Hi all, I’m in the market for a new PC laptop and was thinking about the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon or the T460s. Anyone here have thoughts on these laptops, or other comparable ones?
I am not looking to do anything that’s too CPU intensive, such as gaming. I’m just looking for something with a great battery life, lightweight, decent keyboard and solid build. I don’t care about touch functionality / tablet capabilities.
My first thought was with Lenovo since I have had good experiences with them at work. I have had mixed experiences with Dell and Sony laptops so want to avoid those.
Hi Numi, I got the Surface Book last month and I’m absolutely loving it, I really recommend it, but it might not be the best choice for you since you don’t care so much about tablet features.
The ThinkPad Carbon is a solid choice. It seems similar to the other premium Ultrabook that’s been making the rounds lately, the XPS 13. My buddy got one this year and it runs like a dream. Personally, I don’t like the carbon fiber design as it attracts fingerprints like crazy and looks downright disgusting if you’re presenting something on it during a meeting or to a client. I hate having to constantly wipe the lid after I use a laptop.
If you want something that looks incredible in addition to good portability, I’d look into the upcoming HP Spectre, although I imagine it’s a bit more expensive than other offerings.
Surface book or Surface Pro 4…probably worth waiting to see what the Surface Pro 5 looks like. Regardless of whether you care about tablet features, the Surface computers are great. HP Spectre looks cool too. I have a Surface Pro 2 that I still love.
Bump. I’m in the market for a home laptop too. The variety of choices available is overwhelming. Anyone want to give me a tip?
Cnet’s favorite all around laptop is the HP Spectre x360, which can come in a 15 inch version and can be used as a tablet. But it’s about $500 more expensive than a budget laptop like the Dell Inspirion. Then there are Lenovo, Asus, etc.
I wouldn’t use a computer for any serious gaming. I use it for browsing, some Office stuff, and lots of media storage (for pics of my kid, mainly) and playback. I suppose the touchscreen tablet feature could be used by said kid at times. So I’m leaning toward the Spectre but wonder if I’m buying too much laptop. On the other hand, my last one is going on seven years now so even at $1500 I’m hopefully getting my money’s worth.
I don’t know what specific model you will buy, but from my experience, these are the features that make a difference:
High resolution and high contrast monitor. Looks nicer, reduce fatigue, have more information on the screen, etc.
Solid state hard drive - everything will run much faster. Unless you have a huge movie collection, you do not need terrabytes of storage and it is better to focus on speed over capacity.
User interface hardware - keyboard, touchpad, joystick/nipple thing. I really did not like the cheapo Dell keyboard that I used before. In my opinion, Lenovo makes the best keyboard by far. The action is firm and clicky, as opposed to “squishy”. Apple keyboard is also not too bad, but I don’t like the “chicklet” arrangement so much. Lenovo also has that red rubber nipple thing, that to me, is better than a touchpad. Your preferences might vary.
HDMI output ports, for making it easier to connect to TV or monitors.
Upgradability - it’s cheaper to buy your own RAM, compared to specing it in your original purchase.
I would not get the hybrid laptop/PC models. Most people say that these end up being mediocre PCs and mediocre laptops. Just spend the extra money on an iPad or something.
THIS! My gf just bought a tremendously expensive Lenovo laptop and you still had to pay extra to get HDMI compatibility. Its extremely annoying her computer doesnt have it and I always have to grab my POS $250 Acer that does have it to stream stuff to my tv
Yeah actually, the reason why I mentioned that is because I have a Lenovo laptop without that port. Sometimes, they sacrifice this to increase portability. There have been a few occasions when I thought, hey it would be nice if there was a HDMI port here.