

Ask HN: best windows laptop - petervandijck

What's the best Windows laptop? Assume price is not an issue, it's moved around a lot. For developing and browsing, mainly.
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m0nastic
Thinkpad...

If portability isn't an issue, than the new W520 or T520.

If you don't like lugging around a giant monster, the new X220.

Everyone will chime in with a reason to avoid $Manufacturer (for me I avoid
Dell and HP), I'm not sure if there's really a consensus.

~~~
petervandijck
ie. this one <http://amzn.to/jRWwyx>? What do you like about the Thinkpad? I
dislike the brand, reminds me of crappy company laptops being handed out to
me.

~~~
m0nastic
I like the fact that they seem to be the only well-made laptops anymore.

On the inside, pretty much all manufacturers are using the same components
(Wifi cards being the only real exception), but Thinkpads have always seemed
much better constructed than the equivalent Dells or HP's.

There isn't really any PC laptop brand you can buy to escape the "reminds me
of crappy company laptops", with the possible exception of Sony.

Some point to Vaio's as being the most "Apple-like" PC's. That description can
be either positive or negative depending on how you feel about Apple machines.

As it is, I've never really liked Sony's manufacturing process for laptops
(I've only had 2 over the years though, and it's hard to divorce yourself from
personal experience when recommending a brand).

For what it's worth, I wouldn't ever buy another non-Thinkpad PC laptop. I've
had an Asus, about a dozen Dell's, and a bunch of HP's. They were all giant
pieces of shit (Dell's being the worst from a hardware failure perspective).

If I get a Thinkpad, I am fairly confident I won't have any issues for at
least a bunch of years (my last T series put in a good 6 years of daily use
without any issues).

As far as I'm concerned, they're the Honda of laptop manufacturers.

~~~
mestudent
I have a samsung qx410 and it is actually of pretty nice quality, and has a
good keyboard my only complaint would be the touchpad but most of the time I
have a mouse connected or am not using the mouse.

HP is absolutely the worst laptop brand I have ever owned, I've known plenty
of people with HPs and almost every single laptop has overheated to the point
of shutting down the computer and breaking within a year and a half.

Thinkpads have the added feature of being pretty compatible with linux, though
I think some of the nvidia cards that come with the T series are not
compatible yet.

~~~
dhimes
Anecdotal data counterpoint:

I've had three hps in five years- one hard drive crash was the only issue,
aside from a keyboard button falling off of one. (Kids have them now and they
are doing fine).

Currently running two Asus'- a "business" laptop (UL50V) and an eeePC for
travel. Both with Ubuntu/Mint linux. The Biz machine is nice, the eeePC is
what it is. Boots fast, standby works in ubuntu, etc. Better value than an
ipad for my road needs (although the ipad is nice for other things).

------
sorbus
What are your criteria for best? Do you want something extremely fast? Do you
want ridiculous battery life? Do you want an extremely light and portable
machine? Do you prefer large screens or small? Extremely high resolution or
the standard (which seems to be around 1366x768)? Extremely high durability,
so that you can throw it at walls without worrying? SSDs go without saying, of
course, but aren't hard to swap in after buying a machine, so can be ignored
somewhat.

Using my criteria for all of that, the best windows laptop is probably either
Asus's U30Jc or U36Jc. I'm a fan of Asus, though, so that might just be
because of that bias.

------
revorad
I'm also looking for a non-Apple laptop, to run Linux mainly but probably also
Windows.

I find the whole process of choosing a laptop to be some kind of voodoo
science. Everyone seems to have loyalty to some brand X based mostly on
personal anecdotes.

For example, a lot of people diss Dell. But I've used a Dell inspiron 9400 for
many years now and it's been really good. Will I buy Dell again? I don't see
why not. I think they sell good cheap computers.

In terms of spec, I find that all new computers are good enough now that I
can't be bothered to drop more than £500 on one. If I need crazy processing
power, it's probably going to be for some web data processing and will just
use one of the many cloud services.

But currently, my personall challenge is to build a laptop for myself. I
posted the other day asking for help on how to go about it -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2599389>. I'm really surprised by the
lack of know-how about it. So I'm even more motivated to do it. I hope to have
something to show for my experiments in the coming weeks.

------
allwein
My MacBook Pro is the best windows laptop I've ever used.

------
runjake
The X200 series are great, the new X220, or a refurb X200/X201. The X220 comes
with a trackpad, which is nice, though. I owned an X200 and if I could run a
vanilla copy of OS X on it, I'd ditch my MBP in a second.

I spent a little time with one of the new T420 models recently and it was
superb, as well.

------
starter
One simple tip: Try to get well built laptops with metal construction. Makes a
difference and those tend to be built the best.

~~~
revorad
Can you give some examples?

~~~
tnorthcutt
HP's ENVY line has an aluminum body (rather than plastic). I have a 14, and
find it to be very well made.

------
chrisjsmith
If you want anything new, Acer TimelineX + buy an SSD and some more RAM. I've
never seen one returned with "issues" and the keyboards and screens are damn
good. If you want something old Thinkpad T60.

~~~
revorad
I've never seen the Acer TimelineX (or any Acer) recommended. It's pretty
cheap. Have you used one?

~~~
chrisjsmith
Yes I've actually sold 26 of them now with no complaints or returns in the
last 2 years. They are quite cheap but they are actually extremely good
quality with 8-10h battery life, very light weight, decent keyboard, decent
screen and touchpad. They also just "work" with no driver problems etc.

They should not be confused with the other Acer machines which are power
sucking junk if you ask me.

~~~
revorad
I'm finding a few different models - [https://www.simplyacer.com/timelinex-
sale?gclid=COO0huDQmakC...](https://www.simplyacer.com/timelinex-
sale?gclid=COO0huDQmakCFcRtfAod3yYJxA)

Do you recommend any particular one? Do you have an online store?

~~~
chrisjsmith
Last batch were the 4820T. Before that were 3810TZ. I don't have an online
store - these are consultancy sales only.

~~~
revorad
Thanks. I will check them out.

