Time For A New Laptop

[ShopBoy]

@smiling mantis

second to what you said.

[MJo]

yes, N100.

So now we have a vote for MacBook in terms of durability, interesting.

I will certainly uipgrade RAM if I can, from the sounds of it will probably not try to install Windows 7 on the current machine, but will buy a new one soon which at this point has come down to a choice between the new Lenovo U300 (supposedly comparable to MacBook Pro and the U300s to MacBook Air) or Macbook itself. Macbook costs more, on the other hand the Lenovo U300 just came out this month so not much user experience to draw on. I have faith in Lenovo's durability (tho not so sure the U300s would be the same as in order to make it light, it's aluminum casing) but on the other hand the fact that MacBook is less virus prone is a BIG plus. I work in Cambodia for multiple agencies making it necessary to receive and open files from multiple sources and Cambodia is Virus Central of the world. Over the years I;ve picked up things here no program could clean, more than once .....

If your going to keep the XP download Advance System Care, it's free software that will fix some of the issues and accumulated clutter XP collects. Like clean the registry, optimize the system a bit and defrag the hard drive. For me it made the start up of my old XP machine much faster. Might help a bit with the slow start up.

[justsumhelp]

If you want a solid piece of hardware a macbook is the way to go. I have used all sorts of laptops sure you could get 2 hp/asus/samsung/etc.. for the price of one macbook, but spend some time with a nice piece of hardware then go back something sub par and you can tell the difference. OS wise Osx is so far ahead of windows its laughable to listen to anyone try to defend it.

[nikster]

Jesus H Christ trollface, no need to write a novel.

If you "lost" a key and dropped the machine well yeah it might not be covered. I am fine with the glossy display - but frankly if this was a machine for mainly outdoors use I'd maybe consider matte (which is an option in the online Apple store).

Anyway this 17" MacBook Pro is the best quality machine I've ever owned. I had the battery replaced under warranty but this was the first computer where I didn't manage to break the battery before the 1 year initial warranty was over. I am a heavy user of batteries. Other than that - not a rattle, not a queak, nothing broke, noting had to be replaced. Previous Macs and PCs all had things go wrong with them, or at least squeaky lids or something... this MBP shows almost no wear and tear. Despite heavy abuse (short of dropping it)...

The idea behind the non-replaceable battery is that instead of using up space for latches, opening mechanisms, and battery insulation, the same space is used for more battery. That's how you get a 17" work station with 6-7 hours real-life battery life (they claim 8 but that's theoretical). The battery is specced to last 5 years vs the usual 1 year. It's easy to understand, I think.

Now if you think about the laptops you owned, how many did you buy 2nd batteries for? I did it once and ended up never using the second one. Too much of a pain to carry the second one around and keep it charged.

[ProThaiExpat]

I bought my Lenovo during the change over from IBM since it was cheaper to buy a new low end Lenovo than the crashed old IBM motherboard destroyed by coffee spill.

Must be five years or more and it is going well. I did upgrade my Ram of 500mb by google search for my laptop version and found a 1.5 gig for 65 dollars AUD. Also upgraded by HD to 500 gigs. Had it installed in Thailand and all data moved into it for 500 baht. Yes speed is now remarkable.

I did download a free Ram Utilization Program (RAM PROx)that installed a meter on my task bar alerting me to what my going RAM usage was and when it gets below 500 I access my task manager and remove RAM gobbling programs that inevitably end up on my machine inadvertently. For example, even though you have told Skype to not turn on when you turn on your computer and your icon shows white, it still runs part of their program using 50 mg unless you log off. Control Alt Delete brings up your task manager and lets you see exactly what programs are eating all your RAM.

[astral]

I have a new HP Pavillion DV6 notebook.

Core i7 processor, 8Gb memory, 1TB disk, running Windows 7 - 64 bit.

Wonderfully fast after my 6 year old XP machine.

[Sheryl]

LOVE this forum!!

I added 2 G RAM (for a total 2.5) and installed Advance System Care.

Things are indeed much faster.

Plan to keep using the current machine for now and await availability (and more user reviews) of the Lenovo U300 series. Supposedly a Lenovo equivalent of MacBook. I do want the durability Lenovo provides, my laptops take a serious beating, get bounced on the back of motos on bad rural roads and the like.

[nikster]

^ yeah the descendants of the thinkpad are still the toughest PC laptops.

I am not sure what you mean by getting bounced on the back of motos - surely they're in some sort of bag?! I am carrying my MacBook Pro on the bike (in a saddle bag) every day.

[thaimite]

LOVE this forum!!

I added 2 G RAM (for a total 2.5) and installed Advance System Care.

Things are indeed much faster.

Plan to keep using the current machine for now and await availability (and more user reviews) of the Lenovo U300 series. Supposedly a Lenovo equivalent of MacBook. I do want the durability Lenovo provides, my laptops take a serious beating, get bounced on the back of motos on bad rural roads and the like.

I am glad the extra RAM has made your life easier.

If you like the Lenovo and want to stay away from viruses and other nasties, then maybe Linux (e.g. Mint or Ubuntu) may work for you. you wiil be able to read and write all of your Office word and excel files just fine using the free Libre Office suit., and there are numerous email programs such as Thunderbird or evolution that will import your Outlook data and work fine too. The only question would be regarding your SPSS software. It appears the latest version works in Linux using wine (Wine is an application that lets many windows programs such MS Office run inside Linux).

There is also a free Linux equivalent to SPSS called PSPP but I know nothing about it apart from this link

The best thing about Linux, is it is free to try. You could never say that about a Apple

Edit

Just to give the impression that I am not biased (Although in fact I am ) I notice that PSPP also runs under MacOS X and windows with some work.

Edited October 27, 2011 by thaimite

[MJo]

LOVE this forum!!

I added 2 G RAM (for a total 2.5) and installed Advance System Care.

Things are indeed much faster.

Plan to keep using the current machine for now and await availability (and more user reviews) of the Lenovo U300 series. Supposedly a Lenovo equivalent of MacBook. I do want the durability Lenovo provides, my laptops take a serious beating, get bounced on the back of motos on bad rural roads and the like.

I have my eyes on the U300 ultrabook as well. Nice slim and with Solid State Drive instead of old spinning hard drive promises 10 seconds boot up times and the good thing is that if you travel with it there is no moving parts so it should not get damaged as easy as traditional spinning hard drives do.

Toshiba has one coming out as well. Has more connectivity like ethernet and more usb ports but the U300 looks better for me with i7 processor. And you can always "go mac" and get small usb hub with ethernet port and one to connect projector if you need to do presentations. In any case Steve says it's better to have less ports and more adapters

If your used to windows forget linux, yes it runs and can do anything that other OS does and some better but requires lot of work to get it set up and to figure out how things work. Been there myself and after a week gave up. It also reduced the battery life of my netbook quite a bit. Trust me, for average people not interested to fiddle with the laptop and how it works it's not worth the hassle. Also if your used to MS Word and Excel those free office suites work but require quite a bit of getting used to if you want to get same level of productivity as you are with familiar MS Office.

Mac only makes sense if you have the money and are all mac already i.e. use iPhone and iPod. Then it makes sense to get also mac laptop to sync all together. I like them especially macbook air but as i'm not a iPod and/or iPhone user it does not make sense to me to pay that kind of money as there is good alternatives.

Best of course is to go to the mall and try them out yourself, see if you like the mac over the windows and feel you can switch over easily.

[canuckamuck]

No viruses is an added bonus.

Once you go Mac, you never go back

Not true, there is a very serious virus that can be contacted from purchasing a Mac, but it affects the user, not the OS. It's effect is similar to that of a vegetarian or a cult follower who feels compelled to tell everyone of how superior their lifestyle choices are, regardless of the lack of tangible evidence. But I guess if you pay twice the going rate just to feel cool you need to overcompensate a little.

[thaimite]

Once you go Mac, you never go back

Your right. I tried a Mac once. After 10 minutes I swore I would never go back to one and I haven't

BUT each to their own, live and let live.

Mjo is right about Linux, unless your willing to spend some time acclimatising with Linux and have a friend to help, as much as I love it, I would not recommend you going for it.

It is almost there, but for those who are not prepared for the different way of soing things with a bit of friendly guidance, and who also want more out of their PC than the basic email and facebook you will have a learning curve. One I feel was well worth the effort but then I had the time and interest to play. I will disagree a litttle about Libre (Open) Office If you are familiar with MS office 2003 or earlier it is a very easy transition. If you started life with office 2007 or later then it is more difficult.

Edited October 28, 2011 by thaimite

[roc634]

1) try to recalibrate your battery every 3-4 months. I need to use the battery frequently, I will recalibarte it if it lasts less than 1.5hours. After that it always can last 2.5 hours up.

2)check if you have a lot of programs start up when you turn on your laptop. Try to clean the garbage files and optimize the windows system.

Most of the computer problems are not related to hardware.

[nikster]

Mac only makes sense if you have the money and are all mac already i.e. use iPhone and iPod. Then it makes sense to get also mac laptop to sync all together. I like them especially macbook air but as i'm not a iPod and/or iPhone user it does not make sense to me to pay that kind of money as there is good alternatives.

Best of course is to go to the mall and try them out yourself, see if you like the mac over the windows and feel you can switch over easily.

Disagree on the former - you don't need an iPhone or iPod.

That kind of money - well the U300 isn't that the MacBook Air clone that's more expensive than the original MacBook Air? The Air is pretty cheap considering it has a SSD built in - try to find a PC laptop for that price with SSD.

If you're a long time Windows user then there's certainly an adjustment period; some things are different on Macs - not too different but still different. Non computer persons might have issues with that.

I love the performance tips above - that's exactly why I have a Mac. There is no rot (where the OS slows down over time), so you never need to re-install. And you don't need to "re-calibrate" the battery. Just use it, end of story. Still getting 6 hours on a 17" laptop...

Mac vs Windows - for me it all depends on your time, money, and sense of aesthetics.

I at some point decided that if I'm going to sit on a computer for 10 hours a day, it better be a nice looking one.

Then there's the time aspect. Re-installing windows - if I spend a day, or even half a day, re-installing Windows vs. a machine where I don't have to do that, the loss of income more than makes up for perceived price differences. if you look closely the price difference is consistently less than $100 - PCs are WAY cheaper, but for the most part that's because they use WAY cheaper components for everything, cheaper displays, etc etc - if you look at those PCs that are actually premium machines, they cost as much as a Mac. That's been true for the last 10 years.

Then there's migration - setting up a new Windows machine, which I have done plenty, takes 2 - 3 days to get it into a state where I am happy working on it. That includes re-installing all my software; transferring data; changing settings. On the Mac - 1 hour of unsupervised copying of my backup. Then a brand new Mac has turned into a workstation. I don't know why Windows doesn't do that - it's not rocket science. But it's a huge time saver. I am getting paid by the hour... time is money.

Then through day to day use, I just spend much less time futzing around with "the OS" - instead I am able to use apps that I want to use to get work done.

Considering all these factors, total cost of ownership of a Mac, at least for me, is WAY less than a PC. Half, maybe even less. If you have unlimited time on your hands, or it's your hobby to "fix and optimize" Windows - good for you.

[Tywais]

On the Mac - 1 hour of unsupervised copying of my backup. Then a brand new Mac has turned into a workstation. I don't know why Windows doesn't do that - it's not rocket science.

Just to correct that. Windows 7 has full image backup built into it and also less than an hour to 'regenerate' the Windows system with app,configs, etc. I use Acronis myself, more options and 20-30 minutes to do a full restore.

2-3 days if you are installing a virgin system with all application and set it up the way you like would be an outside figure. Suspect setting up MacOS from scratch and installing all the apps is not that much quicker. Not exactly a fair comparison between full fresh install of Windows + apps and 'copying' your system from backups.

[smiling mantis]

Oh my God, maybe they are putting pesticides in the water, because this was a good post. Two points in particular stand out...

That kind of money - well the U300 isn't that the MacBook Air clone that's more expensive than the original MacBook Air? The Air is pretty cheap considering it has a SSD built in - try to find a PC laptop for that price with SSD.

Agreed, totally. The MacBook Air is I think THE machine to buy today. Ample SSD, 1440x900 on the high-end model, svelte and lightweight... and unibody here does make it a nearly indestructible machine. If I were buying a new laptop to serve all my needs (save high-end gaming), this is it.

On the Mac - 1 hour of unsupervised copying of my backup. Then a brand new Mac has turned into a workstation.

I don't think Windows users understand this, and it's even better than you state. I have two MacBook Pros, one a 2008 pre-unibody model, the other is a 2010 unibody. Different CPU's, different GPU's, different IO architectures, and what I can do is hook the two together using a Firewire cable and back up one on to the other, and it boots! And I can then copy it back to the original, and it boots too! I've done this with the original MacBook too, with a 32-bit CPU and integrated graphics, and still it boots! I've got 512GB HD's on each, so it takes more than an hour, so I just let it run overnight while I sleep. On top of that, I get defragmentation in the bargain!

For most people here, who only use the computer to browse the web, I would recommend something like the Wii and it's Internet Channel, or even a good Linux Live CD (which cannot ever be infected with a virus and which is forever idiot proof), but if you need to do real work, and want to spend as little time messing around with the OS as possible, it's gotta be a Mac.

[MJo]

Disagree on the former - you don't need an iPhone or iPod.

I did not say you need and iPhone or iPod. I said Mac laptop alone does not make any sense unless you already bought in to the Mac world.

Like i said i like Macbook Air, but as i don't use iPhones etc and never will it does not make sense to me to buy in on a closed and controlled and expensive system like Mac. I do understand for you preachers it is the other way around. All Mac where possible but that's just not for me.

[justsumhelp]

Just went laptop shopping with my mom and she has always been a pc user but decided on the i7 macbook air and I have to say its an amazing piece of kit, although pricey. Shouldnt have to invest to much in the Mac ecosystem it comes pretty much equipped with all the software that one needs, except office. But I dont really know what you need your laptop for but I can recommend the air after spending some time with it.

[monty1412]

Definitely a Windows base machine if you need to use it in outdoor rough conditions.

IMOHO Lenovo builds are still one of the toughest build lappie out there, i do own a mac and like them for the east of use and almost non existence of virus but the screen do get stains easily and you also get cosmetic blemish easily on it's silver case.

Sadly I have to agree, if we're talking about the 17" unibody models. Awesome performance, beautiful in every way, but fragile beyond belief. Their response to the various problems is that you should just buy a new one. I'd consider doing that maybe once every three years, but yearly? Also, Apple Support Asia is a tough crowd.

Sorry, this is total BS. I never had a laptop that lasted as long as the unibody MBP, Windows or Mac. It's near-indestructible. It's cut from a single block of aluminum, and it has a scratch-proof glass screen.

The MacBook Pro unibody is by far the most sturdy laptop design out there. My 17" unibody is nearly 3 years old (early 2009). I still have 5 hours battery life (from nearly 6 originally) on a 17" screen with 1920x1200 resolution. The screen looks like on day one. The whole machine looks like on day one, really, apart from a few scratches here and there.

And that despite the fact that it's been thrown into a backpack and carried around me everywhere for the last 3 years, every day, 365 days a year. I am working remotely, and I frequently travel. This machine has been places! It's been carried on motorbike trips (bumpy!!), airplanes, boats, cars, bicycles, on hikes, into the desert, to the islands, etc.

I had the battery replaced under warranty after 2 years because it was on 70% - show me another manufacturer that will warranty their battery for more than 1 year! There is none. Batteries are considered consumables. But in the unibody, the battery is guaranteed for the whole 3 years.

As for Apple being a "tough crowd" - it's a bizarre statement. I went to the CM Apple store, they did a battery test, then told me come back in 2 days to pick up and install your new battery. "Tough" isn't' exactly the way I'd describe it.

To open MS Office documents, you need Mac Office 2011 for the Mac. It's pretty expensive to buy (just like Windows office) but also easy to get from your local DVD shop for 100 baht (also just like Windows office). Up to you.

The only concern I would have for rugged outdoors use is the glossy screen - it's a fantastic, super bright screen, and it looks better than any PC screen I have seen, even now in 2011. But due to the glossy nature, it's reflective, and doesn't work well in direct sunlight. There is an option for a matte screen, but matte screens can't be glass, so it's a trade-off. Either you have a super tough un-scratchable glass panel that's reflective - or you have a normal plastic panel that's matte. Almost all PC laptops have plastic screens, BTW.

I love my glass screen - when it's dirty, I take some tissue and scrub it hard. No worries! It just cleans! Would never go for anything else again. On my previous laptops, both Mac and Windows, I always had to baby the screen, wipe it with soft cloth and special screen cleaner, and it would get scratches and keyboard imprints after a few months anyway. I do abuse my machines, squeeze them in tight backpacks, etc, so that's why. But the glass screen is still flawless.

AppleCare warranty, contrary to what's been said above, covers anything and everything for 3 years. It's a world-wide no-questions-asked warranty. You can research that everywhere. Apple tops consumer satisfaction ratings for the last I don't know how many years.... it's an extra, and not cheap, but well worth it.

No viruses is an added bonus.

Once you go Mac, you never go back

PS: One more thing: Macs don't slow down over the years like Windows does. No need to re-install it. Transitioning to a new machine is also way more efficient and that alone, for me, makes up for more than the price difference. The Mac transfers all settings, users accounts, documents, *and apps* from the old system, easily and painlessly. So it takes about 2 hours from unpacking a new mac to get my exact old setup back - ready to work in 2 hours. Most of those 2 hours is just copying of data from the backup drive.

Im with Nikster on this.. had a macbook pro now for two years its been dropped, stuffed in backpacks.. only breakage i had was when my 14 year old son stepped on it and cracked the glass screen... no damage to body and still functions fine and toady in Sim Lim Singapore i got a new glass screen for S180.

What i really like is it just works.... I travel all over AP and Me with my job... 99% of time I just open up select a network and bingo Im on.... airport on the macs seems to have far better reception than other laptops Ive had.

As the man stated.. once you've had a mac you never go back....

cheers

[SantiSuk]

Baby pulled my 4 years plus laptop off a table yesterday. It bounced on its edge on the granite tiled floor of our living room. My wife went ballistic and I just thought thank god its a Thinkpad.

I'm typing this on it now. Must be about the 5th time it has fallen, but usually it's been in its bag. When a machine has been as robust as this (and its predecessors) have been you are loathe to switch brands even though others say that other suppliers are also making road-warrior class machines now.

Maybe one day I'll try Apple since I admire their brand style and am accordingly frequently a big personal investor in their stock, but it seems such a step change when you've been on the road with Microsoft (and their truly crappy Windows product) for 25 years.

[nikster]

Disagree on the former - you don't need an iPhone or iPod.

I did not say you need and iPhone or iPod. I said Mac laptop alone does not make any sense unless you already bought in to the Mac world.

Huh? I don't get it, sorry.

[nikster]

Baby pulled my 4 years plus laptop off a table yesterday. It bounced on its edge on the granite tiled floor of our living room. My wife went ballistic and I just thought thank god its a Thinkpad.

I'm typing this on it now. Must be about the 5th time it has fallen, but usually it's been in its bag. When a machine has been as robust as this (and its predecessors) have been you are loathe to switch brands even though others say that other suppliers are also making road-warrior class machines now.

Maybe one day I'll try Apple since I admire their brand style and am accordingly frequently a big personal investor in their stock, but it seems such a step change when you've been on the road with Microsoft (and their truly crappy Windows product) for 25 years.

I have a lot of respect for thinkpads. One of the very few PC laptops where durability was a prime concern.

Not sure a MacBook Pro would survive a fall as gracefully. Then again, it wouldn't have fallen off the table in the first place thanks to the MagSafe power connector - it's magnetic and just comes off when pulled, effectively preventing the "trip over the cable and send the laptop flying" problem

[alexth]

I'd go for a Dell anytime

[thailoneus]

On the Mac - 1 hour of unsupervised copying of my backup. Then a brand new Mac has turned into a workstation. I don't know why Windows doesn't do that - it's not rocket science.

Just to correct that. Windows 7 has full image backup built into it and also less than an hour to 'regenerate' the Windows system with app,configs, etc. I use Acronis myself, more options and 20-30 minutes to do a full restore.

2-3 days if you are installing a virgin system with all application and set it up the way you like would be an outside figure. Suspect setting up MacOS from scratch and installing all the apps is not that much quicker. Not exactly a fair comparison between full fresh install of Windows + apps and 'copying' your system from backups.

I am a proud owner of a great NEW laptop. Windows 7 64 bit. 750gb drive, 8gb ram.

Currently challenged with the decision re. a backup/restore solution. Struggling between Win 7 Back up facility and AcronisTrue Image Home 2011.

Not tech savvy. I want a full image backup facility.

Tywanis, Why are you using Acronis over Win7 backup?

I also need a big ext hard drive? Laptop mainly for music production. Thinking of the Western Digital 1TB My Passport Essentials SE.

All suggestion that would help me with a solution are appreciated.

[Tywais]

Currently challenged with the decision re. a backup/restore solution. Struggling between Win 7 Back up facility and AcronisTrue Image Home 2011.

Not tech savvy. I want a full image backup facility.

Tywanis, Why are you using Acronis over Win7 backup?

Windows 7 backup would probably be fine for most and it is free. I've been using Acronis for a long time is one reason I use it. Another is that to restore an image backup for Windows 7 (in case of catastrophic failure of the disk or file system) you have to use the Windows 7 install disk. Acronis, you can use several other methods including boot from USB flash drive. I have an unused 4GB USB flash drive that is my Acronis bootable recovery drive making it convenient and portable. Also, my netbook has no CD/DVD and the USB flash drive works for recovery if it fails. Acronis has more bells and whistles such as precise control of scheduled backups including incremental. Windows 7 Backup may have those but I've never used it and perhaps others can comment on these last features.

[thailoneus]

Currently challenged with the decision re. a backup/restore solution. Struggling between Win 7 Back up facility and AcronisTrue Image Home 2011.

Not tech savvy. I want a full image backup facility.

Tywanis, Why are you using Acronis over Win7 backup?

Windows 7 backup would probably be fine for most and it is free. I've been using Acronis for a long time is one reason I use it. Another is that to restore an image backup for Windows 7 (in case of catastrophic failure of the disk or file system) you have to use the Windows 7 install disk. Acronis, you can use several other methods including boot from USB flash drive. I have an unused 4GB USB flash drive that is my Acronis bootable recovery drive making it convenient and portable. Also, my netbook has no CD/DVD and the USB flash drive works for recovery if it fails. Acronis has more bells and whistles such as precise control of scheduled backups including incremental. Windows 7 Backup may have those but I've never used it and perhaps others can comment on these last features.

I purchased legal Windows 7 Home premium when I bought the notebook. So no issue there.

Will buy a win 7 for dummies type book and educate myself.

[canuckamuck]

I am also laptop shopping, and since it has been 4 years since I last brought myself up to speed on the technology, I find myself at a loss to determine what processor equals what performance.

I get the i3 i5 i7 thing, but then they have different speeds

and as far as AMD chips are concerned I can't even begin to understand the hierarchy.

I need a laptop that is occasionally able to do some video editing and some Photoshop work.

But it will primarily be a take along computer that will be my link to the web.

14- 15 inch not too heavy, and a decent battery life too

[smiling mantis]

I am also laptop shopping, and since it has been 4 years since I last brought myself up to speed on the technology, I find myself at a loss to determine what processor equals what performance.

I get the i3 i5 i7 thing, but then they have different speeds

and as far as AMD chips are concerned I can't even begin to understand the hierarchy.

I need a laptop that is occasionally able to do some video editing and some Photoshop work.

But it will primarily be a take along computer that will be my link to the web.

14- 15 inch not too heavy, and a decent battery life too

I think any bonafide laptop these days is more than capable of that. Just watch out for netbooks, with CPU's like the Intel Atom, or an ARM.

In some segments of the market, it actually looks like things are going backwards. My MacBook Pro has now been superseded by two new models and yet it still sports the faster CPU of all of them, at least on paper.

And you get lots of reports from people about how SSD's make their systems appear to be twice as fast... and probably in applications like the two you cite.

I'd get a MacBook Air if I were making the choice today, but looking at some of these other laptops, like from Asus for instance, I'm not seeing many I wouldn't be happy with.

[Gary A]

I have never had an Apple product but I did have a Lenovo T43p Thinkpad. The first main-board was replaced free under the three year international warranty. The second main-board lasted about two years. Two main-boards in less than five years did not impress me since it was a very expensive laptop.

My last IBM Thinkpad laptop, I think it was a 600 series, is still working after more than ten years. The keyboard had given up and it was quite slow so I gave it to a Thai friend and he is still using it with a USB keyboard.

I use a desktop and a netbook and would have never purchased another laptop except that my wife uses the laptop for her English lessons. I bought her a 13,000 baht Acer powered by AMD. She is quite happy with it. Unfortunately it came with Linux so I bought and installed Win 7 Ultimate on it. Time will tell how long the Acer lasts.

[CPT]

Hard to go wrong with Thinkpad and I am particularly fond of the X series, great for travel. If you're like me and no longer have a desktop, it is worth the slight premium just for the keyboard. I am on my third Thinkpad, all the previous ones still work (the oldest is 10yrs old).