12 Years ago I had a Sony Vaio. I quite liked it. Then in my next job, 2017 or so, I went for a Toshiba Portege, and absolutely loved it.

Guess what the above two have in common? Yup, they stopped making laptops for the professional market. So now I’m a bit at a loss. Any recommendations?

Requirements:

  • Lightweight and easy to carry around.
  • 13-15" display, preferably
  • Decent battery life
  • It absolutely must have an RJ45
  • Works well with linux
  • Good keyboard quality
  • ISO keyboard availability
  • Touchpad. Bonus points if it has the touchpad buttons ABOVE the pad itself.
    • neidu2@feddit.nlOP
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      9 months ago

      I can’t really fault that logic. I like the keyboard, the screen, any many other things with them. It’s just some minor annoyances with some of the Fn keycombos that I don’t like.

      But one thing that I can say for sure: It will never be as durable as my Toshiba. It fell between two ships decks. It slid off the roof of a car and syraight into asphalt. It has pieces missing from it. The RJ45 port has been torn out of the mainboard. But it still works, and I bought it out for 50$ when I left my previous employer, and I still use it from time to time to this day.

    • metaballism@slrpnk.net
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      9 months ago

      Sorry, but no, they’re shit.

      And for the price they still them at, they’re double shit.

      The Dell Latitude I got from work is really the worst laptop I’ve ever used. Do not buy.

    • Jayb151@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Actually, I thought dells were shit computers, then I started working at a place that only deals in Dell. I’m actually pretty impressed after having used a 5300. It’s been a pretty solid choice except for the battery.

      I work help desk, and I’m actually surprised we don’t get more issue tickets considering it’s a global company.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Dells are great until they break. Ever seen an HDD taped the the top side of a motherboard? I hadn’t until I was working on a dell Inspiron. Also, their drivers are usually the biggest pain in the ass to load.

        That being said, I had a D620 latitude in college with a 9 cell battery, and that thing would handle all my classes for the day on a single charge. It was also much sturdier than the Toshiba Satellite M505D I switched to.

      • DudeDudenson@lemmings.world
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        9 months ago

        My experience daily driving a latitude for the last 2 years in my current company has been solid AF

        Well apart for Ubuntu driver’s issues but that’s not dells fault