Looking for Best quality laptop for 1000 dollars

[shaun413]

1. What is your budget? 1000 dollars, but a little more is OK because i get a student discount.

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

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1080p is a plus

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

5. How much battery life do you need?
the longer the better

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)?
Binding of Issac and other light indie games

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

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
320gb or more SSD is nice

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

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

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
none

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.

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Recently bought a lenovo thinkpad w530. But i believe I am sending it back due to flex issues all over the keyboard and body. Everything flexes when pressed down on. I am looking for the best build quality in the laptop.

 

[rubbateckie]

Well I keep recommending the Sony Vaio S, probably because I am planning to get it but it does look like it would fit.
The Vizio Notebooks are also very similar to the Vaio but are a little cheaper and have a different build and feel (probably less flex to their keyboards).
The Thinkpad T530, T430, T430s may be good fits as well. Although the w series is supposed to be at the top of the Thinkpads, so I don't know if these will have better quality.
A multimedia machine like the Asus N56VZ is probably a good fit too. The RB71 (ie, N56VZ-RB71) is one of the better builds along with the DS71 and come with the 1080p screens.

I guess you do need some power for CAD (so the ultrabooks won't work) and you want good build quality so you could take a look the Sager Notebooks, they are gaming machines but give you great build quality and great performance for the price.

If you are ok with the size of the W530, other multimedia/gaming computers can probably work like the Lenovo Ideapad Y580 (I don't like its build feel and finish, but it is considered to have pretty decent quality).

 

[shaun413]

Well, I said here, Recently bought a lenovo thinkpad w530. But i believe I am sending it back due to flex issues all over the keyboard and body. Everything flexes when pressed down on. I am looking for the best build quality in the laptop. I am very concerned in getting the best build quality, with no flexing.

 

[edit1754]

Well if you aren't satisfied with the W530's build quality, then it's probably going to be difficult to find something that you are satisfied with.

All I can think of is: Take a look at the HP EliteBook 8570p / 8570w. And stay away from the models that come with the 1366x768 display.

 

[shaun413]

well, its not so much the build quality, rather manufacturing errors. I also don't like how big it is, Ive decided I can do cad work on my desktop. So something smaller can be recommended. But I still want good performance.

 

[kurjack]

I picked up one of these about 3 months ago, has not disapointed me yet.

http/www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/office/mobile-computing/notebook/NP700Z5C-S01CA-gallery

 

[rubbateckie]

What did you think of the laptops I recommended above? All of them have pretty solid build quality and can fit in your price range. If you give reasons why you do not want to consider them, people can help more because it narrows down what you are looking for. The w530 has possible the best build quality of any laptop out there other than maybe custom built ones like the sager notebooks (which I mentioned above).

 

[shaun413]

Well, ive decided to do CAD work on my desktop, so I really dont need anything that big any more. So just a good performance laptop capable of MatLab and coding with python. Plus average use will be good. I would like an ssd though. I am still focusing on build quality. Maybe something a little lighter too, because I will carry it everyday on campus.

 

[rubbateckie]

Again the Sony Vaio S probably has the best performance vs weight, especially at 15.5". It is 4.5 lbs and can be equipped with a quad core.

Consider the Asus N56VZ, it is heavier but better equipped and has great build.
The Thinkpad T530 may have less flex than the w530.

 

[shaun413]

I looked at the laptops in the store, the I did not like the Vaio, the asus was great expecially the zenbook. The one with the build quality I liked the most was macbook. I do not want lenovo.

 

[rubbateckie]

Well the Macbook is out of your range but you may be able to justify the cost if you like it enough. I am not a fan of Apple and iOS but it is hard to argue that the Macbook's have pretty wonderful build quality.

The Zenbook may not have enough power for matlab. You may want to check on that before considering and looking at any ultrabooks!

 

[shaun413]

I have actually decided to keep the thinkpad. It is fine and I got a fantastic deal on it.

 

[systemBuilder87]

I am a longtime thinkpad owner, have owned T41's, presently own MANY T42's / T42p's at home, and for work, I use a T420. My newest machine is a Y580. Here are some reasons why : (a) No other laptop for less than $1400 runs games better with a single GPU (hats off to Y500 owners with SLI), (b) keyboard is a thinkpad keyboard, fantastic quality (I type 115wpm) with a backlight, (c) HD Display (NOT the 1366 x 768) is a thinkpad display, no matte finish but viewing and angles and brightness (300 nits) are thinkpad quality. Also, you can get a fully loaded machine with 32 GB SSD and HD and 1 TB Hard Drive and 8 GB of RAM for < $1000, sometimes for only $940, keep checking on slickdeals.net, looking for the deal, also don't be afraid to use "shop discover" for the 10% discount on items bought through that website.

We play skyrim on our Y580 and the detail and visual quality is fantastic. There are only 3 problems with this laptop, (a) The touchpad isn't the greatest, it's a little clunky, and (b) The laptop is pretty thick and there's a pretty steep drop-off for the palms, from the palmrest, nothing that a piece of foam or a get keyboard pad couldn't fix, and of course (c) It runs Windows-8, which sucks.