My wife recently bought an ASUS Zenbook, which is an astonishing piece of hardware; a fast, sleek featherweight that runs forever on a charge and basically pegs the sexy meter.
Aside from a keyboard that requires a direct hit on the key to activate, it sounds like the perfect writer’s toy.
Still, I laid it out next to my anchor-like, recently-revived-after-the-cat-threw-up-on-it 17″ Dell laptop, and realized I won’t buy one anytime soon (yes, my wife got one, so in the interest of spousal equivalence, I was considering one too).
I knew the Zenbook screen crammed 1600 horizontal pixels into a 13″ display. Meanwhile, my Dell wildly underachieves by comparison — its mammoth 17″ display only supports 1400 horizontal pixels.
The Zenbook wins, right?
Wrong.
In the rush to ever-higher screen resolutions, I think we’re reaching some practical limits, at least if you’re a 51 year-old writer with a lot of miles on your eyes.
How small can type get before our heads explode?
Windows allows you to dial up the Zenbook’s type size, but the user interface very quickly looks wrong, and the whole thing looks silly.
And while I knew intellectually type was shrinking in higher-resolution displays, I had to see it on my wife’s Ultrabook to truly grasp the reality.
(I’m purposely ignoring the issue of higher-resolution “Retina” displays, which maintain type sizes while increasing overall pixel density. They’re gorgeous, but the Intertubes have largely operated on one resolution, and as that changes, well, let’s say web developers have my sympathies.)
So while I may still buy an Ultrabook (no, I won’t let her win), I’ll find one with a low-tech, elderly friendly, 1366 pixel display.
Maybe a Dell Project Sputnik — their XPS 13 Ultrabook loaded with a developer’s version of Ubuntu Linux.
Writers can get a little quirky about keyboards and text processors, but when you push away from the desk at the end of a long day, your monitor determines how your head feels.
Keep writing (but not squinting), Tom Chandler.
Tom, my new ultrabook, a Samsung Series 9, has 1366 x 768 resolution.
Ultrabooks are great for any freelance writer that frequently takes the laptop out of the house. Mine weighs 2.9 pounds and I hardly notice the weight and bulk in my daypack.
And its solid-state hard drive is far, far faster than anything else I’ve ever used.
John Soares(Quote) (Reply)
I’m running solid-state drives on my desktops; the performance improvements are impressive (Linux installs take up very little space, so 128GB is more than enough). I’ll never buy another machine without one.
I think Ultrabooks are what laptops always wanted to be; fast, light and long-lived. I’ll end up with one eventually, but I understand the Zenbook is even available in a 1900 pixel version, a number which would spell doom for my tired eyes.
TC(Quote) (Reply)
I’ve been looking at Ultrabooks too, but I’m concerned about performance. Can Ultrabooks handle “bigger” programs like Photoshop and Illustrator? And is having a hybrid solid state/standard hard drive an advantage?
The thing that appeals most to me is the battery life, actually. I’d probably take mine with me more often if I didn’t have to cart around all the extras like the power cord, etc…
~Graham
Graham Strong(Quote) (Reply)
I don’t know about the “hybrid” drives; the SSDs are very fast (yes, you definitely want one) but expensive when exceeding 128 GB in size. A hybrid might might sense, provided the SSD was big enough to hold your system and apps.
And while I can’t speak to the graphics performance (think a lot of Ultrabooks are using the Intel 4000 graphics, which aren’t bad, but not quite on a par with the high-end Nvidia stuff), my wife’s Zenbook runs an i5 processor and yes, goes like hell.
If graphics are important, you might want to pay a slight weight penalty and look at the 14″ Ultrabooks now hitting the streets…
TC(Quote) (Reply)
TC,
Thanks for that — I assume the hybrid is so that you can access for bigger storage when needed, but only when needed to extend battery life, etc. Haven’t had much time to research it fully though.
I don’t know why I thought graphics might be a problem though — you’re right, an i5 processor in itself should cover everything I need. (I’m not gaming or anything like that, though Netflix on occasion… still, shouldn’t be too overtaxing. I’m running a step down from the i3 right now without any issues…)
Looks like I’m officially shopping for an Ultrabook!
~Graham
Graham Strong(Quote) (Reply)
I haven’t researched hybrid drives either, though I’d be concerned that you lose two key benefits of SSDs; they don’t spin so they run cooler and use less power. For that, you get more capacity than an SSD, but slower access.
They hybrid might cost you battery life (again, not researched).
Space might be an issue; Linux is very easy on hard drives (it takes little space), so 128GB SSDs are more than enough for even my desktops. On my wife’s Zenbook, her 128GB SSD (Windows 7) came with something in the neighborhood of 70GB already used. Not impossible — and the performance is worth a fair amount of hassle — but it’s a concern.
TC(Quote) (Reply)