Describe your ideal laptop!

[GTaudiophile]

From netbooks to laptops, it seems like hundreds of new models debut every day. Despite this, I still cannot find my ideal laptop.

This is what I am looking for...

13.3" wide screen (1336 x 768 or higher)
Ultra Low Voltage Core i3
Dedicated ATI graphics w/ 1GB RAM (no Optimus)
250-500 GB 7200 RPM HDD
4GB RAM
No DVD Drive
Thin (about an inch or less thick)
Light (3-4 lbs.)
Battery Life: 5-8 hours
Back-lit keyboard
Standard Extras: BGN Wireless, Webcam, Card Reader, etc.
Windows 7 Pro 64

Price: $500-$600


Does it exist?

What is your ideal laptop? Does it exist?

 

[Tristicus]

Black
15"-17" 1920x1200 screen
Quad Core
4gb DDR3
1tb HDD
Blu-ray burner
Good battery life for gaming
Lit keyboard
Remote for Zune software (not sure that's possible)
Wireless card
Webcam (I wouldn't use it but it might come in handy once a year or something)
6 USB slots. 4 would be acceptable, but 2 is BS.
HDMI in/out (both would be awesome)
4870 crossfire.

Might exist, might not. Unlike the mainstream, I don't care about having some ultra-thin light laptop. It's stupid to me. If I'm going to be carrying it around anyways, I want something that I'm going to be able to use like I want. I want something equivalent to my desktop/better.

 

[Pia]

I'm easy to please.

Base model 13" Macbook Pro except with slightly narrower, taller 4:3 matte screen, 1400x1050 resolution, at the same price.

 

[Zap]

Dedicated ATI graphics w/ 1GB RAM (no Optimus)
Battery Life: 5-8 hours
Price: $500-$600

Yeah, good luck getting the price or battery life with the graphics.

Good battery life for gaming
4870 crossfire.

LOL on this combo.

Alright, since I've picked apart yours, here's mine to destroy:

Core i7 660UM
8GB DDR3
Optimus graphics with 96 CUDA cores
11.6" 1366x768 matte with good picture quality
Under 3 pounds
10+ hours battery life on IGP

Heh, looks pretty plausible except for the good quality matte screen. :\

 

[aceO07]

Thinkpad X61t, but slimmer/lighter and with real SATA2. That'll make me happy. Having the latest ULV processor would be extra nice. (I don't consider X201t as an upgrade due to it's wide screen, 1280x800.)

It already has 1400x1050 resolution.
It already has wacom + IPS screen.
Mine has 6GB and can go up to 8GB.

 

[maniac5999]

12" (roughly the size of my U230, which is small for a 12" lappy)
2ghz Dual core ULV--HTT not required (but turboboost would be nice)
Optimus or Preferably the AMD Equivalent, I'd prefer a button to switch graphics, I trust my decisions more than a program I can't edit.
Low-mid level discrete graphics, a 325 or 335 from Nvidia, or the AMD equivalent (I'm not up to speed on AMD mobile offerings)
10-20GB SSD BUILT INTO THE MOBO to act as a boot drive.
500gb Data Drive
RGB LED Screen

I'd be willing to pay a grand, possibly $1500 for a laptop like this if it came in a nice case.(backlit keyboard) I'd imagine that with a decent battery it could get close to 10 hours of websurfing on battery, because of the frugality of the RGB LED, the CULV in low power states (With IGP) and having the Data drive spun down. I also imagine that it could play most major games at default resolution (720p is ideal on that size screen) and still hopefully get close to 4 hours battery life.

 

[Pia]

Unlike the mainstream, I don't care about having some ultra-thin light laptop. It's stupid to me. If I'm going to be carrying it around anyways, I want something that I'm going to be able to use like I want. I want something equivalent to my desktop/better.

idk, looks to me like mainstream wants big numbers on the spec sheet for as little money as possible, and the result is a heavy 15" or so laptop that is built like crap, has a terrible screen, no battery life and very little power. In other words, an all-in-one desktop computer easy to carry from space to space within your home.
And the other part of mainstream impulse purchasing "cute" gear gets netbooks, not fully functional laptops.

Have you ever actually carried a laptop every day, all day, on your back or hip? Because to me a laptop really has to be low weight (2kg is fine) and reasonably small (13" is fine). That's also a large enough size for me to do document editing and coding painlessly (though a high ppi 4:3 screen would be even better, hence my "ideal laptop").

 

[Tip3r]

Aluminum casing or something like that
13"-14" matte with good picture quality
a keyboard like Dell Adamo
5+ hours battery life (in reality!)
Core i5 CPU
Optimus graphics
under 4 pounds

$1200 max.

The closest I've come across is the HP Envy 14.

 

[Yeem]

15,4" laptop.
GPS. GPRS. GSM. 3G. WiFi.
And the usual ports, connectors and readers (read: all of them. hdmi,dvi,vga,toslink,memcard readers etc. etc.)
Ultra Thin. Ultra Light. 15h+ battery time, normal use. 100h+ standby. Good performance (not gaming). Rugged (think Toughbook). Splashproof.

Oh, and a custom backpack that fits it perfectly and is light, tough and submersible to a few M. Also with room for mouse, headphones and a few other things. Also with solar panels and 'shaky charger when walking' (you know the flashlights that you have to shake with a magnet/spool) for charging the laptop.

And I almost forgot theft-proof.

There you have it. My ideal laptop. Now give me one.


P.S. This isn't unreasonable. It'd probably cost a boatload of $$ though.

 

[SithSolo1]

13-14"
min. 1336 x 768, non-glossy
sturdy enclosure preferably not made entirely of plastic
ideally 4lbs or less and 1" thick at the most
HDMI out
7200rpm HD or SSD
great keyboard feel and two buttons for the touch pad
5+ Hrs battery life with WiFi enabled
stays cool under "heavy" use
some shade of black, white, grey, or metal
Under $600

 

[PCTC2]

Hmmm... I just want to post just for fun

15" 1680x1050 LED backlit LCD
all-Aluminum unibody enclosure with chiclet keyboard, backlit
HDMI out with audio pass-through
Intel Core i5
8GB DDR3
nVIDIA GTX480M with Optimus
802.11n, 3G, bluetooth
webcam, blu-ray drive, 512GB SSD
expresscard 34 slot
optical audio out (mini TOSLINK in 3.5" audio jack)
gigabit ethernet, UWB wireless dock, mag-safe power adapter

This is what a MacBook Pro should be.

 

[Fayd]

13" 1680x1050 screen
switchable graphics
9 hour battery life
some CULV processor of reasonable speed.
good quality matte screen(well, i suppose this is flexible)
under 3.5 lbs
under $600-700

i dont do/want to do much gaming on the go. most advanced i really want to play on a laptop would be source based games. what i really do on laptops is watch movies.

i know my reqs arent outside the bounds of possibilities, but for a laptop i'm fairly easy to satisfy. truth be told, i'd be happy with a UL30XA. since my only laptop atm is a netbook (945+atom based), i've been conditioned to not be picky.

tho it's not really that big of a deal. i've re-encoded all my anime to 1024x576 so it plays without skipping.

 

[slugg]

I'll talk more in features than specs. Specs change all the time.

My ideal laptop:

- 16:10 aspect ratio, 13" screen, LED backlit, 1440x900 res, IPS panel
- Shock resistant, spill resistant, and otherwise semi-rugged (Thinkpad-like) design
- 7+ hour battery under normal usage, non-gaming
- Dedicated video card with switchable to integrated with decent gaming performance
- Some kind of secure handle to hold the laptop with 1 hand and operate with the other. Thinkpads do this with the big batteries, but it doesn't feel too secure.
- No optical drive
- Whatever the latest connectivity is at the time (ethernet, USB2/3, firewire, displayport)
- Trackpoint! Screw trackpads.
- ruggedized charger and plug
- SMALL CHARGER
- Backlit OR top-lit (like Thinkpad) keyboard
- Under 5 lbs with charger
- Under $1000

 

[Spicedaddy]

My ideal would be my current 11.6" CULV notebook, but made entirely of aluminum and with 48 hours of battery life.

 

[Emulex]

1.5 lb or less
hd screen
removable keyboard
10+ hours playing video/games
3G or 4G
no moving parts
IPS panel

 

[veri745]

My current UL80Vt laptop is pretty close to ideal for me. The only thing I'd like is a better screen and updated GPU drivers:

14" screen (ideally this would be 12.1" or 13.3")
1366*768 (ideally this would be 1440*900 or better)
<4 lbs
8-10 hrs battery life
switchable graphics for minimal gaming

Thats about all I care about.

 

[frombauer]

What I need:

13.3 - And a 16:10 AR (no need for ultra high res)
Good processor for light gaming (i3)
Max 4lbs
HDMI Out
DVDRW
A decent, dedicated GPU (Optimus-like)
At least 6hs battery life (normal browsing, screen 70-80&#37; brightness)

Except for the weight (ans screen AR which is not a deal breaker), I think Asus U30JC meets my needs. Are there any other similar options?

 

[Emulex]

why you need dvdr? also i'd like displayport since you can daisy chain two monitors off one displayport and it also supports hdmi; some have custom pins for vga dongle too in case you are in a pinch.

 

[Chubblez]

Anyone remember the Lenovo T61P? Take that platform, and update it the CPU and GPU (Yes, I know Lenovo did this with the W510, but I want my 1920x1200 display)

So, i5/i7

Uhhh... Say Quadro FX 1800? (Or something ~GT335)

And don't remove the dock connector!

Maybe the W510 will be close enough. I should know on Monday when mine gets here.

 

[WelshBloke]

My ideal would be my current 11.6" CULV notebook, but made entirely of aluminum and with 48 hours of battery life.

This.

Basically an Acer 1825ptz tablet in a 11.6 macbook pro shell with a matt screen.

 

[frombauer]

why you need dvdr? also i'd like displayport since you can daisy chain two monitors off one displayport and it also supports hdmi; some have custom pins for vga dongle too in case you are in a pinch.

This would be acceptable. Any models like this?

 

[Interitus]

I pretty much love my Dell 14z. For a Dell it's a pretty nice machine.

2 gripes:

-9300m runs hot, fan kicks on a lot.

-Who the **** decided it was a good idea to solder 1GB of RAM to the MB? Dumbest idea EVER. Now I have to buy a 4GB sodimm just to get above 3GB of RAM.

 

[taltamir]

Dedicated ATI graphics w/ 1GB RAM (no Optimus)

Why do you explicitly say "no optimus"? What is wrong with optimus?

I mean, I understand if you just said "dedicated ATI card" and didn't mention optimus... go red team and all that.
But explicitly mentioning it that way indicates that you think something is wrong about optimus... while nvidia has quite a bunch of bad things going for it, optimus is a shining beacon of light in the PC industry.

As for my ideal laptop...
it has the keyboard at the FRONT (no trackpad!) with well spaced keys and with a built in wireless mouse that "pops out" of the laptop for use and a "Pointing stick" mouse for when there is no surface for you to use the mouse on.
portable mouse: http://www.stefanv.com/electronics/mogo_mouse.html
pointing stick: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick

it has a display port and a DVI port. It has 8 USB ports.

BGN wireless, Webcam & mic...

OLED display.

 

[Winterpool]

For a good part of the last decade, I waited in vain for a 12-inch (or even 13-inch) MacBook Pro, a true successor to the old 12-inch Al PowerBook. Neither the white MacBook nor the MacBook Air sufficed. Of course, Mr Jobs did eventually see fit to release a 13-inch MacBook Pro, in the new unibody chassis -- but I dislike the unibody for aesthetic reasons. So I gave in and bought the last pre-unibody 15-inch MacBook Pro model.

Especially since they are portable, thus used (and seen) in public, notebook aesthetics matter a great deal more to most punters than your desktop -- whether it's personalisation through stickers, skins, graffiti, etc, or succumbing to the cool crowd who brandish the luminous Apple. In terms of visual design, the old 12-inch PowerBook was rather close to my ideal notebook: other than its obviously obsolete tech, my main quibble would be the thickness and weight (which are of course a function of the tech limitations of the time).

Current notebook aesthetics are going in the wrong direction, at least for my taste. I hate two-tone designs, but even minimalist Apple has adopted black keys on light background as well as a black display border. I'm not a fan of obvious curves, whether on corners or along the length. I hate, hate 'chiclet' keyboards, and on a related note, I don't care for 'islanded' keyboards that are surrounded by significant empty space. The 12-inch PowerBook keyboard extended to the edge of the chassis. The larger Al PowerBooks and MacBooks Pro were able to disarm the islanding effect to some extent through the textured speaker grilles. The unibody design is much smoother, with less apparent speakers, thus making the island effect worse.

I wish Jonathan Ive would return to something like the Apple aluminium aesthetic of 2003-2008, but that's as unlikely as my being able to buy AAPL shares again at $78 any time soon.

 

[Winterpool]

As to tech, I'm with Taltamir: I think the big component improvement many of us are awaiting is OLED displays. I suspect Apple and premium marques will probably introduce them in Obama's second term.