I’ll preface this with the statement that I’m no IT guy. But I just went through this process myself in the past couple of days. I wanted the performance of a desktop, but portability was too important so I decided to go with a laptop. I have a decent amount of experience and I am the computer spec’r and purchaser for my current employer. We have a mix of Dell and Lenovo machines, both desktops and laptops. Before making my decision, I did a metric shit ton of additional research. It basically breaks down into 4 categories: cheap consumer laptops, flashy consumer laptops with good parts, business class laptops, and gaming laptops.
The cheap consumer laptops are what you’ll see for sub-$1000 MSRP, typically with some compromise of parts depending on where they are in that price range. Usually only have a couple of USB ports and not much else. Build quality makes them prone to issues if you actually use them like a laptop, getting moved and dropped and left in hot or cold trucks and short charged or fully drained. Fortunately they are cheap enough that you can afford a new one every couple years, unfortunately you will probably have to.
The flashy consumer laptops with good parts will have higher end components, plenty of RAM and storage, fast processors, and be all sleek looking. General price of $1000-3000+ MSRP. Touch screens, 2 in 1 flip style, etc. May or may not have a good selection of parts depending on the brand and price point. A lot of focus on the aesthetic and being lightweight. The parts are good, but the build quality is typically only marginally better than the cheap consumer laptops.
The business class laptops are boring looking workhorses. Typically black or gray, and specs that aren’t as impressive as the flashy consumer laptops. General price of $1500-3000+. But they show up and get it done day after day. Usually a good selection of ports and an HDMI or DisplayPort output, maybe even an Ethernet cable connection. They can handle being dropped and used, and give you quite a few years of solid service. The bezels are typically larger and the frames thicker which gives you more protection when you drop it or sit on it or forget it’s in your console or backpack and do something stupid.
The gaming laptops are very graphics and speed focused, and the category I’m the least knowledgeable on. Best of the best parts and internals for the sake of making everything work as smoothly as possible to reduce lag and display graphics as accurately and smoothly as possible. $2000-infiniti. Build quality is good, but focused more on hardware accommodation than durability.
For me, I didn’t want to have to buy another laptop for at least 5 years, so I wanted a business class laptop with a good processor, enough RAM to run CAD programs, and plenty of storage. The main players in this arena are the Dell Pro series (formerly Dell Latitude), HP Elitebook, and Lenovo Thinkpad. Each of those families of course has a wide range of specs and options and even economy lines, so don’t just buy because of the name. After hours and hours of reading forums, Reddit, etc, it was overwhelmingly accepted that that the Lenovo Thinkpad was the most durable and longest lasting of the bunch. I was also able to confirm that with anecdotal experience because I’ve had 2 of them in 7 years at my current job, and my 1st one was 3 years old when I started and is still in use by our inside sales guy. 10 years old and starting to show it’s age, but the darn thing is still working and still on its original battery! (Which lasts than an hour now, haha, but it’s still working!) I ended up buying a Lenovo Thinkpad T14 with an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive for about $950. List price was $1760, 44% off for Black Friday, plus if you sign up for a free Lenovo Pro account it knocks another $30 off.
4 or 5 USB ports, Ethernet plug, HDMI output, and a layout I’m already familiar with. It may not be the best thing out there, but 98% of my use will be email, spreadsheets, and NC4X4, so it should suffice. Hopefully this is helpful.
