Suggestions for laptop with certain criteria (please)

[Project86]

Looking for something which is proving more difficult to find than I initially assumed. I MUST have the following:

1080p screen

NumberPad on the keyboard

Optical drive

Good battery life



I would also like, but could possibly live without:

Somewhat thin design

SSD


To make matters worse, I'm trying not to spend megabucks on this thing. So far my best bet seems to be a refurb Dell M4600 which can be had for around $700 with the i7 2820QM, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, nice display, and of course the required optical drive. On the down side it's pretty thick and battery is mediocre at best.

Any ideas on alternatives? I keep finding good stuff that has no optical drive, or the keyboard is wrong, or the screen is 1366x768, which ruins an otherwise perfect configuration.

 

[TheStu]

Regarding the screen resolution, if you're shopping around and you know that what you're looking at was made with a 1080p display, you can always then check laptopscreens.com to see if you can secure the 1080p for a reasonable price.

Sometimes they're swappable, sometimes not.

I have a Dell e6520 at work. Hits all your criteria, save for battery life, which could be better.

Looking at one on ebay right now for $550, it doesn't have the extended battery, or the backlit keyboard, but now you have something new to look into.

 

[sm625]

Dell Inspiron 7746 is $949. Broadwell i5, 1TB hybrid hdd. 17.3" 1080p. DVD. A proper keypad. It is a beautiful machine for sure, but seems kinds pricey to me, considering how tiny that cpu is. But it is brand new, the latest of the latest. It's kinda the price you pay I guess. It is hard to find a deal on anything that has a keypad and DVD drive. Those two things are basically costing you $300.

 

[Project86]

Regarding the screen resolution, if you're shopping around and you know that what you're looking at was made with a 1080p display, you can always then check laptopscreens.com to see if you can secure the 1080p for a reasonable price.

Sometimes they're swappable, sometimes not.

I have a Dell e6520 at work. Hits all your criteria, save for battery life, which could be better.

Looking at one on ebay right now for $550, it doesn't have the extended battery, or the backlit keyboard, but now you have something new to look into.

I've considered swapping but A) it seems like a hassle to figure out which laptops support it and which don't, and B I don't have a ton of time to spend messing with this stuff. So I'd like native 1080 right out of the gate.

I do have a Dell 6330 still kicking around and it's a great little machine. Will have to look into the 15" models.

Dell Inspiron 7746 is $949. Broadwell i5, 1TB hybrid hdd. 17.3" 1080p. DVD. A proper keypad. It is a beautiful machine for sure, but seems kinds pricey to me, considering how tiny that cpu is. But it is brand new, the latest of the latest. It's kinda the price you pay I guess. It is hard to find a deal on anything that has a keypad and DVD drive. Those two things are basically costing you $300.

17" is too large though, looking for 15" only. Heck, I'd take 14 if they had a keypad but they never do ime.


Agreed on the price of keypad and DVD but that's the need in this particular application. Doesn't do me much good to save money but get something that doesn't fit the needs.... unfortunately.

 

[RossMAN]

It's a shame you didn't post this sooner because this Dell for $650 would have been almost perfect for your needs.

 

[Project86]

Except no CD drive. I considered it anyway, but complaints about the keyboad and touch pad concerned me. Also a lot of people in that thread had issues with their orders... so I decided to pass.

 

[OlyAR15]

Why not just get an external USB keypad and optical drive. That way you can get a light laptop with good battery life, but still have access to a keypad and/or optical drive when you need it. Hard to imagine, in this day and age, that you would be using an optical drive so often that you would need a built-in one.

 

[Project86]

Trust me, I totally agree. My personal machines are MacBook Air and an HP Ultrabook 14". I never miss the keypad or the disc drive, and battery life is excellent.

This is for someone else though, who needs to do frequent data entry. They go somewhere, set up, do the entry, then break everything down and go back home. There's also some burning of CDs and watching of DVDs that happens at times. So those things really are necessary (unfortunately), and external USB versions aren't as convenient.

 

[Blue_Max]

Big thumbs up for the Dell Latitude 3540. Not only 1080P but very high quality (Lenovo had 1080P but SUCKED!)
Radeon 8850M graphics, good battery life.... dandy machine! Affordable too, especially if you get a deal!

 

[Cogman]

Why not just get an external USB keypad and optical drive. That way you can get a light laptop with good battery life, but still have access to a keypad and/or optical drive when you need it. Hard to imagine, in this day and age, that you would be using an optical drive so often that you would need a built-in one.

Agreed. I get 99% of my content straight from the internet now-a-days. I've used my disk drive, even on my main pc, only once or twice in the past 2 years.

The future is the internet for distribution, and I can't say that I'll miss physical media.

 

[Project86]

Big thumbs up for the Dell Latitude 3540. Not only 1080P but very high quality (Lenovo had 1080P but SUCKED!)
Radeon 8850M graphics, good battery life.... dandy machine! Affordable too, especially if you get a deal!

Thanks, I hadn't noticed these for some reason. Will keep an eye out for deals.

 

[RossMAN]

Lenovo Z50 for $579 with free shipping:

It seems to have virtually everything you're looking for?

You can and should add SSD after the fact, it's significantly cheaper.

Intel Core i7-4510U
8GB DDR3
1TB HDD
15.6" 1920x1080 LED
2GB NVIDIALenovo GeForce 820M
DVD Dual Layer Drive
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160
4-Cell 41WHr Battery
Windows 8.1

If you're interested, I would buy now as the coupon may expire soon.

 

[Project86]

Thanks RossMAN - I do appreciate the help. I just happened to use a Z50 the other day and it was.... disappointing. The TN panel has terrible viewing angles, and the keyboard is possibly the worst I've ever used.

The search continues. Maybe I'm asking for too much?

 

[Project86]

I was able to snag a like new Dell M4600 with an i7 2760QM, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 1080p display, etc, for around $650. It has a nice keyboard and an optical drive - kinda bulky, but I think it should work out.

Thanks again to everyone who suggested something.

 

[RossMAN]

I was able to snag a like new Dell M4600 with an i7 2760QM, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 1080p display, etc, for around $650. It has a nice keyboard and an optical drive - kinda bulky, but I think it should work out.

Thanks again to everyone who suggested something.

Congrats, that's a solid laptop and great specs!

Mind if I ask where you purchased it from? Craigslist, eBay, Dell Outlet, Amazon Marketplace?

 

[Project86]

Lots of good deals to be found on the M4600 - I was inches away from going Dell Outlet on a slightly lower spec version. After the Slickdeals coupon code it was around $510 total. But I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of having a 5400rpm drive, so I found an M4600 on eBay instead. The difference of $140 got me an upgrade to 256GB SSD, plus Office installed, plus a leather bag, and I think it might come with Windows 7 discs too (Dell doesn't give those).

I would have loved a thinner, more sleek model but for the price and specs I think this will work best.