I've been doing more and more work on the road and the laptop in my sig isn't cutting the mustard anymore. It's a company machine and I'll be passing it off sometime in the next month or so, then requesting a new one.
I just recommended a Thinkpad T530 to my boss and it's a sweet machine - he digs it a lot more than the Latitude he used to have. I'm a fan as well - just haven't needed them for traveling work in the past.
I'll definitely be waiting for the Haswell update to buy, but all indications are that they should be popping up with Win8.1 around the end of the month, yes?
So, needs:
-Docking bay ready. I have dual HDMI/DVI 1080p monitors. Dual HDMI ports on the dock would be nice, but I can deal with DVI if needed.
-12-14" size range. 13.3 would be ideal but I'm flexible.
-Must support 16GB RAM. I have 8 now and it's not enough. I do heavy multitasking, use gigantic 100MB+ spreadsheets (product data sheets for 40k+ products and associated info), and lots of Adobe work in Ps, Ai, and Pr. And tend to have a billion Chrome (for personal stuff), IE (for work stuff), and Firefox (for SEO work stuff) windows open at once. Will probably start loading up virtual machines for testing at some point too. I'd be interested in 32GB if it wasn't so expensive.
-I've already got the Samsung 830 SSD I'm planning to put in it, so storage is irrelevant. If it somes with a PCIe/NGFF SSD, no worries. I'm sure I can find another use for the 830.
Wants:
-IPS display (worth up to maybe 100, but would rather not pay over 50. Don't need crazy DPI; 768p on a 13" display is fine).
-Semi-rugged. I don't need a Toughbook, but I'd rather not have another flimsy consumer machine like the one in my sig.
-Price under $800 - cheaper would be better.
-At least 8 hrs battery life, with a strong preference for 35W Haswell. I could live on a U-series if needed for good battery, but with the current T-430 already hitting 9+ hrs with 35W Ivy, I think we're at a point of diminishing returns - and a full-power i5 would save me some good time. Unless something like the i5-4200U is a lot faster than it looks on paper?
-Ultrabook form factor would certainly be convenient, but I think I'd still prefer full size performance pending an answer on how much speed I'd be losing by going U-series. On paper, it looks like a lot.
-Intel IGP is fine. Higher end HD4600/5000+ would be nice but no biggie.
-Bluetooth and webcam preferred but not needed.
That's it! I know the models will be updated for Haswell, but judging by the Thinkpad preview Lenovo put up, the models aren't drastically different. So what do you guys think?
I could definitely live on something like an L-440 although smaller would be nice. Long as it has a dock, I'm not overly concerned with connectivity.
I just recommended a Thinkpad T530 to my boss and it's a sweet machine - he digs it a lot more than the Latitude he used to have. I'm a fan as well - just haven't needed them for traveling work in the past.
I'll definitely be waiting for the Haswell update to buy, but all indications are that they should be popping up with Win8.1 around the end of the month, yes?
So, needs:
-Docking bay ready. I have dual HDMI/DVI 1080p monitors. Dual HDMI ports on the dock would be nice, but I can deal with DVI if needed.
-12-14" size range. 13.3 would be ideal but I'm flexible.
-Must support 16GB RAM. I have 8 now and it's not enough. I do heavy multitasking, use gigantic 100MB+ spreadsheets (product data sheets for 40k+ products and associated info), and lots of Adobe work in Ps, Ai, and Pr. And tend to have a billion Chrome (for personal stuff), IE (for work stuff), and Firefox (for SEO work stuff) windows open at once. Will probably start loading up virtual machines for testing at some point too. I'd be interested in 32GB if it wasn't so expensive.
-I've already got the Samsung 830 SSD I'm planning to put in it, so storage is irrelevant. If it somes with a PCIe/NGFF SSD, no worries. I'm sure I can find another use for the 830.
Wants:
-IPS display (worth up to maybe 100, but would rather not pay over 50. Don't need crazy DPI; 768p on a 13" display is fine).
-Semi-rugged. I don't need a Toughbook, but I'd rather not have another flimsy consumer machine like the one in my sig.
-Price under $800 - cheaper would be better.
-At least 8 hrs battery life, with a strong preference for 35W Haswell. I could live on a U-series if needed for good battery, but with the current T-430 already hitting 9+ hrs with 35W Ivy, I think we're at a point of diminishing returns - and a full-power i5 would save me some good time. Unless something like the i5-4200U is a lot faster than it looks on paper?
-Ultrabook form factor would certainly be convenient, but I think I'd still prefer full size performance pending an answer on how much speed I'd be losing by going U-series. On paper, it looks like a lot.
-Intel IGP is fine. Higher end HD4600/5000+ would be nice but no biggie.
-Bluetooth and webcam preferred but not needed.
That's it! I know the models will be updated for Haswell, but judging by the Thinkpad preview Lenovo put up, the models aren't drastically different. So what do you guys think?
I could definitely live on something like an L-440 although smaller would be nice. Long as it has a dock, I'm not overly concerned with connectivity.