Looking for a portable laptop

[rolisz]

1. What is your budget?
1800$

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
14 inch or less

3. What screen resolution do you want?
900p would be nice

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?
5+

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)?
If it fits in the budget, I would like to play Mass Effect and Assassin's creed series. If the settings are on low it's not a problem.
But the graphics card should only be a last consideration.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Programming, sometimes photoshopping, HD movie watching

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I was thinking about an 128GB SSD

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
None in particular

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3-4 years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Not necessary.

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 particular preference

13. What country do you live in?
Romania, but I can get it from USA too.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I would like USB 3.0 support.
Sandy Bridge i7 processor.

I was thinking about the Thinkpad X220, but I saw it has the throttling issues.
What else do you recommend?

 

[Maziar]

HP Envy 14/AW M14x are both good

 

[AntiZig]

Hellow and welcome.

hmm ouch, i7 in a 14"... that's pushing it ...
the problem with your preferences is you want a really powerful CPU in a really small laptop with large battery life. Typically you would have hard time finding such a machine. You might have to look into some custom boutique retailers, who would be able to customize the laptop for you.

alright here's what's out there:

ASUS, N43JF typically offers an i5, but motherboard can support a 1st generation i7-640M, it has one USB 3.0 port.
ASUS K43 also has a chipset that can support an i7 processor, but has no USB 3.0 ports
ASUS B43J has an option for 1st gen i7, but no USB 3.0 ports >link<
but here's the catch, the battery is only about 2.5 hrs for all of them.

Apple MacBook Pro 13" has an option for i7 processor, 7 hrs battery life, no USB 3.0 >link<

Sony V series has a 13" option with 2nd gen i7-2720QM, says it has pretty good battery life too, the graphics card should fit your needs, the only info it doesn't have is the USB ports. >link<

Toshiba Protege R700-S1332W 1st gen i7, up to 8hrs of battery, usb 2.0 with sleep+charge mode. Unless you really want 3.0 for transfer speeds.

ding ding ding, I think I've found a winner amongs new additions to Toshiba fleet
Toshiba Tecra R840-S8440 - 2nd gen i7, USB 3.0 port, up to 7hrs of battery life.

I noticed you mentioned Lenovo ThinkPad X220, it looks decent, and you can put the i7 in it, but I don't see any info on USB ports...

here's what I was able to come up with on Lenovo website:
Lenovo ThinkPad T420 - can get i7, USB 3.0 and SSD, pretty decent battery life too

Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 - also has most of the features you want.

The only trick with lenovo is to find the option that offers all the customizations you want (maybe going through retailer/reseller is a good idea)

That's all concerning laptops. Obviously, check out the reviews online.


One thing you would notice, I didn't consider SSD in my search, reason is, HDD are pretty easily accessible on laptops and what you can do is buy your own SSD and install it. Most of the motherboards should support them easily, especially if you have SATA already available in the case.

Hope those give you some choices to think about, so you can make the best decision for yourself.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I can see that you're a bit confused on this. As AntiZig says, long battery life and powerful processors are trade-offs on each other. Read my laptop thread and it should clarify MANY things to you as well as teach you new tricks that you probably never knew before. It's better to have an idea so you can understand a recommendation than it is to have no idea and be working on blind faith.
http/www.tomshardware.com/forum/60098-35-general-laptop-advice

 

[rolisz]

Thanks for the answers.
I got bold and asked for such a machine because I saw the Lenovo X220 can do it (btw, it has USB 3.0 with the i7 processor in it). However the CPU throttling issues, touchpad interference etc. gave me second thoughts about buying it, so I wanted to get some alternatives, and that Toshiba Tecra looks pretty good.
What SSDs would you recommend for installing afterwards into the laptops instead of the regular HDDs?

 

[Maziar]

Depends on your budget.Intel 510/Crucial M4/OCZ Vertex 3 are all good

 

[rolisz]

Best answer selected by rolisz.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar