Which laptop do you use for work?

[drickyd]

Visits to some of my more remote customers takes me on trips across (the Namib) desert and some very rough terrain. The conditions I work in are often very dusty, dry and hot. For years I used a Panasonic 'toughbook' recomended by an old Army buddy, but when this finally needed replacing, and because I wanted to upgrade to a newer spec, I looked around for some alternatives. I decided on a GETAC B300, which is another very rugged machine, built around a magnesium alloy case and has a shock-mounted hard drive, sealed I/O caps and doors etc, but what really sold it to me is its (optional) sunlight readable display - great for use outdoors in an African environment. So that's my ideal portable machine today, so far performing fantastically and even when my Jeep bounces over the harshest of ground I don't worry that my laptop will give up on me when I need it most - ie when I get to my customer!

So my advice is simply to go with what suits the conditions you are going to be using it in and even though you probably wont need anything as tough as the GETAC you might want to think about the times you are going to chuck the machine and its bag into the boot of the car along with all your other gear. As a road warrior who needs to rely on things working when you get to your destination, sometimes 'rugged' is better than very 'top end performance' - but of course its your choice!

[marq5897]

Toshiba Satellite Laptop

[KM@]

I use my 13" UniBody MacBook Pro with OSX and Windows 7 installed. Battery life is great, doesn't have an eSata port which would have been handy so I use an USB IDE/SATA connector.

[Lefty]

I now use a samsung series 3 a6 laptop with ssd and 8gb formy vms!

[Rodrick]

Originally Posted by KM@

I use my 13" UniBody MacBook Pro with OSX and Windows 7 installed. Battery life is great, doesn't have an eSata port which would have been handy so I use an USB IDE/SATA connector.

13" MBA with a bunch of dongles. OS X as the primary OS, Win7 both in bootcamp and parallels.

If I need anything more than that then I'm probably working here at the shop.

[compnet]

@drickyd

About the getac, I just worked on one today, in fact a b300. The thing I found impressive was the lack of a fan - on an i7 no less. Apparently they have a crazy huge heatsink. The sun display was brighter than any laptop I've seen too. He said he got 8 hours battery life. Too bad it's a little pricey for my needs - he said it was over four thousand...

[Doctor Mouse]

Hp Mini 110, for the road!

[Mptech Services]

I use my amazing Dell XPS 17. i7 core processor, 16 gb of ram, two 500 gb hdd and an amazing 17' screen. Just beautiful. And it's looks amazingly professional to clients. I highly recommend to anyone.

[altrenda]

Originally Posted by Mptech Services

I use my amazing Dell XPS 17. i7 core processor, 16 gb of ram, two 500 gb hdd and an amazing 17' screen. Just beautiful. And it's looks amazingly professional to clients. I highly recommend to anyone.

A nice machine, but what kind of work are you doing that needs that kind of horsepower? I see that you are opening a shop, but do you carry that to customers sites?

The XPS can run rings around the poor little Atom in my Acer netbook. I mostly use a computer on site to configure routers, test connections, and download drivers, so I appreciate the under 3 pounds 7 hours battery life and the ability to hold it in one hand while working standing up. And a lot of customers remark on my cute little computer.

Horses for courses, I guess.

And welcome to another So Cal tech.

[kilonzom]

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 14-inch Midnight Black has an i3 love it dual boot Ubuntu 12.04 and win 7 came with 2 gb of ram upgraded it to 4gb swapped out the hdd for a solid state that i had in my old laptop got this machine for under 300 on amazon new couldn't be happier.