New laptop for professional use

[ZesPak]

Hi, so I'm looking to get a new high end laptop.
Budget can pretty much go up to £2000, but I'm sure for my use that won't be necessary.
I currently have an older Series 9, which has been great but since I'm doing more and more VM's it's become a bit too light (128GB, 4GB ram,...).
What I'm looking for is something that is portable enough yet comfortable to work on the entire day.

I've had a MacBook in the past, but can't be bothered with learning all the shortcuts for Windows (I need windows) again. A MBPR equivalent would be great though.

My minimum requirements:

• not too heavy or bulky, pref sub 2kg and sub 2cm
• 3 USB ports (at least two USB 3.0)
• full HDMI port and/or full displayport
• 13"-15" display
• 1920x1080 res
• Windows keyboard
• i5
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB SSD (I'll happily slot that in myself if possible)

Nice to have:

• Full network port
• Great battery life
• Good, big trackpad
• something that looks good
• touchscreen
• replaceable HDD

Where should I look? Asus, Lenovo?
So far the Lenovo T440s looks like it'll do, but I have to check on how replaceable the HDD is. I'm guessing since it's lenovo it's quite easy?

Edited by ZesPak on Friday 29th August 13:59

[mikef]

If it weren't for the third USB port I'd suggest the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-se...

[igiveup]

Lenovo HDD are easy to replace, one screw remove cover and pull tab.

[ZesPak]

mikef said:

If it weren't for the third USB port I'd suggest the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-se...

Hmm, I've looked into them because I liked the look, but they are about €1000 more expensive than the equivalent or better T440, with nothing to show for it but design. It would be ok if it then weren't for the compromises.

Hmm, looked at them again, seems that I miscalculated them.
Only a select number of models available here though, is the HDD actually replaceable?

Edited by ZesPak on Friday 29th August 14:28

[Polariz]

I hear good things about the Acer S7 - it's that 3rd USB port which is the problem again!

[ZesPak]

Polariz said:

I hear good things about the Acer S7 - it's that 3rd USB port which is the problem again!

Hmm, my requirement for that might be because I currently just don't have enough disk space, and I have to transfer files between two sources a lot of the time. I also use the mouse most of the time, no matter how good the trackpad on my samsung is.
So on a new machine with 256GB/512GB I might be able to "make do" with 2 USB ports (as long as I don't need one for wired network - a la macbook air).

Just looked further into the X1, if I want 256GB and 8GB, I'll be scraping the top of the budget which seems a bit like an overkill.

The T440 looks great on paper, but having held one at a customer it feels solid but nothing special.
It's just so undeniably good, apparently...

[Kinky]

Personal order of preference:
X1 Carbon
T440s
Outside bet: Yoga 2 Pro; although not sure how it matches to your spec.

[StormLoaded]

ZesPak said:

Hi, so I'm looking to get a new high end laptop.
Budget can pretty much go up to £2000, but I'm sure for my use that won't be necessary.
I currently have an older Series 9, which has been great but since I'm doing more and more VM's it's become a bit too light (128GB, 4GB ram,...).
What I'm looking for is something that is portable enough yet comfortable to work on the entire day.

I've had a MacBook in the past, but can't be bothered with learning all the shortcuts for Windows (I need windows) again. A MBPR equivalent would be great though.

My minimum requirements:

• not too heavy or bulky, pref sub 2kg and sub 2cm
• 3 USB ports (at least two USB 3.0)
• full HDMI port and/or full displayport
• 13"-15" display
• 1920x1080 res
• Windows keyboard
• i5
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB SSD (I'll happily slot that in myself if possible)

Nice to have:

• Full network port
• Great battery life
• Good, big trackpad
• something that looks good
• touchscreen
• replaceable HDD

Where should I look? Asus, Lenovo?
So far the Lenovo T440s looks like it'll do, but I have to check on how replaceable the HDD is. I'm guessing since it's lenovo it's quite easy?

Edited by ZesPak on Friday 29th August 13:59

I had similar requirements, went with the Lenovo W540

expandable to 32GB ram, which is needed with VMs.
8GB ram mine first came with was swallowed up once my apps are installed and in use.. soon as I loaded my first VM (giving it 4gb ram) I ran out of mem.
Ordered a three more 8gig sticks for the spare slots and now its a dream for running all my apps and VMware (multiple instances, I don't bother closing things down much now) with 32GB ram [most ive seen so far is about 17gb, but the sticks were cheap enough to just fill the bays].

I think its the 4800MQ (i7 haswell) CPU in mine.

also 1080p, although there is a higher res version of the screen you can upgrade.

for its size (15.6" screen I think) it's really not that bad for weight either, and the battery on it is cracking, lasts for hours even with all my apps running.

Also has a 2GB grafix card in it!.. so it plays Skyrim smoothly and looks great, Arma 3 is a stretch for it but its more than I was expecting for a laptop.

[mikef]

ZesPak said:

mikef said:

If it weren't for the third USB port I'd suggest the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-se...

Hmm, I've looked into them because I liked the look, but they are about €1000 more expensive than the equivalent or better T440, with nothing to show for it but design. It would be ok if it then weren't for the compromises.

Hmm, looked at them again, seems that I miscalculated them.
Only a select number of models available here though, is the HDD actually replaceable?

It's an M.2 PCIe SSD card, so it's potentially much faster than an SATA SSD and a standard interface, so replaceable

[Polariz]

StormLoaded said:

ZesPak said:

Hi, so I'm looking to get a new high end laptop.
Budget can pretty much go up to £2000, but I'm sure for my use that won't be necessary.
I currently have an older Series 9, which has been great but since I'm doing more and more VM's it's become a bit too light (128GB, 4GB ram,...).
What I'm looking for is something that is portable enough yet comfortable to work on the entire day.

I've had a MacBook in the past, but can't be bothered with learning all the shortcuts for Windows (I need windows) again. A MBPR equivalent would be great though.

My minimum requirements:

• not too heavy or bulky, pref sub 2kg and sub 2cm
• 3 USB ports (at least two USB 3.0)
• full HDMI port and/or full displayport
• 13"-15" display
• 1920x1080 res
• Windows keyboard
• i5
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB SSD (I'll happily slot that in myself if possible)

Nice to have:

• Full network port
• Great battery life
• Good, big trackpad
• something that looks good
• touchscreen
• replaceable HDD

Where should I look? Asus, Lenovo?
So far the Lenovo T440s looks like it'll do, but I have to check on how replaceable the HDD is. I'm guessing since it's lenovo it's quite easy?

Edited by ZesPak on Friday 29th August 13:59

I had similar requirements, went with the Lenovo W540

expandable to 32GB ram, which is needed with VMs.
8GB ram mine first came with was swallowed up once my apps are installed and in use.. soon as I loaded my first VM (giving it 4gb ram) I ran out of mem.
Ordered a three more 8gig sticks for the spare slots and now its a dream for running all my apps and VMware (multiple instances, I don't bother closing things down much now) with 32GB ram [most ive seen so far is about 17gb, but the sticks were cheap enough to just fill the bays].

I think its the 4800MQ (i7 haswell) CPU in mine.

also 1080p, although there is a higher res version of the screen you can upgrade.

for its size (15.6" screen I think) it's really not that bad for weight either, and the battery on it is cracking, lasts for hours even with all my apps running.

Also has a 2GB grafix card in it!.. so it plays Skyrim smoothly and looks great, Arma 3 is a stretch for it but its more than I was expecting for a laptop.

I want exactly this, but in ultrabook format! Alas they all seem to have memory soldered on so I seem to be stuck on 12 or 16gb RAM

[LooneyTunes]

ZesPak said:

Hmm, I've looked into them because I liked the look, but they are about €1000 more expensive than the equivalent or better T440, with nothing to show for it but design. It would be ok if it then weren't for the compromises.

If you don't mind dropping to an 12.5", check out the X240.

I'm down to 63% battery right now and have 7hr 40 remaining (ticked all the boxes so am running i7, 8GB, SSD, etc).

Great bit of kit.

[sgrimshaw]

FWIW - You can free up a USB port by using a bluetooth mouse.

[ZesPak]

sgrimshaw said:

FWIW - You can free up a USB port by using a bluetooth mouse.

I know, but I never seem to find one I like, plus the ones with dedicated connectors seem to last a lot longer on a charge.

[Polariz]

My Microsoft Curve BT mouse is rather fab, however the mouse lag is terrible when connected on a 2.4GHz WiFi connection and downloading large files.

Not much choice on a Surface Pro 2 though haha.

[sgrimshaw]

Generally not a fan of Microsoft, but their Wedge Touch BT mouse is fantastic.

I was going to say "it's expensive, but you get what you pay for @ £70", but I just looked at you can get them for £20 or so these days.

Battery life is no worse than any of my MS or Logitech wireless mice.