Wife Needs a PC Laptop. Recommendations?

[63dot]

I have a Gateway NV (mid-level, core i3) and it's pretty good for around the house or a small office, but it's a little on the delicate side and not durable like the Macbooks and MBPs.

Sony, Lenovo, and Toshiba make some pretty decently strong laptops out there for an OK price under a grand, but nobody beats Apple for sheer durability for price point. At least you can put Windows on Macs now vs the old days when you had to choose or get two laptops. If you want something as durable as the Macbook then you are getting into XPS and alien territory, and they are pricey and not worth it at all with the Mac option out there.

 

[I AM THE MAN]

My wife needs a Windows laptop to be able to access her work files and email on the road. Both of these are confidential documents. The IT department will support it but she has to pay for it, so it needs to be a good general use system as well, And yes, they are cheap - her employer, that is.

Her work system is a PC desktop that runs a custom interface due to the secure nature of the files she accesses. We have never owned a Windows machine and her current home laptop is the original G4/400 Ti Book. I can survive with Windows, but I don't have the confidence that I have with the Mac OS.

Recommend a Windows laptop that is light and easily set up on the road, tends to behave itself and has good battery life. The perfect machine is the 11 in. MBA, is there anything on the Windows market that can match it?

If it interests you, she is a psychiatric nurse.

Thanks,

Dale

Hey Dale,

Of course as someone mentioned, the MBA bootcamp idea would be great, but then again, why would you pay all that money for a Mac thats going to be running Windows.

From Dell, I think this series would be decent for your wife. The lineup ways roughly 5 pounds (kind of weighty) but the specs are decent.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-14r/fs

Good Luck on your decision.

 

[kailibur]

I'll ask. This just came up last night. Her position has her on the road and she has been after IT to loosen the grips and give her mobil access. They gave in, but she has to foot the bill. She needs to "download a some-thing-or-other" I wasn't paying attention. A Mac may work, but they won't support it.

Note: That Samsung 9 costs more that a base MBA and a copy of Win7...

$500-600. Or so.

Dale

get a hp pavilion dv6 from office depot. its got wind 7 64bit, and lots of other things that are good. 500$. intel i5. 320 gb. 4gb ram. mines been on all day watchin movies (road trip, 6.5 hours) and just had battery low message. my mom (im 13) likes it better than her gov. provided dell and mbp.

 

[Matthew9559]

Since you don't want a mac or gaming, I would get a Thinkpad. Amazing machines.

 

[islandit]

Thanks. You are far more enlightened that the IT folks at the local state mental hospital. .

Dale

Well, leave "IT" out of your sentence, and I don't think there is much separation between the two. Time and opportunity is all ~