Laptops that are "professional," easy to get ahold of, and decently powerful?

[Elarion]

Budget: $2,000 - $4,000

Use Case: 3DS Max, Unreal Engine, Substance Painter/Designer, Marmoset Toolbag, V-Ray.

 

I'm in the market for a new laptop, as my Framework 16 has just had too many issues to warrant using it in a professional setting. Maybe it's better with AMD, but I've had nothing but trouble with this thing. Before this, I was using ThinkPads, and they are far and away my preferred laptop for reliability and durability, but they take months to ship over here, and right now, I'm not even sure if they're available at all.

 

I've had too many hardware and driver issues with Dell and HP to be interested in using them ever again, and Razer and Alienware are a little too much on the "gamer" side of the design space. I can't use a MacBook as most of the software I need for work is Windows exclusive.

 

I'm curious, what are the current options out there that are similar to a ThinkPad? Slim, powerful, efficient, durable, and reliable, but are still easy to get ahold of? I looked at the Microsoft Surface devices, but they seem to prioritize very weird form factors, and they get very expensive because of that, but they are supposedly available within a day or two shipping wise.

 

If there are other alternatives, I'm all ears at this point.

 

Just a reminder, these are the ones I am not interested in.

• Dell
• HP
• Razer
• Alienware
• Legion
• Framework
• MacBooks

[porina]

11 minutes ago, Elarion said:

Just a reminder, these are the ones I am not interested in.

• Dell
• HP
• Razer
• Alienware
• Legion
• Framework
• MacBooks

Feels like you basically excluded the big name market.

 

You didn't say why not Legion, but I'll assume for now it is too gamer. Have to say the one I have is a gaming laptop but isn't very gamery. Nearest it gets to it is RGB backlight on keyboard, but you can set it to a single static colour.

 

I think Acer still make laptops, but no idea at all about their range.

 

Toshiba also springs to mind but in a quick look they have left the market, so anything still around is pretty old now.

[Elarion]

4 minutes ago, porina said:

Feels like you basically excluded the big name market.

 

You didn't say why not Legion, but I'll assume for now it is too gamer. Have to say the one I have is a gaming laptop but isn't very gamery. Nearest it gets to it is RGB backlight on keyboard, but you can set it to a single static colour.

 

I think Acer still make laptops, but no idea at all about their range.

 

Toshiba also springs to mind but in a quick look they have left the market, so anything still around is pretty old now.

If there's something in that list that you truly think I should take a look at, I suppose I could. While I've had issues with laptops from all of those brands, Framework and HP have caused me exponentially more headaches, so if it's between Framework and Dell, I guess I'll fight with the Dell.

[Hinjima]

4 minutes ago, porina said:

Feels like you basically excluded the big name market.

 

You didn't say why not Legion, but I'll assume for now it is too gamer. Have to say the one I have is a gaming laptop but isn't very gamery. Nearest it gets to it is RGB backlight on keyboard, but you can set it to a single static colour.

 

I think Acer still make laptops, but no idea at all about their range.

 

Toshiba also springs to mind but in a quick look they have left the market, so anything still around is pretty old now.

Acer definitely still make laptops   Their Aspire lineup is one of the more popular 'budget' options here in Norway for a laptop.

I have had 3!

[Elarion]

2 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

Acer definitely still make laptops   Their Aspire lineup is one of the more popular 'budget' options here in Norway for a laptop.

I have had 3!

I'm looking for something in the $2,000 to $4,000 range, 32 to 128GB of RAM, at least 1TB of storage, preferably 2.

 

It's for some extremely resource intensive work.

[Hinjima]

4 minutes ago, Elarion said:

I'm looking for something in the $2,000 to $4,000 range, 32 to 128GB of RAM, at least 1TB of storage, preferably 2.

 

It's for some extremely resource intensive work.

Okay, I was just replying to @porina regarding that Acer still makes laptops.  The Aspire lineup is definitely not for you in this case  

I dont know ''anything'' about laptops so I unfortunately can't help you here.

 

Good luck!

 

Things like price and use case would be beneficial in your first post here so that its easier for others to find without scrolling down.

I recommend editing it with this information  

[Timme]

ThinkPad X1 13th gen?

[Elarion]

11 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

Okay, I was just replying to @porina regarding that Acer still makes laptops.  The Aspire lineup is definitely not for you in this case  

I dont know ''anything'' about laptops so I unfortunately can't help you here.

 

Good luck!

 

Things like price and use case would be beneficial in your first post here so that its easier for others to find without scrolling down.

I recommend editing it  

Thanks, I went ahead and updated it!

 

I did stumble across something called the LG Gram. I've had LG products before, and they've been pretty good. I can't find a lot of information about these compared to a lot of the larger brands though. If you or anyone else has experience with them, I'd love to hear it.

[manikyath]

you want easy to get a hold of, and excluded every big international brand...

 

if your past woes with the likes of dell and HP are let's say 10 years ago... might be worth just giving them a shot again.

also, if you're having hardware issues with dell and HP... stay the hell away from surfaces, you'll bend them in half.

[Needfuldoer]

Before writing off Dell and HP, do you have past experience with their professional machines, or just the home and small business ones from big-box stores? There's a world of difference between a Latitude (professional) and an Inspiron (home). It's like writing off ThinkPads because IdeaPads are cheap.

[porina]

Ok, so you want big performance and have a big budget. Since I bought up Lenovo I'll throw a random suggestion out:

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-pro-series/lenovo-legion-pro-7i-gen-9-16-inch-intel/len101g0034

 

It's at the top end of budget, but you get a mobile 4090 with 16GB of VRAM, 32GB ram, 2x 1TB SSDs, and CPU is 14900HX (8P+16E). This should run pretty much anything. The SSD arrangement is a little odd, but if anything like on mine you can swap them out if you need bigger capacity. The "gamer" aspects of it is RGB backlighting, which if it is anything like on mine, you can set to a single static colour, or turn it off totally. This laptop seems to add another RGB strip along the front. I assume you can customise it similarly but you should check further if this is at all interesting.

 

You can poke around their site some more for other options if you want to see if they do something similar with AMD, or lower the price by going to lower GPUs although that'll drop you to 8GB VRAM.

 

I only linked this as an example. I'm happy with my lower tier Lenovo laptop which has been solid in the few years I had it. If you're interested check it out or seek other similar models. For pure business use, I do think other companies on the excluded list should remain a consideration.

 

My model for comparison:

I believe the pro versions are not that different but may have further updates. At least they did when I looked years ago.