Business Laptop Upgrade

[rusty369]

Hello,

Just need some advice,

Have a Dell XPS 13 (i5 2 core, 8GB), the 128gb harddrive is almost full - even though all business documents are held in the cloud (most personal ones are too) I think it's just programs taking up space.
The battery health level is 15% which means it barely lasts an hour without a charger.

The main use of the laptop is Business Use 75%/ Personal Use is 25% which includes light gaming.
The laptop cost £1300 and has lasted 2 years with no issues and i am guessing its time for an upgrade.

The question is what laptop to get!?
Bear in mind this will be my main daily laptop (as a business owner it has to be reliable)
It has to be portable and also something that has a dock to run two monitors when I'm in the office.
(heavy excel use, email, lots of tabs/light gaming such as world of warcraft and some very basic video editing - family videos)

I am looking at either one of the below:
1. Surface Pro
2. Thinkpad X1 Tablet
3. Dell XPS 13 2in1 (again)
4. Eve V

thoughts? Is there something im missing?

 

[alan1302]

To be honest getting a larger SSD and a new battery may be a better option.

 

[Inva]

Today there are full fledged PCs that fit in your pocket. Maybe something like that interests you? I think from current hardware, laptops will be the first to be phased out in the future.

 

[alan1302]

Today there are full fledged PCs that fit in your pocket. Maybe something like that interests you? I think from current hardware, laptops will be the first to be phased out in the future.

Tablet PCs?

Basically a laptop without the keyboard...by the time you've added a keyboard which you will likely need as a business user then it will probably cost more and be less powerful so unless you need the tablet part I can't see it being the best option for a business owner and gaming.

 

[estwig]

I have a surface pro and really don't like the awful 'chiclet' keyboard, I bought a bluetooth keyboard to use with it, which is a pain.

 

[sands1967]

I have a surface pro and really don't like the awful 'chiclet' keyboard, I bought a bluetooth keyboard to use with it, which is a pain.

me too, i bought it to travel with. Just going to bite the bullet and get a macbook.

 

[alan1302]

me too, i bought it to travel with. Just going to bite the bullet and get a macbook.

Why not get a Windows based laptop? More powerful for less money. Something like the Dell XPS series if you want small and light.

Macbooks you are paying for the badge on the front - the hardware internals are the same as as Windows based PCs used - CPU, RAM, SSD etc.

 

[sands1967]

Why not get a Windows based laptop? More powerful for less money. Something like the Dell XPS series if you want small and light.

Macbooks you are paying for the badge on the front - the hardware internals are the same as as Windows based PCs used - CPU, RAM, SSD etc.

It's a good question, I'm definitely a pc guy but I'm the only one in the family that doesnt have a mac. Even my 70 yo mother has just bought one, despite persevering she couldn't get on with windows 10.

They just work...

 

[alan1302]

It's a good question, I'm definitely a pc guy but I'm the only one in the family that doesnt have a mac. Even my 70 yo mother has just bought one, despite persevering she couldn't get on with windows 10.

They just work...

My current Dell laptop just works as well...as does my little laptop from China...

The most troublesome laptop actually was a Macbook that never 'just worked' at all.

I think now Windows laptops and Macs are as reliable as each other - it's the OS that is what differentiates them now and the software that you need to use on them.

 

[paulears]

I have one piece of advice to pass on - if you see advertising from a company called nSpire Laptops, avoid them like the plague. I bought a computer from them omni 19th July, when it hadn't;t arrived in two weeks I called - and called and called, and eventually discovered that bar one poor devil, they'd all cleared off on a jolly for the week and my computer had not even been dispatched. I asked for a refund, and on the 6th August they said they would start the refund process which would take up to 14 days. 14 days is in two days time. Amex have refunded the amount I paid today, but their service is terrible. It's run by a recent graduate who's the sole Director and their advertising is pretty wide on the net. She was pretty miffed that I found their service poor, and even worse pretty cross when I set up an nSpire complaints group on Facebook, and she doesn't think me telling people is fair. I didn't think her not immediately refunding fair - so it was an impasse.

I'm banned from their Facebook page now so cannot comment. I've got my money back so that's OK - but I will warn people not to buy from them if they want decent customer service - and based on the other complainers, they're not good at that. Good prices, but not at this level of service.

 

[TargetICT]

You have a Solid computer already.

I'd also support replacing the Battery and SSD.

It'd run for years (I've been using my favourite computer (HP Envy) since 2012!

Hello,

Just need some advice,

Have a Dell XPS 13 (i5 2 core, 8GB), the 128gb harddrive is almost full - even though all business documents are held in the cloud (most personal ones are too) I think it's just programs taking up space.
The battery health level is 15% which means it barely lasts an hour without a charger.

The main use of the laptop is Business Use 75%/ Personal Use is 25% which includes light gaming.
The laptop cost £1300 and has lasted 2 years with no issues and i am guessing its time for an upgrade.

The question is what laptop to get!?
Bear in mind this will be my main daily laptop (as a business owner it has to be reliable)
It has to be portable and also something that has a dock to run two monitors when I'm in the office.
(heavy excel use, email, lots of tabs/light gaming such as world of warcraft and some very basic video editing - family videos)

I am looking at either one of the below:
1. Surface Pro
2. Thinkpad X1 Tablet
3. Dell XPS 13 2in1 (again)
4. Eve V

thoughts? Is there something im missing?

 

[kulture]

I have to agree with those who suggest upgrade the SSD and replace the battery. I assume that the screen is still good, that the keyboard is still good and that it is not falling apart. At 2 years it should be fine. Upgrade and keep it. A newer SSD can be 500Gb or even more and faster than the old one. Likewise a new battery will give you another two years use. Most i5 chips are still good enough for everyday use. WHich i5 is it?

 

[rusty369]

The current laptop is:
Processor : Intel Core i5-6200U Processor
Memory : 8GB DDR3
Graphic Card : Integrated Graphics Intel HD Graphics 520
Hard Drive : 128GB Solid State Drive

I feel like the XPS laptop is restricting, especially when i want to use it for downtime (netflix/web browsing)

I am leaning towards the Lenovo X1 tablet
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Tablet 3rd Gen
Processor : Intel Core i7-8550U Processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.00 GHz)
Memory : 16GB LPDDR3 2133MHz Soldered
Graphic Card : Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 620
Hard Drive : 512GB Solid State Drive PCIe OPAL2.0 M.2 2280 (16GT/s)

Everyone keeps telling me the Surface Pro is the best one to get but I feel Lenovo is much better

• Lenovo comes with 3 year warranty and accidental damage (upgraded to on site) any issue is basically sorted - great for business
• Surface pro works out £300-£500 more expensive depending on what you pick
• They are stopping the surface lineup in 2019, so down the line, support and parts will be a bit more difficult

Works out approx £50 a month for three years which is pretty good,

 

[jazperson]

Go for the best, gaming laptops. Most people prefer fast laptops, actually everyone wants their computer to be fast, so I suggest to get an entry level ASUS or MSI gaming laptop even if it is just for business work. Dell's XPS will work too.

 

[Calvin Crane]

5-6 maybe years ago I decided to game on a console and after that decision was made the choice of laptop became much easier. I went for a macbook air. It is still as fast as the day I bought it.

SSD NO optical drive because I asked the question why do PC's slow down when mobile dont?
Get rid of optical devices and go pure SSD

I am a mac advocate after having to upgrade windows based PC's They really are awful in comparison. I code for a living and everything just works better.

Windows software is also subpar

 

[Jhon4777]

get macbook air if you want good battery life

 

[Nico Albrecht]

5-6 maybe years ago I decided to game on a console and after that decision was made the choice of laptop became much easier. I went for a macbook air. It is still as fast as the day I bought it.

SSD NO optical drive because I asked the question why do PC's slow down when mobile dont?
Get rid of optical devices and go pure SSD

I am a mac advocate after having to upgrade windows based PC's They really are awful in comparison. I code for a living and everything just works better.

Windows software is also subpar

Why would you even consider a MacBook for a business use. This is insane. They look good on a desk but once you need to get some sort of work dine they just perform on the bottom consumer level. Apart from poorly assembled high quality hardware, massive thermal throttling all the way that actually cannot perform for what you pay. High Sierra with too many security issues and let's not talk about afps. HFS+ was crap to start with but somehow apple managed to make it even worst in afps. This file system is an absolute disaster. Dell XPS is a mean machine. Agreed they can fail quite easy but at least they perform what you pay for. Also Windows is incredible backwards compatible, I can run a PC game from 1995 on it no problems but you go the way with OS X you are out of luck. If apple says no you can't use your old apps anymore. Apple products are for level consumer user with no idea what they are using and need that kind of fort know environment but pretty much any app is optimized for Windows and runs considerable faster on a laptop pc. Only exception at the moment is the imac pro where hardware is priced in line with a workstation but the imac pro can never perform under sufficient load for more than a couple seconds before it throttles down significant.

 

[Calvin Crane]

Couldn't disagree with you more Nico. You go on about performance on paper that I am not interested to disprove or verify- why? Because my laptop starts immediately 6 years later and is FAST that's a fact I am happy with on a daily basis my Dell XPS which I managed to keep running 4 years through a lot of effort ran so hot I used to cook eggs on it (not really).

Looking at your business looks like you love PC cause they keep you in business

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Couldn't disagree with you more Nico. You go on about performance on paper that I am not interested to disprove or verify- why? Because my laptop starts immediately 6 years later and is FAST that's a fact I am happy with on a daily basis my Dell XPS which I managed to keep running 4 years through a lot of effort ran so hot I used to cook eggs on it (not really).

Looking at your business looks like you love PC cause they keep you in business

I give you an example why apple is consumer and the dell xps is a business machine

Macbook old ones 2013 - 2015 ssd replaceable - thats good
MacBook 2016- 2017 SSD soldered on mainboard but apple left a data part , i got the tool to extract data , took a while but i have it
Macbook 2018 ssd soldered on mainboard , data port removed. If anything else fails on the mainboard your data is gone forever and no money gets it back.

Dell XPS standard warranty 24h replacement or engineer onsite to fix , ssd removable. I can taker it out and put inanother similar Dell and back in game worst case.

I get more work in from Apple devices and in my humble opinion their file system is so primitive and outdated. NTFS wasn't great to start with but they came a long way and fixed it. I own a couple macbooks but they never get me excited .

PC/Laptop I can go to any local shop and get them fixed easy enough. With Apple you have to talk to the utterly useless species called apple genius which are absolute useless.

The only thing a macbook has an advantage over at the moment is displaying 5K on an external display. Only reason why is because the display port specs for display port and hdmi do not call for it atm but will be done soon. Wow 16 lanes pcie nvme ssd drive, nobody could possible use that at the moment and poor marketing. imac and macbooks a consumer products and perform in most benchmarks 50% less if you compare like for like.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

On top of that this dongle mess apple does. You live in the constant fear do i have all my dongles with me. On top of that they use now thunderbolt ID which only allows you to connect devices apple deems to be right. Lets say on your 2018 macbook the wifi fails , quite common apple only can replace the mainboard or charge £850 if not covered. I can buy a 2.99 wifi usb dongle and plug it in any computer and works. Apple wont allow a wifi dongle to to their id restriction.

 

[Calvin Crane]

All of your gripes are when failure occurs which is rare and people should be backing up regularly to a separate device. Who cares about the file system? Apple will repair or replace too. Business people need the tool to work and do the job I think apple do this better and easier than PC.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Apple will not repair. Fact! They send their stuff to chine for refurb and i have seen refurb boards they are an absolute joke. Failure rates of 2016 - 2018 macbooks is high similar to the one from 2011. Dell XPS has a decent failure rate too. Macbooks and imacs using cheap capacitors and running too hot which in returns kills the board quite quickly. The reality is failure will happen on modern devices and it is about how fast you can get it sorted.

File system it shows you quality of work and how well it works.

Apple AD integration to Server a nightmare and to put an end to it lol.

90% of software is optimized for Windows and runs faster, it is just he way it is at the moment.

and here is a good example why Apple is not a business product. I had a client I put boot camp on his 2014 macbook and he went to apple store to get a brand new top of the line new macbook.

After talking to the usless apple geniuses and they assured him all would be compatible and fine. It was not! He brought his 2018 macbook in and I put bootcamp on it etc.....

Guess what, he cannot work anymore. The thunderbolt aka usb interface is using apple id and doesn't allow to run his dongle he needs to authenticate his engineering software because the dongle is not approved by apple. They block it on hardware level. How on earth could you say this is a business product. Most custom software doesn't run on apple or apple makes those developers life hard as possible.

filesystem = we wanna share files on a network. Due to the really weird way apple allows special characters in file names sharing files is a big issues.

Apple file fault an abosult joke of an encryption software. At least bitlocker has specs available

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Also most apple user do not back up because they get that idea sold by apple marketing that their devices do not fail. OS X Sierra currently more security issues than Windows 10 and only apple limited fort knox ecosystem prevents from further problems.

 

[Calvin Crane]

Mine is a mid 2012 macbook air I must just be lucky. Couldn't see me returning to windows anytime soon.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

2012 was the last half decent one they build with very few issues. Once upgraded to 8GB and an ssd they run fine. But the sata cable is a known issues on them. Another good example Dell gives a 0 stuck pixle warranty on the high end products. Apple retina display are just crap and to many stuck pixel issues report. Or the other around you wanna run EL Captain on your 2018 macbook, you cannot, apple doesn't allow to do so. If you have any special apps or software that doesn't run on Sieera or later you are screwed. Which brings me back to my first post an intern was able to install a game from 1995 on our pc just to see how much backwards you can go and it was possible. Apple = consumer priduct, Linux and windows if you are serious about stuff.

 

[ffox]

I can only agree with @Nico Albrecht as far as Apple is concerned.

I am leaning towards the Lenovo X1 tablet

The Lenovo look good. I ditched my last laptop 3 years ago in favour of a Surface tablet. The only issue I have with tablets is the reduced storage capacity compared to most current laptops.

The Surface is good, but no better than the Linx I run as a backstop (that's right I can afford to run two tablets for less than the price of one laptop), and the Linx was VERY much lower cost than the Surface. Let us know how you get on with the Lenovo if you go that way, it's always good to get feedback on devices.

BTW, a Windows 10 tablet is faster on cold boot than any Apple device.

 

[Inva]

Unless if you need Adobe, the only real choice is Linux. Anything else you are massively overpaying for inferior products.

 

[ffox]

Unless if you need Adobe, the only real choice is Linux. Anything else you are massively overpaying for inferior products.

The only Adobe products I use are Acrobat Reader and a few plugins like Adobe Flash Player. Having said that Adobe Creative Cloud is listed as suitable for all Win version of 7 and up.

I would need to have a heavy dependence of Adobe for my business to consider that the compromise of coming down to a Linux system worthwhile.

 

[Inva]

The only Adobe products I use are Acrobat Reader and a few plugins like Adobe Flash Player. Having said that Adobe Creative Cloud is listed as suitable for all Win version of 7 and up.

I would need to have a heavy dependence of Adobe for my business to consider that the compromise of coming down to a Linux system worthwhile.

I think you misunderstood me. I meant that only if you need the Adobe programs, then you can't use Linux. Otherwise it's the only sensible choice today and you are losing money if not using it.

 

[Alan]

the compromise of coming down to a Linux system worthwhile.

Sorry I assume a typo, you mean moving up to a linux system.

btw, there is one programme i use that needs Windows, for that I fire up a virtual machine, easy enough.

 

[ffox]

Sorry I assume a typo, you mean moving up to a linux system.

btw, there is one programme i use that needs Windows, for that I fire up a virtual machine, easy enough.

Okay. I give in, now that I have more time, I'll give it a try. I'd prefer to test from Linux on a usb stick - any recommendations?

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Linux can be good to run on a server and some other stuff but for an end user the learning curve is massive and steep. I would consider using it if office would run on it. Ubunto is a very user friendly distro

 

[alan1302]

I think you misunderstood me. I meant that only if you need the Adobe programs, then you can't use Linux. Otherwise it's the only sensible choice today and you are losing money if not using it.

You aren't losing money not using it - for most people there would be a large learning curve involved which may cost money whilst you work out how to do things.

Also on a Windows based PC you can use plenty of open source software if you don't want to pay for software so can't really see any reason to move to Linux.

 

[Inva]

Linux can be good to run on a server and some other stuff but for an end user the learning curve is massive and steep. I would consider using it if office would run on it. Ubunto is a very user friendly distro

No it's not, this information is very incorrect. Actually it's much more organised and easier to use than Windows. Whenever i happen to use Windows i am very confused and can't find anything, the stuff is all over the place.

You aren't losing money not using it - for most people there would be a large learning curve involved which may cost money whilst you work out how to do things.

Also on a Windows based PC you can use plenty of open source software if you don't want to pay for software so can't really see any reason to move to Linux.

There is no steep learning curve to use Linux for simple use (which is what 99,99% of people do with Windows). This was maybe the case 20 years ago.

If i may be brutally honest, i think people are just too lazy or can't be bothered to spend a couple days week to learn something new.

 

[Newchodge]

If i may be brutally honest, i think people are just too lazy or can't be bothered to spend a couple days week to learn something new.

Why learn how to use something new when you are perfectly satisfied with what you have?

 

[Inva]

Okay. I give in, now that I have more time, I'll give it a try. I'd prefer to test from Linux on a usb stick - any recommendations?

In our office we use Debian. Read on the difference between Debian-based and RedHat-based distributions to make a choice. This choice will also narrow down possible distributions which are based on these 2.

Essentially, Debian is a social project with no company behind it, while RedHat has a company behind it. This may or may not be important in the case of needing support. There are a few independent distributions but you should not bother with them as a newbie.

If you like stability then Debian "stable" is a good candidate. If you like new stuff then Debian "testing" or Fedora (RH-based) are good choices. If you are interested in servers then pick a RH-based distro as these are more popular in that field.

I don't like Ubuntu.

 

[Inva]

Why learn how to use something new when you are perfectly satisfied with what you have?

Are you perfectly satisfied because it is the best option or because that is just what you know how to use?

 

[Newchodge]

Are you perfectly satisfied because it is the best option or because that is just what you know how to use?

It doesn't matter, if I am perfectly satisfied.

 

[ffox]

Okay. After my post on Sunday evening I spent some time yesterday trying Linux out.

Install

Download and install is easy and not beyond the capabilities of the average user.

Install took less time than Windows 10 but was no easier as both installs are largely automated.

I installed Ubuntu for no other reason than it was there, and the platform is a Lenovo PC with 64 bit processor and 4 Gb RAM.

In Use

The user interface is familiar, being very much 1990s style PC desktop. Easy to navigate and very responsive. Networking was simple (Workgroup), as was blue-tooth device configuration.

The pre-installed Firefox browser is responsive and appears to perform well. I have access to all my Office 365 lists, libraries and apps. I’m currently using O365 Word on-line to type this up before posting. I can also upload, index and catalogue. The Mozilla PDF print of a webpage for SharePoint import works, but Word online failed to display the PDF preview. That may be resolvable by using a different browser or installing a PDF printer.

Result

All in all – it's okay and workable. It starts to get difficult when things like remote access to the PC is required. I located a method of achieving this, but it was so involved that I didn’t attempt it. Another disadvantage is the ancient method of displaying windows side by side on screen, this is something that Win 10 does exceptionally well, so I may be spoilt.

You can see from my sig that Office 365 is my thing and Linux appears to be able to handle much of the O365 stuff. Having said that, it’s no better than Win 10 and Win 10 also has the advantage that, if installed under a MS account, the same build and preferences can be automatically installed on another device simply by logging into the MS account at installation.

Conclusion

If I were faced with a choice and Win 10 was not an option I would go Android. The Office 365 apps on that OS are quite superb.

Sorry @Alan . Linux may not be a step down, but it certainly isn’t a step up either.

 

[alan1302]

No it's not, this information is very incorrect. Actually it's much more organised and easier to use than Windows. Whenever i happen to use Windows i am very confused and can't find anything, the stuff is all over the place.


There is no steep learning curve to use Linux for simple use (which is what 99,99% of people do with Windows). This was maybe the case 20 years ago.

If i may be brutally honest, i think people are just too lazy or can't be bothered to spend a couple days week to learn something new.

In what way is it easier? In what way more organised?

I think with Linux most people don't want to learn something new as they are perfectly happy with that they have and can see no reason to make the change.

What reason is there to change?