Holiday 2011 Laptop Buyer’s Guide
by Jarred Walton on December 2, 2011 3:45 AM ESTThat’s a Wrap
And that just about does it for our laptop holiday buyer’s guide. Obviously this is mostly one man’s opinion, and some areas are rather subjective. I’ve also skirted the whole Black Friday madness and largely avoided digging around for door buster sales. I’m sure you can find some great deals on other laptops if you look around, and if you’re not looking for anything more than a typical consumer laptop a lot of the differences start to blur together. Fact is, outside of gaming and certain CPU intensive tasks (tasks which a lot of people still don’t do, e.g. video transcoding), for a lot of users any reasonable laptop made after 2007 is still “fast enough”. That’s where the discussion of build quality comes into play.
I’ve got a Core 2 Duo laptop that’s perfectly fine as far as performance is concerned, but the hinges are wearing out. I have plenty of friends that ran into the exact same problem with Core Duo/Core 2 Duo or Athlon/Turion X2 laptops—blown hinges and cracking plastic cases. Battery life and performance have certainly improved over the years, but if you’re normally plugged in that’s not a major concern. It’s hard for me to imagine something coming along in the next five years (outside of gaming and video editing) where a modern Core i5 or even AMD A6 laptop will prove to be too slow. The HD video revolution was the last major bump in requirements; if all you’re doing is surfing the web and writing email, plus some Office applications, 2004-era hardware can handle it. We’ve hit a plateau, and build quality and display quality are the areas that seem to have the most problems right now as far as laptop longevity is concerned.
5000+ words later and I still feel like there are plenty of other mobile laptops that we could mention. One area I didn’t get into was the difference between business and consumer laptops. I’ve been the head laptop reviewer at AnandTech since 2006, and something that has become very clear to me over the past five years is how much of a gap we frequently see between the business and consumer models. Consumer models typically offer more in the way of graphics performance, often at lower prices, but I’ve got several laptops that have been around for at least three years and the hinges are all feeling very loose. I’ve also used some ThinkPad and Latitude laptops that are even older where the hinges are still doing fine. Plus, nearly all business laptops still give you a matte display; not everyone prefers anti-glare, but I certainly do.
Business and/or school for the next five years: Lenovo ThinkPad T420 for $950
It may seem like a small thing, and if you upgrade laptops every couple of years it probably won’t matter as much, but if you’re looking for a laptop that can last through four years of college I would strongly recommend passing on gaming and consumer laptops and going for a business laptop instead. My top three picks are all similar in terms of size and features: the Lenovo ThinkPad T420 ($950 for the 1600x900 model with the current sale), the Dell Latitude E6420 ($1172 with an i5-2520M, 6GB RAM, 1600x900 premium panel, and Quadro NVS 4200M), and the HP EliteBook 8460p (no sales on this one currently, so you end up paying a lot more compared to the T420 and E6420—around $1800 right now). As long as you get the 1600x900 LCD upgrade (all three laptop offer such a display), I’d be happy with any of these three business laptops. You get a good keyboard, great build quality, and an attractive design; yes, they cost more than consumer models, but that’s because they’ll last a lot longer. I’d recommend going with whichever laptop costs the least, which means right now the ThinkPad T420 would get my vote.
There are some other topics I never quite got to as well, like 3D displays. Let me put this succinctly: fuggedaboutit! Watching a 3D movie at the theater or on a large HDTV is one thing; on a laptop, though? Seriously, what are you going to do: whip out your stylish 3D glasses to watch a movie while you’re on a plane? Sit in the library on campus, again with the glasses? Certainly you’re not going to be playing any 3D games, because you’d really need a GTX 580M just to reach playable frame rates in most titles. But I’m curious: are there any readers that actually like 3D displays on notebooks? Okay, sure, the 120Hz refresh rates would actually be nice, but does anyone want to view 3D content on a notebook? I’ve tried it and was not impressed; if you disagree, please let me know where I’ve gone astray!
There are still a lot of laptops out there that I haven’t had a chance to test. I can tell you that every time I wander through a Walmart, Costco, Target, etc. I’ll take a minute to go bang on some laptops—it drives my wife crazy! What I’ve found is that the consumer laptops stocked by such stores have all been chasing the bottom dollar, and the result is that build quality and display quality are in the dumps. I can’t remember the last time I saw a laptop with a decent display at any of the local stores. Ironically, the tablet revolution is at least getting manufacturers to focus on their displays more, but while we’ve got 1280x752 IPS panels in several tablets (and we’re talking about 2560x1600 tablets in the next couple of years!), we still get shelves full of 1366x768 TN panel laptops. So, my final request this holiday season is for the laptop manufacturers to take a chance and start offering $100 display upgrades on more of your systems. I know I’d happily pay $1000 for a good 1080p 15.6” laptop rather than $850 for a 15.6” 768p display, and I’m not the only one. If you build it, we will come—and our reviews in the next year will continue to praise the companies that get the importance of a display.
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Toughbook - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
This was a very informative article for keeping us up to date on what's out there now. Lord, we all know how fast they change these days. I strongly agree with your business suggestions. My son's Lenovo T410 is holding up pretty well considering a 14 year old hammers on it every day. My Panasonic Toughbook's CF-31 and CF-53 are still as solid as a brick. As you stated, if you change every 2 years go for whatever you like. If you hold onto one and pay dearly for the added quality and features then stick with business or rugged types!rdamiani - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
I can't get excited about any of the current notebooks at any price point because of the craptastic 16:9 displays they all have. All a 1080p display means is a downgrade from the 16:10 1920x1200 display in my current notebook. Until that changes, I won't upgrade until my M4400 is dead.melblanc - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
In the low end category I would assume also the Samsung 305U 11.6inch laptop with E350 (E450 in some markets). Just got it for my motherinlaw and it won for me personally over the HP DM1. Also it has matte display and 1.3mpix camera.Battery life might be concern there as it gets just 4cell battery, but then the weight of 1.2kg is great there. I would recommend it. Got it for 399EUR with E350/4GB 1333 RAM / 500 GB HD config. Here it gets just in black, but some markets also more fancy colors are available.
Pros:
- decent build
- matte display
- price
- good camera
Cons:
- not all configurations available in all markets, E450 is available in some EU contries only, language specific characters an issue there
- battery standard 4 cell, 6 cell available as extra
- availability
ReverendDC - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
Jarred:I love your articles and almost all of the material on your site. For the most part, AnandTech is the most even-handed of the sites.
However, I think you missed the mark on this one in the "inexpensive" category. I have a 17.3" HP, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB (5400 RPM...yuck) HD, 1600x900 res system that I got for $379.99 at Best Buy (of all places!). It runs the "not suggested" A4, and absolutely kicks it for general computing and mild gaming. Unless you want to run the newest games, this is more than enough for the general population, and it is extremely speedy. The keyboard is sufficient, and the system doesn't have too much play (the top behind the screen is hollow, so it pushes down quite a bit....). It boots in about 20-30 seconds from a cold start, and all functions of Win7 are peppy, with all Aero effects in gear. Even with a (really crappy) 47 wHr battery, I get 5-6 hours out of a charge.
Your "low cost" solution is about $120 more than this system (one with an i3 is also available at $420 HP G7 Pavilion series, mine is G7-1237DX), and your netbook solution is $80 more. For the majority of readers that are looking for GP and light/mild gaming, this would be great, but things like this aren't mentioned.
Of course, it isn't as great as some of the systems located above, but that $100 is a huge difference in many budgets these days...
As for the A4, what it lacks in CPU power it more than makes up for in GPU power. The HD2000/3000 solutions aren't even close. In fact, your own Llano review notes that most of the benchmarks that are being run do not even run with Intel's current HD IGP solution. Again, pricing is way lower as well.
I'm not saying one is better than the other, but the A4 matches well with an i3, especially considering the AMD discount.
Of course, not everyone likes the added real estate of 17.3" over even 15.6", and I can see a major preference for 14" here, but I happen to like the larger screens. Wouldn't mind a 1920x1080 option at this price on a 17.3", nor a 1600x900 option for 15.6" systems, but you get what you can nowadays!
tential - Saturday, December 31, 2011 - link
I'm just extremely disappointed when this review came to high end gaming. You recommended the Alienware M17x. Seriously? You would insult our intelligent to say that we can't do a simple check to compare Asus and Alienware and see which gives better performance? I tried to price an alienware and it gave me 8 GB ram, 2.2 quadcore, 500 GB HD, GTX 560 with 1.5 GB DDR5 Ram and 1080p screen for 2000 dollars. You had the nerve to say a 900p screen. WTF is a 900p screen? Is that something I'm supposed to WANT to purchase?A quick newegg search for Asus turned up a 12 GB ram, 2.2 quadcore, 1.5 TB HD, GTX 560 with 3 GB DDR5 Ram and 1080p screen for 1650 dollars. A TON more for a lot less. When I read the article I actually believed you at first. But knowing that this website has gotten more and more popular I decided to actually look, just to be safe. I bought my current gateway gaming laptop under a holiday roundup and it was hands down the best according to you guys. You were right. Price to performance nothing beat it. It's a joke for you to recommend the Aliewanre and I seriously doubt your integrity on this website now. I hope you have a legitimate reason why you would recommend me to pay more, for a LOT less.
raki - Sunday, January 8, 2012 - link
I'm not sure if there's some reason this company wasn't looked at, but they advertise that you can request certain parts for your laptop, even if they don't carry them. Maybe they could do a 1920x1200 IPS display, if it's really important to you.The laptops can get pretty over the top.
http://www.originpc.com/shop/pc/configurePrd.asp?i...
abhicherath - Saturday, January 28, 2012 - link
i know i'm kinda late here.But just as a head's up.I am pretty sure that Nvidia's GTX 560M and above cards use standard MXM slots.So they SHOULD be upgradeable.So you could slot in a 580M into the G74SX, would be way better than that tacky-ass alienware anyway.Daniel Anthony - Friday, November 27, 2020 - link
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