Help finding a good work laptop

Kamiro

I'm trying to help my dad find a good work laptop to replace his old one. Since I really only have experience with gaming laptops, I have no idea where to start or what is actually good.

His budget is $2000 but I really don't think he needs one that is that expensive. His main requirement is that he wants a laptop with a good keyboard that gives some sort of feedback that you are actually typing. I'm not entirely sure what he means by that, so hopefully someone who uses a laptop for work has a better idea than me. Nothing too heavy since he'll be carrying it around a lot. A good trackpad is also a must. Other than that, I'm not sure about what one should look for in a work laptop. He won't be doing anything that requires heavy graphics, just lots and lots of typing.

If anyone has a laptop that they would like to recommend or point me to a good resource that can help narrow down the search, that'd be great.

Thanks!

godmode

Does he have a preference about OS? The Macbook Air is highly portable, durable, the keys feel good, and the systems themselves feel a little snappier even after a couple years of use.
He could go for a Pro as well, but he will probably go beyond $2000 for one with decent specs, unless he buys used.

For Windows laptops, I'd personally recommend HPs. What you purchase in a Windows machine varies far and wide, and you can get a heckuva lot for $2000 in the Windows world.
So some examples: HP Probook HP Elitebook

Basically, he'll probably want at least an i5 processor or equivalent, aluminum body, at least 4GB of RAM, maybe a decent non-integrated GPU. You can cast a pretty wide net with those specs alone and then it comes down to personal preference. Also for $2000, he could probably get one custom-built from a number of different sites and get decent results.

Darkewolfe

An IBM Thinkpad or a Dell Inspiron, probably. Those two lines are basically THE go to's for businesses.

Darkewolfe

By Inspiron I meant Latitude. Completely spaced there.

The Inspiron is the cheaper one. Latitude comes with better components and usually has a business service agreement.

Jasconius

I would recommend being wary of the Samsung Chronos series

I bought one for 1200. It's a very good laptop, very capable, however the wireless antenna is basically shit and un-fixable. You need perfect signal for a reliable connection.

If wireless is not important, then it's worth looking at.

tinwhiskers

If he is just going to be typing/spread sheeting, you may want to look at the ultra-book style laptops. Although I don't have any experience with those keyboards. You may want to just take him to some computer store so he can get a feel for the different manufactures/models keyboards.

Also, if by typing you mean programming, depending on language/IDE you might need some serious horsepower still. Visual Studio is a bear.

Also windows 8, if you have the option to avoid it and it's not a touch screen laptop I'd stay away.

Djeet

IMO, Lenovo Thinkpads T-series and W-series have the best tactile response. T-series would probably be good enough. He should be able to get one fairly well-optioned plus a 3-4 year warranty extension and accidental damage warranty for at or below $2K. Warranty extension and accidental damage coverage would be up to him, but if he's buying from a work stipend it may be a requirement and I don't buy work laptops without them.

If he values keyboard response so much he should really go to a Best Buy or Fry's and check some out.

hsu

Work laptops should be thin, light, full sized keyboard, medium sized screens, long battery life, SSD drives, no DVD.

A perfect example is the 13" MacBook Air.

Lightweight, because you end up carrying it a lot.
Thin, to fit in briefcases, with plenty of room for other stuff.
Full sized keys for typing.
Medium sized screen to fit on airplanes (17" laptops cannot even be opened in most airplane seats; 13"-14" is the sweet spot).
Long battery life for cross country plane trips.
SSD drives for speed.
No DVD because you almost never use it (get an external DVD instead, and leave it at work).

Work got me a Dell Latitude 6430u Ultrabook, since they standardized on Dells.
The Levono Thinkpad X1 Carbon is the most common competitor.

Dhalphir

Another option is a tablet with an external keyboard accessory. For example, you could get a surface and pair it with a proper keyboard in the bag.

Madpoet

I use the Surface Pro as my work laptop now, and it's freaking sweet. At home I've got a docking situation set up for the full desktop situation, and on the road I usually use it as a tablet, with the keyboard available if I need it. In retrospect I'd go type keyboard over the touch, and definitely so if there's a lot of typing to be done on the road.

Djeet

Apparently Lenovo has replaced their keyboard with chiclet keyboards across the T-series line. It's based on the X1 carbon keyboard, which is the best chiclet keyboard available (though the Air's is close behind), but IMO the traditional keyboard they had in the T420/T420s was better.

The X-1 Carbon gets great battery life but has no DVD. The T430u is very much like the X1, but has a lower res screen. The T430 and T430s aren't ultrabooks and are thus heavier and have poorer battery life, though with the T430 you can get an additional battery that slots in the ultrabay (at the expense of the DVD drive that normally resides there). Unfortunately Lenovo moved away from the rear attached battery so you can no longer get an extended capacity battery in a some or most of their T-series (having problems with their website so I cannot verify which).

I suggest those first cause I would likely pick from those.

Thinkpads are the business line from Lenovo, and the business lines (Lattitude/Precision for Dell, Probook/Elitebook for HP) all are better built and have better keyboards than their consumer lines. Though you will pay for the difference. If he would be happy with the keyboard feel and construction of a consumer line notebook he would pay less or get more for his money.

hsu

I suggest talking your dad out of the internal DVD. It adds half a pound and half a centimeter to the thickness. All for something that he'll use once a year.

That's a poor tradeoff compared to a cheap external DVD that you can leave at work.

themateo

+1 for Lenovo. My office deploys the T series as the workhorse and the X series as the ultrabook. We also deploy MacBooks of a few different flavors. The chiclet keys on the Lenovos are a little bit bigger than the Apple ones and are rounded a bit which I think gives it a bit better of a feel. A decent T430 of some flavor will get great battery life and with an SSD, be great for whatever. I second Djeet.... the X1 is pretty great. Especially the quickcharge... I wish more laptops had that. If you go the X1 route... max out the ram because its soldered to the board. The harddrive is user serviceable so it can be swapped out for bigger later.

Get something that is on the high end now so it will last well over three years and get the extended warranty. That will get you to the 2000USD mark.