Business Laptop for Software Engineers

[coniminimi]

Hey guys,

 

I am browsing the web and really don't find anything I like from dell or lenovo which are my normal goto's for business purposes. Maybe someone of you has a great idea.

 

For the next cycle (3 years) notebooks are needed that fulfill at least the following:

 

- >= 4 physical cores

- >= 32GiB RAM (we use up 32GiB just a few minutes after starting the machines. I really hate developers for using electron too much, its a pain in the ass and waste of memory)

- energy efficient, at least 2-3 hours productive time off grid (last cycle we drive t580s which were amazing due to their exchangeable batteries a technology which lenovo sadly dropped)

 * productive means heavy use cpu wise. On the t580 there was an average discharge of 18.000 mW

- an average mobile gpu for testing artificial intelligence off server when there is no internet or just for small tests

- docking for at least 1 4k 60fps monitor and lots of usb devices (thunderbolt would be nice, but this would rule out amd too often?)

- a good keyboard (it is for developers after all)

- good linux hardware support (even lenovo sucks on that now though...)

- price range 1000€-3500€ including tax

- available support packages for next day repairs (comparable to lenovo and dell ones)

 

Further notes:

CPU wise, it should be powerful enough, but every developer has access to vast server resources, so it should be decent enough to not go crazy when you're offline with no internet available, but hey we survived just fine with the t580 which has a rather low base clock. However faster than that would be nice since it gets stuck once in a while b/c linters and autoformatters became quite heavy on cpu lately.

 

Thanks upfront for your input and sorry for my nagging side comments :p

[1518]

Do you only want dell and lenovo?

[coniminimi]

well i am not stuck with them, anything else with comparable support and build quality is very welcome

[lboolaka_33]

I'd go with a ThinkPad P series or Precision 7000 series. 

[manikyath]

HP has a few "Z" series laptops that would probably meet the spec.

do some research for the options of each series, there's probably one that'll be close enough.

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/workstations/overview.html

 

this one goes up to 128GB RAM, has quite a bunch of GPU options, and a whole bunch of storage options.

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-zbook-fury-15-g7-mobile-workstation-customizable-9vs23av-mb

 

HP's way of doing thunderbolt docks is a bit odd - for the Zbooks they have docks that essentially have a thunderbolt and dc power jack stuck together. this way they get all the power they need to go full power on both CPU and GPU when docked.

[coniminimi]

32 minutes ago, James Evens said:

Next day rules out a lot of manufactures. Beside the one you mention there is at least HP and Fujitsu.

For Intel you want 11 gen. with good cooling as it is a major step up over the 10 gen. and at least somewhat close to AMD.

 

If can sacrifice next day support (e.g. keeping a spare device and swapping the hard drive) System76 might be a option (Clevo based notebooks with Linux (Ubuntu and CoreBoot)).

 

Since docking ports died a while ago now there is only thunderbolt and USB left with AMD limited to USB so Intel is a benefit (until future Ryzen finally supports Thunderbolt).

sounds like this is the major drawback to amd then still. having a spare device might be an option if you sit in the office all the time, but not if your laptop broke while you're flying to another city/country, so not really. that was and is the major reason sticking with lenovo and dell until now though.

 

29 minutes ago, manikyath said:

HP has a few "Z" series laptops that would probably meet the spec.

do some research for the options of each series, there's probably one that'll be close enough.

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/workstations/overview.html

 

this one goes up to 128GB RAM, has quite a bunch of GPU options, and a whole bunch of storage options.

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-zbook-fury-15-g7-mobile-workstation-customizable-9vs23av-mb

 

HP's way of doing thunderbolt docks is a bit odd - for the Zbooks they have docks that essentially have a thunderbolt and dc power jack stuck together. this way they get all the power they need to go full power on both CPU and GPU when docked.

lenovo does the same thing, thunderbolt (or better said usb c) just can't deliver enough energy for a serious workhorse.