Laptop Recommendations

[Colorado_Poke]

Wanted to get some laptop recommendations from the board. We've done a little research online and at some retail stores, but have seen some bad reviews about most of the models we've liked. We won't consider buying a Mac at all (just to get that out of the way).

The laptop will be for my wife who is becoming a direct sales consultant for a clothing company. She's looking for a laptop that's light enough so that it's easy to take to the clothing sales at friends' houses (we've seen terrible reviews on most of the tablets or 2-in-1s we've looked at). Obviously, this means that a long battery life is also a must. She'll also be using the laptop to upload pictures to her consultancy page on Facebook. I'm assuming a high-end graphics card won't be needed to maintain image quality from her camera, but correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm willing to spend more (> $1k) if it results in a laptop that does/has everything we need it to, plus lasts a long time. But at the same time, I don't want to spend more than we need to.

Anyone have anything in particular they'd recommend?

Edit: forgot to ask about customizing a laptop through HP, Dell, et al. This is an attractive option to me since you can upgrade in areas you need, and downgrade in others (maximize efficiency of $ spent). However, I've heard from some people that customized laptops may not last as long as the ones predesigned by the manufacturers since the manufacturers have a better idea of what components do / do not work well together. Anyone have any insights in this area?

My apologies in advance for being a newb

 

[trapped_in_tx]

A few very quick observations based on my experiences...

Looking for and finding a laptop that lasts a long time can be a crapshoot. Looking for and finding a laptop that has a 3y warrantee with on-site 24hr turnaround service is a lot easier. You pay more but there's just less headache. That on-site service is something I've used multiple times and it's great.

Many times there are models that can either be customized or purchased in maybe 5-10 different standard configurations. I would opt for the standard configurations. First, those configs have their own part number that can be Googled and you can price compare the different retail channels and compare availability. Sometimes there retail channels have immediate stock and Dell or HP will make you wait. Customizing a machine is way more expensive initially; if you can find a discount code sometimes the customized machine can be closer to the price of the pre configured machines but it's usually still more.

Basically this means that you shop the enterprise laptops from the big guys - you get the on-site service and a very capable laptop. These really are the only machines that the companies put much effort into since the consumer machines have long been farmed out to Chinese ODMs and most of them are pure crap.

https://www.thurrott.com/hardware/72543/hp-spectre-review

This probably doesn't have the battery life you are looking for (real world usage in the 6.0h to 6.5h range) but it can give you some ideas. Both Dell and HP have many different small & light enterprise models and some have outstanding battery life.

Don't get hung up on the processor - for the use your wife is going for, any processor is probably sufficient. RAM should not be less than 8GB and you will want to carefully consider storage. SSD capacities will be modest in that style of notebook. I personally only look at 512GB and higher but every person's usage needs are different. I don't recommend a traditional hard drive unless there is just no compromise on the need for greater than 1TB storage.

I've never had a laptop with a touchscreen so I can't weigh in there, but I do have a strong appreciation for a very nice screen. I wouldn't skimp on the screen but there's definitely some personal preference there.

Also, I recommend a fingerprint reader but it's not a major deal. Windows 10 supports them pretty seamlessly and to me, it's a huge convenience. Some people don't care for them however.

I hope that helps!

 

[Mr. Blonde]

I've been using a Surface Pro 3 as my main computer for work. It has worked very well for me now that they have most of the bugs related to the Surface 4 dock worked out. It travels great and the dock allows me to easily plug it back into my home setup pretty easy.

 

[Colorado_Poke]

Thanks for the advice @trapped_in_tx and @Mr. Blonde. We ended up get an ASUS Zenbook that had great reviews from a couple of different sources. It's a little on the higher end in terms of both performance and price, but should suit us for the next 5 years.

 

[HighStickHarry]

My experience with asus was horrible. I broke the screen of a two month old laptop and it took months and several angry phone calls to people who didn't know anything and couldn't speak English to only get a refurbished model back. One of the most helpless situations I've ever had. I wouldn't buy anything from them, ever.

 

[100TonsofOrangeFury]

My experience with asus was horrible. I broke the screen of a two month old laptop and it took months and several angry phone calls to people who didn't know anything and couldn't speak English to only get a refurbished model back. One of the most helpless situations I've ever had. I wouldn't buy anything from them, ever.

They don't fix porn overload, read the warranty.

 

[osutater]

Every ASUS I've had was a giant POS

 

[HighStickHarry]

They don't fix porn overload, read the warranty.

If there's a thing called porn overload I would like to meet the person who could do it because I watch it at red lights and train crossings.

 

[shortbus]

XPS 13 would be my recommendation. Other two options would be MacBook Air or as was mentioned the surface pro's have been pretty solid 2 in 1's.

All that said, if that's all she's doing, but her a 300 dollar chromebook. Then her only requirement will be wifi and a google account.

 

[PTaxPoke]

I am looking at getting a Dell XPS 13 or 15 with high-end specs, but those are a pretty penny. They are awesome highly rated laptops though. You might check out the Lenovo Yoga line. You could get one with pretty awesome specs like a core i7 processor and 16gb of ram for 999 right now. It can be used as a laptop and a tablet, has touch screen, which sounds like it would be nice if she is taking square payments could have them sign on the touch screen using it in tablet form. I would make sure and get an SSD harddrive so that the computer will bootup quickly. I wouldn't get anything higher than 256 though, you can always grab an extra external SSD harddrive with like 500 GB for around 80-100 bucks when they go on sale, and they are small and easy to carry with you.

I bet at end of July / early August the Yogas will go on sale for around 800-900 with those specs.