I’ve always built my own PCs, so am fairly unfamiliar with computer manufacturer reputations. Does Asus’ reputation for motherboards translate to their laptops? Dell just went ‘private’ after an apparent meltdown; does that mean their quality has suffered? Do all laptops tend towards bloatware?
These would be business machines, so reliability is paramount. Who is the go-to for businesses?
Capability-wise, we write/design books so enough umph to run the full Adobe CS6 is essential. And, of course, the occasional zombie hoard needs to be taken down between meetings too… but I should be able to figure out what specs I want once I narrow things down to a manufacturer or two.
Oh, these need to be Windows machines. Apple makes very nice products (and we use them in our business), but they are not the right choice at the moment.
If you were about to buy a laptop, from whom would you buy?
I’ve always built my own desktops and still prefer desktops. When I went for a laptop for work to run Visual Studio 10 (multiple instances), Photoshop CS5, MS SQL Management Studio and several browsers at once, I went with Toshiba and was not disappointed.
Reliability wise, I believe Asus, Toshiba, and Lenovo are the best. I believe in laptops you generally get what you pay for; If you are willing to spend $1k each you should have no trouble getting a decent laptop with an i5 or i7, SSD, and 8gb of RAM.
The only laptops I’ve had recent experience with are Toshibas, which have had an unfortunate series of problems. I know it’s not good to write off a company for a bad experience, but it’s hard to shake the feeling.
Glad to hear Asus’ reputation extends throughout their line. Stats should be fairly straightforward. We don’t need more than an i5, I’ll do a quick price check of buying with 8GB vs. putting new Crucial sticks in there, and SSD is a must.
I actually did that for a 3-year-old Macbook Pro a year or so ago–put in new high-end RAM and an SSD for a fraction of what Apple would have wanted for it. It’s our primary design/layout machine, so it gets heavy, daily use and hasn’t had a problem with non-Apple components. From my brief look I can out-spec a couple Macbook Pros and save a ton of money. Good choice for style; bad choice for business.
I’d go with Lenovo or Toshiba, the ThinkPad line if you can swing it. I had an Asus and it worked alright for a year but if felt flimsy and the DVD drive died on me. Apple, imo, aren’t worth the premium if you upgrade regularly - you can buy 2 or 3 new laptops over the years for what they typically cost.
ThinkPads are my favorite, because they’re the only other line of computers (other than Macs) I’ve used where it really seems like the design was obsessed over. The new Yoga line is pretty darn slick if you have any desire for a touchscreen, too.