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Scott's Column
Series 9 vs. UX31 vs. Z835
-- and iPad vs. Fire vs. Nook
January 1, 2012
By Scott Lewis
This month I get some hands on time with three Ultrabooks. I also think about what tablet I would get... if no one gave me one for Christmas (Psst... nobody did).
Current Topics:
More Ultrabook Laptop Information
Samsung Series 9, Asus UX31 & Toshiba Z835.
I took a trip to Best Buy to get a better look at the Samsung
Series 9. I thought it was of mostly metal construction, but
someone told me that it had a significant amount of plastic. It just so
happened that Best Buy has the Series 9 sitting right next to the
Asus UX31 and Toshiba Z835.
The Series 9 is not a true Ultrabook as Intel as designated. It does not
use the latest version of the Core i-Series CPUs that Intel specifies
for the Ultrabook classification. That being said... it is inevitable
that the Series 9 should be compared to the first generation of
Ultrabooks because of the weight and components, including a 128 GB SSD.
So... sitting side by side how do they compare. First off, the Series 9
is definitely a very plastic based machine. The lid flexes
significantly, and it does have a certain cheapness to the construction.
This becomes much more evident when you put the Asus in your hands
immediately after putting the Series 9 down. The Asus has a very solid
feel, no doubt due to its aluminum construction. Finally... the Toshiba
feels like the flimsiest thing I have ever felt. However,
the Toshiba is also the lightest laptop I have ever felt.
Side by side compared to the UX31 from Asus... the Z835 feels like a
tablet. In its closed position, it looks like it is a
solid device. But as soon as you touch it it is quite clear that this is
a plastic affair. But it is so light you can actually forgive it.
I then took a walk over the the MacBook Air... the clear benchmark in
this category. It is incredibly sturdy, and pretty light. But compared
to the Toshiba... it actually feels a bit on the heavy side. It is
amazing how it just takes feeling how light one laptop is to make you
think everything else is in another class.
At this point the most important thing for me is the keyboard and the
touchpad. How do all four machines compare? For starters... I am half
tempted to get the MacBook Air and run my Windows software on VMWare
Fusion or Parallel's Desktop. The touchpad is so incredibly smooth
nothing even comes close. I was disappointed in all the Windows laptops
in this regard, but I would need to spend more time with them.
As they were setup two of the Windows laptops didn't even do two finger
scrolling. The Asus tried... poorly. I would see the little icon like
symbol that shows when you are trying to scroll, but it kept changing
the view. Granted, I brought up Explorer and was looking at a folder
full of files. When I tried to scroll it would show the scrolling icon,
but it would switch from detail view to icon view. So maybe the
scrolling was acting on the wrong item. But no matter how hard I tried I
could net get the scrolling to work as I expected it.
The Samsung and Toshiba did not even try to scroll with two fingers. I
also could not find the settings for the touchpad in the control panel
to see if this was just something that needed to be turned on. The
MacBook Air not only scrolled beautifully it would pinch and spread for
zooming with complete ease.
Next up was the actual typing experience. I tried bringing up Notepad on
each of the Windows laptops and type a couple of sentences on them. The
Asus was the worst. Its keys seem too larger and with very poor
feedback. Plus they have a very shallow travel yet require a fair amount
of pressure. It think the touchpad was also interfering with my typing.
As I would type a sentence the cursor jumped around and made part of the
sentence continue from the middle. It is hard to put into words, but it
was the worst typing experience I have had in a long time.
The Samsung was better, but still did not inspire confidence. The
Toshiba was literally a joy to type on. The keys seemed perfectly spaced
and sized for my fingers. I typed without error for a couple of
sentences. Even with the small spacebar it was easy to use. I really
like the tactile feedback from the keys. Just to be fair... I would put
the MacBook Air below the Samsung Series 9. The actual typing experience
was about even, but the MacBook Air does not have Home, End, Page Up and
Page Down keys. I assume there might be a key combination for this...
such as Option Up Arrow for Page Up, but I could not figure that out in
the store.
Ultimately, the MacBook Air came in third place because of a lack of
Windows keys (Command & Option instead of Ctrl & Alt, etc) as well as
the afore mentioned lack of Home, End, etc. keys. I don't think I could
live with it. The Asus was terrible in my hands. The Samsung was
acceptable, and the Toshiba was about as good as it gets.
So... it is weird... but I like the Toshiba. I am having a really hard
time considering it though, because of the super flimsy plastic
construction. When you close it and pick it up it weighs practically
nothing. Noticeably lighter that anything else.... period. This would be
a true joy to travel with.
I will want to do a little research on the touch pads. I need to be able
to judge the scrolling and pinching of these before I could spend my
money. I will look up how to turn those features on... and then head
back to Best Buy for another try at it.
HP is coming out with the
HP Folio 13. This is their foray into the Ultrabook scene. I'll have
to see how this stacks up. And where is Dell? They charged way too much
for there Adamo line, but I can't imagine they will let this category go
buy without trying.
If you did not receive a tablet for Christmas... and are thinking
about buying one for yourself... which should you buy?
Apple iPad - This is the preferred tablet. Although I
think it is pricey at $500 to start... it has the best ecosystem of the
lot. Multimedia content, apps & books are plentiful. The size provides
the best web browsing experience. And email will be better on the large
screen as well. You can also easily "side load" your own content if you
already have a large collection of media (videos & music). However, if
you are mostly interested in reading books then read on.
Amazon Kindle Fire - If you read a lot
of books, and your main reason to get a table is to
read books... then the Kindle Fire should be at the top of your list.
The size is almost perfect for reading books. Amazon has Apple beat in
the book selection department as well. It also has a formidable video
and music library as well. In fact, from a video rentable
standpoint, the Fire has the iPad beat. Apps for the Fire will
be a little lacking initially, but I am sure that will pan out in the
long run. I would not let the lack of apps specific to this tablet hold
you back. They have built it... and the apps will come. However, the
Kindle Fire has the least amount of memory... and is very tighly bound
to Amaron's "cloud" based services. Side loading your own content will
not be very useful. So, if you already have a sizable collection of
media files... then...
Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet - This is the geek's tablet.
It comes with more memory than the Fire, and has a microSD card slot to
add even more memory. However, it has the weakest ecosystem for content.
Oh sure, books are plentiful. But other media is lacking. I doubt B&N
will ever catch up to Apple and Amazon in this department. However, if
you are a techie... you won't mind "side loading" your media onto the
Nook. Side loading means you will manually copy your exiting media files
to it while it is synced to your computer. Not a big deal actually. So,
if you are a techie... and have have not bought into Apple's or Amazon's
ecosystems for content or services... the Nook is for you! Just keep in
mind the size difference between it and the iPad, because the web
browsing on the iPad is significantly more pleasant.
So all you guys out there that did not get the tablet of your dreams for
Christmas... now you have a simple way of deciding which tablet is right
for you.
Conclusion
Happy New Year!
