Recommendation for a Windows ultrabook

[Cheetah Designs]

I'm not sure where what I want exists already or not:
- <= 1.35kgs
- Dedicated GPU (thinking MX150 sort)
- Latest gen CPU
- ~13.3"
- Little noise during "normal" use.

The above are pretty strict. For instance I could get a HP Envy but it wouldn't have the latest gen CPU and would be above the weight limit.

 

[mid_gen]

I have been shopping around for an ultrabook the last couple of months as I'm travelling a lot for work these days. I was a little more relaxed on the GPU front as true Ultrabooks with worthwhile discrete GPUs simply don't exist. You can get some fairly lightweight laptops with discrete GPU but they're still twice the weight and significantly thicker.

Ended up buying a Surface Laptop (i5, 8GB, 256 SSD) last week.

Tried out the HP Spectre x360, Dell XPS13 and a few others. They all feel like cheap plastic tat compared to the Surface, particularly the HP which was awful.

Pros
Best build quality (better than the Macbook Pros I've had in the past, better than my thinkpad that it's replacing)
Excellent keyboard
Excellent screen (3:2 2256 x 1504)
Windows Hello (facial recognition login, really nice as I go bouldering several times a week and don't have any fingerprints)

Cons
Sealed unit, no possibility for upgrades.

 

[Cheetah Designs]

I was a little more relaxed on the GPU front as true Ultrabooks with worthwhile discrete GPUs simply don't exist. You can get some fairly lightweight laptops with discrete GPU but they're still twice the weight and significantly thicker

When you say worthwhile - what do you mean?...whilst I'm not a heavy gamer, it would be nice to be able to run something like Rome Total War every so often. The benchmarks show that something simple like the MX150 is much better than the integrated graphics cards...

 

[mid_gen]

Well, if money's not an issue, the Surface Book 2 higher end models have a 1050ti which is good for light gaming, but it's only in the 15" models.

The perfect Ultrabook just doesn't exist yet, maybe later this year some AMD (or Intel+AMD) APU powered Ultrabooks will finally appear with decent GPUs.

 

[413x]

I've gone for a surface 2 15in with 1060 6gb.
Is only thing I've found that can dish out the gpu grunt as the 1060 is not cut down from the desktop version I believe.
The cpu is also fairly beefy.
I'm selling my desktop and laptop to cover some of the (huge) cost.

 

[Cheetah Designs]

I'd pay the money if it was within my weight limit...just to be clear it's old games that I'm playing, Rome total war, age of empires etc...I don't think I need a that beefy of a GPU (unless I'm mistaken)

 

[Spike_UK]

As others have said, what you're after doesn't really exist yet. There isn't really the perfect Ultrabook at the moment, but in 6-9 months there might be.

My wishlist would be something lightweight, with a GTX 1060 (or whatever the next gen brings) and G-Sync and/or 120hz refresh.
Something that can happily play things at 1080p without being a brick. I had hoped the last Razor refresh might have ticked all those boxes, but sadly not.

 

[mid_gen]

I've gone for a surface 2 15in with 1060 6gb.
Is only thing I've found that can dish out the gpu grunt as the 1060 is not cut down from the desktop version I believe.
The cpu is also fairly beefy.
I'm selling my desktop and laptop to cover some of the (huge) cost.

Didn't realise they managed to cram a 1060 in it, thought it was only a 1050! Pretty impressive.

I think the intel integrated graphics is meant to be ok for older stuff. I'm installed Empire Total War from Steam at the mo, will let you know how it runs...