Choosing a long-lived ultra(?)book for travel programming?

Question

laptops

Hello.
I needed a laptop so that time would not be wasted in minibuses / trains between home and the university (about an hour one way). Of course, it will be used both at the university and in other interesting places, so an important criterion is battery life (the ideal is 7-8 hours “looked-coded-compiled-tested-repeat”.
Also important: a matte screen (gloss not interested, even a MacBook one), keyboard backlight, USB3.0, SSD (and not a miserable auxiliary 32GB, but a full-fledged > = 128GB), weight up to ~ 1.8 kg and a screen from 12 "to 14", Bluetooth, WiFi 802.11n. So I understand that it turned out to be an abstract ultrabook.
As for the memory and processor, the question is, sometimes VS2010 will be used with the Windows Phone 7 emulator (respectively, hardware virtualization support is needed), the Android emulator (of course, it always slows down, but I would like it to be smaller), I want to use Firefox, which I have enough voracious. Probably i5 and 4GB will be enough?
I would like Portal 2-style games to run without much lag at non-smart resolutions (but this is more of a bonus than a necessity).
Question - what can you advise?
I found the following models: Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A , Samsung 900X3C , Dell Vostro V131 , and a bunch of Lenovo models (T430, U310, X230, X1 Carbon).
The first one looks good, but I have conflicting battery data - Engadget says 7 hours, and other reviews say 4-5. Lenovo seems to hold a lot, but weigh>=1.5.
If anyone has something from this list (or one that fits the description above), I would like to ask you to unsubscribe about the subjective feelings of the unit and the operating time in a mode similar to “comfortable brightness for a room without keyboard backlight, without wireless communication, without external devices, “write-compile-test” or “watch lectures in ~ 640x480” mode.
UPD: I know about Sony Vaio, this is a very good option, but I don’t really like them in terms of design, so I’m trying to find an alternative.

Answer 1

Lenovo x230 with 9 cell battery.
There is an m-sata slot, you can put a 3G modem or a small ssd (but it will work in sata-2 mode). You can also change the usual hard drive that comes with the SSD. There are two memory slots.
There are models with an IPS matrix.
Of the minuses, perhaps only the standard resolution for 12 inches - 1366x786
Optionally, you can buy an external battery - the weight will certainly increase, but the operating time will also increase greatly.

Answer 2

zenbook prime can work both 7-8 hours and 3-4 hours in the same tasks. Depends on the mode, if you unscrew the screen brightness by 30% and turn on the economical processor mode, then 7-8 hours is not a problem (especially if you turn off wifi). At the same time, if not in the sun, then these 30% are enough, the screen is very bright.

Answer 3

If you often have to travel, then think about the 11.6 screen. The same Mac Air 11 (albeit with Windows) is a very nice option. Its counterparts from Asus and Samsung are also very budget-friendly. Within 50k you can pick up with a large SSD.
I also took an Acer aspire one 722 for myself - at 10 inches, decent 1280x720, though with a "regular" HDD and AMD C-60, but you can work quite well.

Answer 4

I’m not particularly comfortable developing on visual studio even at 14 inches - what can I say about smaller resolutions.
I use Lenovo Thinkpad t420s with 8GB of memory and an additional battery in place cd / dvd.
It seems to fit your description. Weight 1.7, matte screen, resolution 1600/900. With an additional battery, it lasts a very long time. Of the minuses, the tn screen - the viewing angles are small - but not particularly relevant for work, it does not look as cool as aluminum ultrabooks. It is better to take in the states - I came across with a very high quality screen, but there are few of them.
Yes, t420 and t420s are different laptops. Now there are t430s - it's newer - but they say they have a plastic case, and not magnesium alloy, like the t420s.

Answer 5

I would highly recommend the Lenovo X1 Carbon.
Weighs 1.35 kg; holds up to 8 hours (well, with minimal load, on average I get about 5-6 hours of coding) + there is RapidCharge, which allows you to charge the battery by 80% very quickly; 3G/Wi-Fi/BT; SSD 128/256GB + SATA3 256GB; up to 8GB of RAM; USB3.0 (although one slot in total); 14'' monitor.
Specifications: www.lenovo.com/products/us/tech-specs/laptop/thinkpad/x-series/x1-carbon/

Answer 6

I bought myself ASUS ZENBOOK UX32VD and I recommend it to you.
Matte FullHD IPS screen, discrete graphics, good processor. According to your criteria, only an SSD does not fit, but this laptop has a regular hard drive and you can replace it with an SSD yourself, plus you can also increase the memory up to 10GB.
Of the minuses - in 31 zenbook the case is completely metal, in this one there is pretty good plastic inside, and the bottom and top are still metal.

Answer 7

I don’t know how you will write something on 12-14 inches, but for any compilation and emulator overclocks the percentage. FF is also gluttonous, so divide the time in reviews by 1.5 minimum.
So if you want it to work for several hours, it will come to carry weights, otherwise look for the opportunity to charge it regularly.