Best *quality* general notebooks

[marcplante]

Wife just poured a beer into her Samsung R580 and was on the verge of buying a powerbook, but backed off and decided on a nice notebook rather than an apple.

Uses

General surfing and mail
- Videos on Youtube and Netflix
- Doesn't want too much noise or heat. She had a Sony that had a noisy cooling fan that cooked her lap.
- No patience for anything, so I figure fast boot and lots of RAM.
- Enough graphics for the video, but not necessarily a dedicated card. Bluray drive would be nice. Anything exotic would happen on my desktop.
- Likes better quality speakers since she watches videos on the notebook.
- Also would like a backlit keyboard since she ofter surfs on the sofa in a dark living room in front of the TV (She's trying a tablet as we speak, but not sold)
- 15.6" form factor. She spends as much time on the couch as at her kitchen desk, but watns big enough for a meaningful screen.
- I'll add HDMI out
- So she needs a snappy quality notebook that does the fundamentals without hesitation. Nothing really magical.
***She is looking for best build quality and customer service as she tends to keep her notebooks for 5 yrs and doesn't want annoyances.***

- Lenovo? Thinkpad?
- Asus?
- Dell? XPS?

She was ready to buy a Mac, so a few extra dollars for better quality and service are OK

I'm thinking some sandy bridge I5 box with 6-8 gigs of ram and a blu ray drive would work well.

Thanks,

 

[vbuggy]

HP 8560p? Speakers may not be great though.
Or if speakers are more important, Envy 14 with retrofit SSD?

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

T520, and then buy an SSD to put in it to make it seem faster

 

[jimhsu]

Business class HP, Dell, or Lenovo. Note business class. You can't go wrong with any of those.

The biggest gap that I know of is between HP consumer equipment and HP business equipment. One is worse than total crap, the other is one of the best in industry.

 

[vbuggy]

Business class HP, Dell, or Lenovo. Note business class. You can't go wrong with any of those.

The biggest gap that I know of is between HP consumer equipment and HP business equipment. One is worse than total crap, the other is one of the best in industry.

The Envy's are OK. It's better than the Crapbook it was me-too'd from, which puts it in the not-quite-business-but-OK-for-demanding-home-use category. Which is why I suggested it or an Elitebook.

 

[CurseTheSky]

HP 8560p? Speakers may not be great though.
Or if speakers are more important, Envy 14 with retrofit SSD?

As much as I love my Envy 14, I have to disagree with the speaker suggestion. The notebook itself is quite good, but the speakers are nothing special.

 

[dclive]

Wife just poured a beer into her Samsung R580 and was on the verge of buying a powerbook, but backed off and decided on a nice notebook rather than an apple.

Note Apple hasn't made a Powerbook in a half a decade or so, but one question - why not get a Mac - like the MBP or MBA? They have the best (repair record, customer satisfaction record, quality ratings...pick any three) of any laptops in the industry, and are the gold standard. Why not just get one? Aside from bluray (is she really going to carry around a bunch of physical discs in 2011? For how much longer will that happen? I haven't used 'em for years) playback, a Macbook Pro (or, better, the Air, but it's only 13") will do all of what you want.

 

[vbuggy]

As much as I love my Envy 14, I have to disagree with the speaker suggestion. The notebook itself is quite good, but the speakers are nothing special.

Compared to a typical business notebook?

 

[vbuggy]

Note Apple hasn't made a Powerbook in a half a decade or so, but one question - why not get a Mac - like the MBP or MBA? They have the best (repair record, customer satisfaction record, quality ratings...pick any three) of any laptops in the industry, and are the gold standard. Why not just get one? Aside from bluray (is she really going to carry around a bunch of physical discs in 2011? For how much longer will that happen? I haven't used 'em for years) playback, a Macbook Pro (or, better, the Air, but it's only 13") will do all of what you want.

Gold standard compared to bottom-feeder consumer notebooks which people buy for the price anyway. Compared with the entry-level business ranges, not so much. Problem is of course, a lot of these Mactard-linkbaiting sites don't make the distinction. Still, Apples are eminently soccer-mom-friendly for sure.

 

[gmaster456]

Note Apple hasn't made a Powerbook in a half a decade or so, but one question - why not get a Mac - like the MBP or MBA? They have the best (repair record, customer satisfaction record, quality ratings...pick any three) of any laptops in the industry, and are the gold standard. Why not just get one? Aside from bluray (is she really going to carry around a bunch of physical discs in 2011? For how much longer will that happen? I haven't used 'em for years) playback, a Macbook Pro (or, better, the Air, but it's only 13") will do all of what you want.

They are the Gold standard compared to your Typical $300 Compaq or Acer, but compared to a Decent business grade laptop, I'll have to agree with Vbuggy, they look less exciting.

 

[corkyg]

At present, I would wait on H-P to see who you might be dealing with. H-P has decided to spin-off (get rid of) the PC business. I would wait and see who might be picking up that ball so you have some idea of future support.

 

[Zap]

How about the Dell XPS 15? I don't know if it has a backlit keyboard included in the price (review linked below said "option) but it meets all the other requirements for $900 (with Blu Ray drive) and can even be configured with a 1080p screen for $150 more. It supposedly also has some of the best notebook speakers in the world. Maybe not saying much, but there it is.

AnandTech Review

About the only thing it needs for that "snappy" feeling is an SSD, but Dell wants $600 for a 256GB drive. You can pick up a Crucial m4 256GB for around $400 on a hot deal.

 

[biostud]

Ipad 2?

 

[marcplante]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Wife is looking at the Thinkpads, Elitebooks (with HP reservations, though IBM made the transition to Lenovo OK). and possibly an Envy. She has emotional issues with Dells and Toshibas based on past customer service interactions.

She's using my ASUS tablet for now on the couch and using her recovered Samsung NB while we shop. The keyboard is still drying from an alcohol and water bath to get the beer out.

I bet she dumped the beer in an attempt to rationalize a new toy. Samsung will go to our daughter.

I think I just earned new RAM and a video card for my desktop since I saved her HD and data. Time to load up for BF3.

 

[biostud]

The new HP probooks are nice (and a lot cheaper than EliteBooks) maybe the 4530s

 

[dclive]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20111081-64/hp-and-apple-face-off-elitebook-vs-macbook/

Interesting comparison.

 

[herm0016]

dell latitude from dell business outlet is a good choice too.

 

[BudaBomb]

I would recommend lenovo thinkpads i have an edge and i love it plus they are very customizable. Plus there sturdy and have good keyboards dont kno about the blu-ray tho

 

[hans007]

i'd recommend the thinkpad but a few caveats for you.

they have a light for the keyboard, but not a backlit keyboard. they also don't have blu-ray or hdmi ports without a display port adapteR)

one nice thing about the newest thinkpads and the HP envy i know is they can have m-sata SSDs so you can have a hard drive and an SSD.

envy keyboard kind of sucks though (my dad has an envy 15) though i have to say chiclet keys imho just suck compared to say a thinkpad one in general.

 

[vbuggy]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20111081-64/hp-and-apple-face-off-elitebook-vs-macbook/

Interesting comparison.

Interesting, from the viewpoint that it's a comparison made by the apparently increasingly vocal-in-press sort of Dunning-Kruger pure consumer user who can only compare with their eyes and the spec sheet.

No evaluation of the fully paid-up support, no evaluation of the stability in varied environmental conditions, no evaluation of ultimate durability in a typical 'not-my-own-notebook' setting. I.e. a completely unqualified reviewer.

 

[alent1234]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20111081-64/hp-and-apple-face-off-elitebook-vs-macbook/

Interesting comparison.

i had a corporate laptop from HP a few years ago and will never ever buy an HP laptop unless it's a cheapo piece of throwaway that i don't care if it breaks. the warranty is crap and useless. they try to find every way to screw you and say it's your fault. and the laptop literally fell apart over 3 years. it was $1500 brand new including a 3 year warranty and an option for an onsite warranty.

i got a cheap lenovo to replace it and it's built like a tank. dropped it on concrete once and even though some plastic from the screen shattered it's still running like new after over a year of use.

the way things are going i'll probably have to buy my own laptop for work for the next one and i'm looking at MacBook Air's, MBP's, dell and lenovo

i didn't care for the MBA until i realized that with spotify i don't need my 60GB music collection anymore along with a huge hard drive to keep it. if i have to buy a new laptop next year and the 2012 MBA comes out with a larger SSD i'll take a much closer look at it

the MBP is one of the few laptops that has MIMO antennas on it. You can buy a dell XPS or a lenovo with this feature but you will pay the exact same amount of money as the cost of an MBP

 

[Broheim]

Gold standard compared to bottom-feeder consumer notebooks which people buy for the price anyway. Compared with the entry-level business ranges, not so much. Problem is of course, a lot of these Mactard-linkbaiting sites don't make the distinction. Still, Apples are eminently soccer-mom-friendly for sure.

funny, because I'm a CS student and I've never found my MBP to be lacking in anyway compared to the thinkpads my fellow students uses, quite to the contrary, in the performance department it kicks all their asses up and down the halls... also, the touchpad is a billion times better on the MBP and IBM/Lenovo are the only ones who ever really got the trackpoint/whatever right. multitouch gestures also makes my life a little bit easier.

Apple is also more or less the only laptop manufactor left that consistently uses 16:10, which is a shame. also while were on the topic on screens, generally speaking the screens on businessgrade laptops are terrible with the exception of the mad expensive workstation laptops meant for graphical work, whereas the MBP has a pretty decent screen.

sure the MBP wont survive as high a drop as some business grade laptops, but there's a simple solution to that....

....
....
....

don't drop your laptop! in all the years I've used a laptop I have yet to drop one.

For commuting/travelling/general business usage and such it's plenty robust imo.

"Apples are eminently soccer-mom-friendly" sure, they are really user friendly, but they are also eminently powerful for someone who's capable of using a POSIX OS to its fullest.

 

[Schadenfreude]

How about the Dell XPS 15? I don't know if it has a backlit keyboard included in the price (review linked below said "option) but it meets all the other requirements for $900 (with Blu Ray drive) and can even be configured with a 1080p screen for $150 more. It supposedly also has some of the best notebook speakers in the world. Maybe not saying much, but there it is.

AnandTech Review

About the only thing it needs for that "snappy" feeling is an SSD, but Dell wants $600 for a 256GB drive. You can pick up a Crucial m4 256GB for around $400 on a hot deal.

I have the XPS 15, and I can say it is the best sounding laptop out there, period. There's only two caveats I'd say about it:

- It is bulky, no two ways about it. It's not too hard to hold on your lap, but it takes up space, especially compared to the newer, sleeker lappys coming out.

- Get the upgraded display if you decide to get it, your wife will not regret it.

If you're interested in sticking w/ Samsung, the new Series 7 Laptops look sleek; all metal body, lightweight/slim, super-slim screen bezel (they were able to put in a 14" display into a 13.3" chassis for the smaller versions), decent specs, etc. and they've just gone up for pre-order now for ~$900, I believe.

 

[vbuggy]

funny, because I'm a CS student

Funny, because I own a specialist technology consultancy which spends more in (less than) a year on kit than an enthusiast will likely spend in their entire lifetime on both Apple and everything else.

I personally use everything from a current-flagship-spec Mac Pro all the way down to an 11" Air and I rate them - comparatively speaking in terms of utility in line with my VAIO's, Thinkpads and Elitebooks / Zx00's - about as high as my shoelaces. Designwise of course it's an entirely different story.

and I've never found my MBP to be lacking in anyway compared to the thinkpads my fellow students uses

Given a student's use, I'm not surprised.

quite to the contrary, in the performance department it kicks all their asses up and down the halls...

Damn, I have to smoke whatever you're smoking. It's good shit.

 

[vbuggy]

The new HP probooks are nice (and a lot cheaper than EliteBooks) maybe the 4530s

The 4000 series feel a lot less like Elitebooks IMO - and the guy is asking for 'best quality'. The 6000 is better and a solid machine for the money, but IMO not the most attractive machines on the block.

(The block. Geddit? Oh be like that then )