Recommended Laptop for Business Travel

A few months ago I switched to different job duties in my Company which now require Business Travel between about two and six times a hear. I am considering purchasing a Laptop for personal use during my Travels. I will not have a Company provided Laptop.

I do not Game and usually only web surf and sometimes watch streaming videos such as Amazon Prime videos or YouTube videos.

I want the best quality hardware at a reasonable price. What recommendations/suggestions do you have for a new Laptop (Minimum 15.6")?

Thanks in Advance.

 

Lenovo Thinkpads - best quality hardware, shock resistant, keyboard is water resistant. Make sure to get IPS screen....
I am currently on a 12.5 inch X230. I got it at lenovo outlet for $680, refurbished but came in like new.

 

I second that - excellent laptops.
Other brands to consider if a Thinkpad is out of your price range are ASUS, Compal or Sager - all excellent quality, but a Thinkpad would be my first choice.

 

For your limited use I'd get a 12" tablet.

 

Thanks everyone for your help.

The Lenovo X-230 Thinkpad tablet sure looks nice. I went through the customizing and the new customized price went up to close to $2,500. I can afford this price.

However, I may opt for a lower end Sager. I will think about the options for a while. My next Business Trip is probably around two months from now.

 

Do you have any Brands/Models that you prefer?

 

My wife has an Asus VivoTab T810C, Win8, 32-bit. I'm impressed. It will run all of my desktop's apps but she only uses the internet, Office apps and watches videos. Sounds like your intended use. At least 15 hours battery life.

 

That's impressive battery life.

 

It has two batteries. One in the detachable keyboard and one in the tablet.

 

Had minor reliability problems with both my HP Elitebooks (keyboard on both, premature battery on newer one, sub standard screen on the earlier Elitebook), but both of my Thinkpads (personal and work) are slightly better quality allround (one is 6 years old and my work one about 12 months).

I'd consider a HP Elitebook as a 2nd option IMHO to Lenovos, their support (mail out parts) has always been good.

Cheers, Nick

 

Something interesting to consider is that the air pressure have influence over the HD functioning: above 3000 meters the sea level, the air pressure is lower, and that compromises the "air bed" between the heads and the platter(s). There're however pressurized HDs that can work at any altitude. Maybe this is something worth to consider if the OP plans to make plane travels.

 

I can't either. That's why I got myself last year's refubrished version for $1900 less.

 

What?

 

Sorry I misread it.

 

I have only owned Asus and Acer, both of them have been flawless since day 1 but i would not recommend Acer if its going to be abused. Does not feel that durable, at leat not the model i got which was one of the cheapest.

I would say that you could go for anything Asus or if you really want that extra durability then get a Thinkpad.

 

Acer make poor quality laptops, with the exception of their Timeline business range. The same is true to a lesser extent with HP/Compaq and Dell. However the business laptops usually cost a lot more. Dell in particular make some really badly designed laptops - e.g. I've come across two Dell laptops lately where you had to disassemble the whole laptop just to replace the hard drive.

Lenovo's Thinkpads are definitely my first choice too. Not only is the quality very high, but support for them is much better than other brands. For example Lenovo still release BIOS updates, and provide software and drivers for Windows 8 for laptops which came with Vista installed. With almost all other brands you can probably expect the manufacturer to stop providing updates around 6 to 12 months after the release of a laptop.

Asus, Compal (not Compaq) and Sager/Clevo also make very good quality laptops. I simply can not fault my 6 1/2 year old Compal laptop in terms of build quality and reliability.

 

I still haven't decided on what to buy.

Questions:

If I were to buy from PowerNotebooks.com which Brands/Models would be recommended? I am leaning towards either PowerNotebooks PowerPro or Sager.

Screen Size: 15.6" or 17.3"?

Thanks in Advance.

 

Before buying a laptop, it´s a very good idea to check if the hard disk can be replaced by the user. Dell provides manuals to download that describe the procedure.

 

The only laptops aside from ultrabooks I've encountered which don't have easily removal hard drives are from Dell. I'm guessing it's an issues specific to certain models of Dell.

But, further to would you said I would add, that I a laptop does not have an easily removable hard drive, do not buy it. In general I would say the same too about laptops in which the fan is not easily accessible to clean - don't buy them. I say in general as my Thinkpad's don't have easily accessible fans, but I have not yet had the need to remove dust from them yet. But, for any other brand of laptop I would not buy one if the fan isn't easy to access.

and there are YouTube videos showing how to do it.

 

I am just curious, which Sager Model did you buy?

 

I too can recommend PowerNotebooks, I purchased my Compal from them back when I was living in the US, and I can not fault the quality.

 

I have started thinking "Cheap" again. Now I am thinking about this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230783

However, I should probably get a Sager.

I have more time to think about it.