms
- BT EDR 2.1, N
- Must have usable touchpad or a touchscreen, i.e. no trackpoint-only machines
- under 1Kg in the 10-hour configuration. Once again, this is the whole point of asking so no heavier.
- Usable keyboard, but does not have to be full pitch - but not the subchicklet style like the Sony UX.

Nice to haves:
- Built-in Gobi 3G a major plus
- Proper docking station (i.e. not USB) offered

Thanks

[nycdk]

Try looking into the Lenovo Thinkpad X201. 12'' screen and ~11 hours battery life from what I've read.

[User Retired 2]

12" Dell E4200
12" Lenovo X201s
13" Toshiba R700 (1.3kgs with optical drive). If removed the optical drive AND used a SSD instead of HDD you'd bring the weight down to approx 1.1kg.

To get 11hrs would require a very power efficient SSD (eg: samsung), likely a ULV processor OR undervolting the supplied processor AND use of a 9-cell. Problem with the 9-cell is each additional cell adds 40-50grams of weight.

[cjwhite92]

The Thinkpad X201 has a matte screen, an option for Gobi 3G built in, and you get the dock included if you buy one right now, just something to consider.

[Vogelbung]

Sub-1Kg, not 1.5Kg. Thanks

Also, the R700 doesn't actually look like it can hit either target, let alone both.

[John Ratsey]

We have to wait to see whether Samsung's X130 notebook gets near the mark.

The attached extract from the new Samsung X series user guide makes some bold claims about weight and battery life. There's some more extracts from the user guide in this thread.

The drivers and software are up on the Samsung download site which usually indicates that it is starting production but Samsung have made no public announcements.

Otherwise the discontinued Toshiba R600 well meet your weight requirement but would not offer the battery life. The transflective display is matte.

John

[moviemarketing]

For around $3k you can get a Fujitsu life book P1630 with 8.9" screen and 128GB SSD that makes your weight requirement if you use the 3-cell battery (2.2 lbs/ 1kg). If you use the optional extended 6-cell battery that brings the weight up to 2.5 lbs

It doesn't meet your battery life criteria, although with some tweaking of the settings you might be able to increase it, or buy extra batteries to swap out.
Standard Lithium ion (3-cell, 10.8V, 2600 mAh, 28 WHr); up to 3 hours
High-Capacity Lithium ion (6-cell, 10.8V, 5200 mAh, 56 WHr);
up to 6 hours and 15 minutes

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor Ultra-Low Voltage SU9300 (1.20 GHz, 3 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB)
Chipset Intel® GS45 Express chipset
Memory DDR2-667 MHz SDRAM dual-channel memory module. One DIMM slot; upgradeable to 2 GB of total memory.
Display LCD 8.9" Wide XGA touch screen display
Video Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500HD video graphics. Up to 384 MB
Controller shared video memory using Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT)
Resolution Internal display (max.): 1,280 x 768 pixel resolution, 16M colors
External monitor display: 1,280 x 1,024 pixel resolution, 16M colors
Simultaneous display resolution: 1,280 x 800 pixel resolution, 16M colors
Digitizer Resistive (Passive)
Hard Drive 128 GB Flash-Based Solid State Drive
Webcam Integrated Webcam (1.3 mega-pixel)
Audio Realtek ALC269 with high Definition (HD) audio
Stereo and headphone/line-out jacks
Stereo Microphone/line-in jack
Internal digital microphone
Communication Multinational3 56K4 V.92 modem and 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Wireless Communication Choice of Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi Link 5300AGN (802.11a/b/g/draft-n), or,
Atheros XSPAN®, Optional Bluetooth 2.1 for wireless personal area network communication
Wireless Broadband5 Optional; AT&T wireless Broadband Connect (3G, HSUPA - i think this means there is a SIM card slot)
User Interface StickPoint by Alps, 82-key keyboard with 16 mm key pitch; 2 mm key stroke
Ports One 15-pin D-SUB connector for VGA external monitor (see Display specifications)
Two USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) connectors for input/output devices
One DC In connector
One LAN (RJ-45) connector
One modem (RJ-11) connector
Docking port (80-pin, to dock with port replicator)
One stereo headphone jack
One stereo microphone/line-in jack
Card Slots One Type I/II PCMCIA slot
One Secure Digital (SD) Card slot
Security Platform Integrated Fingerprint Sensor with pre-boot authentication
Smart Card ready (via PCMCIA card slot; third-party software and Smart Card holder required)
Embedded Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2
Two-level hard drive and BIOS password protection
Computrace BIOS Persistence Module6
Security lock slot
Battery7 Standard Lithium ion (3-cell, 10.8V, 2600 mAh, 28 WHr); up to 3 hours
High-Capacity Lithium ion (6-cell, 10.8V, 5200 mAh, 56 WHr);
up to 6 hours and 15 minutes
AC Adapter Autosensing dual voltage support, 100-240V AC supplying 16V DC 3.75A
Dimensions/Weight 9.13" x 6.57" x 1.36" Approximately 2.2 lbs. with a 3-cell battery
Approximately 2.5 lbs. with a 6-cell battery

[JabbaJabba]

There is currently no ultraportable that meets your requirements fully.

Either it will be too heavy to meet battery life requirement or not fit the screen resolution specs.

The closest would probably be Vaio X with enhanced battery - but that's an Atom CPU.

Otherwise the Panasonic R series meets the weight and CPU specs, but comes short when it comes to battery life and screen.

The Vaio G series will likely not hit 10 hours real world and only has XGA like the Panasonic R. Otherwise it meets the weight req.

Since you will not find a laptop which will meet all criteria, I would consider the Panasonic N9, S9 or a ThinkPad X201s. Both are rugged and excellent ultraportables. The Panasonic S even comes with an integrated optical drive.

Otherwise, sit on your hands and wait until the computer that fits the bill is introduced. However, be prepared to wait quite some time.

[Vogelbung]

There's no point in compromising - and most of the machines mentioned thus far would actually offer a worse weight / performance / runtime ratio than my current mainstays, the Z11's.

I guess I have to wait for Sony to catch up to my requirements - I don't see anyone else doing it...?

[davidkneiber]

Does that really say Ten Thousand US Dollars? Can someone post a link for me with a laptop that costs more than that? (preferably something not gold plated or with diamonds)