Need a "Business" Laptop

[moedeez]

Hallo

Hope you're having a lekker Monday.
I'm looking at getting a new laptop for work.

My last 4 laptops have been Dell vostro-vostro-latitude-latitude, I had an IBM thinkpad back in the yesteryears, that thing was a tank.

So I'm not quite sure how good the other brands are and how good good their onsite warranty's are.
What I've really liked about the Lattitude 5500 is that it's 4 years old and the battery health has only dropped from DESIGN CAPACITY 68 005 mWh to FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 62 989 mWh
My coworker has an Ideapad as similar age, and his battery won't even last 2 hours any more (he's on 10th gen i7 and mine is 8th gen i7, if that matters) mine still can give me 6ish hours mixed use.

The build, battery life plus longevity and the Onsite warrranty are what I'm basing the purchase on.

As long it's a Ryzen 5 or Intel 5/Core Ultra 5?/i5 (what do they even identify as nowadays?) it should be ok, as we do run VM's but nothing major like running massisve SQL queries or development encoding etc etc.
Most actual work is on the clients servers.

I'm not looking for places to purchase from but advice on whether ASUS / Lenovo or Acer are feasiable alternatives in terms of the build, battery life plus longevity and the Onsite warrranty..

 

[JollyJamma]

You should never buy a product brand, you should buy a specific model.

A Dell XPS is a world away from a Vostro.

Also, you’ll want a proper business support warranty or you could end up waiting a week for a working machine.

There’s a reason why company laptops aren’t the best spec for wise, the cost of a next business day warranty is high.

I’m a big fan of the HP ProBook and Elitebook series as they come with really good chassis and the warranty and support is excellent.

I’ve seen a business get a basic Acer because it was cheaper and then have to deal with their shit support and lose a machine for a week to 10 days.

 

[JollyJamma]

Just buy some new batteries for everyone, much cheaper.

 

[solz]

I'm a fan of the latitudes as their warranty tends to be worth it.

Had a HP before and was forced to take it in before it's actually in the repair line, and this was just a failed drive. Dell would even be willing to ship just the drive if you happy to reinstall on your own.

Acer have only used the lower end and was similar to the HP, take to repair Centre. So can't comment on brands I haven't used at the Latitude range.

 

[moedeez]

Just buy some new batteries for everyone, much cheaper.

but laptops are out of warranty now, what if something like the mobo fails.
For the company wouldn't it make business sense to get something guaranteed for the next 3 years?

If it was mine and for personal use I'd be rocking this latitude until it dies.

 

[JollyJamma]

but laptops are out of warranty now, what if something like the mobo fails.
For the company wouldn't it make business sense to get something guaranteed for the next 3 years?

If it was mine and for personal use I'd be rocking this latitude until it dies.

Sure, that is one major factor and new laptops make sense.

You can keep the others for backups or for temp workers.

I picked up a nearly new HP ProBook with a 4 year warranty and RAM upgrade for R9500 off these forums last week. Thats half price and it’s a lovely machine.

Also speak to some of the resellers here about a bulk order which may include a bit of a discount.

 

[pikolec]

Within each brand there are different tiers of products. The best advice that I have it to stay away from anything that is marketed at the 'consumer' market. Basically, if you can but it from a retail store, think twice and then think a third time. The brands that you mentioned in the OP (Ideapad, vostro, latitude,etc) are all consumer-grade.


If you are going to be using it for work, those support contract options are very helpful, although with the move to increasing online connected tools, it is possibly less important.


I've personally been a ThinkPad fan, but recently the HP Elitebooks have impressed me. I'm getting to the conclusion that the build quality and repairability of these top-tier models is very good and the differences are really down to minor personal preferences. As my laptop ends up spending most of the day with an external monitor, kb and mouse attached to it, there is very little difference for my use case.

Also, with USB-C charging, having a good quality USB-C powerbank that can give you 'PD' (Power delivery) can boost your battery life quite a bit.

Oh, and don't be too afraid of slightly older laptop hardware.
The performance improvements in mobile hardware are really impressive:
A modern mobile Ryzen 7 5700U (8c/16t) (+- 2 years old) will trade blows with a Desktop i7-8700(6c/12t) from 5 years ago. Either of those offer plenty of horsepower for development.



with a d

 

[JollyJamma]

I've personally been a ThinkPad fan, but recently the HP Elitebooks have impressed me. I'm getting to the conclusion that the build quality and repairability of these top-tier models is very good and the differences are really down to minor personal preferences.

10/10

I bought an old HP EliteBook 840 G6 with an 8th gen CPU and the build quality is outstanding. The magnesium chassis is super stiff and nice to type on.

 

[souljazk]

I'm a huge Dell wh0re. In +- 15y I've not had more then 10x units which needed to use the onsite warranty, which was seen to and resolved 1st time, not more than 48h after logging the call. This goes for Vosto, Latitude and XPS.

Lenovo can also be VERY good, as @JollyJamma said, buy a model, not a brand. The Lenovo / IBM ThinkPads are great.. Currently using a Lenovo ThinkBook as my daily and its good enough, but I will prob get a ThinkPad or nice Dell next.

Agree with @JollyJamma , ACER is %&*#GDTH... Last time I delt with them (+- 18yago) they sent a laptop back with a HUGE bend "wrinckle" they tried to bend back, on the hand rest and then claimed it was me... Luckily I opened the laptop as Acer packaged it, infront of the client and the tech CCTV.

Only after the MD of the comapny I worked for got in touch with them, did they offer a credit or replacement, cant recall.

As far as HP go, I won't touch or sell anthing HP. Been burnt WAAAAY too many times, to be fair, with average grade units, no ProBook or EliteBook etc.

 

[souljazk]

but laptops are out of warranty now, what if something like the mobo fails.
For the company wouldn't it make business sense to get something guaranteed for the next 3 years?

If it was mine and for personal use I'd be rocking this latitude until it dies.

Renew the warranty with Dell

 

[moedeez]

Renew the warranty with Dell

Didn't know you could do that 🤡

 

[souljazk]

Didn't know you could do that 🤡

Will send you my invoice