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In the market for a laptop

M

Merad

Platinum Member
I'm going back to school full time this fall and am looking for a laptop...

School requirements are pretty low end, the main school related factor being that I will be carrying it around a lot and need decent battery life.

For my own use I do a lot of programming as a hobby (and will be majoring in comp sci) so I want something reasonably powerful to drive multiple instances of Visual Studio program compile/debug etc. Ideally would like a discreet gfx card for overall win7 performance and since much of my programming work involves 3D graphics, but I am concerned it would hurt battery life too much.

Budget of ~$1500 but that needs to include at least a 2 year accidental damage warranty.

I've been looking at the Lenovo T420/520. Leaning towards the 520 for the higher quality screen options it has. These are available with Intel HD 3000 graphics or a Quadro 4200M. From what I'm reading it seems like the Quadro doesn't offer much performance but does hurt battery life.

School does offer some discounts on Macs and Dells, but not that much. Not enough to offset the Mac tax (+ having to purchase another copy of Win7 for bootcamp), and the Dell models they offer just aren't that appealing.
 
Hmmm, W520 is definitely a much better deal in terms of processing power for the price... The choice seems to be awesome battery life of the T520 or power of the W520. Reviews claims about 4-6 hours from the W with the 9 cell battery while the T can get 6-9 hours from a 6 cell battery...
 
(dreamspark or your physics\cs\general department\IEEE\ACM might provide you with additional windows licenses via MSDNAA, dreamspark has Server 2008 R2, MSDNAA might have Windows 7 etc)

from my experience in college, most CS departments will offer you a lab(computers, space, whiteboards) to program in....

you might want to look for an ultraportable for lightness and batterylife (MBA or Lenovo X220 comes to mind... both doesn't have discrete though, but under 3.5 pounds and 8 hour sbattery), and SSH to the CS servers/ get a desktop / use the library computers if you need more screen estate or power
 
I had seriously considered the X220. It comes out cheaper, lighter and with much better battery life. It's just that with all the 12-13" notebooks I've looked at (haven't found an actual X220 in stock locally) they are so small I don't think you could do much if any productive work on them.

I do already have a good desktop for serious work, so that's not an issue. Just want the option to do work on the go without coming back to my apartment or messing with campus labs.
 
I myself find the 13-15" ones too bulky... (heck, I even find my Dell M1330 bulky, and it was the lightest(~4.5 pounds?) mainstream (cough <$2000) 13" laptop 4 years ago with a wedge shape that cuts down on size)....

maybe spend some time at the apple store with a 13" MBA....

try http://www.sizeasy.com/ as well

I myself find dual screens way more effective than larger screens... maybe get a 11-13" laptop with an iPad / (7-9")android tablet that supports monitor extending?.... you can then choose to customize your setup (by bringing the tablet around or not)
 
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I'm a software guy who is also going back to school. I was able to pick up a lenovo T410s for $700 last fall. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834146927

I went the light and portable route because we have a decent computer lab at school and my programing is mostly done on remote machines. The T410s isn't a slouch though. I run VMware, SQL Server, Oracle, Visual Studio locally too.

The W520 is not a portable device. We have them at work and they are absolutely massive. Also, with all that power comes a lot more weight and a much larger powerbrick (170W v 65W for my T410s). Lugging a W520 to meetings is a major PITA.

Check out this review. http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithcombs/archive/2011/03/28/lenovo-thinkpad-w520-mini-review.aspx
He has some good comparison shoots of the W520/T410/T410s.

I strongly recommend getting something light and portable. If you need big power, build a desktop and then buy a cheaper laptop for class.
 
Merad said:
I had seriously considered the X220. It comes out cheaper, lighter and with much better battery life. It's just that with all the 12-13" notebooks I've looked at (haven't found an actual X220 in stock locally) they are so small I don't think you could do much if any productive work on them.

I do already have a good desktop for serious work, so that's not an issue. Just want the option to do work on the go without coming back to my apartment or messing with campus labs.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, I run an X220... and I run AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 on it. Its small size belies a very, very capable and productive machine. Mind you, I do have to be careful about screen estate on it though; the low resolution is perfect for its size, but it does mean I am somewhat limited in what I can show at one time. When I do CAD work, I like to have an external monitor, but even without it I can do my work at a decent pace.

As it stands, it rocks at portability, it's got a full power dual core Sandy Bridge, it's got great battery life and the best screen quality in its class (the only one comparable is the Sony VAIO Z 1080p screen) and it's got the absolute best keyboard in the laptop space, the same full size Thinkpad keyboard in the T420/T520/W520.
 
just to add in....

most likely the x230 ( successor to x220) will be released soon (google "lenovo x230" shows some photos leaks of the x230t, some suggesting 8 weeks availability)

Ivy-Bridge upgrades, maybe some (bad) changes to the "tested and true" keyboard....

might want to wait for that (even superb battery life), and the better IGP (HD 4000)
 
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I highly recommend the x220 as well. I'm a CS major as well and mine has been absolutely perfect for everything I have needed. I've never had any problem working on the x220 due to it's screen size and my primary system has triple 23" 1080P displays so I'm used to having tons of screen real estate. I actually like working on it more than many 14-15" laptops I have used in the past due to the IPS panel, having a high quality matte screen that is easy on the eyes goes a long way.

I've had my x220 for a year now and would buy another one without hesitation.

The only other laptop I would recommend looking at is the Samsung Series 9 15" if you really think you need a bigger screen.
 
the dell xps is really good on battery life ive heard from a friend that has one. im into gaming laptops myself so my battery life usually sucks lol
 
Well after stewing over it for a few more days I decided to go with the X220. Config:

Intel Core i7-2640M Processor (2.80GHz, 4M Cache with Turbo Boost up to 3.50GHz)
12.5" Premium HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, IPS, 2x2 Antenna
Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor graphics with dynamic frequency
4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
UltraNav with Fingerprint Reader
720p HD Camera
500GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
9 Cell Li-Ion Battery
Bluetooth 3.0 wireless
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN Wifi
Click to expand...

Total price, including a 3 year accidental damage plan and tax, was $1220. Also, Lenovo gave me a free 19" LED monitor (no idea why, but it was on the accessories page with a cost of $0). Have no need for it but I'll happily sell it on Craigslist. 😀
 
Oh, forgot to mention that I ordered 4GB of extra RAM from Newegg to drop in. LOL @ Lenovo charging $40 per GB on memory upgrades. 🙂
 
Just thought I'd bump the thread to say that I received the laptop a few days ago. Very happy with it so far. Battery life is OMFG awesome. As I type this I've probably already been using it for over 90 minutes, and the battery indicator is still showing 7:45 remaining. :awe:

Had to do some cleanup of extra junk that was preloaded on it (but, Lenovo is better than average in that regard, IIRC). Probably still could use some cleanup of the startup processes, but it's hard to care to much while performance is decent and it doesn't seem to be hurting battery life.

Overall desktop application performance seems to be good even using the lower-power "on battery" settings. It is able to run Diablo 3 on low detail, but only using max performance settings and with battery life chopped to 2-3 hours.

BTW, the free 19" monitor was a mistake. 🙁 They took it out of the order.

Edit: Oh, the only thing I'm not very fond of so far is the touchpad. I've tinkered with the settings to improve it but I just am no overly fond of the set up. With they'd had an option also to lose the buttons below the spacebar and get a larger touchpad.
 
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I so wish Lenovo would release a small notebook with a high-rez IPS screen. My g/f just got an acer with an 11.6" screen for her g/f, and I've been setting it up for her today. I really like the form factor, but after a decade plus, I just can't use a laptop w/o a trackpoint, and viewing angles are of course horrid.
 
I decided to blow some of my leftover budget on a mSATA SSD, and I'll do a clean install of Win7 next weekend when it comes in. I guess I've been spoiled by the SSD in my desktop, but man that 5400 rpm drive could be irritatingly slow. This afternoon it probably took 2 minutes or more for it to resume from hibernation.
 
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