Help with laptop choice!

[rednight]

I posted a question about Lenovo ThinkPads the other day and had some interesting and useful replies - thank you!

 

I found it really helpful to hear people's opinions and experiences, so I wondered if anyone would be able to share their thoughts on my shortlist of four prospective laptops for our teachers ...

 

DELL Latitiude E5430

Core i3-3120M 2.50 Ghz, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD

 

Toshiba Satellite Pro L850-1DW

Core i3-2370M 2.4Ghz, 4GB RAM, 500 GB HDD

 

Toshiba Satellite Pro C850-1FR

Core i3-2312M 2.10 Ghz, 4GB RAM, 500 GB HDD

 

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530

E530 Core I3-3110M, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD

 

Hard drive size isn't an issue for us, so although the Dell is the underdog in that department I haven't ruled it out and *think* that it might be the strongest machine in the list ....

 

Would anyone be able to advise on which would be my best buy?

 

Thanks in advance!

[lquinnuk]

Out of those four I'd be inclined to go with the lowest price, as I assume your school will too.

 

They will all have the same warranty they will all have the same messing when it comes to getting a warranty repair if required, the one thing I will say is that in my experience DELL laptops have a nice power connector, it seems sturdy and doesn't seem to get lose or wobble no matter how much it is used, a faulty/lose power port seems to be a growing issue espcially as people tend to not take great care of laptops.

[garethm]

I'd go for the ThinkPad Edge - I've used and deployed these in a lot of schools, and absolutely swear by them!

Support is still provided by IBM too so it's REALLY good!

[laserblazer]

Misco has a cracking deal on the Toshiba laptops until the end of the month.

[rednight]

Thanks for your comments.

 

Can anyone shed any light on the naming convention used by Toshiba for their laptops? For example is a L850 a lesser model than a C850 and what do the other letters and numbers mean (1DW/1FR etc)?!

 

:-)

[plexer]

I've setup 2 edge e530's today and I like them nice rubberised back on them.

 

Trackpad is a bit wired.

 

Ben

[rednight]

I've setup 2 edge e530's today and I like them nice rubberised back on them.

 

Trackpad is a bit wired.

 

Ben

 

Hi Ben,

 

Yes, I have seen other people commenting on the trackpad .... what is the problem with it?

 

rn

[plexer]

The whole track pad is clickable, left side left click right side right click plus you have 3 buttons above it and the little red dot as well.

 

Ben

[rednight]

The whole track pad is clickable, left side left click right side right click plus you have 3 buttons above it and the little red dot as well.

 

Ben

 

Sounds interesting! Do your users like it?

[plexer]

Haven't given them out yet only started setting the first ones up today.

 

Ben

[RTFM]

We like the Toshiba's. We always get them with upgraded warranty.

 

Have a chat with @Millgate Luke usually does us a great price on them

[teejay]

We have some of the Dells here, lovely laptops, also really easy to deploy if you're using WDS or similar as they do a specific driver pack download so no flagging about finding individual drivers. Try haggling a bit on the hard drives, 'like your laptop but other makes have a bigger he'd tends to work ;-)'

[m25man]

The Intel 3xxx series devices are a significant step up and this has to be taken into account don't purchase by price alone.

All vendors will be dumping 2xxx and 3xxx models between now and June as Haswell comes on line.

Microsoft and Intel have been working hard to align the Haswell Gen4 CPU and Windows Blue its the same reason we haven't seen any really significant influx of Windows Pro tablets.

Everything hinges on Haswell.

My money would be on the Dell or Lenovo with the final decision based on the price difference v the HDD size.

If the the 2xxx series machines were that cheap and the users wouldn't notice the performance hit or battery life differences you could make the budget stretch a bit further.

 

Its Poker Face time, my guess is the best deals haven't got here yet. We are in "Burn the Budget" week and its the end of the fiscal cycle for many vendors and buyers.

If you don't have to spend it this week I would hold my cards, next week will be the real deal. If you want 24hr battery life and a week on standby or i5 Windows Pro tablets wait for Haswell.

 

However, its your budget and your call.

[rednight]

The Intel 3xxx series devices are a significant step up and this has to be taken into account don't purchase by price alone.

All vendors will be dumping 2xxx and 3xxx models between now and June as Haswell comes on line.

Microsoft and Intel have been working hard to align the Haswell Gen4 CPU and Windows Blue its the same reason we haven't seen any really significant influx of Windows Pro tablets.

Everything hinges on Haswell.

My money would be on the Dell or Lenovo with the final decision based on the price difference v the HDD size.

If the the 2xxx series machines were that cheap and the users wouldn't notice the performance hit or battery life differences you could make the budget stretch a bit further.

 

Its Poker Face time, my guess is the best deals haven't got here yet. We are in "Burn the Budget" week and its the end of the fiscal cycle for many vendors and buyers.

If you don't have to spend it this week I would hold my cards, next week will be the real deal. If you want 24hr battery life and a week on standby or i5 Windows Pro tablets wait for Haswell.

 

However, its your budget and your call.

 

Thanks for your comments. My main priority is to buy something that is going to last us at least three years without suffering from bits dropping off, battery nightmares (such as I have experienced in the past with some Dells) and general decline.

 

I was erring on the side of the Toshibas - I am not sure that my current set of users would notice whether they had 2xxx or 3xxx - would it be that noticeable?! My main priority is to get the most robust and best machine for my money ....

 

I have sat on the fence for far too long and it is now time for me to make a decision ... I need to place an order soonish! One more night to sleep on it ...

 

Thanks for your advice.

 

rn

[m25man]

All of those machines are capable lasting 3 years, the keyboards need keys that are not easily picked off.

Dont forget the batteries, when used day in day out you can find yourselves changing batteries after 18 months or less.

This can bang a big hole in your next budget if you haven't allowed for it.

[antmanvolpe]

We have 65 Lenovo's and aside from some complaints about track pads requiring a learning curve and taking some getting used to they have performed flawlessly. 25 were ordered in July and 40 in January. Loved the fact they shipped with Windows 7 and had an upgrade to Windows 8. User love the machines, but trackpads can be troublesome for users.

 

Personally I am having some concerns over the build quality of new Dell's. The 390 and 790 desktops have not impressed me and I have had a number of issues with power supplies and motherboards (at least 10 since September). We are a 100% Dell school until we started having problems, and now we are moving rapidly toward Lenovo.

[MYK-IT]

Thinkpad E530 just seem solid, we have quite a few of them here. Keys can't be picked off for a start, nice solid case/chassis.

 

Although we have just ordered some of these (purely for cost, not same keyboard/build/quality as Lenovo though)

 

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/HP_650_Cor_ei3_Windows_8_Laptop__C5C49EA/version.asp

[Millgate]

You can't go wrong with any of them to be honest but my personal favourite is Toshiba

[lquinnuk]

Thanks for your comments. My main priority is to buy something that is going to last us at least three years without suffering from bits dropping off, battery nightmares (such as I have experienced in the past with some Dells) and general decline.

 

This is all down to the users, you could buy any of them, they'll all work fine and all serve the purpose you require, how ever if you have a teacher who likes to check things around, take it home, lets the kids on it then it will suffer more damager, another teacher might keep it plugged in 24/7 therefore you'll suffer battery problems.

 

As long as your staff are aware of proper laptop care then you don't really need to worry about which model, you're probably over thinking it a little. The teachers will be happy as they have shiny new laptops.

 

The only answers you'll get on here are peoples personal opinions based on which brands people have used before, some people will love dells some people will have had nothing but problems with dells, and so on, if you really can't decide just go for the most cost effective option and send me some money, our nicest laptops are 7 years old, our PC's are older than that and are maxed at 2GB RAM running with IDE Hard Drives in, cases and components so obscure that any hardware failure is a death sentence and they weigh more than the moon.

 

#firstworldproblems