13" macbook air with 8gb or 15" samsung series 9?

[munkle]

So I am debating between a 13 macbook air with 8gb of ram and parrallels (need windows for a few of my classes) or a 15" series 9 samsung ultra book.

I'm kind of stuck between the two, the samsung is barely bigger than the air but not by much so that's not really a factor. I mainly need something portable to do homework and program on.

13" Macbook Air - $1357 after taxes, with parallels and 8gb ram (I get windows for free from school so that doesn't cost me anything)

Pros:
I like the glossy screen better
Tract pad is the best
Magsafe power connector would be nice so no one trips over my cord and jacks up my laptop at school

Cons:
Smaller screen
Will have to run parallels some of the time (more hoops for some stuff and I assume this will affect battery life)


15" samsung series 9 - $1351 from newegg

Pros:
Bigger screen
Free $100 giftcard to newegg
Free 1 year extended warranty from newegg ( so 2 years)
1 more usb port than the air.

Cons:
tractpad isn't that great, keyboard is semi meh as well
The anti-glare coating seems fairly bad to me (I own a 3008wfp which everyone complains and i find it not as bad as the samsung)

Any comments or suggestions from people?

 

[AQ_OC]

How much do the cons on the Samsung bother you? You're going to be staring at the screen for some time to come....and using both the keyboard and the trackpad (though you could use a mouse).

Finally, why do you need to run parallels? Nuke OS X and install windows.

 

[slh28]

Do they do student discounts on Macs in the US? In the UK it's 14% and for me that pretty much sealed the deal between the MBA and Series 9 so I got a student friend to buy me a MBA.

Having owned both, the keyboard on the MBA is better and the trackpad is way better in OSX (and still slightly better than the Series 9 in Windows). I gotta disagree with you on the screen though, the Series 9 PLS screen is the best I've seen on an ultrabook but then I do prefer matte over glossy so the anti glare didn't bother me. Also I love the thin bezel on the Series 9.

Overall I think it depends on if you need the bigger screen or not, but bear in mind the screen resolution is pretty similar (1600x900 on the Series 9 and 1440x900 on the MBA) so it's not like you're getting much more screen real estate with the Series 9. Since it sounds like you're gonna type and use the trackpad a lot I'd go for the MBA. It's also got much higher resale value.

 

[mope54]

macbooks receive $100 student discount and airs $50 dollar discount. there should be some kind of back to school promotion going on that gives you an iTunes gift card, too

 

[munkle]

So I ended up getting this asus ux31a from bestbuy (surprisingly it was cheaper than amazon.com, the model number is different but specs are the same)

The screen sold me. 1080p and it was like semi-glossy semi mate so it looked perfect. Also cheaper than both the samsung and the macbook air by $350, and comes with a case and vga and ethernet adapters so I think it was a pretty good deal. The screen though is what really sold me on it.

 

[TFchris]

So I ended up getting this asus ux31a from bestbuy (surprisingly it was cheaper than amazon.com, the model number is different but specs are the same)

The screen sold me. 1080p and it was like semi-glossy semi mate so it looked perfect. Also cheaper than both the samsung and the macbook air by $350, and comes with a case and vga and ethernet adapters so I think it was a pretty good deal. The screen though is what really sold me on it.

how is the trackpad? is it fidgety like other people have said? also did u get the free xbox 360 for purchasing a windows 7 laptop?

 

[chinspecial]

So I ended up getting this asus ux31a from bestbuy (surprisingly it was cheaper than amazon.com, the model number is different but specs are the same)

The screen sold me. 1080p and it was like semi-glossy semi mate so it looked perfect. Also cheaper than both the samsung and the macbook air by $350, and comes with a case and vga and ethernet adapters so I think it was a pretty good deal. The screen though is what really sold me on it.

How's the viewing angle on the screen? Is it typical of what you'd expect (i.e. not that great) or actually pretty good?

 

[munkle]

how is the trackpad? is it fidgety like other people have said? also did u get the free xbox 360 for purchasing a windows 7 laptop?

Haven't used it enough to say on the track pad, and I didn't get the xbox but I didn't know about that. I will try to go in and see if they will let me get one, or I will just return and rebuy it to get the xbox.

How's the viewing angle on the screen? Is it typical of what you'd expect (i.e. not that great) or actually pretty good?

The screen has really good viewing angles. Not as good as my 3008wfp but alot better than any tn screen.

 

[munkle]

Upon playing with it some more I have found the track pad to be just fine for point and click (with the newest drivers from asus). Though the two finger scroll is a little jumpy, definitely not as smooth as a mac.