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Need a high quality laptop for under $2000

PhDeac said:
Went to Best Buy this afternoon and looked at a few laptops. The main one that was recommended was a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro as the best mix of small size and power. Then the Asus QS501 and Samsung ATIO Book 8 for power but a lot of size. . Still considering the MacBook Pros although the 15 inch, 16 GB is outside the price range. I'll make a final decision tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

Nice tag work by the way, except for the "pay your child support" tag. I don't think I've posted anything here that would imply I'm not a good dad. This is the only time that tag has been used so this is about me. It's sad that for some of you "ph is black" must be synonymous with "ph is an absent father."
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Yeah, the Yoga 2 is another one scooter mentioned earlier, I've never heard of the QS501 before (and not seeing anything online about that model either). I'd probably stay away from the Samsung.

A 13" MBP (with 16GB/i7/retina) is defs worth a look if you're already spending that kind of monies. You might find you don't need the 15" as much as you'd thought.
 
And I'm deleting that tag, just stupid. You can probably guess which board troll is responsible for that one.
 
And also, don't ever take a BB salesman's word on anything tech related.
 
cookoutdeac said:
Yeah, the Yoga 2 is another one scooter mentioned earlier, I've never heard of the QS501 before (and not seeing anything online about that model either). I'd probably stay away from the Samsung.

A 13" MBP (with 16GB/i7/retina) is defs worth a look if you're already spending that kind of monies. You might find you don't need the 15" as much as you'd thought.
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You all convinced that I didn't need 2" before, so losing 2" more is under consideration.

(that's what she didn't say)

The QS501 was a beast. It's what I'm trying to stay away from. Increasingly, I'm working with more tech savvy people. I don't want to be that guy who pulls out a noisy brick that takes 2 minutes to crank up.
 
PhDeac said:
You all convinced that I didn't need 2" before, so losing 2" more is under consideration.

(that's what she didn't say)

The QS501 was a beast. It's what I'm trying to stay away from. Increasingly, I'm working with more tech savvy people. I don't want to be that guy who pulls out a noisy brick that takes 2 minutes to crank up.
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Ha, still think that model number is wrong, sounds like you're describing either a G55 or G750 if it was a big beast-like laptop. DF09 has something like that. It definitely won't take two minutes to crank up, but certainly isn't fun to lug around.
 
PhDeac said:
Went to Best Buy this afternoon and looked at a few laptops. The main one that was recommended was a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro as the best mix of small size and power. Then the Asus QS501 and Samsung ATIO Book 8 for power but a lot of size. . Still considering the MacBook Pros although the 15 inch, 16 GB is outside the price range. I'll make a final decision tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

Nice tag work by the way, except for the "pay your child support" tag. I don't think I've posted anything here that would imply I'm not a good dad. This is the only time that tag has been used so this is about me. It's sad that for some of you "ph is black" must be synonymous with "ph is an absent father."
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I would be looking at Business class laptops. Lenovo T530, HP, Dell Latitude. So much better built than the consumer level stuff.
 
What distinguishes Business class and which specific models should I look for? The clubhouse leader right now is the MacBook Pro 13".
 
PhDeac said:
What distinguishes Business class and which specific models should I look for? The clubhouse leader right now is the MacBook Pro 13".
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I know everyone is tired of hearing me touting the Lenovos... but, just FYI, look up the ThinkPad Yoga... It is a business-class ThinkPad machine with the flip-around convertibility of the Yoga you looked at. However, on the ThinkPad Yoga, when you flip it into tablet mode, the keyboard bezel rises up even with the keys to keep the keys from moving around... hard to explain but very cool when seen in action. I don't think the ThinkPad Yoga will be available for shipment until around Christmas...

The Yoga 2 Pro is an awesome machine. My boss just bought one. He is a hard-core techie and only joined the company about 2 years ago and said the Yoga 2 Pro was the first machine we make that motivated him to buy one... For whatever that is worth.

Business class machines tend to be tougher - The ThinkPads have titanium roll cages, carbon-fiber surfaces, flow-through spill protection (water spilled on the keyboard flows through and out the bottom without hurting the machine) etc. - but may have less "wow" features. The x1 Carbon touch I mentioned before is a business-class machine.
 
OK. Thanks for the clarification.
 
Don't lowball Apple. That strategy won't work.

Although, they do give decent discounts to educators.
 
I have a Mac and have had almost no problems with it. I just use it for school and the internet, so nothing to heavy duty. I don't personally like using spreadsheets without a mouse but I've gotten somewhat used to it.
 
Not sure if you bought yet, but I'm still on the Mac bandwagon for now.

Beyond what others have said, memory goes a long way in a Mac. The OS doesn't eat up nearly the amount of resources that Windows does, and since it's Unix the multi-tasking and memory management is more like a server than it is a home computer. So if you're doing lots of things at once you might surprised how well an 8gb Mac would compare to a 16gb PC.

That being said, if I were you I'd get the base 15" Macbook Pro Retina and just upgrade the memory to 16gb. That'll be good for a long while.

I'd also give serious consideration to the 13" Macbook Pro Retina. My wife has one, and it is easily the best laptop I've ever used. Screen is stunning, it's fast as hell, it's almost the as small as a macbook air (just slightly thicker and heavier), and it runs Windows programs side-by-side with Mac stuff seamlessly with VMWare Fusion or Parallels. You can set the resolution so that you can get a ton of real estate despite the 13" size, so it seems more like a larger screen assuming you have decent eyesight. The battery life is crazy good and the trackpad is by far the best out there. Right click is really a non-issue, just a simple two-finger tap as posted.

Final note - I'm posting this from a dual core Macbook Pro 15" I got 4 years ago. Only thing I've changed is I added a solid state drive. Even the new Mavericks OS still runs perfectly on it - new versions of Word/Excel launch in under a second, etc. Longest I've ever owned a laptop and it doesn't even feel that old. I think that's one of the better outcomes of Mac ownership in recent years, they're simply useful for a lot longer than average laptops.

That being said, if you go the Windows route you're eventually going to get sucked into Windows 8, so a combo touch screen laptop is probably the safest move if you want to still be using it in 3 years. The aformentioned yoga2 or a Samsung Ativ might suffice.
 
DCDeac said:
Not sure if you bought yet, but I'm still on the Mac bandwagon for now.

Beyond what others have said, memory goes a long way in a Mac. The OS doesn't eat up nearly the amount of resources that Windows does, and since it's Unix the multi-tasking and memory management is more like a server than it is a home computer. So if you're doing lots of things at once you might surprised how well an 8gb Mac would compare to a 16gb PC.

That being said, if I were you I'd get the base 15" Macbook Pro Retina and just upgrade the memory to 16gb. That'll be good for a long while.

I'd also give serious consideration to the 13" Macbook Pro Retina. My wife has one, and it is easily the best laptop I've ever used. Screen is stunning, it's fast as hell, it's almost the as small as a macbook air (just slightly thicker and heavier), and it runs Windows programs side-by-side with Mac stuff seamlessly with VMWare Fusion or Parallels. You can set the resolution so that you can get a ton of real estate despite the 13" size, so it seems more like a larger screen assuming you have decent eyesight. The battery life is crazy good and the trackpad is by far the best out there. Right click is really a non-issue, just a simple two-finger tap as posted.

Final note - I'm posting this from a dual core Macbook Pro 15" I got 4 years ago. Only thing I've changed is I added a solid state drive. Even the new Mavericks OS still runs perfectly on it - new versions of Word/Excel launch in under a second, etc. Longest I've ever owned a laptop and it doesn't even feel that old. I think that's one of the better outcomes of Mac ownership in recent years, they're simply useful for a lot longer than average laptops.

That being said, if you go the Windows route you're eventually going to get sucked into Windows 8, so a combo touch screen laptop is probably the safest move if you want to still be using it in 3 years. The aformentioned yoga2 or a Samsung Ativ might suffice.
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Probably the main reason it's lasted so long/still feels snappy, that's not an insignificant upgrade especially since it gave you (presumably) a clean slate. My gf's MBP is about 2.5 years old and is starting to get a little sluggish and hangs up pretty badly every now and then. I think it's still fine but will eventually need some love via an upgrade like that and a fresh OS install in the near future.
 
Bought a 13in Macbook Air this summer with the ram upgrade and I'm never going back to PC. It takes about 15 seconds to start up from a complete shut down and the battery lasts about 12-13 hours, and only 30 or 45 minutes to charge completely. I got MS Office for 10 dollars with academic license, and MAC OS upgrades are free.

Sent from my C6606 using Tapatalk
 
I'm going to follow Wellman's lead and go with the Mac. The deal I get will determine which one.
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
Bought a 13in Macbook Air this summer with the ram upgrade and I'm never going back to PC. It takes about 15 seconds to start up from a complete shut down and the battery lasts about 12-13 hours, and only 30 or 45 minutes to charge completely. I got MS Office for 10 dollars with academic license, and MAC OS upgrades are free.

Sent from my C6606 using Tapatalk
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Everything else is impressive, especially dat battery life, but this is pretty standard (and actually a bit slower than you'd see in a Win8 computer) for anything with an SSD in it these days.
 
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