I had a ton on PCs at home until I left my job and all of them vanished suddenly. So, when my aging Dell Precision 5510 died in the middle of a file copy operation recently, I had no choice but to research my current options.
#1 Dell has increased the price of the Precision laptops tremendously. Also, I am a bit tired about the weight of the 5510 which is similar to the XPS. I wanted a change.
#2 Apple is a great option but without upgradeable memory or SSD, and requiring at-least 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD, options are pricey. Also, I like the Microsoft Office experience better on the PC than a Mac. Additionally, not being able to install the programs I need for development like SQL Server, Visual Studio (Mac version now deprecated), etc is a deal breaker considering I may have to debug/ fix/ demo this stuff.
I definitely spend a lot of time on screens, so anything to improve that experience would be nice. I already had a 4K screen on my dead laptop, so that would be the starting point.
I figured this time around I should go for a 4K OLED screen, because I use everything in dark mode anyway and the deep blacks would be good to have to reduce eye strain.
That immediately reduced my options:
Lenovo — is nice, but the last pricey Lenovo laptop I used not so long ago died of bad memory; so no thanks.
Samsung — not a brand known for laptops. Not taking any chances.
Dell XPS — They have an option. I may go for it; but it is heavy like my current laptop.
Asus Zenbook — Looks great on paper; saw it in Best Buy, and turned off by its plasticky body. Actually, I did not like any of the laptops I saw in person except the Macbooks and the Surface laptops.
HP — Liked none of the laptops on display in Best Buy. Also, their website does not let you filter the laptops by the options you want. Too confusing, like many other laptop websites I saw. If you don’t give me a way to filter and choose the laptop I need, I am not going with you.
LG Gram — made of aluminium, super thin, super light weight. Also, heard many stories of this dying and people struggling to repair or replace them (only pricey options…
