Tell me which laptop to buy

November 9, 2021 1:41 PM

I would like to buy a laptop computer. These are my requirements: 1. Very large monitor. Within reason, the bigger the better. 2. Reliable (ie won’t break down, require visits to repair shops, need new parts, etc)

For more detail: I need to use the program Epic on this computer (it’s a health electronic record). It’s painful to use on my current tiny-screen laptop, because the whole thing doesn’t fit on my screen.

Things I do not care about at all:
-Weight
-processing speed, storage capacity, etc
-cost, within reason
- battery life
-brand
- whether it’s a touchscreen or not
- basically anything else

posted by amy.g.dala to Computers & Internet (27 answers total)

If you have a computer already have you considered purchasing a monitor? I bought a 27" at the beginning of the pandemic for $150 and now I have no idea how I ever lived without it. Prices have gone up a bit since then--my same monitor is listed for $209 now. It would still be worth it to me.

I have several laptops, and one of them is a Lenovo Y50 with a 15.6" screen. It's by far the biggest laptop screen I've got, and it's attached to a computer intended for gaming which really wouldn't be appropriate for your needs (very unnecessary cost). It is still maddeningly small to me now that I've got used to the monitor for home use.
posted by phunniemee at 2:00 PM on November 9, 2021 [7 favorites]

Would connecting a smaller laptop to a USB-C/Thunderbolt-3 dock be appropriate to your needs, as illustrated in this Technology Connections video? Right now I have a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad T480 plugged into such a dock, and one cable connects everything to my keyboard, monitor, power, sound system, fast wired network connection, etc.

I personally prefer T-series Thinkpads because they're built to have a long duty cycle and refurbished ones are often available inexpensively at reasonable power levels. It sounds like you may be aiming at a brand new T series model, if cost is not an object.

If a dock and external display doesn't work for you, and a 15" screen is too small, you may want a P17 which has a 17" screen. I can't speak for the reliability of the P-series Thinkpads, as they tend to be filled with more powerful kit that may run hotter, but they're often aimed at the "power users" in offices that are full of T-series users.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:01 PM on November 9, 2021

Lenovo Thinkpad. I swear by these; they are known for their reliability and longevity. I still have one from 2005 that I use as a spare.

I too use EHRs and have used EPIC on mine without issue. That said, a second monitor and a plug-in mouse might be something to consider, given EPIC's layout and the amount of clicking around you have to do.
posted by aquamvidam at 2:12 PM on November 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Also wanted to mention - I have the same setup that you're looking for with a 3-year-old Thinkpad P51. It is bulky and heavy. It was about $1800 new with top specs. But my criteria were the same as yours. I fully expect it to last at least 10-15 years. I have been very happy with it.
posted by aquamvidam at 2:19 PM on November 9, 2021

I'm so sorry for the multiple comments. This will be my last one. The Thinkpad series has a 'nubbin' mouse that makes click-heavy tasks a lot easier for me. Other laptop makers have similar features, but the Thinkpad's feel is my favorite.

I'm not affiliated with the company. I just love Thinkpads.
posted by aquamvidam at 2:21 PM on November 9, 2021

Thinkpads are quite good. Ideapads are OK as well.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:51 PM on November 9, 2021

Response by poster: Thank you, all very helpful so far. Follow up: is the largest screen I can get on a laptop about 17.5 in? I haven’t turned up anything bigger in my searches. Thank you.
posted by amy.g.dala at 3:44 PM on November 9, 2021

The current MacBook Pro line includes a 16.2" screen option. It should run Epic via the same Citrix software used for other platforms. It also has a few Thunderbolt 4 ports to plug in large displays. LG sells a 27" 5K display and Apple sells a 32" 6K display. Both use one Thunderbolt connection for power and graphics, so it is pretty easy to go big with little fuss.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:18 PM on November 9, 2021

17.5" is about as big as you can get in a laptop. If you want more than that you're in external monitor territory. There have been some concept laptops shown at trade shows with fold-out screens, and I think Lenovo sold a Thinkpad with a slide-out second screen for a while, but I don't think any of those products are currently available.

It would help to know if docking stations and external monitors are off the table. Are they?
posted by Alterscape at 5:38 PM on November 9, 2021

I have an iPad Pro and use it as my primary computer.

Airplay makes any smart TV a potential external monitor.
posted by Ostara at 6:07 PM on November 9, 2021

If you don't care about anything else, you should just get an external monitor of virtually any size for your current laptop.
posted by lhauser at 7:26 PM on November 9, 2021

I'm not familiar with the user interface with Epic, but you may get more usable screen real estate with a 16:10 aspect ratio than a 16:9 one.

Do consider that there are other factors (e.g. number of pixels, screen brightness), that will determine the amount of information a display can comfortably show besides x # of inches.

There are also a few (expensive) dual screen laptops at the 15 inch size. There are also portable monitors.
posted by oceano at 7:55 PM on November 9, 2021

Given that you don't care about weight, can you tell us why a laptop - an integrated computer, monitor and keyboard whose design is deliberately, heavily compromised in every way so as to minimize weight - is the right fit for what you want to do? Because unless you are actually going to be regularly lugging this thing around and using it in multiple places, there are almost certainly other options that will cost less and work better.
posted by flabdablet at 9:16 PM on November 9, 2021 [6 favorites]

May potentially not be what you are after but : I am writing this using a Thinkstation p340 Tiny connected to a couple of 4k monitors - and it has been working very well for the 6 months since I got it. If your use case for a computer is really "something I can carry about with me and plug into one or more large monitors at home or at work" - rather than "something with a large integrated monitor" then this could be worth considering.
posted by rongorongo at 9:56 PM on November 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

I need to use the program Epic on this computer (it’s a health electronic record). It’s painful to use on my current tiny-screen laptop, because the whole thing doesn’t fit on my screen.

If this PDF of screenshots is the Epic you're talking about (and I super hope that's a dummy patient faked up for training purposes, not live medical data) it looks like its designer has assumed the availability of a 1920x1080 or possibly a 1920x1200 pixel display.

Almost any modern laptop will be available with a 1920x1080 pixel screen regardless of physical screen size, though some manufacturers might still offer 1366x768 or even 1280x720 as low cost options.

Even so, that's a hideous thing to have to stare at for any length of time on a laptop-sized screen. If I had to work with an application that ugly for hours at a stretch, I wouldn't even contemplate choosing to do so on anything short of a nice 24" Dell Ultrasharp desktop monitor.
posted by flabdablet at 10:23 PM on November 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

Given that the one thing driving you to want a laptop with as big a screen as one can get is "because the whole thing doesn’t fit on my screen" this just points to needing a higher screen resolution, which is only loosely related to screen size. I have a laptop here with a 12.5" screen but offering 1920x1050, full HD, though that is not a combination for those with bad eyesight. And as noted multiple times already, the easiest and cheapest way to get a higher resolution is by hooking up an external screen. Throw in a keyboard and mouse as well and you'll have a vastly more ergonomic setup than with any laptop on its own.

So unless your current laptop is falling apart you don't need a new one, just a nice, large monitor. This also applies when you do need a new laptop, as you then don't have to pay for some monster gaming laptop with their humongous screens and ditto price tags, but can just go for some average Thinkpad.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:18 PM on November 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Nth-ing large monitors on anything that can drive them.

Adding to the mix: a small screen is a tricky letterbox through which you manipulate this online world, taxing you to think about what's offscreen when you can't see it. There is another tax on your energy worth considering: interpreting the grid of dots on screen into letters and numbers.

This can be sidestepped by a high-DPI display that your retina just sees as complete letters. LG make a couple of screens that are 4K (3840x2160) on a 24" diagonal, which Pythagoras tells us is 180-ish dots per inch on the diagonal. If your prospective new device has 4K resolution at 15" or 17" you'll get this benefit, and you may also get 200+ DPI on 2560x1440 and 2560x1600 screens at 13-16”.
posted by k3ninho at 11:50 PM on November 9, 2021

It might well be, though, that a Windows-based application as ugly as Epic (assuming again that the thing I found screenshots of is indeed the Epic in question) will also be the kind that misbehaves badly at high DPI. A distressing amount of niche-specific software does, which is why 1280x800 laptop and desktop displays remained the default choice of business IT departments for as long as they did.

I worked in school IT for quite some years, and when Windows 7 came out with its new per-window display scaling for non-high-DPI-aware applications and we first fired up the school admin package on the bursar's shiny new 1920x1200 monitor I was just appalled at how blurry and headache-inducing it was compared to running the same app on the same monitor set to lower than its native resolution so that Windows treated it as 96dpi.

So if at all possible, bring Epic up on anything you're considering buying and see how it looks before committing to it.
posted by flabdablet at 1:43 AM on November 10, 2021

Lenovo hardware is amongst the best but their repeat problems with pre-installed and impossible to remove malware makes them a risky choice if you intend to run Windows.
Dell have some very small all-in-one machines which I think may suit you well.
posted by Lanark at 1:50 AM on November 10, 2021

Yes, flabdablet, Windows continues to be horrible in varied DPI settings. 1366x768 panels were cheap for budget hardware makers to include in their devices, too.
posted by k3ninho at 1:52 AM on November 10, 2021

It is truly astonishing, given the sheer grunt available in a modern GPU and that it's now been twelve years since MS first rolled out their virtual-DPI display hack, that they still haven't managed to get it to work at least as well as the $5 scaling chip built into every cheap-ass LCD display. They really haven't, though. So if what you're mainly going to be looking at is an app designed to work best at 96dpi, the least stress-inducing view you'll ever get of it is on an actual 96dpi display.
posted by flabdablet at 2:11 AM on November 10, 2021

A Microsoft Surface Book has a pretty decent screen size. I changed jobs earlier this year and went from a Surface Book to a ThinkPad and the screen size is substantially smaller to the point that I bought an external monitor to use it with.

(You should definitely consider getting a monitor)
posted by knapah at 2:40 AM on November 10, 2021

I'm considering getting a https://www.packedpixels.com/ and using a smaller machine. Might be a solution for you.
posted by unearthed at 2:52 AM on November 10, 2021

If you want to just forget about laptops altogether, you can STILL buy "lunchbox" form factor portable PCs, available with 24" 4K display or triple 24" 1080p displays

But I'd imagine it will cost you. :) But it'd be more reliable than a laptop because these are basically desktop components and easily replaceable.
posted by kschang at 1:10 PM on November 10, 2021

FWIW, I'm on a desktop with dual 24", and I have another monitor and the triple monitor arm ready, but first I need to move the stuff to another room. It's VERY useful. :)
posted by kschang at 1:21 PM on November 10, 2021

Just to answer the question originally asked: modern laptops do not come any bigger than 17.3".

Toshiba at one time made 18.4" screen in their Qosmio line. But that's LONG since discontinued. May still be available on eBay somewhere, but long out of date.

Sager has at one time made a 20 inch over a decade ago, and I've never seen one in person or know of anyone who'd seen one. Dell apparently had an 20 inch XPS that's half-way between a laptop and a desktop... It can fold up for portability. But it's also more than 10 years ago.

Any bigger, and you need the lunchbox form factor I mentioned earlier.

FWIW, I used to own a 17 inch laptop, and I still have one now. I just prefer my desktop.
posted by kschang at 11:16 PM on November 10, 2021

If you're not going to move the system around much anyway, or even at all, and don't want the bother of a separate screen, system box, keyboard and mouse and the cabling that goes with all that, another option to look at could be all-in-ones. Screen contains the system board, so you only have to deal with the mouse and keyboard which can easily be wireless, running for months on one or two AA cells. They're also not as compromised for weight and size as laptops are and go up to 27" QHD (2560x1440) easily for about the same price as a good 17" laptop, while even bigger ones are available. The keyboard and mouse can be ergonomic models (which you would want even more when using a laptop all day long).
posted by Stoneshop at 11:54 PM on November 10, 2021