Which vendor makes decent work laptops nowadays?
Which vendor makes decent work laptops nowadays?
12 Years ago I had a Sony Vaio. I quite liked it. Then in my next job, 2017 or so, I went for a Toshiba Portege, and absolutely loved it.
Guess what the above two have in common? Yup, they stopped making laptops for the professional market. So now I'm a bit at a loss. Any recommendations?
Requirements:
- Lightweight and easy to carry around.
- 13-15" display, preferably
- Decent battery life
- It absolutely must have an RJ45
- Works well with linux
- Good keyboard quality
- ISO keyboard availability
- Touchpad. Bonus points if it has the touchpad buttons ABOVE the pad itself.
Lenovo seems to be pretty solid but fuck... I still have a grudge over how much shittier they are than the old IBM ThinkPads.
My last and current laptops were and are Lenovo. I definitely recommend
Lenovo onboard power issues very common at my job. Toshiba was great way back when. Surface pro nifty but battery is crap. I hate to say it but dell makes ok laptops
Look into the Framework 13. There are no touchpad buttons but otherwise it has everything you need and is fully upgradable and customizable. The laptop has four expansion ports that can hold a variety of hotpluggable expansion cards. The manufacturer offers USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, DisplayPort, 2.5G ethernet, microSD, audio and SSDs. There are also some community-made ones like LTE and dual USB-C.
When I eventually need to upgrade I won't even consider anything that isn't repairable on a similar level. Hopefully they will be sticking around until then, but it's looking good on that front right now
Framework if you want to repair it yourself and Lenovo if you don’t. Lenovo makes a good machine and has very reasonably priced on-site support options.
Is this a joke? Framework as a work laptop?
You’re getting downvoted, but the only way a business buys frameworks is if they’re running a pilot program. They are just not proven in that environment yet.
For a dev going to a coffee shop.. sure. It’s your work laptop.
Permanently Deleted
I've used Macbooks in networking / programming and construction environments for over fifteen years. They've been incredibly solid in my experience. In fact, the first week I was given a Thinkpad, I broke it because it was so much more fragile than a Mac. I always used USB adapters for Ethernet and serial connections without issue. They also run Windows and Linux.
They also run Windows
They no longer do (since the switch to ARM) - unless you count running under a VM.
Right. I use Parallels.
Windows supports ARM https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/arm/overview
Their Linux support is so bad it might as well be unsupported.
I run Asahi on my 2023 m2pro mbp; performance-wise it's closer to a contemporary i7 than the actual performance of the M chip on macos, but a lot of what I need is there, a surprising amount of stuff is compiled for Arm64 actually. Feels like normal Fedora in most every aspects. Coming from thinkpads / latitudes, keyboard is shit tho, really. Screen is great, sound is quite good, device feels sturdy but sleep eats 50% battery a day. Air vents are placed just right to gulp any spilled drink, like, vacuuming it off the table, a puzzling design choice. Prices took a dive with the advent of the m3 so I'm not really angry, a 2023 i7 thinkpad would have cost me the same.
In fact, the first week I was given a Thinkpad, I broke it because it was so much more fragile than a Mac
Genuine question, but what the actual fuck are you doing with your laptops? I used a ThinkPad through high school and college, and school aged me certainly didn't treat it very kindly.
I have been a loyal Lenovo customer for years. Their laptops are not cool or sexy, but they are reliable.
I've had 2 touch screens completely become unresponsive in the last year or 2. Both Lenovo, so I'll never buy from them again
For what it's worth, I've bought two laptops from them in the last four years and had tons of problems initially (there were both essentially pre orders, first run laptops). A few minutes on the phone, some trouble shooting,and I had replacements for both overnighted for free. Zero issues with the replacements in both cases.
So yes, don't order the brand newest Lenovo. Get the one a generation old at deeep discount.
System76.
My experience with clevo Models is that they aren't really well built.
Lenovo X1 carbon is what you are looking for. I got one (10th Gen) and slapped fedora on it and it's been absolutely awesome.
Battery life could be better, but I haven't tweaked it.
Good luck finding a quality new laptop with Linux support that also has a rj45 port. Framework might be an option though. But I just use a gigabit Ethernet usb3 adapter and it works fine
I've got a cheaper 6th gen, and it's absolutely wonderful. It was ~$100 in EBay, because I'm broke
You’d get more battery & performance out of AMD, but the X1 is Intel. Looks like they don’t even offer OLED on that line either.
uhh... what kind of work?
the panasonic toughbook and apple macbook air are two wildly different laptops i have seen extensively in the field but not at the same workplaces.
There's a reason dells are everywhere
I'll piggyback on this one. I'm personally more partial to Lenovo if money and lead time isn't an issue, but Dell Latitude is the budget business brand. On site repair support is roughly the same, they contract 3rd parties in whatever area you are in to do onsite repair.
I can reliably get Latitude 5500 series laptops with i5, 16gb, 256gb, and fingerprint reader for less than $1000 shipped, and that includes a 5 year on-site accidental included warranty with keep your drive. You drove over your laptop? Ok, here's a loaner, let me try to pull the storage, and try not to do it again.
Sorry, but no, they're shit.
And for the price they still them at, they're double shit.
The Dell Latitude I got from work is really the worst laptop I've ever used. Do not buy.
I can't really fault that logic. I like the keyboard, the screen, any many other things with them. It's just some minor annoyances with some of the Fn keycombos that I don't like.
But one thing that I can say for sure: It will never be as durable as my Toshiba. It fell between two ships decks. It slid off the roof of a car and syraight into asphalt. It has pieces missing from it. The RJ45 port has been torn out of the mainboard. But it still works, and I bought it out for 50$ when I left my previous employer, and I still use it from time to time to this day.
Actually, I thought dells were shit computers, then I started working at a place that only deals in Dell. I'm actually pretty impressed after having used a 5300. It's been a pretty solid choice except for the battery.
I work help desk, and I'm actually surprised we don't get more issue tickets considering it's a global company.
Dells are great until they break. Ever seen an HDD taped the the top side of a motherboard? I hadn't until I was working on a dell Inspiron. Also, their drivers are usually the biggest pain in the ass to load.
That being said, I had a D620 latitude in college with a 9 cell battery, and that thing would handle all my classes for the day on a single charge. It was also much sturdier than the Toshiba Satellite M505D I switched to.
My experience daily driving a latitude for the last 2 years in my current company has been solid AF
Well apart for Ubuntu driver's issues but that's not dells fault
Also a matte screen.
Basically any Lenovo Thinkpad. They're cheap, strong and easy to repair/upgrade
A secondhand Lenovo Thinkpad or Dell Latitude, 2013-2018 models. Get one with a quad-core i7, it will run you €150-€400 depending on the amount of RAM, SSD, screen resolution, condition and possibly an onboard GPU.
Not DELL.
Dell's Precision series is really good these days. Their Latitudes are all over the place quality-wise, especially their 2-in-1s. XPS's have been alright.
Which did you hate? I deploy a ton of these and there are definitely ones that were awful.
Thinkpad W541
I'm a thinkpad person. Best keyboard. Very repairable. Never ran into issues installing Linux.
But they aren't usually the kind of laptops people like. For them I suggest the Dell XPS line. Mostly for the build quality.
A lot of laptops are mostly plastic and will flex just from typing. The XPS is made from machined alumninum and is just generally a better user experience.
The Lenovo E series ticks all those boxes. I use one for work and it’s good for an x64 laptop. Just hate how long it takes to come out of sleep. Nothing really beats a Mac there.
X1 carbon gang
Dell.
This guy is incorrect. They put the Home and End keys on Function keys.
I will find the people who were directly responsible for this and I will end their line.
Vaio still exists
It's just its own brand now
The HP elitebooks might be nice for you
Lenovo Thinkpad t14’s. The x-series are ok, but definitely not anything outside of the thinkpad sub-brand.
Dell latitude used to be the work sub-brand and probably still is.
Hp has a work sub-brand but I don’t know what it is.
Also ran contenders include MS Surface and MacBook.
Anyone else recommending anything else are out of the loop.