Business laptop replacement

[kilbypirate]

It is time to replace my Dell Latitude E6410 notebook (purchased 4 years ago). It has basically been a good computer with a couple minor quirks. I am looking for suggestions on a replacement for it. Here are the considerations:

- Would like to keep budget under 700-800 range, give or take
- Reliability/dependability is #1... this is my go-to business notebook so don't want to risk it; I have always used business class notebooks (like Latitudes or ThinkPads)
- Looking for 13-14" display
- I don't need super-light, but lighter the better (3-4 lbs would be ideal)
- Windows 7 or 8.1
- Primary usage would be e-mail, office apps, light Photoshop, etc. No gaming.

I would appreciate any input or suggestions. Thanks!

 

[jeff-j]

I would still recommend going with a Dell latitude business class laptop. I would also highly recommend getting the laptop with a SSD, and pro support if possible. I would get something with a i5 ot i7 processor 8gb of ram, and a SSD.

 

[jaguarskx]

Perhaps the 13.3" Dell Latitude 3330 (Ivy Bridge generation CPU though) or the 14" Dell Latitude 14 3000 series.

http/www.dell.com/us/business/p/laptops.aspx?ref=tile1

Or the ThinkPad L440 laptop. One caution about this newest series of ThinkPad laptops is that it seems many users of previous generation ThinkPad users so not like that many changes done to the classic design of the ThinkPad established by IBM so long ago.

The two biggest complaint are the keyboard and trackpad from "die hard ThinkPad users". The keyboard is more similar to the "island style" keyboard which have overridden the consumer market, a trend that has started about 3 or 4 years ago. Gone are the separate mouse buttons, it is just one big trackpad and the trackpad acts like a giant button because when you press down on it, it sinks down a little bit similar to any of the keys on the keyboard, but does not "sink down" as much.

I have not used a newer ThinkPad, so I cannot offer an opinion.

http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/l-series/l440/

 

[kilbypirate]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have been looking into both the Dell and Lenovo models. I'm finding that without breaking the bank, I am going to have to either sacrifice weight or resolution, as getting something under 4 lbs with better resolution than 1366 x 768 would be over $1000, which I'm not really interested in spending.

I am thinking that I'd rather deal with an extra 1/2 pound than sacrifice on display quality (have 1600 x 900 in my current notebook). Does that sound like a reasonable conclusion?

 

[jaguarskx]

Yeah, I would rather deal with a slightly heavier laptop that has a higher resolution display than a lighter laptop with a lower resolution screen.

If $1,000 is you new max limit, then you may want to consider the 14" ThinkPad T440p. It starts at $899 and weighs in at 4.1lbs. You can upgrade to a 1600x900 resolution for $50. I would prefer going with the 1080p screen, but that is a $200 option. Additionally, I would upgrade from the Core i3 to the Core i5-4200m for $50. Basically the same CPU, but Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs have Turbo Boost which can increase the clockspeed of the CPU giving better performance and should extend the useful life of the laptop as programs and the internet becomes more CPU intensive or if you are currently using CPU intensive programs right now. For example, I encode video from time to time and I would say the difference on performance of the i3 and i5 would probably shave 20% - 25% of the time required to encode the video. That could mean anywhere from 1 to 2 hours depending on the length of the video and how high I want the video quality to be.

http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t440p/


Here's a review which has a quad core i7 CPU and a nVidia GT 730m graphics card, but other than that the hardware should be similar across all models. It has the 1600x900 resolution screen.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-ThinkPad-T440p-20AN-006VGE-Notebook.108423.0.html

Here's a video review:

https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT2T507Utuk