Even at a time when I was looking for maximum performance out of every computer I purchased, ultraportables always caught my eye, for one reason or another. Perhaps it was their cuteness, or perhaps it was the jet-setting lifestyle that they were associated with. Whatever the reason, they’ve held a soft spot in my heart, but prices have always been a hard knock for my wallet.

Intel became a victim of their own success in the Atom processor. Although margins on the product are pretty high, they cannibalized sales of more expensive processors, especially during the economic downturn of late. Sure, they’re still making money from Atom, but less revenues equals (=) bad for most companies.

Intel launched the Consumer Ultra-Low-Voltage (CULV) lineup of processors to help combat falling ASPs, starting with single core SU2700 and SU3500 processors. Since then, they’ve broadened the lineup to include dual core Celeron SU2300, Pentium SU4100, Core 2 Duo SU7300, and more. I always thought it would be AMD that forced ultraportables into my price range; it’s ironic that Intel’s own upselling strategy put the ultraportable within my budget.

ASUS launched their CULV notebook products in early September 2009, and a couple months later, the UL20A began shipping in North America. The smallest of the bunch, the 12.1″ UL20A brings decent dual core performance down to something not much bigger than the larger netbooks, which range all the way up to 11.6″. In fact, one of the “netbooks” I’ll compare the UL20A to, the Atom + ION powered HP Mini 311, is less than 0.1lbs lighter and 0.4″ narrower and shorter.

Purchased configuration

Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1.3GHz)
1×2GB DDR2-800 RAM (1 open slot)
250GB 5400RPM HDD (Hitachi 5K500.B)
12.1″ LED-backlit display (1366×768)
Intel GMA X4500MHD
10/100Mbps Ethernet
0.3MP webcam
Intel WiFi Link 1000 802.11bgn
6-cell battery – 4400mAh (47.5Whr)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Dimensions:  11.8″ (W) x 8.4″ (L) x 1.0″ (H)
Weight: 3.3lbs (6-cell battery)

Price: $599 CAD

Reason for purchase

My choice of laptop would paint a pretty accurate picture of my interests and hobbies over the last five years. When I entered university, I went for a desktop replacement for power and gaming, an ASUS Z71V. Two years later, I downsized to a Dell XPS M1330, albeit with the discrete NVIDIA graphics, as I realized absolute performance was no longer the most useful asset of a laptop, with portability starting to trump. And now, as I wrap up my university career, I’m moving further down the size and performance food-chain with the ASUS UL20A. Without space limitations, a powerful desktop takes care of all my high-end photographic work.

Despite some drama around the time of the Dell-NVIDIA GPU issues, the M1330 has served me quite well for 2.5 years. That’s about as long as I’ve held onto any one piece of technology. The combination of portability and performance is not lost on me, and it served its purpose quite well. However, 2.5 years is a long time for the lithium-ion batteries, and both the 6 cell and the 9 cell started to wear out. To maintain portability away from power outlets, I needed to look for something new.

With a desktop holding down the performance fort, I went on the lookout for a small laptop, with good battery life. Cheap was also a bonus, as my place of employment would provide me with a laptop for business use. Really, this would be a toss-around for trips and lounging at home. Think netbook, but marginally more powerful.

I wanted something smaller than the M1330, so I juggled the Acer 1410T, 1810T, the ASUS UL20A, and the Dell Inspiron 11z.

• The Dell was struck from the list, after I found out even with the tumorous 6-cell battery, it only gets slightly over 5 hours of battery life.
• I’m still a sucker for aesthetics and design, and well, the Acer isn’t exactly a pretty face.
• The Acers all come with bilingual keyboards in Canada, which I haven’t had much luck adapting to in the past.
• The 1410T (SU4100) was $50 less than the UL20A, with similar battery life
• The 1810T (SU7300) was $50 more than the UL20A, with better battery life.

In the end, I compromised with the prettier option, an English keyboard, and decent battery life in the UL20A. The laptop was purchased from NCIX.com for $599.95.

Makes using a laptop without a mouse a bit more efficient, if you have a relatively recent laptop with a Synaptics touchpad.

I always thought it would be games that would be the thing that forced upgrades down the road. Quite unexpectedly, it turns out that photographic work brought my computer to its knees far before any games did (which I really don’t play anymore).

Intel’s Lynnfield launch gave me the perfect opportunity to get some great performance at a much lower price than the Bloomfield i7’s. For under $500, I put together an i5 750, 2×2GB DDR3, Radeon 4350, GigaByte mATX P55 board, and an Antec NSK1380 case. I repurposed the Kingston 128GB SSD for the desktop build, and stuck the old 120GB hard drive back in the M1330. For $500, I now have a substantially more suitable platform for photo editing. Next up will be to get another 4GB of RAM. Photoshop and Capture NX2 take up a heck of a lot of memory.

To take advantage of all that power, I picked up Scott Kelby’s Photoshop CS3 book for photographers. I’ve dabbled with Photoshop here and there, but never truly learned any formal techniques. Getting great out of camera photos is a wonderful thing, but I have to admit, most of my shots need some form of post-processing help. I’ve already tried a couple things from the book (very effective tips), and I now have one image post processed on the new computer with some new techniques. This photo is from a few weeks ago.

I think people are finding the unqualified attacks on Windows to be a bit long in the tooth. This clever slide didn’t get much of a response from the crowd. Why? Perhaps it’s because many people know Windows 7 is a significant improvement over Vista in usability. And for the vast majority of users, it’s the most important aspect they deal with every day.

And talk about pot calling the kettle black. What are some of the major innovations with Snow Leopard? Exchange support. A dock that takes cues from Windows 7’s new taskbar (gasp!). A mail client that no longer uses more threads when idle (talk about innovation). Improved 64 bit support and performance.

Here, I’ve fixed up Apple’s Snow Leopard logo for them.

Saving grace? It’s only a $29 upgrade for Leopard users. I think Microsoft could learn a thing or two, especially for Vista customers (not that it would be good for the bottom line). Then again, the changes over Leopard do seem to be pretty minor to most, even if ‘90% of the codebase’ has been updated. Without fancy new effects on the desktop, I doubt most users would be willing to shell out the previously standard $129 upgrade price.

The iPhone 3GS is a pretty incremental upgrade over the existing 3G, but I guess there’s not much point in releasing a devilishly awesome iPhone at this point when most of the 3G users are still locked only a year into their 2 year contracts. Nevertheless, if I were a new customer, I don’t see any reason to go for a $100 cheaper device in the 8GB iPhone 3G, which amounts to just over $4/month extra, as opposed to upgrading to the 3GS, with double the storage and some extra features. I’m sure Apple is hoping to upsell you with that exact logic.

And damn, did anyone else zone out (yeah, I know I was reading, but still) during the endless iPhone app demos? I know the App Store and the whole development community for the iPhone is doing great, but jeez, talk about keynote buzz-kill.

The most interesting piece of information for me today was the update to the MacBook (Pro). I considered getting a 13.3″ unibody MacBook in the past, but couldn’t get over the mediocre battery life. Now, the new 13.3″ MacBook Pro has an increased battery capacity (from 45WHr to 58WHr) and consequently, battery life has increased as well. And at around 7 hours of ‘wireless productivity’, it’s at the point where I’m strongly considering it again. I can deal with the built-in battery, which many people are still ranting about. Yeah, the free iPod Touch promotion for the back-to-school period doesn’t hurt.

Yep, I think I just might buy one.

Acer Canada has updated its price list, which now includes all three Timeline series models, and the MSRPs aren’t encouraging. The model I’m most interested in, the 13.3″ version, is priced at $999CAD for a Core 2 Solo SU3500 (1.4GHz), 3GB RAM, and a 250GB hard drive. A similarly configured Lenovo X200, but with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo can be had for around $1200CAD. The Timeline is simply not a good value proposition with the current pricing situation. Given that Acer announced these Timelines with a $699 to $899 range (USD), I’m not sure how they’re going to fit in the Core 2 Duo versions, with the Core 2 Solo already bumping up at $999CAD. If the Core 2 Duo version were somehow introduced at $999CAD, I’d be willing to consider it.

Sounds like the Eee PC (initial) pricing disappointment. That $199 price point was too good to be true back then.

TRUE.

Granted the 8 hours+ was hit under very light load, it still translates into a sub 7W power consumption, with the 6 cell 56Whr battery. Very impressive. Extrapolating based  on system specifications, the 13.3″ version, which I am more interested in, should do just as well. Even with moderate productivity work and web browsing, 6 hours+ should be doable, all at 3.5lbs. That’s tasty.

NCIX has started listing a few of the Timelines for pre-order. Unfortunately, prices are inflated, in the range of $1000 for the single core versions. Realistically, I think the dual core versions need to be quite a bit below $1000CAD, since for less than $1200CAD, one can get a Lenovo X200 with a 9 cell battery, which gets 6-7 hours of battery life, at around 4lbs.

Acer has put battery life as the number one priority in the new Timeline series, opting for ultra-low power Intel CPUs across the board. Coupled with some power saving features including an LED display and SSDs, the lineup should get 8 hours+ of battery life on the standard 6-cell battery. With the 6-cell battery, the 3810T weighs around 3.5lbs and will be just about an inch thick, 23.4mm to 28.9mm. To add some flare, the LCD lid is constructed with brushed metal (aluminum, presumably). What’s even better is that the whole package is slated to come in between $699 and $899. In all honesty, anything even around the $1000 mark, given decent build quality will put it directly in my sights for my next laptop.

The Dell XPS M1330 I’m writing this on has served me decently for the better part of two years, and it probably won’t be replaced before its 2 year anniversary. Unfortunately, what started off as a great laptop experience took a turn for the worse around the time BIOS A12 was released and the 8400M GS died. Now, to prevent the GPUs from dropping like flies over and over again, Dell’s recent BIOS updates for the M1330 have ramped the fans up to a dull roar, even when it’s sitting idling. That coupled with increased power consumption and the battery wear on both the 6 and 9 cell batteries have chopped battery life down to 2:15 and 4:00 respectively for typical productivity tasks (web browsing, email, word processing).

I’m on the market again, but very few laptops have put battery life first and foremost, at a reasonable price and portability. Hopefully production samples of the Acer Timeline don’t disappoint. Acer’s been on a roll with the Aspire Ones, so I’m holding out hope they’ll deliver.

I’d been doing some back-and-forth on deciding between Flickr and SmugMug, and while I prefer the viewing interface over at SmugMug, the communities I interact with are at Flickr. The cheaper subscription also helped that decision.

I’ve finally started to get my digital photography collection in order, and I felt a bit limited by the resolution limitations imposed by the free Flickr account. And while I haven’t reached the limits of my photostream yet, I have a feeling that’ll change shortly, especially with some nicer weather coming up.

On a related note, it’s ironic that I’ve always lumped digital photo processing in with browsing the web and word processing as things that don’t require much computing power to do (e.g. a $500 Dell would suffice). Now, my desktop (Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 640GB 7200RPM HD) is being brought to its knees by some HDR merges and generally when working with a bunch of RAW files. I don’t have a great workflow down yet, as I’ve always shot in JPEG in the past (yeah, so shoot me, no pun intended) and done very little to no post-processing. Looks like this will be the summer of some upgrades to the desktop.

For now, it’s bedtime.