Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#21

Post by ssgrfk » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:26 PM UTC

MacBook Pro

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#22

Post by blinkingled » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:27 PM UTC

I actually switched from 2010 Air to X220 after the 2011 Airs came out.

Needed a Windows machine and did not like where Lion was going - with 2011 MBA I would have no choice but to run Lion and Windows with half baked support (AHCI, other minor annoyances)

The X220 fits the bill -

1) Display is good - it's IPS panel with good viewing angles and great brightness (Make sure you opt for Premium HD display)

2) Battery life is great - 6-7 hrs for regular use is no big deal at all with the normal battery. Go with 9 cell for little extra thickness and you are talking 9 hrs.

3) It is fast even with the 7200RPM HDD - resume from sleep is fastest I've seen for a Windows laptop with regular HDD and pre desktop fingerprint authentication saves you more time.

4) Legendary Thinkpad keyboard - love it!

5) Fast regular voltage i5/i7 CPUs - not undervolted ones.

6) Does not get noisy or hot even under full load - the i7 models throttle a bit more but are still great.

7) Can have 8GB RAM - big deal for me as I run VMs. Not an option with the Air.

The only issue really is the tiny trackpad. It gets the job done but is nowhere near the nice big glassy one on the Air. If you were into Linux X220 runs Ubuntu 11.04 great out of box - added benefit.

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#23

Post by nickpp » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:31 PM UTC

I own a Lenovo X220, bought before the Air refresh.

Similar weight as the Air but much thicker. Little more powerful CPU to which I added 8GB ram and a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD.

12-13" IPS display, is the crappiest IPS I ever saw, still better than a TN though.

Battery life is around 5h, OK I guess.

Keyboard is great but touchpad is horrible. Mac os x is not an option, but Win 7 runs pretty great on it.

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#24

Post by cageface » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:33 PM UTC

I haven't found any non-Apple laptop with a trackpad that's even close. Everything I've tried on the Windows/Linux side has been bad enough to be a deal-breaker.

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#25

Post by Goladus » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:35 PM UTC

This isn't a recommendation, as I am not a customer, but System76 offers a "Lemur Ultrathin" model: http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&produc...

Here's a review: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1610568

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#26

Post by eitland » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:38 PM UTC

cageface wrote: post #24

I haven't found any non-Apple laptop with a trackpad that's even close. Everything I've tried on the Windows/Linux side has been bad enough to be a deal-breaker.

True. However on Linux and Windows I don't need to use the touchpad as often.

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#27

Post by mrud » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:40 PM UTC

nickpp wrote: post #23

I own a Lenovo X220, bought before the Air refresh. Similar weight as the Air but much thicker. Little more powerful CPU to which I added 8GB ram and a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD. 12-13" IPS display, is the crappiest IPS I ever saw, still better than a TN though. Battery life is around 5h, OK I guess. Keyboard is great but touchpad is horrible. Mac os x is not an option, but Win 7 runs pretty great on it.

JFTR the X220 does not have a 13.3" (that would be the X1 or X301 iirc) but 12.5"

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#28

Post by nickpp » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:41 PM UTC

mrud wrote: post #27

nickpp wrote: post #23

I own a Lenovo X220, bought before the Air refresh. Similar weight as the Air but much thicker. Little more powerful CPU to which I added 8GB ram and a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD. 12-13" IPS display, is the crappiest IPS I ever saw, still better than a TN though. Battery life is around 5h, OK I guess. Keyboard is great but touchpad is horrible. Mac os x is not an option, but Win 7 runs pretty great on it.

JFTR the X220 does not have a 13.3" (that would be the X1 or X301 iirc) but 12.5"

You are correct, sorry I was thinking about the Air.

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#29

Post by blackiron » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:43 PM UTC

Samsung QX411 actually looks a lot like the macbook air. It costs around 800$ with i5 and 6gb of RAM. Its very light for a 14' laptop and battery is pretty good too.

I own one and just love it, at first I installed Ubuntu but video and clickpad drivers didnt map well.. then found out I could just run Ubuntu inside VirtualBox with seamless performance .

Re: Ask HN: Any good Macbook Air alternatives?

#30

Post by f1shrman » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 1:47 PM UTC

sushi wrote: post #11

f1shrman wrote: post #5

In my experience the Macbook Air is the best bang for your buck in terms of weight, battery life and speed. The Samsung Series 9 is really the only one that comes close in those 3 areas, and it's more expensive. Full disclosure: I own the new i5 13" MBA and think it's the best purchase I've made in a long time.

I am planning to purchase the same MBA that you have. Would you say it's good enough for someone who wants to do Django, python dev, Photoshop, Illustrator and some basic video editing?

Good question, I don't run a lot of those apps but I do Ruby/JavaScript development on it and it feels faster than my i7 MBP (probably because the MBP has a 5400rpm hard drive). My guess is that you'd be fine, the only thing I can think of is that the Intel video card might slow you down in graphics intensive work in Photoshop.