Multi Purpose Laptop Required

[chris1012]

I have been using my Dell XPS for over 5-6 years now and its about time I changed to a laptop that fits the following criteria -

1. Very Good Battery Life
2. Not too heavy as I will be taking it on trips with me
3. At least 8 gig of ram
4. 13"-15" Screen size

The laptop will be used for running self learning labs such as VMWARE, so the processor needs to be quick.
I tend to multi task with multiple apps running in the background, so hence the minimum of 8gig as well.

Any suggestions please?
Budget is around 1k but happy to pay more if required...

 

[OhEsEcks]

Have you looked at the new Dell XPS line? Also the Lenovo Thinkpad T series. In regards to battery life, you can get larger batteries for the Lenovo T Series (and most of their Thinkpad lines). So if you are away from a power source for more than a few hours, it could be the better alternative.

 

[chris1012]

Thank you for your response.

Ibhavw seen the new XPS line but I think there are better alternatives out there?

What would you think of the Mac books in comparison?

 

[OhEsEcks]

What would you think of the Mac books in comparison?

Offers great battery life (reportedly 9 hours, but I suppose that will vary depending on how hard you're taxing the thing). And looks great. Retina screen. Only a dual core mind you. But even the base CPU on the 13" (2.6GHz i5-4278U) supports virtualisation instructions that would probably benefit you when running something like VMWARE. But the mid range 15" Lenovo Thinkpad T540p with the i5-4210M offers the same support and turbos .1 GHz higher. But doesn't have the retina screen (but is 1080p). Also, I know a lot of Lenovo diehards are complaining about the new keyboards on the Thinkpads but they're old and crotchetty and don't like change. The trackpad on the Macbook (and I keep repeating myself when this comes up) is probably the best trackpad I've ever used on any mobile laptop. And I'll say it again anyway, FingerWorks was the best aquisition Apple made (for their touch tech) aside from buying NeXT and bringing Jobs back.

 

[OhEsEcks]

Oh. The only thing with the Macbook is that they've designed the thing to prevent user expansion. So if you're buying something you want to last, once you start speccing extra RAM and stuff... you're getting well out of your £1k budget, but as you said, you're happy to pay more if required. But it's something to consider.

 

[CleverBalls]

I'd suggest buying a Clevo model, like Schenker or XMG. They definitely provide the best bang for buck, can go up to a 4k screen with an i7 processor for around 1k. - Provided you don't shell out for an expensive GPU anyway.