Home notebook - Thinkpad E540, L540 or Dell Latitude 3540 or maybe something else?

[krzysiekx]

Hi,

I'm looking for a home notebook for Office work, movies, browsing Internet, occasional gaming. It has to be very comfortable in use (multitasking, many browser tabs, movies, copying data and whatnot) and I'd like to have it for some longer time, I don't feel like replacing it in a year or two from the purchase. My previous notebook was Asus N71vg - nice display, but it was glowscreen, got dirty fast, had fingerprints on plastic cover, fell few times and now is in terrible condition, had a few incidents with power charger and mainboard, even the HDD is damaged. I'd like to avoid that in the future, plus I guess matte dispays are better, there's no light reflecting from it and whatnot. Am I right?

I understand these are only notebooks, not powerhouses I could build creating PC, but I need a notebook, and that's it. It has to be as fast, as comfortable as possible, and I want it for a longer period of time. SSD would be rad, but it is not installed in the notebooks within my price range, so I guess HDD is going to be fine, as long as notebook's specs are decent.

I made a little research and found devices like:

Thinkpad e540
- pros; totally my price range, quite good specs;
- cons; issues with power reported all over the Lenovo forums

Thinkpad L540
- pros: with the i5 processor called as top1 business notebook in dec 2014, very favourable opinions
- cons: out of my price range, it's a bit more expensive, although I found a shop that offers it with i3 processor in around E540 / Latitude 3540 price range, I'd aim for that version

Latitude 3540
- pros: considered better than E540 (although they look at the i5 processor and I aim at cheaper, i3 model), great guarantee
- cons: no hdmi input, I'm not sure I'm going to use that anyways

I also found few ProBooks with decent price and specs, but I wouldn't enjoy using HP, I heard they made pretty bad notebooks in the past and I have their printer, it's quite slow and pricey to use

I also found notebooks like Dell Inspiron 3542/5547 with i5, dedicated gfx and more ram; Lenovo Z50 and Acer E5 with i5 and more ram - they are nicer because the price is almost the same, the specs are better, but they have 'glare' screens and I am afraid that with kind of usage my family does (it has to be home family notebook btw) it's going to break as N71vg did, so I aimed for business series or something like that. Am I doing the right thing? Or maybe I should fix my view and aim from something like these four?

 

[gmaster456]

I personally would go with the Latitude. I have been a huge fan of that line from the beginning, have used just about every generation and have no complaints. The latitude would be more robust and have better build but if you're strapped for cash the inspiron line is good too.

 

[krzysiekx]

I was heavily pushing for Latitude, but after thoroughly checking the prices, I found out I would be able to afford i5 processor version without OS (4 or 8 GB ram) or i3 version with 8GB ram (and that is higher end of my budget), and I've read that i3 is quite bad - what do you think about that? I was only able to find reviews of the notebook with dedicated ATI graphics and i7 processor so I don't really know now, I'm rather confused.

The L540 was a fluke, there was only one offer that cheap, it is totally out of my price range.

E540 has power issues so that takes it off my list.

I found out HP ProBook 450 G1 a nice choice, i5/8gb version is in my price range, and it was in top10 cheap office notebooks list on notebookcheck review website. Although I don't know what to think of HP, it also has only 1 year of guarantee.

The Inspirons and other similar have better specs, dedicated graphics, hd displays, but they have non-matte screens which isn't that good I think, plus I'm scared that they'll a)overheat b)break down while not treated with enough care, which is going to be the case.

Damn, I'm rather puzzled

 

[gmaster456]

I was heavily pushing for Latitude, but after thoroughly checking the prices, I found out I would be able to afford i5 processor version without OS (4 or 8 GB ram) or i3 version with 8GB ram (and that is higher end of my budget), and I've read that i3 is quite bad - what do you think about that? I was only able to find reviews of the notebook with dedicated ATI graphics and i7 processor so I don't really know now, I'm rather confused.

The L540 was a fluke, there was only one offer that cheap, it is totally out of my price range.

E540 has power issues so that takes it off my list.

I found out HP ProBook 450 G1 a nice choice, i5/8gb version is in my price range, and it was in top10 cheap office notebooks list on notebookcheck review website. Although I don't know what to think of HP, it also has only 1 year of guarantee.

The Inspirons and other similar have better specs, dedicated graphics, hd displays, but they have non-matte screens which isn't that good I think, plus I'm scared that they'll a)overheat b)break down while not treated with enough care, which is going to be the case.

Damn, I'm rather puzzled

Anyone that says an i3 bad is smoking something pretty good. Is it as good as an i5? No. But the difference isn't really that great.

The inspirons can take some abuse but they aren't as rugged as the Latitudes or Thinkpads.

Any of the laptops you are looking at will be just fine. Thinkpads, Pro books and Latitudes are all great machines and you shouldn't be sweating it as much as you are.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Where are you located? I'm guessing Poland. I have no idea how to pronounce your username

Does it have to be new? Thinkpad warranties are based on serial number, they don't care who owned it before. If you're ok with an Ivy Bridge (-30) or even Sandy Bridge (-20) chip then a nice used Thinkpad might cut it for you. You can pop on over to the Thinkpad forums and find someone in the EU selling one of those.

The L- and Edge Thinkpads are cut-down versions of the flagship lines (T, W, X). Out of my 20 or so Thinkpads the three that weren't from those lines weren't as sturdy and broke more often (google "SL400 hinge" if you're curious).

 

[krzysiekx]

Anyone that says an i3 bad is smoking something pretty good. Is it as good as an i5? No. But the difference isn't really that great.

The inspirons can take some abuse but they aren't as rugged as the Latitudes or Thinkpads.

Any of the laptops you are looking at will be just fine. Thinkpads, Pro books and Latitudes are all great machines and you shouldn't be sweating it as much as you are.

Well, thank you.

@chubbyfatazn - yeah, I'm from Poland. There's a quite big market for used Thinkpads here, they sell used ones that they import from Germany or UK or even other European countries. I'd take the used one if it were for myself, but it's for the family and they wish for a new one.

 

[edro]

I have a Thinkpad Edge that sucks. Great performance for the price, but the fan is super loud and there are no fixes and it intermittently shuts down.
I thought I was getting a good deal on a Thinkpad brand, but it's not really a Thinkpad.

 

[krzysiekx]

I have a Thinkpad Edge that sucks. Great performance for the price, but the fan is super loud and there are no fixes and it intermittently shuts down.
I thought I was getting a good deal on a Thinkpad brand, but it's not really a Thinkpad.

Thanks for confirming my point of view, buddy. I'm definitely getting the Dell Latitude after xmas

 

[corkyg]

A lateral comparison of Latitude to Thinkpad must be to T series, not E. They are lower on the food chain, parallel with Inspirons. You made the correct choice.

 

[jaydee]

A lateral comparison of Latitude to Thinkpad must be to T series, not E. They are lower on the food chain, parallel with Inspirons. You made the correct choice.

If you're talking features, I strongly disagree. The Latitude 3540 though is more of a replacement of the Vostro series, low-end business. No ExpressCard/SmartCard, no HDMI or DP, no docking port for expandability, no options for 3G/4G radio, no fingerprint reader, all of which, the L series have and most of which the E-series has.