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[Aerendur]

Since I'm gonna be a fulltime student from february I will have to hand in my macbook pro and iPad at work in a month. So I'm exploring my options past that point.

My initial thought would be, why not just grab a macbook pro for myself. Since it is a nice tool. But with the upcoming tasks, where I'll be creating an educational game using unity, that might just be a tad restricting. So I'm looking into what is available and what I would like. Also, Tenzor is really opposed to getting a macbook! 

Thus my quest continues, I've found a few reviews and specs I like. But overall they don't seem to be strong enough or the same price or even higher (is that even possible one would wonder) than a macbook pro would be.

So who has some nice advice. It's a laptop that will be used as 'workstation' at the foundation where I'll be working on my research project.

Mimimum specs, for as far as I can see is i5 - 8 gigs ram - 256 ssd (but more in every field would surely not be a waste!).

One interesting thing I've found this morning is the Surface Book (the upcoming 80% laptop idea from microsoft). But that is not available in Europe just yet!

[TenzorDK]

This be my work computer: Dell Precision m3800 - it's not bad, but the 256gb aint much these days. So I also have a 128GB Sandisk ultrafit - for files and junk.

[Joric]

http://www.notebookcheck.net/
Reviews and top-10 lists for different aspects, like monitor, size etc.

Specc- and technology-wise macbooks are amongst the best you can buy. I hate the glossy screen and no option for a non-glare version.

If I had to choose a laptop, I would ask for:
- good display, like non glare IPS with no PWM etc.
- cool, long battery life, low noise
- enough horse power CPU wise, RAM, HDD for the main usage. These days Core i5, 8GB, SSD for OS, HDD for data is common.
- an OS, where my main/needed applications and programs run on.

A laptop is a mobile device for me. I usually don't use it as main computer. If you need lots of power, use a desktop PC. If you want to work in the garden, use RDP on a laptop to remotely connect to your main computer.

HTH

[Muylae]

i bought this https://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks/ASUS_ROG_G751JY/ to run my BB on and for when i'm away from home.

it's about as good as it gets.

[Joric]

Since I can use my 8" Windows tablet with the stylus only for some reason since a week or so I was looking for a small notebook as replacement for everyday surfing, checking mails and stuff like that. Other complaints: battery life with WiFi and Bluetooth enabled. Too many times I tried to switch it on only to find, that there was no power left and instead of using it I had to recharge. So the tablet will be used for drawing only in the future.

After some research I stumbled upon the Medion S2217. Intel Atom CPU, 2GB RAM, 64GB FlashDrive, Win10, 11,6" non-glare fullHD Display. Arrived today, first impression: good! Will take if for a test drive over the next few days. Not quite what you are asking for, it's definitely not a workstation and you can't play recent games on it. But it weights a bit more than 1kg and from what I read battery lasts quite a while - enough to Keep this thing running a whole working day. It's small enough to fit in a small photo/Laptop backpack.

The first very positive news is the display: Panel was identified as AUO315D B116HAN03.1 --> AHVA with 400cd/m2 brightness and 800:1 contrast Ratio typically. No IPS... but darn Close to it.

No fans, no mechanical HDD --> no noise. Keyboard is way better than the Windows onscreen one :p

I'll Keep you updated. /wave

[Joric]

I decided to keep my new toy.

- CPU is just fast enough for the usual surfing, email etc. Watching video is ok as long as it's well compressed. I found a few poorly encoded 4k30 and 1080p60 videos, that were too much for this device.
- WiFi works well in the house. I was a bit worried as there is only one antenna and a Realtek chip... but I had no issues at all.
- Bluetooth and WiFi works well together. I thought I had some issues (some people noted a drastic YouTube slowdown when using Bluetooth devices), but they were gone the other day - so it was a general Internet/YouTube performance problem that evening.
- the Display hinge could be tighter
- chiclet Keyboard is ok. I'd wish for full size Cursor keys - but that's just me. Most People seem to like smaller Cursor keys These days anyway.
- the touchpad has that "rubberband" effect. I am not a big fan of that. Maybe I find another Driver to Change it to a linear Input mode.
- run time is great. HWINFO Reports the battery to be 38Wh roughly and discharge rate is around 4Wh. In theory this means Close to 10hrs runtime. From what I did so far and with 25% Display brightness 9hrs+ sounds absolutely doable.
- Memory usage with windows10 32bit home starts around 0.8-0.9GB and goes up to 1.1-1.5GB with a few applications running. So that's fine.
- the eMMC (poor mens SSD) is ok-ish. 150MB/s read and 80MB/s write is far from SSD numbers, but it not bad either.
- if really stressed and using it on your legs the left side is getting quite warm after a while.

Summary: a silent "Surfing/office machine" 11,6" workhorse with a great non-glare full HD screen, that lasts a full day. ~260 EUR including shipping is a bargain for that.

Caution: S2217 is the model I got. ALDI sells the S2218, which has a glare display - so don't buy that one!

Now I Need a nice sleeve and probably a Bluetooth mouse and I am done.