Laptop for a budding mobile programmer?

mccoolaustinm

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
6
0
10,510
Below text copied from Laptop Buyers FAQ here in this forum. I already have a desktop with the best of the best in specs (or at least, the best of the best from 2 years ago) that cost me right out of high school what I should've spent on my first car. What I'm looking for now is a mobile solution that will allow me to work on code on the go.

1. What is your budget?

  • I'm imagining my upper limit to be $700, but really, if it doesn't have an SSD yet or can't be upgraded to one and it's already around that price point, I won't even consider it.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

  • 15.6" or smaller.
3. What screen resolution do you want?

  • Not important.
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

  • Portable.

5. How much battery life do you need?

  • 5+ hours. The longest lectures for me last 3 hours, with maybe an hour before and after before accessing a convenient charging place. So... I'd like to see 5 hours with light use (slamming away at the keyboard in either Notepad++ or an IDE, compiling code, and heavy use of Excel.)

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

  • No. In fact, when I install my SSD, I'll be going with a small one so that I can't put games on the laptop and won't have to fight off the distractions. Work only on this machine, and drive space can be negligible, since basically, I'll just be transferring files back onto my desktop when done with them using BTSync.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)

  • As stated above, programming!

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

  • Unimportant, since I'll be yanking it out for an SSD unless it already includes one.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

  • Newegg or Amazon preferably.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

  • No less than 2 years. In 2 years I won't be devastated if I need to replace it.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

  • Probably not important at all.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

  • No preference among the mainstream brands, but build quality is important and some brands are known more for than than others. I enjoy the attractive, brushed metal look.

13. What country do you live in?

  • U.S. of A.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

  • I want to say that the absolute most crucial aspect of the laptop for my needs is its keyboard. I average over a few hours at 120WPM on my mechanical keyboard at my desktop, and have won local competitions with top speed in the low 140s. I need an accurate, comfortable keyboard for typing out code, essays, etc. Typing will be the main job this laptop has to perform, not video streaming or gaming.

    Other than that... 802.11AC would be nice to have, since as I said earlier, I will always be transferring files back and forth to the desktop as if it were a server, and just carrying around the files that I need on the laptop at that particular time.
 
Solution
I would go with one of the lenovo laptops assuming they have fixed the superfish bug as they have the best keyboards on a windows machine that I know of. Get one with an i5 if the programming you do is not that intense and an i7 if you really need the power. Also get 8 gigs of ram. You could try one of the t series.

Finally lenovo may be able to give you a discount if your company supports it.
I would go with one of the lenovo laptops assuming they have fixed the superfish bug as they have the best keyboards on a windows machine that I know of. Get one with an i5 if the programming you do is not that intense and an i7 if you really need the power. Also get 8 gigs of ram. You could try one of the t series.

Finally lenovo may be able to give you a discount if your company supports it.
 
Solution

mccoolaustinm

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
6
0
10,510


My hours of research have led me to agree with you; the general consensus is that Lenovo's keyboards stand out from the rest, and as I said, that is important to me given the main purpose of this laptop is just to continue typing on the go, be it code, essays, in a spreadsheet, etc. I'm a student, and this is my student computer. I can game on my desktop.

It might seem a little on the weak end, but this one stands out to me:
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-G50-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Core/dp/B00K6ZIFAQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

Primarily because its price point is low, it appears to have a nice build quality according to the reviews, and because its cheap, I can get another Samsung 850 Pro SSD, probably 128gb, and slip it in there to make it a good fit. (I can't tell if the HDD is easily removable, but if it isn't, I'll rip out the cd drive and replace it with a 2.5" enclosure.) I don't mind the i3 processor, as long as it isn't going to be slow enough to make it difficult to work on large spreadsheets. 6GB RAM is probably enough. I have to remind myself that I already have a desktop capable of doing anything I could ask it to, and thus, I don't need to go all out and empty my meager bank account on this laptop. It only needs to be a portable window into my workspace, with the right I/O to not hold me back.