Archive for December, 2010

Can you recommend a new laptop?

December 3rd, 2010

About a month ago my good old Sony Vaio laptop started playing up and kept crashing and refusing to switch on. It has served me well over the last 5 years but it is now time for an upgrade.

The trouble is that I am a bit out of the loop when it comes to hardware and I could do with your advice and recommendations. I need a laptop that is good for a variety of development. Some of this is for the Windows environment but this can be dine in a virtual machine if needed. I think a decent keyboard without a strange layout is my main requirement.

I have had a good experience with my last two Vaios so would like to stick with them, but there are not any in the range that tempt me at the moment, and they are not cheep, so I am looking at other options.

Suggestions so far, with reasons why I have not just gone with it…

  • Apple MacBook Pro – Expensive. Nice hardware but really expensive.
  • Dell Vostro – Can be really nice machines, but really bad experiences with defective hardware and Dell support on many occasions. Would not want to buy direct because of it.
  • HP – Nothing really wrong with HP and we had several at the office. Just a bit boring.
  • Lenovo ThinkPad – Used IBM ThinkPads in the past and was not overly taken by them, but that was a long time ago.
  • Toshiba Satellite Pro – Again nothing really wrong, just a but boring.

So, what would you recommend and why. Also what else should I be looking out for in terms of processor, chipset, or anything else.

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