Laptop Recommendations

[Jane Herbert]

Finally after more years than I care to think about, our HP laptop is about to die (pink screen) .... So we are in the market for a new one....

We will be using it on a Jotto desk so smaller (but strong) is better than larger and it will be doing a lot of travelling later in the year (and carrying bags) and so lighter is better than heavier. Preferably 1Tb of memory, dual core, USB ports, HDMI, DVD player would be good and must have strong wifi connectability.....

I would be very interested in your recommendations and reviews.

Many thanks!!!!

 

[MClarkson]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8041011&Sku=D211-156205

There you go. That should handle anything you throw at it short of full 3d gaming.

 

[Skip Talbot]

You can get some real deals if you're patient. I was able to get a Dell 15R like the one above but with a quad i7 (instead of the i5) and dedicated NVidia Geforce graphics for just over $400. I got a "scratch and dent" deal from the Dell Outlet store and was also able to apply a 25% off coupon that was posted to slickdeals.net. If you watch that site, you'll see nice deals and coupons posted fairly regularly. I couldn't even tell where this scratch or dent was, the case seemed perfectly fine to me.

As for the 15R, it's not a very sturdy design. It's meant for light, home use. I use it while chasing, but I've already banged it up quite a bit. One of the USB ports has become super loose, another one can cause blue screens if it's used. I accidentally flooded it with water and wore out part of the screen hinge and bolt assembly taking it apart to replace the motherboard and upgrade the hard drive. Upgrading the hard drive is a real pain too. It sits underneath the motherboard with no access panel on the case. You basically have to take the whole thing apart to get at it. Not a big deal if you never want to replace your drive, but the standard hard drives are pretty slow and you can get a tremendous performance gain putting in a solid state drive. I'm getting lockups in every couple of hours on it now too, although that might be a side effect of the water damage still or me ripping it apart so often. Either that or it's clogged with dirt from the dust storms it was in (or cat fur). At that price, I'm not going to complain about how sturdy the machine is. If you take care of it, it could last a long time and work like a champ. You might want to look into something a bit more durable too. The builds meant for rugged durability often run twice the cost though.

 

[f.vanalstine]

I have been told that it might be useful to consider a laptop packed with solid state memory instead of a hard drive. Bouncing around in a car for miles on end is not a great service condition for a hard drive

Frank VA

 

[STexan]

A lot depends on your budget and aversion level to Macs. Beyond that, if weight/size is a concern then you may want to confine yourself to the sub= 15 inch class. But if you need a lightweight 17 inch, be prepared to spend $2200+ for something like a Mac or a Sony or other thin profile design that also incorporates power and graphics.

If you're going to also use this same machine to do your image editing then you may have to consider only 17" plus rigs. Power can be had, size can be had, but power and large size and light weight is very pricey. I generally custom build on the net with various custom builders. I've been known to shop 3 weeks before deciding on a configuration and provider. You have to establish
- your screen size minimum and maximum size
- your maximum weight allowable
- your processor make
- and what you plan on running routinely on the machine

then you can proceed with the many options available. I'm a PC guy, always have been but have owned Mac laptops and have to admit the more I use a Mac the more I appreciate them. And they're especially quick to awaken to a useable state in comparison to the fastest PC's even with SSD's. Also, the published battery time I've found to not be very accurate. Unless you're buying a very small and portability minded machine, don't expect 2.2+ hour run times on battery even if they claim 3.2+ hours.

A SSD is nice to have but if you have to pay a $500 premium to get the size you need, I would say the ROI is not there. Standard IDE disks will generally take a lot of "typical abuse".

 

[Jane Herbert]

Thanks for all of your thoughts...we ended up with another HP Pavillion computer which has everything we need (except it has Windows 8 <sigh>).

Now I need to find how to split the GPS between Streets and Trips and GR Level 3 as GPSGate doesnt seem to like Windows 8.......any suggestions?

many thanks for your time, I have learnt quite a bit from you guys!

 

[Matt Tottle]

Just FYI Skip the 15R has a fatal defect in the motherboard that Dell has yet to acknowledge/recall. I have repaired a couple of them, and I have received two brand new factory-sealed motherboards that had the same defect right off the assembly line. Basically a chip called the System Interval Timer fails, which causes it to boot very slowly. I refuse to recommend them because of that.

So if yours ever develops that, you'll know what it is..

 

[Skip Talbot]

My laptop boots in half the time of my phone, so I don't think that's the issue with my machine. Cracked the case open last night and didn't see anything obviously wrong visually. I'm going to try formatting and reinstalling Windows and I'll probably try a new harddrive after that. If the motherboard is bad, I'll just buy a new machine. Sorry, to sidetrack the thread, but if I resort to buying a new machine, I'll report back here with what I find.

 

[John Gnuechtel]

I chased with a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 this year, as my traditional Thinkpad was getting really long in the tooth. Very, very happy with the experience, mainly for the simplicity and portability. My Subaru has a double din stock stereo, which has long since been replaced with a single height head unit. I used to have a fold-out touch screen installed above it that was connected to a small PC mounted under the passenger seat. It was a fun setup reminiscent of times gone by. This year, I ripped all that out and replaced the old touch screen with a simple OEM docking station for the tablet. It worked perfectly fine. The tablet didn't come flying out, even on heavy bumps. The whole setup was great because I could pull the tablet out at any time and take it into a restaurant with me while waiting. It would also charge the tablet and cell phone while I drove, and functioned as a 10" navigation screen most of the time. Horsepower on the Tablet 2 isn't stellar, but it boots quickly, and the battery lasts a solid 8 hours unplugged. The tradeoff of power for battery life has been totally acceptable. It has enough beef to run GR Analyst, a couple Firefox tabs, and Delorme navigation simultaneously, so it ticks all the boxes. It can also handle Photoshop CC in a pinch, but it's somewhat slow. I'm sure this will last me for quite a few years to come.