Best laptop for me?
June 23, 2009 12:48 PM Subscribe
Need new laptop - professional / heavy duty.
I travel for work and a laptop is my constant companion / work tool. Reliability is essential. Right now I have a Dell Vostro 1500. It is throwing red flags after 18 months so I'm shopping for a replacement.
I do a lot of photo / video editing. I tend to run many applications at once, some of them video intensive. I am on line constantly. So I need fairly heavy resources especially with processor, video, etc.
I've been with Dell for the last 2 or 3 but the reviews I'm seeing of the current offerings are, frankly, scary. I was a Toshiba man for a long time til the last one I had damn near melted on the desk.
But I'm open minded. Any and all thoughts / ideas from the hive mind are much appreciated!
I travel for work and a laptop is my constant companion / work tool. Reliability is essential. Right now I have a Dell Vostro 1500. It is throwing red flags after 18 months so I'm shopping for a replacement.
I do a lot of photo / video editing. I tend to run many applications at once, some of them video intensive. I am on line constantly. So I need fairly heavy resources especially with processor, video, etc.
I've been with Dell for the last 2 or 3 but the reviews I'm seeing of the current offerings are, frankly, scary. I was a Toshiba man for a long time til the last one I had damn near melted on the desk.
But I'm open minded. Any and all thoughts / ideas from the hive mind are much appreciated!
Seconding Lenovo. Mine has survived some falls and other abuse pretty well.
One complaint: they didn't supply restore CDs but instead reminded you to make your own using software on the hard drive and the CD burner. I waited too long to do that and ended up having to buy them from Lenovo following a crash.
posted by exogenous at 1:09 PM on June 23, 2009
One complaint: they didn't supply restore CDs but instead reminded you to make your own using software on the hard drive and the CD burner. I waited too long to do that and ended up having to buy them from Lenovo following a crash.
posted by exogenous at 1:09 PM on June 23, 2009
Probably overkill, but the Panasonic Toughbook 30 looks like a solid piece of construction.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:17 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by Joe Beese at 1:17 PM on June 23, 2009
I personally like Sony Vaios, while very pricey, I've found they hold up well. Also, their XBRITE lcds are the nicest I've seen on a laptop, and with calibration they are perfect for photo editing. I have one of the ones with a Carbon Fiber shell, and its very nice.
posted by miscbuff at 1:24 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by miscbuff at 1:24 PM on June 23, 2009
Option you probably never considered: a MacBook, running Windows if you like. Very well-built, very high-end components, very durable, and best of all for you: if something DOES fail, you can walk into ANY Apple Store for a no-questions replacement for up to three years (if you buy the extra AppleCare). No mailing things around to some "repair depot" in Cleveland.
Expensive, sure, but the complete opposite of "value" brands like Dell. (Toshiba is generally better-regarded, it's sad/interesting you had problems with them.)
I do love those ToughBooks, too. But yeah, probably not unless you're business trips are to Afghanistan or the Congo.
posted by rokusan at 1:32 PM on June 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
Expensive, sure, but the complete opposite of "value" brands like Dell. (Toshiba is generally better-regarded, it's sad/interesting you had problems with them.)
I do love those ToughBooks, too. But yeah, probably not unless you're business trips are to Afghanistan or the Congo.
posted by rokusan at 1:32 PM on June 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
Another vote for a Lenovo T series with as much memory as your can cram in. Unlike HPs, Dells, Toshibas and Panasonics (!toughbook), I've seen Thinkpads survive a 5' drop onto concrete and last for years afterward. Tough books are also very durable but very heavy, very bulky and very, very expensive for what you get.
posted by bonehead at 1:32 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by bonehead at 1:32 PM on June 23, 2009
When you say photo/video I reach for my Macbook Pro. I've had three and they are bombproof. Don't know if you have a large investment in software that would prevent defection from Windows. Seconding the greatness of AppleCare and running Bootcamp for access to any Windows apps that won't run under virtualization.
If defection is out of the question I was issued a business class HP Compaq lappy a while back that was kinda burly, but held up well and had decent battery life for its size. It was two years old, so I'm not sure what its allegory would be now. Fairly certain it was an NX6110.
Happy hunting.
posted by littlerobothead at 1:36 PM on June 23, 2009
If defection is out of the question I was issued a business class HP Compaq lappy a while back that was kinda burly, but held up well and had decent battery life for its size. It was two years old, so I'm not sure what its allegory would be now. Fairly certain it was an NX6110.
Happy hunting.
posted by littlerobothead at 1:36 PM on June 23, 2009
If I have a say in the matter, I only buy Thinkpad's. I suggest the Lenovo Thinkpad T series. Get next business day onsite support, and you have the same level of hardware service as AppleCare, yet they come to you (even if you aren't in a city).
posted by fief at 2:08 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by fief at 2:08 PM on June 23, 2009
I have a T400. Lurve it. Tough, powerful enough for anything I throw at it.
posted by craven_morhead at 2:30 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by craven_morhead at 2:30 PM on June 23, 2009
Falling in with the chorus on Lenovos. I have the T400 and love it. And the T42 before that was awesome as well.
posted by Glow Bucket at 2:36 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by Glow Bucket at 2:36 PM on June 23, 2009
Agree with the Lenovo Thinkpad Ts, maybe even the Ws. Great, high-powered machines. They have extra magnesium-alloy "roll cage" framework inside in order to help it sustain more-than-average knock-around use. The laptops come standard with only 2gb RAM, but you can easily upgrade to 4gb on your own. They make a pricey laptop designed for heavy photo-editing (W series). I have a Thinkpad T that has lasted years.
But, I also agree with looking into converting to a MacBook Pro, unless you are somehow tethered to Windows. My interactions with the AppleCare warranty have been superb.
posted by jabberjaw at 2:40 PM on June 23, 2009
But, I also agree with looking into converting to a MacBook Pro, unless you are somehow tethered to Windows. My interactions with the AppleCare warranty have been superb.
posted by jabberjaw at 2:40 PM on June 23, 2009
I use a Dell Prrecision M4400 and have had no problems with it. I do some pretty heavy financial modeling/statistics on it.
From everything I heard, for video stuff, you're supposed to use a Mac?
posted by dfriedman at 2:56 PM on June 23, 2009
From everything I heard, for video stuff, you're supposed to use a Mac?
posted by dfriedman at 2:56 PM on June 23, 2009
I had a great ThinkPad T60p that lasted for > 3yrs, and I recently upgraded to 4gb of RAM. Its a great machine, that was quick and was able to withstand some abuse as I travel a lot. I love the keyboard on that thing.
My work just got me a Dell Precision M2400 (14" w/s). I was reluctant to go with Dell, but this machine is amazing. 8GB or RAM, really nice battery life, fast fast fast. One really nice feature is that one of the USB ports can be used to charge an external device even when the laptop is alseep. Also has both estata and hdmi (w/audio - i believe that's v1.3) ports.
I've only had for 6 weeks, but its great, and feels solid as a rock. The speakers are (of course) terrible, its heavy (~4.5lbs) and I had to un-install some of the bundled utilities. Nevertheless Its so much better than I expected it to be, I would recommend.
If size isn't an issue there's also a 17" w/s model, w/2 internal hard-drives & cd-rom. They are very heavy.
posted by askmehow at 2:58 PM on June 23, 2009
My work just got me a Dell Precision M2400 (14" w/s). I was reluctant to go with Dell, but this machine is amazing. 8GB or RAM, really nice battery life, fast fast fast. One really nice feature is that one of the USB ports can be used to charge an external device even when the laptop is alseep. Also has both estata and hdmi (w/audio - i believe that's v1.3) ports.
I've only had for 6 weeks, but its great, and feels solid as a rock. The speakers are (of course) terrible, its heavy (~4.5lbs) and I had to un-install some of the bundled utilities. Nevertheless Its so much better than I expected it to be, I would recommend.
If size isn't an issue there's also a 17" w/s model, w/2 internal hard-drives & cd-rom. They are very heavy.
posted by askmehow at 2:58 PM on June 23, 2009
nthing lenovo. The only issue that I've ever had with them have to do with the power cords/power jacks. Unfortunately this has happened on both the lenovo's I've had...
posted by majikstreet at 4:17 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by majikstreet at 4:17 PM on June 23, 2009
Yep.
T series if you can handle the weight. X series if you want small/light. The latest Lenovo that I've personal experience with (typing on it now as my desktop is down with a bad GPU) is an X61 from about a year ago and the old "IBM Quality" is still there (well, 90-95%). If price is an issue, the R series is reasonable.
Stay away from their non-Thinkpad lines, though. The tech dept. where I work (Brain Res. Centre, UBC) still swears by Lenovos and I see a few of them roll into the centre every month.
---
When you talk about reliability, there's hardware and then there's software.
Its too bad that you can't get XP on Lenovos anymore*; a decrufted version of XP (patched to SP3, and did I mention, decrufted?) s going to be more reliable than a copy of Vista (if you can find someone who knows how to really decruft Vista). Do see if you can find someone reliable to strip the un-necessary garbage (vendor add-ons as well as OS value-adds) and load on solid and useful applications (either free or commercial; ie, Avast! as anti-virus, O&O Defrag to keep your HD optimal, Commodo or SpyBot to keep you abreast when programs want to change stuff in your registry, &c). You'll have a much better computing experience.
*I have a legit non-Lenovo version of XP loaded on my X61 and *most* drivers are available online (mostly from Lenovo). The only thing I can't get working completely is the hardware volume buttons. Last I checked most popular Linux packages also have almost complete drivers for most Thinkpads.
posted by porpoise at 11:02 PM on June 23, 2009
T series if you can handle the weight. X series if you want small/light. The latest Lenovo that I've personal experience with (typing on it now as my desktop is down with a bad GPU) is an X61 from about a year ago and the old "IBM Quality" is still there (well, 90-95%). If price is an issue, the R series is reasonable.
Stay away from their non-Thinkpad lines, though. The tech dept. where I work (Brain Res. Centre, UBC) still swears by Lenovos and I see a few of them roll into the centre every month.
---
When you talk about reliability, there's hardware and then there's software.
Its too bad that you can't get XP on Lenovos anymore*; a decrufted version of XP (patched to SP3, and did I mention, decrufted?) s going to be more reliable than a copy of Vista (if you can find someone who knows how to really decruft Vista). Do see if you can find someone reliable to strip the un-necessary garbage (vendor add-ons as well as OS value-adds) and load on solid and useful applications (either free or commercial; ie, Avast! as anti-virus, O&O Defrag to keep your HD optimal, Commodo or SpyBot to keep you abreast when programs want to change stuff in your registry, &c). You'll have a much better computing experience.
*I have a legit non-Lenovo version of XP loaded on my X61 and *most* drivers are available online (mostly from Lenovo). The only thing I can't get working completely is the hardware volume buttons. Last I checked most popular Linux packages also have almost complete drivers for most Thinkpads.
posted by porpoise at 11:02 PM on June 23, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks to all for the great tips and insights. I now believe I have a solid research path to follow and many more options than I had thought. Thanks again; you guys are the best.
posted by charris5005 at 3:57 AM on June 24, 2009
posted by charris5005 at 3:57 AM on June 24, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by shownomercy at 1:01 PM on June 23, 2009