- Joined
- Mar 7, 2006
So I'm looking for a new laptop. Here's where I'm at.
Primary Requirements:
Great performance.
I'm a coder, and when I'm running lots of VMs and servers in my development environment, I don't want any sluggishness. Being able to play the occasional game on the go would be nice, too.
Battery life.
I'd love to be able to get 5 hours on Wifi.
Screen resolution.
Build quality
Compromises I'm willing to make:
Size
I don't want to go over 15", but I'll accept a medium-behemoth if I have to.
Price: <= $1300
I've been looking at the new Asus UX31, but It feels like I'd be paying a premium for the portability, when I'd rather that money go towards more power.
Thanks a lot!
EDIT: After some researching, I think the best options in my price range are the Thinkpad T420 and Alienware m14x.
T420:
+ Better battery life (9-cell) by almost 2 hours
+ Less gaudy
+ Better keyboard (so I've heard)
+ < 5lbs
m14x:
+ Much more powerful GPU
I'm a little torn, but by the numbers the T420 is ahead. I don't plan to game on this thing primarily. I have a desktop for that. I'm just wondering how the gpu choice may affect any DX11 work I do. I think the Quadro NVS series supports DX11, so I may be fine.
Primary Requirements:
Great performance.
I'm a coder, and when I'm running lots of VMs and servers in my development environment, I don't want any sluggishness. Being able to play the occasional game on the go would be nice, too.
Battery life.
I'd love to be able to get 5 hours on Wifi.
Screen resolution.
Build quality
Compromises I'm willing to make:
Size
I don't want to go over 15", but I'll accept a medium-behemoth if I have to.
Price: <= $1300
I've been looking at the new Asus UX31, but It feels like I'd be paying a premium for the portability, when I'd rather that money go towards more power.
Thanks a lot!
EDIT: After some researching, I think the best options in my price range are the Thinkpad T420 and Alienware m14x.
T420:
+ Better battery life (9-cell) by almost 2 hours
+ Less gaudy
+ Better keyboard (so I've heard)
+ < 5lbs
m14x:
+ Much more powerful GPU
I'm a little torn, but by the numbers the T420 is ahead. I don't plan to game on this thing primarily. I have a desktop for that. I'm just wondering how the gpu choice may affect any DX11 work I do. I think the Quadro NVS series supports DX11, so I may be fine.
Last edited: