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Question

ASUS UX303LN vs. UX303LA

Mar 4, 2015 11:16AM PST

Hello, I had my eyes on the Sony Vaio Pro 13 (1.1 kg, almost 15 hours of battery life with the external battery), but now Sony has shut the Vaio division. As a replacement, I am looking at the ASUS UX303LN (i7-5500, NVidia 840M graphic card, 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 1299 Euros) versus the UX303LA(i5-5200, Intel HD 4400 Graphics, 8GB Ram, 128 GB SSD, 799 Euros). I realize that the processors are not that different, the 4 GB RAM can probably be sacrificed, and I already have another 512 GB SSD, so the main issue for me seems to be the Intel 4400 vs. the NVidia 840M. I am not a gamer, and I just need adequate graphics performance to watch movies: would the Intel be more than enough, since the cost difference is 500 Euros ?


The Dell XPS13 seems to be the other alternative... could you suggest others ?

Thanks, Suresh

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
What's the primary use?
Mar 4, 2015 11:26AM PST

And given the cost of battery use, are you so sure about leaning on battery time?
Bob

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Work laptop
Mar 4, 2015 5:36PM PST

Hi Bob,

I will primarily use the laptop for scientific work (Word, Illustrator, Opera, Python, Matlab): the i5/i7 should be sufficient for my simulations. I did not understand what you mean by "the cost of battery use" - but I would like to be able to use the laptop while travelling and so more battery time, the better. I realize the Macbook Air/Pro is an expensive but probably ideal option, but I am resisting the switch to the Mac if possible.

Thanks, Suresh

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Cost of battery time.
Mar 4, 2015 10:50PM PST

OK, so the usual battery (including this one) has a rating of 300 cycles. What that means is that after 300 cycles the battery is considered good if it holds 50% of it's original rating. Below that and they change it.

So if you used it on battery daily for a year you should see the number of minutes drop a lot over that year to the point you don't get your 10 hours. I'd expect 5 to 8 hours. Cost to change out the battery varies so I'll use the Apple number of about 130 dollars (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook-air/macbook-air-faq/macbook-air-battery-replacement-instructions.html ).

Not only that but if you run some simulation and this causes the machine to work hard, the number of hours on battery plummets. Example of an Asus UX303LN at
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-Zenbook-UX303LN-R4141H-Subnotebook-Review.128511.0.html
shows a range of close to 13 hours at the top end of range and under 2 hours under load.

Battery time is expensive. To avoid this, follow the ABC rule (always be charging) when there is some AC nearby.
Bob