light laptop to bring to my son
April 15, 2013 9:48 AM Subscribe
My son, in Israel, will soon begin graduate school while also keeping his job. He will need a fairly light laptop, 17 inch screen, for school and home use, but we want to buy it here, where it is a lot less expensive, and he does not want to spend a lot and so has asked that we not get a Mac (Air) or any Mac. What PC laptop is likely to be both fairly lightweight and also a decent computer that will be relatively trouble free and a decent machine?
Are there light 17 inch laptops? Seems like a comprise hasn't been made yet (Besides the "no-mac" one).
posted by oceanjesse at 10:08 AM on April 15, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by oceanjesse at 10:08 AM on April 15, 2013 [2 favorites]
Yeah, 17" laptops only get so light.
I would say go with a Lenovo Thinkpad or a Dell Latitude. Whichever one you get, ALSO buy the worldwide 4-hour (or 1-day) onsite service. That means when the display connector breaks or the keyboard stops working, he makes a phone call and someone comes to his house and replaces it. My understanding is that Lenovo's worldwide service is better than Dell's, but you should compare.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:29 AM on April 15, 2013
I would say go with a Lenovo Thinkpad or a Dell Latitude. Whichever one you get, ALSO buy the worldwide 4-hour (or 1-day) onsite service. That means when the display connector breaks or the keyboard stops working, he makes a phone call and someone comes to his house and replaces it. My understanding is that Lenovo's worldwide service is better than Dell's, but you should compare.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:29 AM on April 15, 2013
Definitely double- or triple-check that he actually needs a 17-inch laptop. These are called "desktop replacement" machines for a reason - they're not the kind of laptop that you ought to lug around on a daily basis. Even "light" ones are very heavy, and many are geared toward performance rather than portability, so battery life can be better measured in minutes than hours.
posted by Rallon at 10:52 AM on April 15, 2013
posted by Rallon at 10:52 AM on April 15, 2013
Have you thought about getting a normal sized, light laptop and a cheap desktop monitor he can use at home?
posted by thylacine at 11:21 AM on April 15, 2013
posted by thylacine at 11:21 AM on April 15, 2013
Came in to make thylacine's suggestion - what about a small, light laptop and a desktop monitor? My husband recently made the switch from a work laptop to a work tablet - the new Surface from microsoft. It's got a keyboard that clicks into place easily (turning it into a laptop) and a desktop mode, so you can connect it to a regular monitor and work as normal. He's completely in love with it, as it is a lot lighter than the regular PC laptop he had been carrying around. I haven't double checked, but I want to say it's around $1000.
posted by hungrybruno at 11:37 AM on April 15, 2013
posted by hungrybruno at 11:37 AM on April 15, 2013
Nthing that "17-inch" and "light" are mutually exclusive. For lightweight portables, the magic google-word you need is "ultrabook" -- these are PCs with a Macbook Air type form factor, i.e. they cut down on weight and thickness, but cost more and are less upgradeable. Wikipedia has a decent list, though it may not be entirely up-to-date. Sorting that list by display size, descending, shows the ASUS UX51VZ/U500, HP Envy Ultrabook 6t-1000, and Samsung Series 9 15" (2012) as the only models with 15-inch or 15.6-inch screens. The Samsung seems impressively light for something with that screen size. (I haven't used any of these personally, though.)
As others have suggested, I'd think about getting a smaller machine and an external monitor (or even two -- one for work and one for home -- 21-inch monitors are very cheap these days). Grad school probably means conferences, which means travel. Travelling with a 17-inch laptop is... not much fun. They tend to be termed "luggable" rather than "portable".
posted by pont at 11:59 AM on April 15, 2013
As others have suggested, I'd think about getting a smaller machine and an external monitor (or even two -- one for work and one for home -- 21-inch monitors are very cheap these days). Grad school probably means conferences, which means travel. Travelling with a 17-inch laptop is... not much fun. They tend to be termed "luggable" rather than "portable".
posted by pont at 11:59 AM on April 15, 2013
Response by poster: hey! thaniks. wrote him and he said 15 inch would do fine...with a decent one, would suffice and would not even need monitor at home but good suggestion for the future.
I appreciate all the good comments here, and they have helped him recognize that he does not truly need 17 inch.
posted by Postroad at 1:30 PM on April 15, 2013
I appreciate all the good comments here, and they have helped him recognize that he does not truly need 17 inch.
posted by Postroad at 1:30 PM on April 15, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:50 AM on April 15, 2013