12 Years ago I had a Sony Vaio. I quite liked it. Then in my next job, 2017 or so, I went for a Toshiba Portege, and absolutely loved it.
Guess what the above two have in common? Yup, they stopped making laptops for the professional market. So now I’m a bit at a loss. Any recommendations?
Requirements:
- Lightweight and easy to carry around.
- 13-15" display, preferably
- Decent battery life
- It absolutely must have an RJ45
- Works well with linux
- Good keyboard quality
- ISO keyboard availability
- Touchpad. Bonus points if it has the touchpad buttons ABOVE the pad itself.
I’ve used Macbooks in networking / programming and construction environments for over fifteen years. They’ve been incredibly solid in my experience. In fact, the first week I was given a Thinkpad, I broke it because it was so much more fragile than a Mac. I always used USB adapters for Ethernet and serial connections without issue. They also run Windows and Linux.
Premium product experience at a premium price. Whether the cost premium is worth it is a judgment call for the user.
I see you’ve never seen a Dell BPA
Dell is giving the Feds a premium experience?
More like Dell likes to appear premium:
- Crappy Dell Latitude, Price: $6995, YOUR PRICE: 2995.
And on the website it’s like a $1000 laptop. And it still falls apart one year later.
System76.
I have been a loyal Lenovo customer for years. Their laptops are not cool or sexy, but they are reliable.
I’ve had 2 touch screens completely become unresponsive in the last year or 2. Both Lenovo, so I’ll never buy from them again
uhh… what kind of work?
the panasonic toughbook and apple macbook air are two wildly different laptops i have seen extensively in the field but not at the same workplaces.
Not DELL.
I’m a thinkpad person. Best keyboard. Very repairable. Never ran into issues installing Linux.
But they aren’t usually the kind of laptops people like. For them I suggest the Dell XPS line. Mostly for the build quality.
A lot of laptops are mostly plastic and will flex just from typing. The XPS is made from machined alumninum and is just generally a better user experience.
The Lenovo E series ticks all those boxes. I use one for work and it’s good for an x64 laptop. Just hate how long it takes to come out of sleep. Nothing really beats a Mac there.
Dell.
This guy is incorrect. They put the Home and End keys on Function keys.
I will find the people who were directly responsible for this and I will end their line.
Lenovo Thinkpad t14’s. The x-series are ok, but definitely not anything outside of the thinkpad sub-brand.
Dell latitude used to be the work sub-brand and probably still is.
Hp has a work sub-brand but I don’t know what it is.
Also ran contenders include MS Surface and MacBook.
Anyone else recommending anything else are out of the loop.
