Need a Business Laptop

Lenovo laptops are good business laptops. Not too many bells and whistles, and very reliable (essentially these are an evolution on the IBM Thinkpads). They are relatively cheap. I'm sure you can find a pretty basic model for around $750.

For wireless, I use a Verizon 3G card. I've had great experience with it overall. It's not blazing fast, but I can connect from anywhere: hotels, restaurants, the beach, my car... you get the idea. It is an additional cost, but if you need the flexibility, and the independance to connect "where ever" this is a good option. I'm pretty sure the Lenovos have these onboard, or you can purchase a USB model separately.

I have my company using Lenovo laptops right now. I get very few complaints/issues. They are reliable, and they do their job consistently.

 

Make sure you have Windows 7, something like 4GB RAM (though 2GB ought to suffice), at least a dual-core CPU (something like Intel Core I-5). If you carry it around a lot, an SSD may be wise, since they are more robust than HDD. Graphics, if you want to use it for business only, is secondary, as is, since I assume you use it in the hotel room, battery life. Still, a dedicated graphics card may be nice to have. 15,6" at least, 17" when you want to use it as a portable workstation surrogate LED backlit is a must. Backlit keys may be nice.

I heard good things of Lenovo. IBM and Asus are good as well. Personally, I have an irrational affection towards Asus.

 

Agree that 2GB RAM ought to suffice for your intended activities and Windows 7 is definitely the OS you want to go with. 4GB would be a luxury, but if that breaks the bank but you don't want to skimp on the RAM, 3GB would be a good compromise. I have some power users running Lenovo laptops with Win7 and 3GB RAM and haven't had any complaints.

Ragusa makes several good suggestions, although you may not be able to find all that for less than $750. Perhaps if you go with some no-name brand... but I don't suggest that you do that. For a business laptop you want to be with a reputable manufacturer that will support you if the laptop has issues. Really, you generally want this even with a personal laptop. Also, make sure that you include a good warranty option (3 years is generally about right).

 

If all HP laptops are like my DM1, I can heartily recommend them. The DM1 is an 11" laptop, or ultraportable I believe they are called, which is somewhere in between a netbook and a full blown laptop. It isn't very suitable for working with documents next to each other on screen (it is just doable, but somewhat tiresome), but otherwise I found that 11" is a very comfortable size to work with. It isn't as heavy as bigger laptops, and it has a dual Celeron instead of an Atom processor which they stick in almost every netbook, so a bit more powah (which I would say is enough for working with Office documents, surfing the web, playing some computer games with simple graphics and watching movies). Add some great battery life (which was one of the main points why I bought it. Bringing a power brick defeats the purpose of a portable PC in my opinion) and an HP screen and it was one of the best purchases I've done this year (I don't know where HP get their screens from, but I'm in love with both my desktop screen and my laptop screen. I can even use my laptop outside in the sun in the middle of the summer, which is ideal for a geek also interested in his tan ).

But I guess the size wouldn't be ideal for you. I use it a lot on cramped trains, so I didn't want anything too big, but if you sit down and work at a desk I guess you might want something with some more screen space. Typing on the smaller keyboard or watching a movie on it isn't troublesome at all though.

 

When you use windows 7 32 bit 3 gig is ok. Windows 64 bit at least 4.

Intel or AMD processor, it does not matter. Make it quad core for future proofing. Asus as a brand is the best around.

Some have a 5400 rpm HDD which cost less power but is slower in use. 7200 is normal.

Both AMD and Nvidia have sinned in renaming old mobile graphics cards from with new numbers. check it.


This looks nice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220733


It is bit gamy. You can play Dragon Age on it.

 

I use a Dell (I actually bought it on sale at Best Buy for much less than at dell.com). All the laptops at my work are also Dells. I haven't had any issues with them at all.

 

Here’s what they claim recertified means:
“Recertified” products have been tested to ensure compliance with original manufacturer specifications, and MAY include a limited manufacturer warranty – see the item's product page for details.”

It’s a little vague, but it would seem that these systems had defects identified and hopefully corrected. Personally, I’ve had bad experiences buy refurbished products. I really don’t like the ambiguity that the product “MAY” include a limited warranty. Without more investigation, I would consider this a red flag.

In terms of differences between the 2 laptops, here are some of the key differences I notice:

ASUS
** 17.3” Display (nice)
** 6GB DDR2 Memory (more than you probably need, but not bad to have)
** 90 day limited warranty (yuck!)

Lenovo
** 15.6” Display (decent for a notebook)
** 4GB DDR3 Memory (should be plenty)
** 1 year limited warranty (standard)

Weight/Battery
The ASUS is around 3 pounds heavier (8.79 vs. 5.73), so if you’re traveling a lot, the extra weight may not be worth the larger display size. The ASUS has a more powerful battery, but battery life on the Lenovo is listed at 4.5 hours, which is excellent, if true. It largely depends on your power settings, so you can adjust to find the right balance between performance and battery life. Batteries wear out over time, and you will get less life out of them as they get older. Something to keep in mind.

Processor/Video
There are other differences such as AMD processor vs. Intel, and ATI video card vs. Nvidia, but we could debate for days on which is better. Generally speaking, these processors and video cards should do the job, and probably aren’t worth quibbling over.

Which is better?
Unless the larger display is a really big deal to you, I’d probably go with the Lenovo. But remember, you can hook your laptop to an external monitor, so if you happen to have a nice big flat panel monitor at home, you can use that when you’re not traveling. I am also turned off by the 90 warranty with the Asus. That’s not nearly enough.

Either way, I’d strongly recommend that you purchase the extended warranty. You don’t want to be high and dry with a laptop that has mostly proprietary parts in it, without a valid support contract. The extended warranty will almost certainly pay for itself, and then some. It may even save you hundreds of dollars.

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I find that Dells are better for personal use than business use. For my personal home machines I pretty much only buy Dell these days, and I'm a big fan of them. They tend to have a few more bells and whistles and seem to be tailored to your average home user rather than a business user. Professionally, I've supported them on a larger scale, and have also supported IBM/Lenovo. Lenovo has been the signficantly more stable platform in my experience. This is why I suggest them for business use.

When it comes to personal use, I'm somewhat less concerned with stability, and will sacrifice a bit of that for performance and some extra cool gadgets -- for which Dell is a good choice. At the end of the day, there are tons of options out there. Dell wouldn't be a horrible way to go, but it may be best for DMC to focus in on only a few manufacturers so that he doesn't get overwhelmed.

 

I will still recommend the Asus UL30Vt. It's got fantastic battery life, good power, and it's what I'm using right now. Enagonios's thread recently reviewed the options and the pros and cons.

Also, I would go right ahead and read this thread without paying any mind whatsoever to Marceror's advice, for it is consistently bad.

A bigger screen adds a LOT of weight and is absolute murder for your battery life. And it makes the laptop clumsy to transport.

Lenovo I've not heard good things about... though, this is compared to IBM in build quality, so they failed in filling the biggest boots about.

You so do want more than 2gb of RAM. This day and age, 2gb is barely adequate, and extra RAM is the cheapest performance update out there.

Four and a half hours listed battery life? Yeah, pass on that. You wouldn't get through one movie. Listed battery life is always a pipe dream.

Don't go for refurbished/recertified products unless you want to enjoy a support nightmare if/when it breaks.

 

Hello friend, nice to meet you. I'm curious as to how my advice is "consistently bad." Looking at what you point out:

I almost hate to point this out, but you and I are saying something quite similar here. It's your advice, and my advice, and it's good advice to consider form factor and weight.

I mentioned that battery life varies. As for bad information, listed battery life, in fact, IS NOT always a pipe dream. It completely depends on what you're doing, and how your power settings are configured. If you're watching movies, or playing games, you will get FAR LESS battery life, of course. If you're working on Word documents and Excel files (typical activities for a business laptop), you may very well get the listed amount. I'm not speaking from theory here... I spend about 14 hours a day on my Lenovo work laptop. I'm on it right now, in fact.

Okay, so because you've "not heard good things about" Lenovo, and I suggest the Lenovo over the ASUS, my advice is bad? Does not the fact that I spend an ungodly amount of time on one each day, and the fact that I've supported thousands of them for business users over the years, perhaps, maybe, just maybe, give me a bit more clout on this one? My massive experience on the topic, vs. what you've "heard?" I think that it does.

It was actually Ragusa that stated 2GB would be sufficient, and I agreed, so I'm not sure why you try to drag me into the mud on this (I guess I appeared an easier target than the immortal Ragusa) That's fine. And yes, I agree that 2GB is bare minimum, but for a business laptop purchased on a budget it would typically be "adequate." Oh, and by the way, that Lenovo laptop that mentioned I spend so much time on... it runs Win7 32 bit, and guess how much memory it has? Did you guess 2GB? If so, you're correct! It's about 3 years old and I still get close to 4 hours of battery life with it, usually with at least 5 applications open and 50+ windows running. I take good care of it, and it still runs really well. So what I provide is real world advice and observations here.

I never said more wouldn't be better. I suggested that 3GB would be a good compromise I have dozens of users running just fine with 3GB right now and it's working well for them.

More bad advice? Where we're saying essentially the same thing?

Well, this is everything you had to say, and I don't see any bad advice given yet on my part.

So listen, Taza, I don't mean to pull rank here, but I can see that you're only 23 and like giving out amateur advice. I'm nearly 37 and have been working as an IT professional for nearly 15 years, and have several years of amateur experience prior. I have supported some of the largest Wall Street companies in the United States, and have garnered a reputation for providing consistently sound advice -- and received 9 promotions over the course of my career largely because of it.

This by no means indicates that my advice is always perfect. These days I'm much more focused on running enterprise datacenters than I am building and supporting personal laptops/desktops, so if I happened to miss something or led DMZ astray, I'm happy to be corrected. But I haven't seen from you any valid corrections. Your note about me just seems like a baseless slam, and isn't helpful in my opinion.

 

I happen to be gamer so i cant really talk about how well office work plays out on both 2 and 3 gigs of ram. I have 2 hp desktops one with vista home premium and the other with windows 7 ulitimate both 32bit even tho the one running windows 7 can hold up to 8 gigs of ram it is currently running 3 gigs and i have no problems gaming on either except that the one with vista is currently missing a dedicated gpu and is running on a single core amd athlon 64 3500+. that hp has the max amount of ram that the motherboard can hold which is 2 gigs. I have some issues running hd content on it tho sence its got a geforce 6150 IGP instead of a dedicated one. I recently took out my gts250 and stuck it int he dualcore hp ive got here and am using this as my primiary gaming rig and the single core as a HTPC and I have no problems running eaither with only 3 and 2 gigs respectiavly.

 

I choose the big screen on the account that he wants to watch movies on it.

6 to 8 cells is the way to go. Some notebooks do not have an optical drive but an extra battery cell.
A review for the lenovo: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Z565-4311.38096.0.html


This one sits in between. The brand is good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214043

 

Eh. Your advice sucks AND you're a pointless blowhard. Congrats on getting the one-two-punch of being irrelevant on the internet.

 

Oh my. So much for having an intelligent dialogue. I've learned everything I need to know about you, and won't waste my time on you anymore.

Cheers

dmc - my apologies for getting your screen name wrong.

 

Finefine.

Anyway, my advice is straight-up the UL30Vt and it's evolutions - notably, the UL80Vt/UL80Jt.

Speak from what you know and all that.

Also, @Merlanni: Where your suggestions have been at the very least decent, I'm still opposed towards even 15 inch screens on a system that needs notable portability. Nevermind airplanes. I have trouble using my 13 inch laptop in cramped seats, and would have gone with the 11 inch Air if it were out back when I got my current laptop. A larger screen may look good but it'd also need fantastic viewing angles given the acrobatics you'd have to do with it.

 

If you have a choice between a matte screen and a shiny one, I recommend the matte screen. Shiny screens may look classy and some say that the give off better colors, but they tend to shine just about any light source that is behind you right into your eyes. You can also see your reflection if the screen is predominantly dark.

 

We have HP and Lenovo laptops at work and from experience with those two brands I would definitely pick Lenovo. I will get myself one as well when I decide to upgrade my current laptop. Other suggested options are probably better if you are looking for something a bit less business-like.