My Dad Is Looking To Buy A Laptop

[Crazysah]

Hello guys...

He needs a lightwieght business laptop.

He has looked at the Dell XPS M1530 and he pretty much likes that but he wants to know if there are any others which are better?

Budget; 3,000$ (max)... should be 2,500 and under though!

Any suggestions guys?

Thanks

Crazysah

[colealtdelete]

What size screen? Specs? etc?

[Cara Veteran]

Without a doubt, Apple MacBook Pro. Offers everything a business customer could want, Mac OS X, Windows, Linux...whatever OS he wishes to run.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro

What tasks is he looking to perform with his system, it will be easier to suggest models when that is known.

[DrewJW]

Go with the MBP, best buy for what he needs.

[CHALE]

I'm with Cara, go with the macbook pro. It is fast and you can run any of the major OS.

[cpu killer]

Hahahahah I love people suggesting the MBP for business applications. Go with the only true business laptop brand, Lenovo. He wants an X61. Pimp it out with hard drive space and whatnot if he wants, and he can use the coupon code "USPSAVEMORENOW" to get 10% off. The rigidity of the build quality and light slick professional look is unsurpassed by anything else in the market. Trust me, he'll love it. Also, ThinkVantage software can be a huge plus for those in business who carry around sensitive, important data. ThinkPads are also equipped with things such as an exclusive magnesium roll-cage and magnesium-alloy front and bottom covers in order to protect the internals (especially the LCD) in the event of a drop. Also, there is a security feature with ThinkVantage that uses the built-in accelerometer to detect any falls and disable the hard drive in order to prevent any data loss.

Not only that, but the chassis is built from a carbon-fiber plastic reinforced material. Feels very sturdy. Also, the metal hinges make sure the screen don't wobble and overall the laptop feels VERY solid. And the keyboard is spill-resistant. He'll be able to just drain the water from the bottom if he spills his coffee over the keyboard.

Edited May 23, 2008 by cpu killer

[SnowRanger13]

Apple, Lenovo, and Toshiba are brands i'd look at. You don't give enough info for me to recommend a model from those brands.

[S7un7]

Hahahahah I love people suggesting the MBP for business applications. Go with the only true business laptop brand, Lenovo. He wants an X61. Pimp it out with hard drive space and whatnot if he wants, and he can use the coupon code "USPSAVEMORENOW" to get 10% off. The rigidity of the build quality and light slick professional look is unsurpassed by anything else in the market. Trust me, he'll love it. ...........................

I'll have to agree with cpu killer. For $2500 you can get one loaded nicely too. XP, Vista, and most versions of Linux will run with little or no effort.

[cpu killer]

Indeed, although Lenovo stopped selling laptops with XP on May 19th, he could still buy a license and install it himself if he prefers XP over Vista, although I DO recommend Vista Business. Lenovos are at a great price right now, and for $2500 he can get one heck of a machine! He can build one up to 2750 and get the 10% off for a grand total of $2475 + taxes and shipping (free ground shipping). The X61 is not only lighter, but also better on battery than the MBP (depending on the size of the battery he gets). Not to mention a WHOLE lot cheaper. I doubt he'll be gaming on this laptop, so the superior video chip on the MBP shouldn't matter. And in my opinions, ThinkPads look a lot more "business"-y than a MBP ever will.

[colealtdelete]

Personally at my company we use the Lenovo T61's. The x61's are really nice as well... I'd go with these. The Dell XPS line is more geared towards gamers.

[Ayhamov]

Why you don't think of HP?

Check the HP dv6700t, it's a high performance notebook with a very good price.

[Crazysah]

He is going to be using Stata and some other applications like that. Lots of stata and excel.

The screen size can be max 16 inches. Not more than that.

He needs long-battery life, and smooth performance.

Anything else you need to know?

[cpu killer]

Lenovo X61s. Done.

[EduardValencia]

WTF??? Don't buy a MacBook pro,it is a total waste of money,go for the Dell Precision M6300,that laptop is very very nice

http://www.dell.com/content/products/produ...s=bsd&cs=04

[+Fahim S. MVC]

Go for a Thinkpad, still the most respected exec/business laptop

[asoldier]

Here's a quick breakdown of my personal experience. I fix laptops for buddies and clients locally and so far here's some basic specs.

Vaio - technical support is terrible, maintenance is worse. They're prone to the deadly bluescreens.

Toshiba - almost, but not-quite as bad as the Vaio. Hardware support is nominal, but the overall cohesion of the system is not. It's not a well-rounded product, yet.

Dell - Very limited on support, and if I remember correctly, Technical Support is a paid process, and it's not cheap. Dell does offer some superior hardware and durability, but it's not worth the hassle to try and upgrade, or deal with hardware failure.

HP - Wide-range support for a large selection of hardware. It runs a little cheaper than typical brands, but the hardware is sturdy. I'd say it's as durable as a Dell up until you bang it against a wall. If you don't plan on taking this thing base jumping, you should be fine. HP offers lightscribe natively, although if you want blueray too, you'll have to choose, sorry. They offer a wide range of products starting at decent laptops for around $500.00. I've worked on 3 HPs in the past year and they required minimal maintenance. I've worked on 12 toshibas, all suffering hard drive failure or ram issues. One had a fried GPU. I've worked on 7 VAIOs, all different models or versions of similar models, and all had the same issue, the software became non-compatible to the hardware it supported because of internal conflicts. Don't ask me to explain it, but that's the truth. Technical support usually ended up being Indian or something close. Nothing against India, but it's very hard to understand them when they're eating the microphone and their colleagues are behind them making an audible mess.

HP seems to be the best and most well-rounded selection. Read the reviews before you buy. I suggest http://newegg.com as an info source.

[EduardValencia]

Here's a quick breakdown of my personal experience. I fix laptops for buddies and clients locally and so far here's some basic specs.

Vaio - technical support is terrible, maintenance is worse. They're prone to the deadly bluescreens.

Toshiba - almost, but not-quite as bad as the Vaio. Hardware support is nominal, but the overall cohesion of the system is not. It's not a well-rounded product, yet.

Dell - Very limited on support, and if I remember correctly, Technical Support is a paid process, and it's not cheap. Dell does offer some superior hardware and durability, but it's not worth the hassle to try and upgrade, or deal with hardware failure.

HP - Wide-range support for a large selection of hardware. It runs a little cheaper than typical brands, but the hardware is sturdy. I'd say it's as durable as a Dell up until you bang it against a wall. If you don't plan on taking this thing base jumping, you should be fine. HP offers lightscribe natively, although if you want blueray too, you'll have to choose, sorry. They offer a wide range of products starting at decent laptops for around $500.00. I've worked on 3 HPs in the past year and they required minimal maintenance. I've worked on 12 toshibas, all suffering hard drive failure or ram issues. One had a fried GPU. I've worked on 7 VAIOs, all different models or versions of similar models, and all had the same issue, the software became non-compatible to the hardware it supported because of internal conflicts. Don't ask me to explain it, but that's the truth. Technical support usually ended up being Indian or something close. Nothing against India, but it's very hard to understand them when they're eating the microphone and their colleagues are behind them making an audible mess.

HP seems to be the best and most well-rounded selection. Read the reviews before you buy. I suggest http://newegg.com as an info source.

Nice suggestion,HP is very good

[jokeripa]

I'm with Cpu Killer, for a business laptop, definitely the Thinkpads. The x61s and T60's are pretty decent. The x61 is a tablet aswell.

[fix-this!]

im not big on apple or anything toshiba. id say look at dell or hp, even gateway brand names.

[cpu killer]

Right on, if your dad does not need tablet functionality, the X61s is the way to go. Lenovo is simply the best business laptop. No other will compare in build quality of business-grade features. Consumer laptops are for consumers, business laptops are for people who need to protect sensitive and important data. That's what the Lenovo build quality and the ThinkVantage utilities come in handy for. Go for a Lenovo ThinkPad X61s.

[+Fahim S. MVC]

I have a HP at the moment - I don't like it at all...

[Deletedforeverhaha]

ThinkPad. It's is THE business laptop. Best battery life too and best for the corporate environment.

[MMaster23]

+1 for the HP camp... The HP Compaq business series are very sturdy at a fair price.

Dell: crappy performance, cheap(400~1000), breaks, looks cheap

HP: pretty descent performance, not that expensive (1000~2000), very durable, looks OK/strict (semi sexy IMHO :p)

Lenovo: kick ass performance, hell expensive (easily 2000+), extreme build quality, looks fugly :x

Apple is descent but overpriced .. Toshiba's / Sony's underperform .. Acer and ASUS are total crap (look nice/perform nice .. and then break in 2) .. BTO/Zepto/Homebuild = sucky build quality/durability... all else is fail or overpriced...

[cpu killer]

If you need to be convinced about ThinkPads, read this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=196888

And Lenovos are nowhere near as expensive as they used to be. You can configure a system that's better overall than a MBP at a lower price, especially with the coupon codes I just gave you:

USPSAVEMORENOW

Also, use fatwallet and save more. This is a no-brainer, also, ThinkPads are far from ugly. Check this out:

Edited May 25, 2008 by cpu killer

[Julius Caro]

I wouldn't go for MBP. Despite them being excellent products, I don't consider them exactly 'lightweight' for a person that wants mobility. Sure they are below 3kg which for me means "lightweight", but still.

SO... +1 for the lenovos