Looking For Sugestions For A Daily Driver With A Great Screen

[inactive_23]

My Dad is on a T420s. Still runs like a champ, did an SSD upgrade last year, although the battery is toast. Currently running Mint. The screen though, is just awful. I caught him squinting and I'm looking around for something to replace it with. All he does general purpose computing, like photo manipulating and surfing the web. Want I really want is a FHD IPS screen but he doesn't have a ton of spare cash laying.

Anything out there in the 13"/14 range that's affordable with a fantastic screen? (I can transplant the SSD and sell the T420s to offset some of the cost, if necessary.)

[RealBlackStuff]

There are T440s with FHD around.
Put in a T450 touchpad, get used to the post-classic keyboard and off you go.
Price range ~$600

OTOH I won't touch anything X230/T430 and up, due to the rotten keyboard layout.
(Exceptions are X230/T430 modded with an X220/T420 keyboard and modded EC).
Not to mention the deplorable QC and Fruit-imitation that Lenovo follows.

Also check out the competition (Dell Business machines come to mind )

[smashkenazi]

I'm using the same machine as your Dad.
Same comments as RBS regarding the keyboard. I knew when I bought the T420s that it would be my last Lenovo purchase.

I'm considering an Alienware OLED 13" despite it looking ridiculous in the workplace. I'm sure it will be quiet since I won't be gaming.
Much of the design effort and customization is wasted on someone like me, but the machine weight is getting closer to practicality.

The keys have a rubbery coating on them, but have decent travel and are the closest I've found to the Thinkpad keyboards of yore.
I haven't seen the screen, but most reviewers fall over themselves praising it.

[600X]

The Alienware 13 is actually a pretty nice machine. And yes, it actually has what you could call a classic keyboard, although the layout still isn't that great.

Alternatively, you could get the E7440, which also has a FHD IPS display and a semi-classic keyboard.

[unix_joe]

Second (or third?) recommendation for the Latitude E7440. With the right timing you can get it FHD IPS for under 500.

A few hundred more will net you the Surface Pro 4, which has the benefit of not being 16:9.

And if you find your father is sitting at a desk most of the time, just hook up a decent keyboard and large IPS monitor for under $250 total, which is exactly what I did.

[bit_twiddler]

As far as external monitors go, these are pretty good, and they are 16:10!

https://www.amazon.com/HP-LP2475w-24-in ... B001FS1LLI

[Puppy]

that's affordable with a fantastic screen?

Then forget Lenovo at all, it is hopeless to get a good screen in ThinkPad these days regardless of price tag. You can get it in Acer V15 Nitro (yes, Acer) for instance. Or buy any ThinkPad with their crappy screen (TM) and use external monitor whenever possible.

Bigger OLED screens are still risky because of questionable longevity and (usually) no warranty cover of related issues. Surface Pro 4 looks like a nice suggestion with external monitor and keyboard/mouse. I have seen that good musicians using it on live stage instead of these boring fruit products recently