It seems I'll be picking up a new laptop in the very near future. My trusty thinkpad is starting to get tired. It'll probably get a new hard-drived, switched to unix and passed on to one of the team.
Requirements then:
1. Windows... I think. This annoys me. I basically get Windows just to have Excel. There is nothing else that I use that can't either be replaced on run on unix. I'm not sure I am ready to leave excel behind which means windows 8 I suppose.
2. Fast start up (even once loaded up with AV etc). Preferably SSD or hybrid drive at least for the OS
3. Full sized keys... I'm not pissing about with toy keyboards
4. 500gb drive. I just can't get my usage much lower than that. I've been trying for weeks, but I'm stuck at about 410. I know the 500gb flies in the face of the SSD idea a little.
5. Not too heavy - needs to be luggable.
6. At least a reasonable battery
Niceties
These aren't essential, but would be nice
* Not stupid money
* Converting form factor of some kind is attractive
* Thin and sexy would be nice
Anyone had a recent purchase they love, or seen any good kit around of late?
My most recent machine is just over a year old, which means the market has changed substantially - there were few touchscreen laptops a year ago and there are tons now.
I bought an HP and it was complete crap (see below and I returned it). At that point I scoured the web for reliability stats and the most recent and best ones I could find (from a company named "square" something that does aftermarket repairs or warranties or something) said that HP had the worst reliability and ASUS the best. Could be bogus info, but I went with ASUS for my next machine.
ASUS has some great, thin and really nice laptops and they have an "Instant On" technology which, as near as I can tell, is nothing other than sleeping the computer (keep the data in RAM) rather than hibernating (writing to disk). It does start fast as long as you aren't doing a full boot. Doing a full boot largely depends on how much crap you have Windows load when it boots and I load a lot (I'd rather wait while I'm having my morning tea while when I have an idea fresh in my head).
>> I basically get Windows just to have Excel
You can always run a Windows VM. If you have a DVD copy of Windows, it won't even cost anything
>>means windows 8
There's a lot of griping about Windows 8 which I don't understand. Overwhelmingly, for me Win 8 is almost identical to Win 7 which is a lot like Vista (much maligned, but worked fine for me). My honest opinion is that Win 8 is better than XP.
I should say that for years with XP I installed Launchy and launched applications by typing names and hitting return. I haven't used the Start Menu in close to a decade, so I don't miss it. Also, I have Metro everything turned off. I am almost never in the Metro interface and I am never ever ever running a Metro app. Most people I hear complain about Win 8 have trouble getting past these two things. They miss the Start Menu and they can't get away from Metro for reasons I don't understand.
>>500gb flies in the face of the SSD idea a little
This is one of the three reasons I ended up not getting a machine with an SSD drive. I wanted 1TB. I also was leery of reports that SSD drives have a limited number of read/wright cycles. Then the third reason was that I actually bought an HP machine with a hybrid system (I think it was 128GB of SSD and 750GB of spinning platters). It was absolute and utter garbage. I lost all of my data three times in the first 90 days (I don't think this was HD related though) and had to reinstall from a backup image. It was ridiculous. I brought it back, got a full refund and got myself a machine with spinning platters only and I' quite happy.
>>Full sized keys
Yes. And also, this might seem minor, *backlit* keys. The HP did not have a backlit keyboard and I was surprised who often that bothered me. I had no idea I computed in low light so often. But apparently I do. My ASUS has a backlit keyboard and I can shut off the backlighting if I'm running on battery. Best of both worlds.
>>At least a reasonable battery
For most laptops, one of the first things I do is get a second battery. The OEM spares are usually well over $100, but for most machines, I've gotten second batteries on EBay for less than $40. So worth it. My one complaint about my current machine is that there is not an aftermarket battery available (or wasn't last I looked). If I were trying to decide between two machines, I might look at spare battery cost as a tie breaker.
http://th3core.com/talk/hardware-technology/i'll-probably-buy-1-more-win-laptop-recommendations/msg26524/#msg26524
Best spec so far with Win 8 & bluetooth 4 is
Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.1-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook $669.99
Intel Core i5-3337U ULV Processor (1.8 GHz)
4 GB DDR3 RAM
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive, 24 GB Solid-State Drive
Lenovo model# 59365302
I like ergophobe's idea of going with Linux and running Parallels or some other emulator to run Excel. Or use one of the open source spread sheets for Linux.
I'll reply in more depth later, but this is interesting: ASUS Transformer Book TX300
https://www.asus.com/uk/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_Transformer_Book_TX300/#overview