Laptop / Tablet (11-13")

Thanks Igeorge, have you bought from them before? I have opted for an 11" but can't find anything on their site.
 
Yes, all the time. Choose priority line (Aramex) shipping. The closest to 11" is a Xiaomi air 12", which is lovely(I have one), but the prices now are :(
Cheers
 
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leonb said:
can the 2gig ram be upgraded or is in on board?
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Agreed but if you also update the ram to 4GB with an 128GB SDD you are probably looking at a total cost of just of R5k, don't think there is another laptop that can compete at the price and performance.
 
I went with the Lenovo MiiX 320 on promotion at Makro for R4999. It has 4GB ram, 128 eMMC, and 1920x1080 (10") screen. Only Atom X5 Z8350 , but according to reviews it does the job OK. Also 2 in 1 (keyboard detach from screen) which is nice, esp for the kids. Includes active pen as well.
 
leonb said:
I went with the Lenovo MiiX 320 on promotion at Makro for R4999. It has 4GB ram, 128 eMMC, and 1920x1080 (10") screen. Only Atom X5 Z8350 , but according to reviews it does the job OK. Also 2 in 1 (keyboard detach from screen) which is nice, esp for the kids. Includes active pen as well.
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Reviews look pretty good and battery life seems good. How does the emmc hold up compared to a hard drivee ?
 
OLD CPU.

For the laptop to use for multimedia, CPU should have H.265/VP9 decoding hardware support. The cheapest you can find is R3000 ilife Zed Air 2 with 3GB RAM (non upgradable):
https://www.hificorp.co.za/ilife-zed-air-2-notebook
https://www.incredible.co.za/ilife-zed-air-2-notebook

It has FHD display, it look nice, it reports FHD in Windows, but I suspect a cheat, as screen is pixelated, like usual on the normal HD display. I haven't a time to investigate it further, so I walked out. If I come back, I will take some testing tools with me.
 
sajunky said:
OLD CPU.

For the laptop to use for multimedia, CPU should have H.265/VP9 decoding hardware support. The cheapest you can find is R3000 ilife Zed Air 2 with 3GB RAM (non upgradable):
https://www.hificorp.co.za/ilife-zed-air-2-notebook
https://www.incredible.co.za/ilife-zed-air-2-notebook

It has FHD display, it look nice, it reports FHD in Windows, but I suspect a cheat, as screen is pixelated, like usual on the normal HD display. I haven't a time to investigate it further, so I walked out. If I come back, I will take some testing tools with me.
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Thanks man, I currently have an Alcatel tablet but with only 32GB of storage the OS takes up more than half the space which leaves you with very limited space especially if you install office and have a large mailbox.
 
L-Dog said:
Thanks man, I currently have an Alcatel tablet but with only 32GB of storage the OS takes up more than half the space which leaves you with very limited space especially if you install office and have a large mailbox.
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Good question and I have an answer 4u. This particular model has an empty 2.5" SATA hardrive bay, so you can drop hard drive there and extend storage. I came with a screwdriver and verified in the store. I dond't know why Ilife do not offer version with hard drive, it is beyond my imagination...

RAM is unfortunately not upgradable, like many new lightweight laptops, but 3GB should lasts forever - considering new Windows 10 RAM compression feature. .LOL.
 
sajunky said:
Good question and I have an answer 4u. This particular model has an empty 2.5" SATA hardrive bay, so you can drop hard drive there and extend storage. I came with a screwdriver and verified in the store. I dond't know why Ilife do not offer version with hard drive, it is beyond my imagination...

RAM is unfortunately not upgradable, like many new lightweight laptops, but 3GB should lasts forever - considering new Windows 10 RAM compression feature. .LOL.
Click to expand...

Thanks sajunky, do you know if the 11.6 version also has a open slot ?

https://www.hificorp.co.za/ilife-ze...MI7OKW067L3QIVCp3tCh0KOwvXEAQYBCABEgINjPD_BwE

14" is just slightly to big
 
L-Dog said:
Thanks sajunky, do you know if the 11.6 version also has a open slot ?

https://www.hificorp.co.za/ilife-ze...MI7OKW067L3QIVCp3tCh0KOwvXEAQYBCABEgINjPD_BwE

14" is just slightly to big
Click to expand...
I wouldn't buy this one. It only looks more modern due to the flip type design with IPS touch display, but only 2GB RAM, so it will struggle with Windows from the beginning (I already mentioned RAM compression feature in Win 10 - also see a comment below), more swapping to the eMMC storage, means shorter life. No, it doesn't have internal hard drive bay, a feature Ilife describe as "External Hard Drive Upgrade Slot".

The older Celeron do not have a hardware hashing algorithm. It is extremely important for cheap CPU's, as when things need to be done in software and CPU is not enough powerful, it really sucks like in older Atom CPU range. Each operation shows lagging, whether it is in graphics (normal GUI, not games), compressing files or transmitting data over secure connections, like ordinary Web browsing. In the 14" laptop there is Celeron N3350 which have sha256 hashing algorthm in hardware, it makes completely different user experience. Users report a smooth experience with this CPU. It also has a full hardware video decoder, I mentioned before. It is a future proof and saves a battery and lot of Internet traffic.

For more expensive laptops you can be fine with older CPU, but for cheap latops a starting point is a Goldmount based Celeron (Apollo core).
 
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