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What laptop size do you use?

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graycat
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 3:26 pm    Post subject: What laptop size do you use? Reply with quote

I'm looking to replace my laptop and am at the age old conundrum of which size screen to get.

Currently I run a 13" screen and have found that it's great for portability but working on servers etc all day really needs an external monitor before it's of any use. I'm considering a 15" replacement but the 17" is giving me come-hither eyes.

I'll be using the laptop for work (driving servers over RDP and SSH), day to day management tasks (e-mails, word processing, documentation, etc etc) and running as my main media source at home or out on sites.

What do you guys think?
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georgec
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you travel a lot with your laptop like taking it home every day then I suggest to stick to a lightweight model. You can find some 15” models which are manageable to carry but am not sure about the 17” ones; I find them quite bulky and relatively heavy. I would go for a lightweight model max. 13” with docking station capabilities. You can have docking stations both at home and at office. Dell and IBM models have some lightweight models with high specs and can take docking stations!!!!
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AdamV
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Had a tiny one for a while, but surgery fixed that.

Then I bought a laptop with a 12" screen to slip in my briefcase along with files and other junk. Used with a monitor back at base, but started to get frustrated while on site.

Replaced with 15" Dell, great workhorse, reasonable screen even when without monitor for longer periods.

Got fed up with lugging the weight around, and no longer needed a machine with a 9 pin serial connection for configuring network devices (it's just not what I do anymore, and almost everything has an HTML interface now it seems).

Now running a Sony Vaio Z series - 13.1" widescreen, core i5, 8GB RAM, multiple SSD RAID. Goes like sh*t off a lightly greased shovel. Sleep and wake ridiculously quick. Eats Virtual Box VMs of 2008 servers as light snacks.
Battery life fantastic so I can go without power supply for a whole day of light use, less for hefty VM stuff of course.
Super light, super portable, super fast, nice balance against screen size.

And back at base I have it plugged into my 24" widescreen. Annoyingly, it won't do two external monitors, which is ridiculous for the graphics power it has, when my 4 year old Dell is quite happy to run two side by side, and the internal if I really wanted to go mad.

I would consider 15", but more important would be resolution, as it is annoying that my current screen is only 900 pixels vertically, so this can get annoying for remote desktop sessions and VM work. On the other hand, if it were higher res at the same size, it would be pretty hard to read.
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graycat
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 10:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cheers for the replies, guys. Always interesting to see peoples take on things.

I used to run a mini-Vaio (one of the Z series I think) but it's over four years old now and the hardware is failing. Also I found that it was great for travelling as it was just so small and light but typing on it for extended periods was a nightmare. If I wanted to get any proper support work done I'd have to connect up an external monitor and that's not always possible on site.

After that I was using my 13" MacBook (please don't faint!) which was much more useful. Slightly bigger and a little heavier but a much better screen meant working on it was a lot nicer all round.

Recently as I've been travelling to remote offices and doing extended periods of network and server support I've found I was running into the same issue of screen size. A laptop with a larger screen is the logical next step and after much research etc I've gone for the 17" MacBook Pro.

Yes it's expensive but I feel the hardware alone warrants the price especially when you see that screen in real life. As I'm away as much as I'm at home the laptop is also my media machine so having 750Gb and a screen that runs at 1920 x 1200 natively makes a HUGE difference..... sorry for the pun.

Anyway, thought I'd report back regardless.
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alt.don
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have the 15" Macbook Pro and quite like it. Also use the 13" one at work which is quite nice. Actually don't notice the smaller screen size when using it. Switched from Windows to Mac about two years ago at the house as well as for the iPhone's.

Home h/w

24" iMac
15" Macbook Pro
iPad
iPhone

Likely going to pick up the iPad2 and Macbook Air in a couple of months.
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