I am a traitor and I love it

[A31]

OK, a few things have changed since I last posted.

Firstly, I know this sounds STUPID after everything I posted, but things have changed since I last posted. Basically, I am going into further education in September 2014 and I can do my work on a 'device' if I own one. Most people will probably get a tablet or something since all they'll probably do is sit and browse the internet and check emails, but a lot of my work is going to involve photo editing, web design, animation and programming, so really I need a laptop.

When I last posted, I knew that I was going into further education, but I didn't realise I could bring a laptop into school or something similar to work on.

So, this means that for the first time ever, I have started looking at new laptops to buy. Just after I go on about 'how I probably won't buy a laptop in the near future'. Blimmin' typical, eh?

I have of course been looking around at pretty much every manufacturer out there, but the ones I keep coming back to are HP, ASUS and Sony. I am very tempted by an HP ProBook, but they are quite expensive. I'd really like one though. ASUS seem to have good offerings and Sony do too now. I was surprised by Sony. I know they're good laptops, but I always thought of them as being quite expensive. It looks like Sony have got some good cheaper laptops now with i3s and the like for around the £500 mark which I am impressed by.

I've looked at Lenovo too of course and I may go back to my 'ThinkPad routes' by buying an Edge or something. I have created a thread on here asking you for your Lenovo recommendations. If you could take the time to read it and recommend something which fits my needs, I would be very grateful. Here is the thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=112251

I will take Lenovo into consideration, but of course I am looking at other laptops too.

Of course, I won't be using the laptop as my primary computer, I'll still be using my desktop.

[jdk]

OK, a few things have changed since I last posted.

Firstly, I know this sounds STUPID after everything I posted, but things have changed since I last posted. Basically, I am going into further education in September 2014 and I can do my work on a 'device' if I own one. Most people will probably get a tablet or something since all they'll probably do is sit and browse the internet and check emails, but a lot of my work is going to involve photo editing, web design, animation and programming, so really I need a laptop.

When I last posted, I knew that I was going into further education, but I didn't realise I could bring a laptop into school or something similar to work on.

So, this means that for the first time ever, I have started looking at new laptops to buy. Just after I go on about 'how I probably won't buy a laptop in the near future'. Blimmin' typical, eh?

I have of course been looking around at pretty much every manufacturer out there, but the ones I keep coming back to are HP, ASUS and Sony. I am very tempted by an HP ProBook, but they are quite expensive. I'd really like one though. ASUS seem to have good offerings and Sony do too now. I was surprised by Sony. I know they're good laptops, but I always thought of them as being quite expensive. It looks like Sony have got some good cheaper laptops now with i3s and the like for around the £500 mark which I am impressed by.

I've looked at Lenovo too of course and I may go back to my 'ThinkPad routes' by buying an Edge or something. I have created a thread on here asking you for your Lenovo recommendations. If you could take the time to read it and recommend something which fits my needs, I would be very grateful. Here is the thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=112251

I will take Lenovo into consideration, but of course I am looking at other laptops too.

Of course, I won't be using the laptop as my primary computer, I'll still be using my desktop.

Good thinking on the laptop vs. tab-o-let. Both have their places, but every semester people start class thinking they will be able to get by with a tab-o-let and bluetooth keyboard (or Chromebook), only to have it up for sale by the second week of school.

I just got an Elitebook 8460p. Build quality is the best (subjective) of any laptop that I've owned, and getting to the internals involves removing one red screw, and sliding off the bottom panel (objective). I actually appreciate the 1600x900 display (surprising coming from a guy with multiple 4:3 monitors on the desktop). This laptop is already two generations old (2011), so I have no idea what the current Elitebooks are doing, much less what the market will look like next September.

There is a workstation variant of this machine, which is dark slate grey with an orange nipple, an "evil Spock" version of the Thinkpad.

You might also be interested in a MacBook, and depending on where you are going for school, you might find it is better supported/documented than anything else. Higher education really likes to uniformly "Think Different," and to be honest, OSX is more "desktop" than Windows at this point. Macs have always been favored by graphic design types, but is UNIX underneath meaning no hackish Cygwin or MING32 to get your development tools running.

[A31]

I'm not getting a MacBook for two reasons:

1 - Cost, too expensive.
2 - Too expensive, might get stolen. Some years ago a sixth former had his/her MacBook stolen.

I'm unfamiliar with OS X and I don't really want to learn it. I just need to get my work done - and I need Visual Studio to work on my laptop and I need to test my programs which I write using Windows of course.

I am currently trying to decide between the HP ProBook 450 (probably with an i5 and 8GB of RAM) or a ThinkPad L430 (again, i5 with 8GB RAM and the 1600x900 display) or possibly an Edge E530 - again with an i5 and 8GB of RAM.

Whilst I appreciate that the HP and the Lenovo laptops are also quite expensive, I think they are probably less likely to get stolen than a MacBook because they're not as desirable to a 17 year old. Most 17 year olds probably don't know what a ThinkPad is or who Lenovo are.

[ajkula66]

I can't comment on ProBook or L430, but anything Edge is pretty much bottom of the barrel...as in "ThinkPad in the name only"...I'd never recommend buying one, but it's your money to spend...

[A31]

I can't comment on ProBook or L430, but anything Edge is pretty much bottom of the barrel...as in "ThinkPad in the name only"...I'd never recommend buying one, but it's your money to spend...

The way it stands at the moment is that the ProBook and the Edge are about the same cost and the L430 is a little more expensive.

I'd probably only get the Edge if I wanted a Lenovo/ThinkPad but I couldn't afford the L430. I think if I came to that situation though I'd get the HP since I think it's better built than the Edge.

Of course, I may end up getting the HP over both. If somebody came into my room now and said 'here you go, here's 700 quid to spend on a laptop' I'd have a hard time deciding between the ProBook and the L430.

[pianowizard]

I am going into further education in September 2014

There's no need to start looking 9 months in advance. Wait until June 2014.

I am very tempted by an HP ProBook, but they are quite expensive.

If you were in the U.S., I would recommend you to check out the Dell Business outlet. The premium Latitudes and all Precisions include 3 years of warranty, and 20% - 30% discount codes can be found a couple times a month. You should check whether Dell Business has an outlet site for the UK market.

[A31]

I want to buy it before September 2014 which is why I'm looking now. The chances are it's going to be a few months before I buy anyway - probably February or March time at the earliest.

I am looking now just to get an idea of what different brands have to offer and what kind of thing I'd like. As I've said, I have never purchased a laptop before. My previous ThinkPads were given to me once they had been retired from business use and I've only ever purchased desktop hardware. I'm aware that new models are always on the horizon and coming out.

I have had a look at Dell - nothing they have at the moment really grabs me to be honest, though I'll have another look in case I've missed something. I've had a look at most manufacturers now and have really narrowed it down to HP, Lenovo and possibly Sony and maybe ASUS.

[Temetka]

Well, it's been a while since I posted in this thread.

I still love the E6500 for a few reasons. The primary being it's large 16:10 display and it's all black casing. But I no longer use it as a primary or secondary machine. It's been wiped and has Linux Mint on it for the few occasions that I want to *NIX on a larger screen.For a few months I was using my E6520 (another 15.2" behemoth) because it had a quad core i7 with hyperthreading and 16GB of RAM. But I stopped using it because carrying it around everywhere I work was killing my shoulder. Then I started using my D630 as both my primary and seconday machine because not only are it's specs decent enough for the modern web, it was light (compared to the M4500, E6500 and E6520) and I fell in love with the whole 14" widescreen body.

So I did something I have been know to do in the past. I traded a more powerful machine for a less powerful machine. The machine I traded was one of my M4500's for a T410. Now the T410 is my primary machine and the D630 is my backup. It's really hard for me to choose between the 2 machines and I really love them both. I think my great laptop quest has come to a conclusion: the perfect machine for me is a 14" widescreen unit with a fast Core2DUO or i5. This post for instance is being brought to you from my D630 while the T410 sits on the table waiting to be used. It's funny even though I really, really, really love the T410 everytime I sit down on the couch I grab the D630. It has a great keyboard (slightly better than the T410 IMO) and it's battery life is superior. The primary factor though is that my D630 has Linux Mint 16 on all nice and configured just the way I like it and the T410 only has Windows 7 (for now). I've recently started using linux as my primary non-work OS and I am loving it very much. I have been using linux off and on again over the last 13+ years - but never as the primary OS, until now.

Long story short:

T410 + D630 = Happy me. All other machines will be sold or given to family members to help finance a new (and my firs) motorcycle. I can't wait even though it will be about 6 months before I get one.

[pianowizard]

I think my great laptop quest has come to a conclusion: the perfect machine for me is a 14" widescreen unit with a fast Core2DUO or i5.

My perfect form factor would also be 14.1" 16:10 *if* it had 1920x1200 (160.6 DPI). Even 1680x1050 would be quite nice. But unfortunately, the highest available is only 1440x900. Thus, I would rather have 14.0" 1920x1080, which is offered by Lenovo, Dell and HP on their business-class laptops. I am happy with my Sony Pro13's 13.3" 1920x1080 too.

It's funny even though I really, really, really love the T410 everytime I sit down on the couch I grab the D630. It has a great keyboard (slightly better than the T410 IMO) and it's battery life is superior.

I saw a D630 just last week on a colleague's desk. I hadn't seen one in ages and I was surprised by how small it looked. Of course it's isn't really that small, but the design somehow makes it look small. OMG, it's a truly sexy laptop. I was surprised again a few seconds later when I lifted it: it felt so heavy! For traveling, neither the D630 nor the T410 would work for me. ~3.2 lbs (the weight of my Panasonic Y9) is pretty much my limit.

[Temetka]

Yeah, the D630 can be a tad heavy but it is lighter than all my 15" laptops.

The T410 feels like a feather to me. It is by far, the lightest laptop I have ever owned. The first time I picked it up I thought it was empty inside. It's not. It's filled with awesome and like helium awesome floats.