Long-term office laptop focused on mobility for a physicist (1000-1300€)

Mobile Tech Laptops & Netbooks
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Hello!

I’m looking for a laptop for office use, suitable for basic programming tasks in the price range of 1000-1300€ after taxes (I live in Hungary, which means that local prices can vary widely). I would rather spend more and future-proof for about 5 years rather than choosing the cheapest option.

I’m currently using an Asus Zenbook Pro 15 UX550V (i7-7700HQ, 16 Gb RAM - dual channel 2400 MHz, GTX 1050Ti, 1Tb SSD, 60Hz - touchscreen) for almost 5 years and I feel it’s time to upgrade at the start of my PhD studies.

Mac is not an option due to work environment and personal preferences. Battery life, keyboard, reliability, mobility are the most important features for me. I read a lot on the road (some international trips every year for weeks at a time), edit PDFs, create SVG graphics, type in LaTeX, use standard office applications, code, but the servers do the heavy lifting in simulations, so raw performance is not so important.
In terms of ports, I prefer if everything is available and I don’t have to carry a dongle, ideal expectations:

  • HDMI (2.0+)
  • 2xUSB-A
  • 2xUSB-C
  • 3.5mm Jack
  • optional Ethernet.

I have no AMD vs Intel preferences, although USB 4.0 would be nice in the absence of ThunderBolt. Expandability is a plus, but the basic expectation is 512 Gb SSD, 16 Gb RAM (DDR5 maybe, but I’m not sure how much of an upgrade would that be?). I’m using this as a work machine, so gaming is not important + I have a dedicated desktop PC for that.

With a quick search I have found a few models to consider:

  1. Lenovo

  • ThinkPad E14 G5 Intel (i5-1335u, 16 Gb RAM - 3200 MHz, 512 Gb SSD, 1920x1200 - 16:10 - IPS - 45% NTSC - 60Hz - 300 nit, 57 Whr):
    Colour fidelity is not critical in my work, but the display is a downgrade from my current one, although the 16:10 aspect ratio is attractive. Although I’m used to a 15" laptop display, I can sacrifice this on the altar of mobility (I connect to an external display at work anyway). The version with the AMD processor (Ryzen 7730u) has more limited options for port speeds, but even with the 13th generation Intel processor I’m a bit wary of battery life claims.

  • ThinkPad E15 G4 (15 col version) didn’t get the update for the current CPU generation and it has only FHD display. L-series should be an upgrade over the E-series. Similar specs to E14 G5 but the display is worse at FHD 250 nit, and the additional IO (SD card reader, SmartCard reader) is not relevant for me. The supposed build quality and reliability difference makes this even an upgrade, as the specs aren’t any better?

  • Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14 (Ryzen 7 7735HS, VGA: Radeon 680M, 16 Gb RAM - DDR5 6400, 512 Gb SSD, 2560x1600 - 350 nit - 100% sRGB - 90 Hz, 73 Whr): looks like an upgrade in every spec, but I have no experience with the Yoga series. I have no experience with their build quality or the longevity of those hinges. It feels weird that everything looks better on paper but the price is similar to the ThinkPads. What’s the catch?

  1. Dell

  • Latitude 5440/5540 (i5-1335u, 16 Gb RAM - 3200 MHz, FHD, 45% NTSC, 54 Whr):
    I couldn’t find many reviews on this machine, but the 50xx series is rated as one of the more reliable ones.

  • The Latitude 30xx series, Vostro, Inspirion models are supposed to be slightly cheaper in price and quality. Do you have any practical experience with this?

  1. Asus

  • Their ExpertBook series looks nice but the battery is not huge, and they haven’t updated from previous generation.

  • Zenbook Pro 15 (2023) is also an interesting option but I’m unsure about their OLED screen and they are hard to come by.

These are the manufacturers that I have some experience with so I have searched for their options in the first place, but I’m open to any suggestions. The popular Framework laptops are bloody expensive here so those are not an option for me unfortunately, however I love their modularity. Laptops which play nicely with Linux also get bonus points.

Suggestions, recommendations, experiences and advice are welcome! Thank you in advance!

P.S. as a newbie on the Forums I cannot use links to point you to some reviews on the models/specs, but I hope you can find them easily if you want to look them up.

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Animated Gif Welcome To The Party Gif - Foto Kolekcija

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Lenovo ThinkPad T or P series.

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I’m a fan of the Latitude 5440/5540s myself - they’re our primary-issue machines at my work and are well behaved machines once you remove the Dell crapware from them (ideally do a fresh Win11 install). I include Dell’s updater software etc in that description btw, some of it is genuinely invasive and detrimental to proper function of the machine. Thankfully on a fresh Win11 install, all drivers appear to download automatically, at least on the machines I’ve tried it on.

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You have both HP Probook 835/845/865 G10s with Ryzen Zen 4 CPUs, Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 also ships with Zen 4 CPUs.

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What he said. If you can stretch your budget, if not E series will work too but not nearly as robust as T.

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Or to stretch the budget you can go for last years model. 12th gen or 13th gen doesn’t matter much.

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Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I don’t think the P series would be relevant for me, as I wouldn’t really be able to take advantage of that extra power. I’m a bit wary of the T series, as on paper they don’t really offer much more than the member of the E series (except for the better quality display) for the higher price. I guess the build quality, which is difficult to convey on spec sheets, makes the difference. Any other notable differences which makes the T series a better pick?

@nutral 's suggestion might be the easy-way to lower the price, but as far as I know the 12th gen Intel power consumption is much worse, so it might be better to stretch the budget instead.

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Thanks for the HP suggestions! I completely missed this series. I only found these model numbers under the EliteBook series, not under the ProBook series, but I guess that’s just a typo.

For my use-case, these might be a good choice. Unfortunately, I have no experience with HP products, so if anyone has any further insights, I welcome you to share! Thanks!

I already had Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 on my radar, as I mentioned in my post. It’s a very nice machine on paper (Zen 4, 73 Whr battery, 2560 x 1600 display), and they have similar pricing to the higher-end E-series ThinkPads, which made me question whether there is a hidden weakness in these Yoga books? Perhaps the hinge loosens after long term use? I know that only the SSD is upgradeable, but what else could be a drawback that isn’t obvious on paper? Because their specs are much better compared to ThinkPads for the same price.

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Err my bad, I mean the Elitebook series :slight_smile:

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The keyboard on the t series tends to be better as well (from the couple models I tried in the past few years). Even though the e series keyboard outperforms many other models like the dell xps.

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@LeX77
Some Thinkpads models are a bit easier to work with, not sure if Lenovo still uses hardware whitelists on Thinkpads and they tend to come with Windows Professional ootb. The L and E series are much more cheaply built and in my opinion are only made because of the branding. I’d say that the higher Yoga and Ideapad models are much better when compared.

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T series will have much tougher build, magnesium alloy keyboard frame, fiber reinforced plastic lids, aluminum reinforced parts, carbon fiber reinforcements in the chassis, better keyboards, better case coating, T series ending with S (like T15S) are slim versions and have magnesium alloy roll cage.

We have these at work, and the oldest one still working every day in a dusty workshop is 2nd gen Intel, so probably form 2012.

I personally use a ThinkPad 13 in the workshop and I am by no means gentle to it, but unlike our T430 this one developed cracks in the chassis and some rubber part around the display needs some glue from time to time. Still works tho, since ~2017.

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This might be out of your budget and timeline, but have you considered a framework 16? You could upgrade the laptop cpu and add additional gpu performance in the future

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This has your current 16gb ram/1tb config.

You can get it $300-400 cheaper at ~$1500 if you DIY it with your own ram, storage, windows 11 pro license and USB power adapter

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Screenshot_20231229-190625
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Yes, thanks for bringing it up, I do like the concept and I would like one, but they are not yet shipping to Hungary, which means: “You’ll need to handle further shipping from there [supported country]. Note that VAT, warranty service, and returns will all need to be handled in the shipping country.” For a work laptop, this is a no-go.

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You must have never suffered a sub 250 nits laptop display then.
They are practically unusable outdoors.
One suggestion I’ll give is laptops are like office chairs.
You have to actually sit on one… errr scratch that I mean you have to use it yourself
to know if it is good for you.

Another suggestion is don’t spend too much.
There will always be something better around the corner
and you’ll regret spending too much on a laptop.
I know we want our stuff to last five years
but life is uncertain and we don’t know what we don’t know.
Don’t be scared of having a desktop and a laptop.

Start with a cheap, used Thinkpad T490 with a dock to see what you really need.
Or go crazy with a minipc such as the MINISFORUM EliteMini UM780 XTX Mini PC AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS DDR5 32GB 1TB SSD (currently USD 623 plus tax on amazon dot com)

as a PhD student do you need mobility?
What all do you need to do on the go that your current laptop can’t do?
Maybe a Chromebook?

You mentioned HDMI 2.0 plus so you likely have better than just the standard 23-inch 1080p60 monitors.
Just a thought.