Best business laptop for ~$1200?

[nyfirefly11]

OK, so I need a new laptop for work (which I'll also take home occasionally). I'll be using it mostly for the standard business apps (Office, internet, etc.), with some light Photoshop, Dreamweaver, video streaming, and audio encoding. I love to multitask, and I'm going to have this for a while (I'm also not paying for it), so I'd like to get the best I can without it being overkill.

Here's what I'm thinking in terms of minimum specs:
core i5-450 (I know the i3 would probably be fine, but why not)
Win 7 Professional x64
4GB RAM
250-320 GB HDD (7200 rpm)
15" display
anything around 6 pounds is fine, and I'd like it to feel durable (doesn't need to be a toughbook, but the new consumer laptops feel flimsy to me).

Here a few that I've narrowed down to:
Dell Latitude 6510
Lenovo T510 (a little expensive) or L512
Toshiba Tecra A11-S3531 (or S3521)
HP EliteBook 8540p (probably too expensive) or HP ProBook 6550b
Sony B Series (http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/VPCB11KGX/B)

Any thoughts? Thx!

 

[corkyg]

I'm going with the T510. If it is as good as my older T60, it will be a horse!

 

[HiME]

Lenovo T510, it is very durable and has a great solid keyboard.

 

[NitrouseXpress60]

T510. I purchased one a few weeks ago to replace my 5+ year old thinkpad and it has been wonderful. I wouldn't classify it as that expensive though. I got:
Core i5 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM HDD, integrated graphics, LED display, intel wireless, dvd writer for under $900 (including taxes, free shipping). For a T series, I couldn't believe the price. I had a 8% off coupon + education discount and now they have 10% off coupons. Stellar purchase, and hopefully it lasts me another five years.

Also, as others have stated, the keyboard really is great. The firmness is incredible, 100x better than my previous R series thinkpad.

 

[akugami]

Is Lenovo's Thinkpad line still as sturdy as the old IBM's? I know one of the reason the old IBM Thinkpads were such legendary business laptops is because of their sturdiness.

 

[corkyg]

Is Lenovo's Thinkpad line still as sturdy as the old IBM's? I know one of the reason the old IBM Thinkpads were such legendary business laptops is because of their sturdiness.

Yes. They still use the same soft rubber drive rails on the SATA caddy, and the T510 can take the Ultrabay III HDD adapter to swap with the optical drive.

 

[nyfirefly11]

Thx all...sounds like the T510 is the way to go

NitrouseXpress60, do you know where the 10% off coupons are? I found one for 5%...

Also, is the default 1366x768 resolution OK for business apps?

 

[alkemyst]

Yeah T510 or the T410 we are using. If you are a large business you can negotiate decently...we are right at $1000 for a pretty loaded T410.

 

[MJinZ]

If you don't care about battery life, a Core i7 Quad Core is pretty much the bar. I mean, I can't imagine life without at least 3.8ghz on all 4 cores, it must be pretty bad to even be down to 2.8 on 2 cores.

 

[NitrouseXpress60]

I get the coupon codes in my email. The 10% off one just expired yesterday.

Exclusive email offer, ends Sunday, July 25.
Use eCoupon 9uOK6WhOzBEB to maximize your savings.

Hunt around for coupones, and order through their education/friends of employees website.

I enjoy the 1366x768. Word and Excel work great. Online browsing is also great. The 16:9 ratio is fantastic for watching widescreen movies and HD video. This is coming from someone that has exclusively used 4:3, 1024x768 displays.

 

[Emulex]

i'd go for 6 or 8gb and SSD man. hard drives are extremely unreliable and performance suffers greatly in a shaken environment due to those drop sensors tripping out.

 

[nyfirefly11]

Thx all...OK, I'm sold on it.

The only questions now are:

1. 6-cell vs. 9-cell battery
2. HD or HD+ (1600x900) - the regular 1366x768 is probably fine, and the HD+ may actually be too small, but I haven't been able to see what it looks like.
3. Apparently if you want the combo usb/esata port then you need to get the one with the discreet graphics (Nvidia) - that's what the rep thought. Does anyone know otherwise?
4. $250 for a 128GB SSD is actually not a bad price, but you don't know what you're getting. The rep said they were using Samsung drives before, but doesn't know now. And the problem is you could get one that doesn't perform so well (at least according to this thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2069761). So I'd be wary of getting it unless I know what I'm getting.