General > General Technical Chat
Notebooks built to be carried
ebastler:
--- Quote from: coppice on July 29, 2023, 06:37:04 pm ---There are lots notebook computers which work well for home or light portable use, but for the last few years if you wanted something to carry around for business day in and day out the choice has been a Thinkpad or a Dell Latitude.
--- End quote ---
What kind of "carry around" scenarios are you envisioning? I have used a 14" Lenovo IdeaPad Pro (one of their consumer product lines, never mind the "pro" moniker) for the past two years, and have carried it around quite a bit. I use a backpack with a ightly padded notebook compartment, and the computer is just fine. The same has been true for the consumer-type Samsung and Asus notebooks I had before -- all mid-price devices with aluminium enclosures.
As long as you don't plan to carry the computer in just a displosable plastic bag or such, in my experience the consumer notebooks are fine for portable use. The only serious mechanical damage I have encountered was with two DELL Latitudes which I used before switiching to consumer models: A bad spot on the LCD of a Latitude D after I hit it with something hard any pointy (my fault), and a broken screen hinge on a Latitude E (DELL's design fault).
coppice:
--- Quote from: Ranayna on July 31, 2023, 06:30:11 am ---The company i work in exclusively uses DELL for it's computers and servers.
While i am currently not supporting these at the moment, my past experience with the notebooks was mixed.
The old D Series were built like tanks. Very robust and reliable, but also heavy.
The first E Series was utter crap. Hideous QA, both hard- and firmware. There were like 40 BIOS revisions published over the lifetime of the first generation. And we had a lot of complaints about shoddy assembly: misrun cables causing bulges in the keyboard, and display bezels getting loose were the main issues.
Later E Series were significantly better.
After the E Series, the first new generation was again not as well made, from what i head about our internal support. Many issues with bulging batteries were reported.
The 7400 i had myself ran fine without major issues in it's lifetime though.
At the moment i am using a Latitude 7420. That runs fine without any issues at all so far. That is confirmed by our internal support as well. These are fine. My major point of critique of the 7420 is the lack of USB ports: It has only 1 A type, and 2 C type ports. The fan can also become annoying at times.
Current models of Dockingstations (WD19TB and up) are also fine now. Many earlier docks, especially the WD15 and 16 were bad.
--- End quote ---
Between 2002 and 2016 I constantly had a large Dell provided to me. I only remember one thing that needed be to repaired, and it needed repairing twice in the 4 years I had that machine - the touch pad. They were a mixed bag of good and bad features, and the docking stations were awful, but they scored well on reliability in the face of endless lugging around the world in backpacks.
coppice:
--- Quote from: ebastler on July 31, 2023, 09:19:31 am ---
--- Quote from: coppice on July 29, 2023, 06:37:04 pm ---There are lots notebook computers which work well for home or light portable use, but for the last few years if you wanted something to carry around for business day in and day out the choice has been a Thinkpad or a Dell Latitude.
--- End quote ---
What kind of "carry around" scenarios are you envisioning? I have used a 14" Lenovo IdeaPad Pro (one of their consumer product lines, never mind the "pro" moniker) for the past two years, and have carried it around quite a bit. I use a backpack with a ightly padded notebook compartment, and the computer is just fine. The same has been true for the consumer-type Samsung and Asus notebooks I had before -- all mid-price devices with aluminium enclosures.
As long as you don't plan to carry the computer in just a displosable plastic bag or such, in my experience the consumer notebooks are fine for portable use. The only serious mechanical damage I have encountered was with two DELL Latitudes which I used before switiching to consumer models: A bad spot on the LCD of a Latitude D after I hit it with something hard any pointy (my fault), and a broken screen hinge on a Latitude E (DELL's design fault).
--- End quote ---
How many overhead bins in airliners has your notebook been through? We can't all control the abuse our notebooks get very well. Driving around in a car most of the time MASSIVELY reduces the physical stresses a notebook suffers over its life, compared to using public transport.
ebastler:
--- Quote from: coppice on July 31, 2023, 10:07:58 am ---How many overhead bins in airliners has your notebook been through? We can't all control the abuse our notebooks get very well. Driving around in a car most of the time MASSIVELY reduces the physical stresses a notebook suffers over its life, compared to using public transport.
--- End quote ---
Most of my flights have been for business, carrying various company notebooks (DELL, Lenovo, HP) in the same padded backpack or its predecessor. The more recent generations of DELL and HP business notebooks don't feel much different from the consumer lines to me, so I don't think my personal notebooks would have fared any worse. And I don't recall any traumatic events related to the overhead bins -- what terrible things would happen up there?
My personal notebooks have travelled by mostly train -- carried on foot, stuffed into the open overhead luggage racks, set up on flimsy fold-out tables or my lap -- and have taken that in stride.
What types of damage would you be concerned about? Cosmetic blemishes can happen with some bad luck, but I don't see how the business models would have better protection. The only design-related difference I can think of is robustness against a heavy impact to the back of the lid (display) while the notebook is closed -- there is a trade-off between sturdyness and lightweight/slim design there, and the consumer models tend to focus on "slim". I do make sure that I pack my notebook with the display facing the inside of the backpack.
bingo600:
I still use Thinkpads (T or L models), and think they're quite ok, now that they went back to the synaptic or elan touchpads.
If you need (prefer) a RJ-45 network plug, along with WiFi. Make sure to check if the model you select has one, as some of the new slim TP's only have WiFi.
I prefer the 14" or 15" , as i think the bigger models (P line) is too big.
A used L14 Gen1 (either) Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen, is my preferred model atm. - I replaced the 512GB NVME w. a 1TB Samsung NVME SSD 980.
Ie: https://www.ebay.com/itm/186005727797
But i have also used T460s, T470s, T480s, L470, L480 and L490.
Note: T460 & T/L470 doesn't support Win11 - I don't care as i use linux.
You'd need an Intel Gen8+ CPU for Win11 , as is in the 480,490 & L14 models.
I have tried the L14 Gen2 ... It's FAST , but IMHO it gets too hot. And it's not on the "Used" market yet.
I usually buy my Thinkpads used, and the price varies but starts at around $250
I have only ever had one "mechanically" damaged TP (a L470, with a crack in the plastic that developed a bit)
And i have had an x260, where the "mobo ram controller died".
I still have my T430s that i paid $160 for (used), running fine ... I only replaced to get FullHD graphics.
Btw: I NEVER had a TP PSU die on me ... Not even my old T600 PSU from Y2k.
/Bingo
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