Laptop recommendation

[sparky!]

I need to get a new laptop for work. It has to be a Windows machine and I'd like something in the 15 to 17" range that can run AutoCAD well.

What are people's opinions on makes these days? We've been getting Lenovo recently, but the quality really hasn't been great (actually more a service issue than anything, with machines requiring multiple service calls to fix a problem).

I think Toshiba used to be good, as well as Sony. But otherwise I'm in the dark (Mac user at home, currently desktop user at work).

In the past, I used to get Dells and really, really hated them. Perhaps they're better now?

[Alessan]

I bought a Toshiba Satellite laptop 3.5 years ago, and another one six months ago. Both are terrific.

[Skald the Rhymer]

I bought a Toshiba Satellite laptop 3.5 years ago, and another one six months ago. Both are terrific.

I second this, only much more vigorously. And I'd like also to take this opportunity to ritually spit on Hewlett-Packard.

:: spits ::

[sparky!]

Damn, just realized I left Panasonic off the list (actually had no idea they made laptops).

[Skald the Rhymer]

Damn, just realized I left Panasonic off the list (actually had no idea they made laptops).

You're not missing anything.

:: spits again ::

[Czarcasm]

You're not missing anything.

:: spits again ::Quit spitting on the message board-that's what shorted it out earlier today.

[scr4]

I voted for Lenovo as it is my favorite brand, but would also recommend Fujitsu. Not very flashy, but solid build and specs, and excellent service.

And there's nothing wrong with Dell either, I've owned a few (mostly through work) and don't recall any problems.

ASUS seems to have gained a good reputation as well. I haven't owned their laptops but their Android tablet has excellent build quality and software support.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Quit spitting on the message board-that's what shorted it out earlier today.

That was just a distraction so I could get into your desk. I've already gotten what I needed and so I have no need to cause further chaos in that vein.

To the OP: I think ill of Dell laptops on the consumer level, but not the enterprise level. Anybody else with similar experience?

[typoink]

All consumer PC laptops are, more or less, the same. Similar components, same plastic designs, etc. If there's a meaningful differentiator, I've yet to find it.

The only lines I've seen that stand apart are Sony, ThinkPad, and Apple. For laptops, Apple system are worth it if you can afford the "Apple tax" (and the cost of a Windows license to add Win7). ThinkPads are excellent computers, doubly so if the spartan styling doesn't bother you. Sonys I have no personal experience with, but know a few fans.

[lazybratsche]

Thinkpads are engineered to be rugged and easily maintainable -- anything can be replaced by removing a few screws, and you can easily find service manuals. I'm very happy with my x201i.

Another "premium" line that I recommend are HP Elitebooks. They're also quite rugged, fairly slick in a no-nonsense way, and are simple to repair. Also, they come standard with a very good 3-year warranty. My wife has one, bought from some random bargain internet site. It's had a few problems, but each time HP pays to overnight the laptop to their repair facility where they've happily replaced some major components.

If you usually buy longer warranties or service plans, consider that once you buy a mid-range laptop and get an equivalent warranty, the Elitebooks aren't much more expensive.

Among the upscale/"enterprise" laptops, Sony makes slick hardware that's really hard to maintain.

[simple homer]

Asus scores highest or second highest (behind Apple) in reliability surveys. I am very happy with my Asus

http://www.pcworld.com/article/211402/reliability_and_service_laptops.html
http://www.geckoandfly.com/6311/the-most-reliable-laptop-survey-best-netbook-reliability-comparison/

[GusNSpot]

But the cost in up-grades to run AUTOCAD at the same speed level of a good desktop?????

IMO you are going to be hard pressed to get a laptop that can do that WELL.

YMMV

Or you are not really hammering the CAD program....

[CookingWithGas]

In the past, I used to get Dells and really, really hated them. Perhaps they're better now?Curious about this. Dell was standard issue by one of my employers and I had one for a couple of years. Why did you hate it?

[sparky!]

Curious about this. Dell was standard issue by one of my employers and I had one for a couple of years. Why did you hate it?

I continually had nagging issues where things would stop working: the CD drive, the screen hinge, the power outlet, motherboard issues. This was for 2 of them between 2003 and 2006.

Absolute garbage.

[sparky!]

But the cost in up-grades to run AUTOCAD at the same speed level of a good desktop?????

IMO you are going to be hard pressed to get a laptop that can do that WELL.

YMMV

Or you are not really hammering the CAD program....

Now days, a good laptop can handle 3D CAD without problem.

Work is sending me overseas the coming year, so I need to able to access CAD files, though I won't really be using the software to its full potential.

But when not travelling, I'll be using the laptop as my fulltime desktop via a docking station. I did this at my last job using a Macbook Pro and everything worked great.

[ZipperJJ]

I got the top-of-the-line Toshiba Satellite that was available at my local Best Buy in July, and it was quite good at running Visual Studio 2010, Photoshop CS5 and Firefox 5 together with no problem, on Windows 7.

It DOES feel a little flimsy but I never mean to move around much with it, so that didn't matter to me. The power I needed was all there for sure.

[Alpine]

My work Lenovo Thinkpad does fine with GIS software, as well as being a dual boot test web server. It doesn't get carried around a lot, but runs great. I think it's an SL510.

At home, I have a solid state HD x300 that has been heavily used and banged around a bit and I've had zero issues in 3+ years. I'll probably look to Lenovo again when the time comes.

[Merneith]

Asus scores highest or second highest (behind Apple) in reliability surveys. I am very happy with my Asus

http://www.pcworld.com/article/211402/reliability_and_service_laptops.html
http://www.geckoandfly.com/6311/the-most-reliable-laptop-survey-best-netbook-reliability-comparison/

I was going to say Asus too. What's your budget, sparky?

[antonio107]

I've owned two Fujitsu Laptops, followed by a Toshiba, now typing on my Sony. Fujitsu was great, the toshiba netbook was a lemon. Sony is chugging along nicely, so I voted for the vaio!

[Merejane]

Another vote for Asus. I've been happy with mine.

[Patty O'Furniture]

Sonys I have no personal experience with, but know a few fans.

I'm one of those fans. I have three Vaios that can do packet decodes on 100 gig sniffer captures without slowing down other programs. They all have 64 bit Win7, 8 gigs of RAM and 128GB SSHDs. Previous Vaios I've had have been very solid too.

[Tarwater]

Asus scores highest or second highest (behind Apple) in reliability surveys. I am very happy with my Asus

http://www.pcworld.com/article/211402/reliability_and_service_laptops.html
http://www.geckoandfly.com/6311/the-most-reliable-laptop-survey-best-netbook-reliability-comparison/

Asus laptops are fantastic. They're also very reasonably priced since Asus is not yet a brand-name company like Apple, Dell, and HP.

[Silophant]

I wanted to vote for Lenovo, but, in a massive misclick, voted for Toshiba instead. Solid, inexpensive laptop.

[Balthisar]

Since you're a Mac user at home, just get a MacBook and run Windows on it. Or dual boot and use it as a Mac when not at work. Or run Parallels or Fusion while at work and make people think it's a Windows machine.

[Waterman]

I will offer up a Sager - also under the name Clevo - a customized laptop that is solidly built and with components that will put all others to shame. I have one that I use for photography and I also like playing Flight Simulator games (X-Plane 9 and FSX) - awesome machine!

[The Niply Elder]

I have to warn people against running engineering software in a virtual machine environment (sorry for the sidetrack here), but in my experience, the OpenGL and directx implementations in vas make them simply unacceptable, so no to parallels.

[Balthisar]

I have to warn people against running engineering software in a virtual machine environment (sorry for the sidetrack here), but in my experience, the OpenGL and directx implementations in vas make them simply unacceptable, so no to parallels.

I've brought home legal (corporate) versions of my company's CAD software and it runs quite well. Of course my Mac is a vastly better machine than the standard-issue Dells. I mean 3D CAD like RobCAD or FactoryCAD that have a lot of kinematics.

And remember, it's not DirectX or OpenGL that's being emulated, it's access to the video card, and modern machines/software do that well.

And besides, it's video games that are the real challenge! :p

[sparky!]

Since you're a Mac user at home, just get a MacBook and run Windows on it. Or dual boot and use it as a Mac when not at work. Or run Parallels or Fusion while at work and make people think it's a Windows machine.

I would love to, and had that setup at my last job. However, it's not an option here.

I see HP isn't getting very good marks. That sucks. I pound away daily on my HP 48G that I have had for... wow, 15 years!

Given the poll results, I think I'll look further at the Lenovos. I'll also take a look at Asus.

[Voyager]

We go with Toshiba in our family. I have a fairly old Vista one, and my really old Win98 one still works after I replaced the disk, though it is slow. My daughter's held up despite a lot of punishment in college. Never a real problem with any of them, unlike the Compaq crap I owned before.

[TreacherousCretin]

I've owned laptops by Sony VAIO, HP, and IBM/Lenovo (2).

IBM/Lenovo best by far.

.

[echoreply]

The problem with many of the Asus and Sager/Clevo laptops is that the best screen resolution they offer is 1366x768, even in the 15" size. My problem with Asus is that they offer so many different laptops with names like U16J and U16F that there's no way I can go through all of them to figure out which one might have a proper high res screen.

Anyway, if you're going to stick with PC, I recommend the Lenovo Thinkpad or Dell Latitude machines. Don't consider other lines from those two companies. Those are their "business" machines, and seem to be better than the consumer class systems. Since Lenovo took over the Thinkpad years ago, I think their quality has declined, while at the same time the quality of Dell's Latitudes has been increasing. I think they're about on parity now.

I just bought two Lenovo Thinkpad T420s systems, and I'm reasonably impressed with them. They feel pretty solid, though the plastic doesn't have the high quality feel the IBM Thinkpads used to have. They're nice and light for 14" machines, and have 1440x900 screens, which is about the best that can be found in the 14" size. The two I bought have the Intel graphics, but I'm pretty sure they can be had with nVidia graphics, which is probably necessary for AutoCad. I've not seen the T520 (the 15" model).

I have a Dell Latitude E6510 and I like it. The successor, the E6520 is out, which mostly adds a faster nVidia chip. For 15" it isn't too clunky, and it is nice and solid despite it's size. The 1920x1080 screen is fantastic. I can fit tons of windows on it. The 15" size isn't wasted either, as it has lots of ports and slots in what could be wasted space.

All of these computers where in the $1200 price range. Aftermarket 4GB SO-DIMMs are about $25, so there's no point in running less than 8GB on any laptop.

[Sleel]

Buy a Mac, install Windows through Boot Camp (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4410). Done.

Lately trying to find something that competes with Apple's hardware in either quality or price is an exercise in frustration (http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2011/09/ultrabook-intels-300-million-plan-to-beat-apple-at-its-own-game.ars/2).

[Merneith]

Sleel, that article is talking about the Macbook Air and other ultra-portable laptops, which don't meet sparky's needs. The Air is limited to a 13" screen, not the 15-17 inches sparky! wants. Plus, it maxes out at 4gb ram and doesn't have a graphics card. The Air is a very nice machine, for an ultra-portable, but spec-wise, it's not particularly powerful - and it's not at all hard to find cheaper, larger, and beefier Windows machines.

[pricciar]

He's already said he would like to get a Mac, but cannot at his workplace. Also, thus far it has been impossible for the competitors to match Apple in price or quality for the Ultraportables. The Mac Air is untouchable - both in quality and price. But, in standard laptops other companies make stuff that is well made and well regarded.

I've run through 3 Thinkpads over 10 years or so. I use the hell out of them. Upwards of 8 hours a day and I haven't had many problems. And, any problems I do end up having are 4 years after I bought each machine. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Lenovo to whoever asks. Whenever I get the question I start with the Mac laptops and in the same breath bring up the Thinkpads. In my mind they are 1, 2 as the best you can get.

[fifty-six]

Who has the absolute best screen?

[scr4]

Who has the absolute best screen?

The ThinkPad X220 can be configured with an IPS display. It's hard to beat that in terms of view angle, contrast, color depth and color accuracy.

[antonio107]

I really wanted a Macbook air, but the d-bag at the Future Shop told me that it would be impossible to get windows 7 on an air, because the hard drive wasn't big enough. It appears I was lied to. :mad:

My 13.3" Sony Vaio S series beats the 13" Macbook pro on specs, and was cheaper and feels lighter for my money. It was still $999, though, because apparently all notebooks that aren't quite cheap netbooks or cheap laptops are ridiculously priced.

[astro]

Not a big Toshiba fan. Owned several. Reliability is middling and customer support is (in my experience) is not all that well implemented.

I've owned more HPs than anything else. HP's are generally solid machines with good reliability, but they are not built to be easily serviced. Disassembling one to replace a keyboard or screen is always an adventure. Given HP's questionable commitment to making PCs at present, I'm not sure I'd chose HP again unless the price was spectacular.

I've owned a few Lenovos and they were among the best built notebooks I've ever used. If I had to choose a Windows notebook I'd probably choose Lenovo.

RE Sony's they are decent machines, but the are not discounted all that often and don't really offer compelling bang for the buck vs the other brands. They used to have better onboard audio video IO options than the competition, but I have not noticed this in their latest machines.