OK, I still don't have the balls to switch over to Mac. I know Mac is the best laptop. So not counting Macs, what are the best premium laptops on market today? I have been Dell customer for 20 years, but they have gone to heck with each one. This last time I even bought an Alienware version and it is still crap. Looking at reviews online Asus and Lenovo seem to get good ratings.
I'm going to be "that guy"...... I vote buy a Mac and install Windows on it via Bootcamp or Parallels. I rarely, rarely use OS X (usually to just update the above) on my MacBook and it's the best Windows laptop I have had in a long time.
We have HP elite books at work (with the w suffix for workstation) and they are excellent. Core i7's with discreet Nvidia graphics chipsets and 8gb of ram. I've had mine for a little over a year and zero issues and I regularly hammer it in terms of processor and ram load, leave it in my car at night when it's cold etc. Never skips a beat. Only blemish on it is the ink on the A key has worn. Keyboard is lit so you can use it with little/no light. It'll run 3 hours of hard use on battery power, 6 with the backpack battery. No loss of battery life so far, but when it's not on battery power it's docked so regularly topped up.
Seems the larger 17 inchers are a rare find. I had Dell XPS and they were great, but no similar replacement out there these days.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. I've used ThinkPads since 1994; this latest X1 Carbon looks amazing and has great performance specs.
I like the big ones too, I haven't had a desktop since 2000. I'm also not actually "mobile" very often, but there if I need it.
Been doing electronics reverse logistics for years so there's the quallies. Lenovo Think systems are absolutely bulletproof if you have to have a non-apple. Heavy as hell, but tanks. I still have a T40 running XP as a portable gamer and it is still going strong. HP Elitebooks are good as mentioned. The trick is to buy the business-class products. They are designed for heavier use, retirement, refurbishment, and recuperation. Lenovo and HPs other stuff (Idea series tabs, AIOs, and laptops) are absolute isht. Asus (excepting tabs), Dell, etc are all the same anymore. Windows 8... For now, don't pay any money for anything running it... Wait a bit for 10. Seems to be pretty OK in beta play, but a lot of bells and whistles that most won't use. Or just stick with 7. Not been this happy since XP. Macs can do it all though so I'd go there. Can't beat them for business use and virtual etc...
Have never had a desktop, but many laptops, notebooks, netbooks, etc. And all the laptop magazines are gone, which was nice to get ideas and comparisons. In fact, the only 17 inch I have seen in a store was a Toshiba Satellite C75.
I always miss the Sony Vaio professional laptops, had plenty over the years, and the worst that ever happened was really a battery needing replacement at 3 years (before I sold it to it's next owner) and recently, a virus or issue of some sort has screwed the operating system so internet explorer doesn't work properly, and every so often I get 'this is not a genuine version of windows' coming up. Aside from that, have been great. Tried the running windows on a mac thing last year, used VMware and it was a nightmare, never ever worked and sold the mac in disgust Quick question for you guys - I have a new PC to replace the Sony, but want to keep it as a spare, can I simply buy windows 8 full version and simply overwrite the operating system (had already had a new hard drive cloned and fitted - 500gb SSD)? Or is it more complicated than that?
I recently purchased a Dell M3800 (typing on it now). Had some issues right out of the box, such as them forgetting to connect the internal wire to the speakers (really Dell?), but since then it's been pretty good. All the power I need, light, but can get a bit noisy with the fans under load.
Yep, took the original hard drive, used the cloning software to copy the SSD, and put it in. Runs great, but have the issue with the genuine windows thing (which was on the old disk) , and Microsoft don't want to sort despite my owning the licence for windows 7 hence knowing it's just corrupted
HP EliteBook Folio 1020 G1 Part number L4A53UT It rocks. 14" version too if you prefer bigger, but I find I like the 12".
Lenovo Yoga series (think hard before getting the big one, it is easy to project movies to any TV that has an HDMI input). It is hard to discount how good the Surface 3 is. I have several laptops and tablets and find the Surface in my bag 90% of the time.
I love the Lenovo Yoga 2 (the top end model with the i7 processor). A lot of people prefer the Yoga 2 over the Yoga 3, as the Yoga 3 is skewed towards long battery life rather than performance. It does have a smallish screen, however. (Not tiny, but not 17".) My daily laptop is an ASUS ROG (Republic of Gamer) 17" monster. I've found that gamer machines provide the best performance for the buck. I use it for software development, and it is blisteringly fast. Best Buy has them in stock if you want to take a look at one. I used to like Alienware, but won't buy one now that Dell owns them. (I refuse to buy Dell on principle, as my last 4 laptops from Dell had issues.)
Those look interesting, but their website doesn't help show the differences in the models - G571 JT (2 versions), JY (2 versions), JL (? versions), and JM. Which one did you get? I like the "old days" with the configuration options on websites.
Mine is a "VW" -- it's the last gen model (3rd gen I7 processor, 1080p display, 16GB RAM, dual SSD drives). The only negative at I can say about it is that the power brick is huge -- it really is like carrying around a brick. I looked at the news specs... The JH appears to be the new top end model It has the 4th gen I7 processor and better video specifications.
Okay, so I put windows 8.1 full install on the laptop, and it asks, do you want to use the same Microsoft account? Sure, so I click yes. Do you want to use the same settings as your PC named .......? Of course, sounds helpful, click Windows 8 starts up, great, have a working laptop again.... Go to explorer, all favourites are there, great Switch off, put on PC, internet explorer on, go to favourites, they disappear in front my eyes, every one of them. Go to ipad, same thing, go to laptop, same thing. Why the hell did that happen. Frightened to switch the laptop back on now in case it does it again. What the hell do I do to stop this? Is the a setting to click? Can I get the settings back? (Such as a previous ipad or iPhone backup in iCloud?) and how do I do it? Damn computers are the Bain of my life
I carry two laptops right now, a 13" Retina MacBook Pro and a Lenovo Carbon X1, both are fantastic. I personally sell Lenovos through my company and wouldn't if I didn't use one myself (Got to put my money where my mouth is). Since you say that you're rarely mobile I'd recommend the Lenovo T series or W series, they are both premium powerhouse machines. The ThinkPads are absolutely indestructible and well worth the money.
I just bought a Dell XPS 13 with the infinity display as I wanted something portable. It's insanely capable, I have a i5 with a 256GB SSD. With the touchscreen QHD screen. It's a 13.3" screen but with the infinity display, it's form factor is a 11.6" computer.
