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Buying New Laptop

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McGrace

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
I am in the market for a new laptop and had a few questions. I have not been in the market for years.

Looking for:

Core i7
17 inch screen
SSD (or if price ok can add later)
WINTEL

This will be a business laptop, maybe some software development. Video card and bells and whistles do not matter.
Extended battery not needed, will always have power supply available.

What brands are the more reliable brands now? (Used to be frankly a crap shoot)
Which stores are good places to look? (Still newegg?)

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

DB
 
Its still a crap shoot, but the quality of laptops IMO has improved greatly from 5 years ago.

Laptops have also become much faster, more reliable and more power efficient.

My new laptop can go about 8-10 hours of normal use on a battery, it starts up in about 15 seconds. It can handled everything I need it to do business wise. I think if you are a graphic designer or game builder or do A LOT of photo editing, then you might be inclined to go with a i7 quad core computer version (although you will be moving to a much heavier laptop), if not then consider Ulatrabooks or ultra portables. You can probably get down to about 3.5-5lbs. for an average 15.6" screen. A little more for a 17" screen. Or as little as 2.8lbs for a 13" or smaller screen.

My 13" ultrabook is smaller than a Macbook air, and has about 3 times the computing power as my T4500 had. Its a 13" 1080p screen in a 11" chassis.

For comparison weight the older Dell XPS 17 weighs in at about 11 lbs. The new Dell XPS 15 (17 isn't being made yet) weighs 4.4lbs and sports a i7 - quad core. So if its LIGHT your going after, you probably want to drop down a screen size, but if you HAVE to have a 17" screen, then the lightest out there is the Gigabyte P37x which comes in about 6-6.5 lbs and is so out of my price range.

So if you had to prioritize Money - Size - Weight - Processing Power - Battery life in what order would you put them from most important to least important?

Soooo, if its about portability. Consider an ultrabook
 
^^^ Still 7.5 lbs before accessories, but yeah.... a good start. And for a 17" laptop, not a bad weight.
 
^^^ Still 7.5 lbs before accessories, but yeah.... a good start. And for a 17" laptop, not a bad weight.

Nope and the low profile makes it easier to fit in bags.
Also, full aluminum construction so it'll be durable.
 
I think since you suggested the 13" Dell XPS, I am a little jaded now with weight. :p Its lighter than a Tablet.
 
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