New Laptop Advice

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MikeAqua

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#315383 10-Jul-2024 10:51

I am a few weeks away from semi-retirement, in which I'll be doing a mix of consultancy, land lording and voluntary governance. Looking for a laptop for general business use and little light video editing (short phone videos, cutting but no effects or filters or other fancy stuff). I'll be travelling quite a bit.

I have landed on this Buy the HP ProBook 450 G10 15.6" FHD AG Touch Business Laptop Intel Core i7... ( 9E7W5PT ) online - PBTech.co.nz

I'd appreciate any feedback on suitability of this model or other suggestions. Also do I need 32GB of RAM or will 16GB suffice?

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#3258064 10-Jul-2024 11:10

Probooks are great units and tend to last forever. Its all we use at work.

16GB is fine for most people, 32GB is a bit overkill unless you know the apps you will be using will need it. For what you've described, 16GB is fine - and you can upgrade it later down the track anyway if need be.

Take a look at the i5 units as well, while i7 is a power house, modern i5's are no slouches for day to day work/office stuff.

XPD / Gavin

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#3258079 10-Jul-2024 11:41

Just be aware lots of modern laptops don't allow memory to be upgraded (the one you linked to does seem to), so worth checking that and if it can't be upgraded go with 32GB for future proofing.

Biggest question is probably how much battery life you want? Given the sorts of tasks you listed that's likely to be more of a significant limitation than the performance.

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#3258081 10-Jul-2024 11:48

Looks like the 32GB option also automatically doubles the size of the SSD. Just thought it might be worth noting. Its not my money...

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#3258086 10-Jul-2024 12:18

First of all, feel free to scream at me. I'll understand.

A year ago I changed jobs. My new employer uses Macs instead of Windows PCs. I have been Anti-Apple for a very long time, so I wasn't very impressed, but I was looking forward to everything else about my new job so I didn't let it get to me. It's now 12 months later.

I would never, ever go back to a Windows PC. This Macbook Pro (M2) I've got is amazing. The battery just does not run out. The OS doesn't try to spy on me, or put adverts on the lock screen, start menu, or try to push Edge at me. But most importantly, when I open the lid it is instantly ready to work. Not 5 seconds of disk flashing, a bit of clunking and then an unlock screen. You open it, hit the fingerprint reader and it's like it's been booted up and running for the last hour.

The learning curve on MacOS for me was quite steep, but you mention being close to retirement so I am assuming you might have a bit of time to learn/figure it out. If I had to buy my own personal laptop today, I would buy a Macbook Air M3. And of course, I'd weep as I handed over a huge chunk of change. But I can not stress enough how amazing the battery and performance of these things is. It truly just goes and goes and goes, and does it fast.

At my old job we had the HP Laptops you've mentioned and they were great too, really solid and reliable, so if you (like I used to be) would rather hang yourself than use a Mac, I think you've picked a very solid choice. Though I would get 32G + bigger SSD. It'll give the laptop another 2 years of life and you won't get annoyed as it swaps when you open your 38th tab in Chrome.

Hope this helps.

[To be clear, I am not a Apple Fanboi! Or at least, not a full-on one. I still have a Google Pixel phone!!]

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#3258089 10-Jul-2024 12:30

eonsim:

Just be aware lots of modern laptops don't allow memory to be upgraded (the one you linked to does seem to), so worth checking that and if it can't be upgraded go with 32GB for future proofing.

Biggest question is probably how much battery life you want? Given the sorts of tasks you listed that's likely to be more of a significant limitation than the performance.

Probooks do tend to have a spare slot or user accessible slot to remove existing RAM. With HP, its their consumer models that tend to have soldered RAM limiting upgrade options.

XPD / Gavin

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#3258091 10-Jul-2024 12:32

rb99:

Looks like the 32GB option also automatically doubles the size of the SSD. Just thought it might be worth noting. Its not my money...

PB's Probooks with the larger drives, are usually done by them, and not standard HP spec/build. I've had hit and miss with these systems, ordered 5 one day, 2/5 were DOA. PB tech insisted they couldnt fault them when returned, and eventually sent back to me. At top of the box was a worksheet showing they had replaced the RAM, and motherboards.

So if you do get one of the upgraded units, test it all ASAP to save time going back and forth with any issues.

XPD / Gavin

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#3258092 10-Jul-2024 12:34

FWIW, I had an i7 ProBook for work, which performed really well, some light video editing along with generic business use including use of various software at the same time, and it was a nice size for travelling too. As the inbuilt webcam was 720p only, and since I needed to make nice presentation videos in HD, that got upgraded to a Lenovo with a 1080 inbuilt webcam. I'd recommend the ProBook, but as muppet says above, I am jealous of the battery longetivity my husband gets on his Macbook Pro (which I use sometimes) and how when he opens the lid it's ready to go. So if your budget stretches, I'd give some thought to a Macbook.

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#3258093 10-Jul-2024 12:35

450 has a one year warranty, get a hp car pack to boost to 3 or 5 years

Accidental damage protection is also worth considering however it is only covered on elitebooks

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Scott3

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#3258095 10-Jul-2024 12:38

Probook is a really solid business laptop.

Should note that it is a little chunky, and only gets 1 year warranty, when compared to the Elitebook which comes above it in the range (3 years). The warranties are both onsite though, which is great compared to a consumer (send it away for 2 weeks) warranty.

Wife has one. Hers has only 1 USB C port, which is a bit lacking by modern standards, but otherwise has been fine.

Note you do pay a premium for the business grade HP.

Just taken delivery of a Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i (with 14th gen Core ultra 155H processor, 32GB ram, 1TB SSD, OLED screen etc, support upgraded to 2 years onsite etc) for under $2k (via their online Educational store).

This is very much a consumer grade machine (historically the yogi line has issues with the screen hinges breaking, but I am hoping they have sorted that out now), and lacks the touch screen, but my partner wanted something slimmer than her current Pro-book, and we wanted a powerful spec sheet at a cheap price, so it worked for us. (it will largely live plugged into a dock on a desk, so we didn't feel we needed the durability of a corporate issue probook).

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#3258096 10-Jul-2024 12:49

muppet:

First of all, feel free to scream at me. I'll understand.

A year ago I changed jobs. My new employer uses Macs instead of Windows PCs. I have been Anti-Apple for a very long time, so I wasn't very impressed, but I was looking forward to everything else about my new job so I didn't let it get to me. It's now 12 months later.

I would never, ever go back to a Windows PC. This Macbook Pro (M2) I've got is amazing. The battery just does not run out. The OS doesn't try to spy on me, or put adverts on the lock screen, start menu, or try to push Edge at me. But most importantly, when I open the lid it is instantly ready to work. Not 5 seconds of disk flashing, a bit of clunking and then an unlock screen. You open it, hit the fingerprint reader and it's like it's been booted up and running for the last hour.

The learning curve on MacOS for me was quite steep, but you mention being close to retirement so I am assuming you might have a bit of time to learn/figure it out. If I had to buy my own personal laptop today, I would buy a Macbook Air M3. And of course, I'd weep as I handed over a huge chunk of change. But I can not stress enough how amazing the battery and performance of these things is. It truly just goes and goes and goes, and does it fast.

At my old job we had the HP Laptops you've mentioned and they were great too, really solid and reliable, so if you (like I used to be) would rather hang yourself than use a Mac, I think you've picked a very solid choice. Though I would get 32G + bigger SSD. It'll give the laptop another 2 years of life and you won't get annoyed as it swaps when you open your 38th tab in Chrome.

Hope this helps.

[To be clear, I am not a Apple Fanboi! Or at least, not a full-on one. I still have a Google Pixel phone!!]

That's interesting; I assume you must be in some sort of design workforce. As it's rare to have a Mac Centric environment - especially in corporate or government

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Scott3

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#3258109 10-Jul-2024 13:28

Should also note, if you are traveling a lot, you may be better off going down a size or two from the 15.6 incl laptop listed (of course that entirely depends on how much laptop you are willing to lug around).

On ram, given you mentioned video, I would say go for 32GB. These days 16GB is kind of the minimum, and 32 / 64GB for heavy stuff.

I am using 16.6GB / 63.4GB on my work machine at the moment, and I don't really have anything heavy open. 15 internet tabs, 1 pdf viewer, 4 outlook windows etc. On my prior machine (16gb ram), it was very easy to max out.

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#3258115 10-Jul-2024 13:42

Lots of Macs in universities - both staff and (in medicine anyway) >90% of the students as there’s no need for specialist windows only software.

It’s interesting that if you look at somewhere like The Verge the “best laptop” is the MacBook Air still, ahead of the windows machines. The screen/keyboard/trackpad/battery/speed combo is remarkably good - particularly the battery duration.

Obviously there are plenty of usage scenarios where Macs just can’t cope with the software needs (particularly science and engineering) but if you can cope with MacOS then for general use I think the current crop of MacBooks are an excellent choice, assuming you don’t need a touch screen.

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MikeAqua

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#3258122 10-Jul-2024 13:57

Thanks All. It sounds like I am on the right track. To answer many useful comments in one place.

Apple: I'm too cheap. Plus I don't have any other apple products

Camera: I hadn't thought to check that. I have a 1080 external camera at my workstation at home, but 720 should be enough for the road.

Elitebook: I have one for work now, they upgraded me the week before I resigned (whoops). I might see if I can buy it

RAM: I think I'll stick with 16GB. If that proves to be poor decision, I've done RAM upgrades before.

Size: 15" is what I have now. I'm OK with lugging it around

Mike

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#3258186 10-Jul-2024 15:21

Delorean:
muppet:

First of all, feel free to scream at me. I'll understand.

A year ago I changed jobs. My new employer uses Macs instead of Windows PCs. I have been Anti-Apple for a very long time, so I wasn't very impressed, but I was looking forward to everything else about my new job so I didn't let it get to me. It's now 12 months later.

I would never, ever go back to a Windows PC. This Macbook Pro (M2) I've got is amazing. The battery just does not run out. The OS doesn't try to spy on me, or put adverts on the lock screen, start menu, or try to push Edge at me. But most importantly, when I open the lid it is instantly ready to work. Not 5 seconds of disk flashing, a bit of clunking and then an unlock screen. You open it, hit the fingerprint reader and it's like it's been booted up and running for the last hour.

The learning curve on MacOS for me was quite steep, but you mention being close to retirement so I am assuming you might have a bit of time to learn/figure it out. If I had to buy my own personal laptop today, I would buy a Macbook Air M3. And of course, I'd weep as I handed over a huge chunk of change. But I can not stress enough how amazing the battery and performance of these things is. It truly just goes and goes and goes, and does it fast.

At my old job we had the HP Laptops you've mentioned and they were great too, really solid and reliable, so if you (like I used to be) would rather hang yourself than use a Mac, I think you've picked a very solid choice. Though I would get 32G + bigger SSD. It'll give the laptop another 2 years of life and you won't get annoyed as it swaps when you open your 38th tab in Chrome.

Hope this helps.

[To be clear, I am not a Apple Fanboi! Or at least, not a full-on one. I still have a Google Pixel phone!!]

That's interesting; I assume you must be in some sort of design workforce. As it's rare to have a Mac Centric environment - especially in corporate or government

It’s not uncommon anymore in a lot of corporates. Office 365 has made it quite normal.

My employer started offering Mac’s as one of our options for a standard client around 18 months ago. From what I have been told one of the largest AD installations globally so we are not a niche business.

Handle9

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#3258188 10-Jul-2024 15:25

If you are considering a 15 inch laptop I’d want one that is higher res than 1080p. IMO 1080p is fine up to 13-14 inches but I’d want to use something QHD at 15 inches.

Saying that I’d never buy a 15 inch laptop. I really prefer something smaller and lighter.

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