So, like everyone I want the impossible. How close can I get? Budget is £1500 inc.

The essential requirements are:

1. Light and compact. I think 13" is probably a good compromise. The 14" Tosh I have at work is far too big and heavy, despite being made out of thin bendy plastic.

2. Good screen resolution. 1600x900 seems doable, although I'd really like more vertical. Going back well over a decade, my 486 with an S3 Windows Accelerator card managed 1280 x 1024 on the cheap 14" Samsung CRT which only had about 12" viewable...

3. Enough power to play Skyrim and Minecraft at close to max settings. My i3 at work achieves a laughable 1 frame a minute on the lowest settings for both games. Minecraft is OpenGL dependent if that makes a difference. The Intel HD graphics doesn't cut it.

4. Enough oomph to play high bit rate 1080p. I've seen some relatively powerful PCs struggle with bit rates over 5meg.

5. Available right now; not in a months time.

Desirable is:

1. Excellent battery life, 8 hours mixed usage would be good. I'm likely to be using this away from power.

2. SD slot.

3. SSD or possibly a hybrid drive. Primarily it's boot time I'm interested in here, so perhaps ReadyBoost with a fast SD card might be an option? I'm guessing not many small light laptops have 2 drive bays.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I would not be adverse to a Mac - I think Steam will let me download games for alternative platforms without buying them again..?

Thanks

A gaming ultrabook? That's a tall ask, most feature Intel HD Graphics (and even the 4000 series isn't up to much). The most powerful graphics chip I can find in an Ultrabook is a GeForce 640M, which isn't exactly known for its gaming prowess.

For decent gaming performance you may need to think about surrendering your portability requirements.

Unfortunately, the weight is critical. It's not so much portability in the usual way as the fact that Im' extremely weak, especially in my right arm.

I did say I wanted the impossible.

If you're not averse to a Mac (which can also run Windows/Linux or whatever takes your fancy), have you looked at the MacBook Air?

Bearing in mind I'm already biased as a Machead, I have heard nothing but good reports from serious people I trust about these laptops. When a serious professional photographer is happy to use an MBA as his main production machine, I sit up and listen.

http://www.apple.com/uk/macbookair/specs.html

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/s ... acbook_air

The Air was my first thought, but it's Intel HD 4000 graphics.

Anyone know just how well or badly It performs gaming in real life? My works PC is a fair bit lower spec.

Hmm. Don't know. I don't play games. However, as I say, a pro photographer is very happy with the machine, so the graphics can't be that bad.

I'll try and do some digging around later.

Are you near a Mac store or reseller? It might be worth going in and having a play with one, asking the awkward questions. Pissy Whirled usually has a decent Apple section these days, with reasonably clued-up staff. John Lewis stores also sell Mac kit.

Sony VAIO S Series 13,
£1,197.00 from saveonlaptops

Processor Intel® Core™ i7-3520M Dual Core (2.9 GHz, Intel Ivy Bridge Architecture, 6 4B L3 cache, Features Intel Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz)
Screen 13.3" (Sony Vaio display Plus, 1600x900 Resolution)
Operating System Windows 7 Professional Edition 64-bit
RAM 6GB (DDR3)
Hard Drive 750GB
Optical Drive Blu-Ray (Blu-Ray HD Play back + DVD-RW & CD-RW)
Graphics Dedicated (NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE with 2GB Dedicated Memory)
Wireless LAN Wireless (802.11b/g/n Wireless)
Network Card 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Integrated Webcam Integrated Webcam with Microphone
Card Reader 2-in-1 card reader ( SD, MMC )
USB Ports 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x USB 3.0 Port
Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0
Speakers Integrated Sound System
VGA Port 1 External VGA Port
Kensington Lock Kensington lock slot
Charge Time 2.5 Hours
HDMI 1x HDMI Port
Backlit Keyboard Yes
Warranty Sony 2 Year Collect & Return
Battery Life 7-8 Hours (up to 8 hours with power management)
Weight 2-3 Kg (This Model 2.2 Kg)

Not quite as light as an ultrabook, and screen resolution is at your minimum.

Fairly close. Unfortunately I'm pretty much housebound, and I'm not sure they'd let me install Steam on it in the store anyway!

Cheers Matt. I was looking at an S13 but didn't twig there was an SV13! V for Video I guess.

Random pop quiz. Can anyone tell the difference between the SVS13A1S9SPR and the SVS13A1S9ES except that the cheaper one includes MS Office and is actually in stock ?!

So, presumably the GT 640M LE is a lot faster than the HD 4000. I guess I should Google just how it performs, but as LU said it seems likely to be the best I can find in something small. Anyone have personal experience of this chipset?

Asus Zenbook UX31A (not E)

Everything you need and more, except for the HD4000. But honestly, I think that will be ample for your gaming needs. If you're not buying that, it's a Mac of some sort IMO.

The Vaio S series are ok, but they're last years tech. So are the Z series.

Well, a generic comparison of graphics performance says:

640M - "With these GPUs you are able to play modern and demanding games fluently at medium detail settings and HD resolution."

HD4000 - "Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards."

The benchmarks for the HD 4000 are just over half that of the 640M, but the gameplay doesn't reflect that. Here's a pretty graph lifted from somewhere:



Looking at reviews of Skyrim on the Air, it's not favourable.

I hear you.

But as soon as you want discrete graphics, half the rest of your requirements go out the window....

Sony Z series from last year is a novel compromise, but doesn't game portably if that's a issue. Take a look.

The thing is, without the gaming capability I may as well stick to my netbook. It's only 1280x768 but then it's even lighter than the Ultrabooks.

Have you considered the Dell Ultrabook range? Some of them come equipped with the GeForce GT630m and the build quality is rumoured to be fantastic.

Interesting call Linux, not seen those before.

I still own the original Dell XPS M1710 with a C2D and 7900GTX. It's old, weighs 4.2kg and lasts about 30 minutes on battery. But it still runs beautifully and will play GRAW and CoH at medium settings at 1920x1200 (albiet whilst plugged in). Used to be great fun on my train commute back in the day

I'd think about forgoing the ultrabook thing and just get a cheaper gaming machine if it was me.