Need suggestions for a decent laptop for work. budget around $1000-$1500

Hi guys,

I need some help/suggestions for a decent laptop. I have not bought a laptop for over 10 years, my current one has survived for so long but I'm thinking it is time to replace her.

  • I need a laptop that is not too heavy as I want to take it to work relate courses/meetings. interstate meetings sometimes.
  • needs to have decent battery life
  • requires at least 1-2gb in terms of graphics card.
  • 3-4gb of RAM
  • screen resolution must be at least 1200x800. full HD or as close to it would be nice to have.
  • needs a DVD/drive
  • not fussed with screen size a I am more concerned about keeping the weight down.
  • looking to do some basic photo editing works with the laptop.

I have read some of the forum topics and it seems to me that SSD hard drive and GTX graphics cards are the way to go. I don't mind using external hard drives for storage but there should at least be >150gb of storage if SSD is the way to go.

I have a budget of around $1000-1500. I would prefer a laptop/laptop brand that lasts as I cant really afford for the laptop to breakdown and be sent away for return.
Does this laptop exist?

TIA

Comments

  • requires at least 1-2gb in terms of graphics card.

    Gaming? If you want to keep the weight down, and the price down, a discrete GPU gets in the way of that. Any reason you'd need one?

    I can think of say.. the upcoming Mi Notebook? It's a pretty svelte ultrabook, Core i5-6200U with Nvidia 2GB 940MX graphics and PCIE SSD, plus a free SATA slot for your own hdd.

    If you need something more traditional, need a grunty CPU / GPU with adequate cooling and can't give up the ol' optical disk drive, you'd be looking at getting a much thicker and bulkier device, plenty of options here including Thinkpad Edge E550 series (spec'ed with R7 M265X (2GB)) or the Dell Inspiron 7000 series (specced with a pretty powerful 4GB GTX 960m)

    • I can think of say.. the upcoming Mi Notebook?(xiaomi-mi.com) It's a pretty svelte ultrabook, Core i5-6200U with Nvidia 2GB 940MX graphics and PCIE SSD, plus a free SATA slot for your own hdd.

      Except the RAM does not appear to be upgradeable and it'll cost more than $1000 AU for the better models.

  • +1

    Check out Metabox http://www.metabox.com.au/ fully customisable so just add what you need.

  • Dell inspiron hands down, built like a tank and cheap but no fancy gimicks like in expensive laptops. My last one lasted 8 years of solid use as well.

  • Get a "business" grade laptop. Some of them include or have onsite service as an option.

    E.g. the Dell Latitude series, Lenovo Thinkpad, HP Elitebooks etc.

    Why do you need a graphics card?

  • I need to run a planning software for work that requires the graphics card. I guess 1gb will cover me with regards to the minimum requirements for the software

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