I'd recommend the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The screen is 14" but in the same size as a 13" ultrabook, it has the TrackPoint (although the trackpad is very good too), and it has great Linux compatibility. And then there's the ThinkPad build quality.
The one I chose is the Sony Vaio Z -- 13.3" at 1920x1080, quad core ivy bridge, Intel graphics (important for Linux users) dual (!) 256MB SSDs. The nice feature is the flat extra battery that simply clips to the bottom, giving a total of 96WH of energy (about 7.5 hours!) while simultaneously insulating the heat sink from my lap and making the bottom surface completely flat.
Definitely recommended, though not particularly cheap.
I'm not sure exactly how the Vaio Z is engineered, but wouldn't that defeat (or at least hinder) the purpose of the heat sink? Maybe there is enough space to let air flow to cool the heat sink.
There's an air channel cut in the interior side of the battery that draws air from the back of the case. I tried running some simple tests to see if it affected cooling under load, but saw no temperature difference.
Me too. And at least when i got mine it was lighter than the air but with way more performance. Only two negatives, the fans can be quite loud and the windows driver situation is horrible, but i use linux so it's not an issue for me.
But the X1 Carbon only has a 1600x900 resolution. While better than 1280x800, this is still too little for having 2 windows side-by-side in most cases. I know this because I have a Thinkpad T430 myself.
The Thinkpad build quality also isn't what it used to be.
The Thinkpad build quality far eclipses the Asus'--to the point where handling them side by side (as we got to do since I have both of them) is a pretty eye-opening experience. The Thinkpad feels sturdy and the Asus feels flimsy. Also, whatever Asus is using for mouse drivers drove me insane. You'll see all kinds of online complaints about mouse lag and stutters. The Thinkpad does not have this issue, and also has 2-finger scrolling. You will not miss the difference in resolution compared to the huge upgrade in hardware quality.
I reverted to using Panasonic Toughbooks exclusively after buying, and subsequently returning a Lenovo W520 at $200 out of pocket, and I'm prepared to defend the following Toughbook rave in a verbal deathmatch if need be. Every other laptop I've encountered feels like cheap plastic. Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus, Dell, HP - literally every other laptop on the market today is poor in comparison. The hinges are weak, the design isn't sturdy, the little things aren't done right, and mostly they feel like uninspired works of crap designed to make a buck off of consumers.
The fact that Lenovo advertises some of their products as rugged is simply laughable.
> But the X1 Carbon only has a 1600x900 resolution. While better than 1280x800, this is still too little for having 2 windows side-by-side in most cases. I know this because I have a Thinkpad T430 myself.
I have the T410, which has a 1440x900 screen. It's certainly a bit of an issue, but I compensated by running a tiling window manager to save on screen real estate. And this might be more of an issue in Windows, where screen real estate isn't used as carefully.
I checked out the ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A at a local store, and the trackpad didn't just agree with me. The poor Linux compatibility and the lack of a pointing stick are concerns as well.
> The Thinkpad build quality also isn't what it used to be.
I haven't seen any statistically significant proof of this. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence, but that doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
