shift Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I'm thinking of getting a new laptop and have narrowed it down to an X220, x230 or MBP They all come out to aprox the same price (give or take 75$). I'm after portable, powerfull and good battery life. ThinkPad X220 - $1,107.20 Intel Core i5-2540M Processor (3M Cache, 2.60GHz) Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) 12.5" Premium HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, IPS, Mobile Broadband Ready, 2x2 Antenna Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor graphics with dynamic frequency 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) 320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm 9 Cell Li-Ion Battery ThinkPad 1x1 b/g/n X230 - $1,035.20 Intel Core i5-3360M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz) Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) 12.5" Premium HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready, 2x2 Antenna Intel HD 4000 Graphics in Intel Core i5-3360M Processor 4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM) UltraNav™ with TrackPoint® and buttonless multi-touchpad 500GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm No Optical Drive 9 Cell ThinkPad Battery X44++ ThinkPad 1x1 b/g/n - Main advantage is 3rd gen processor, but lacks the ips screen of the x220 13" Macbook pro - $1,155 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x2GB 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide (English) I own a pc and an Imac now, so i'm used to both OS/s. Either one will get 8gb of ram and a SSD upgrade after the fact.. so looking at the 3.. which would you go for? and why? any input would be appreciated.. as i cant seem to make up my mind :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 vizio laptop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 If you want a good battery life, the MacBook Pro will provide you with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telot Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Have you looked at the Macbook Air? You mentioned that portability is a primary concern of yours, and with the latest refresh with ivy bridge, they're certainly plenty powerful. I myself have a i7 8gb of ram on order at the moment :) Just a thought telot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift Posted June 17, 2012 Author Share Posted June 17, 2012 how is the performance on the air? Would it be able to handle intensive graphics work in photoshop? The X220/x230 can get a good 10-14 hours of battery life with a 9 cell battery .. which is quite tempting. One of my buddies was just telling me about some of the Lenovo Win 8 hybrid laptops coming out in a few months... which also may be cool, or at least more juice in the same package. The only thing stopping me at the moment is that i would ideally like one of these options but with a higher res screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entity Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 A note about the MBP battery life. I own a mid 2011 one and after a 256gb ssd and 8gb ram update the battery life while browsing the web / using word, is about 5-6 hrs ... when you start using it , i'd have programs like firefox (12-ish tabs), eclipse maybe photoshop i'd say realistically you're looking at 2:30-3:30 hours of working time on the OSX side of things. Not sure about bootcamp but usually it's less. On the other hand processing power and size-wise I love the MBP ... jst wish there was more program support for something like ASP.net :-P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift Posted June 18, 2012 Author Share Posted June 18, 2012 I'm surprised you get shorted that much on battery life, but it kind of makes sense given apps to processing power. I am starting to lean a bit more towards the x230 with a 9 cell battery. Does anyone run bootcamp on a mac? How is the battery life running alternate OSs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01000010 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 My 13 inch mbp goes for 5 to 7 hours unless i leave it for a few days. I am running an ssd and 4 gigs of ram. Bootcamp works well and the battery life is about the same just really depends on the work being done on it. I have only considered getting rid of it for a macbook air but am afraid it will not feel solid enough for me and i will break it by folding it like a letter cause i am stupid or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sitwon Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I would recommend the ThinkPads over the MBA. They have user-replaceable batteries (and support multiple batteries). Pretty much every part is available as an FRU so you can repair it yourself, even long after the model is out of production. I love the TrackPoint, it lets you move the mouse or scroll on a page without lifting your hands off the home row. They keyboards feel more comfortable to me than the Apple keyboards (personal preference). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift Posted June 18, 2012 Author Share Posted June 18, 2012 So this morning i ordered the x230 with a 9 cell battery (10-14 hours batter) and a 256gb ssd/8gb ram to add in once it arrives! I'm stoked to get this little baby. I read online that you can use the msata port with ssd as a cache drive.. is there any purpose to this if i'm using a ssd as the main drive? (dual boot off it maybe? extra storage?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhook Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 ThinkPad. I'd look into the T430s. You can pull the optical drive out and stick a 4-cell battery in there and add a slice battery onto the bottom. However even the stock battery gets good life. It is also thin and lightweight. If you can wait a little while the T430u which is even more portable will be coming out. http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/thinkpad/t-series/t430s/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhook Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I read online that you can use the msata port with ssd as a cache drive.. is there any purpose to this if i'm using a ssd as the main drive? (dual boot off it maybe? extra storage?) mSATA SSDs are intended to be used for caching of an HDD so that you can get SSD performance without sacrificing storage. Since you're sticking a 256GB SSD in there (I hope you ordered a 7mm model or it will not fit) there is no need for this. Be sure to make a restore disc set since it will be nice to have should you decide to sell the system in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 My wife has the x220 with the extra battery slice. It regularly gets 20 hours of battery life. She took it on a four day trip and never had to plug it in. Few hours here, few hours there type usage. It's a pretty sweet little laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 I did order the 7mm SSD,it is lightening fast with it. I will keep the stock drive as a spare or pop it in if i ever sell it. I have been using it a few hours here and there and have yet to charge it (since my initial charge last Thursday) This little thing is awesome! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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