1

Hello,

I wanted to put a feeler out there to see what other enterprises are doing as far as enterprise laptops. Currently we are a Dell shop with Latitude 7410, Precision 5550. In general, I know the most common laptops are Dell, Surface, HP, Lenovo, but wondering if anyone else had any suggestions and more detailed models they’ve had success with or what models to avoid. Also what the support is like when they have issues. Thanks in advance!

69 Spice ups
2

I don’t know about the “best” laptop, but I’ve switched to Lenovo for new. I order them right on the web. I’ve been getting the Yoga 2-in-1 convertibles. The users love them. It makes them feel special to have this cute laptop/tablet - even though most of them will never use it that way. And light weight, too. Fully configured with 3yr onsite/drop warranty is about $1200.

32 Spice ups
3

I recommend Lenovo. Pretty solid performance after switching from Dell.

7 Spice ups
4

I’m still buying Dell Latitudes. 7310s 7410s with an i7 16GB and 256 No touch no 2in1. 4yr ProSupport Plus-our users are home, so if there’s an issue the user coordinates the service call to their house.

19 Spice ups
5

I’ve got quotes on several Dell Latitudes in my inbox right now… We typically go for the Latitude 5000 series so we can save a little money. They hold up just as well as the 7000 series. I would not recommend the 3000 series because those do feel cheap and don’t last as long. CAD/high end workstation replacement gets the Precision line. They all get 3 year pro warranties but we rarely have problems and they will last about 4 years before having to be replaced. Pro support is awesome (but expensive). Anything less than pro and you get the foreign support with their checklist.

21 Spice ups
6

Dell 7410 is decent for standard users. 5410s are good too. Dell warranties are good. Never really had problems.

Wouldn’t get a 2-in-1 if not needed.

Surface is a no. Warranty is good but very prone to disaster hardware wise and heat, sometimes battery.

Only developers are people who need a real workstation to replace a desktop should get a Precision line laptop.

HP 840 G7 or G8 is great for power users or executives. HP warranties are not too great when trying to get through customer service.

From others here, Lenovo customer service is horrible. Products are not up to par. From my experience, I would stay away from Lenovo.

9 Spice ups
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  • How do you define best laptop for enterprise 2021?

  • What’s the value if you’re not able to order it?

  • Will it be released before Autumn 2021?

  • Which requirements does your best laptop have to meet?

I doubt that there exist such a beast. I know what a laptop for enterprise is. But I don’t know what a best laptop for enterprise 2021 shall be. And what is good for one use case can be inappropriate for another enterprise use case. And all my last purchases have been HP models.

5 Spice ups
8

Hello!

We’re a Dell shop today with Latitudes 7390’s, 5300’s and a couple of Precisions.
I’ve been reasonably happy with Dell though I find their tendency to offer less ports with each new model a real nuisance.
They think the fact their machines look slick is a selling point.
To me they look more and more like pretty toys and not like professional tools.
Their ticket logging system drives me up the wall each time I need to open one… A handful times a year.
Main issues we’ve seen are: keyboards acting up or main board just going dead.
Also, the internal battery of our previous model (7470) tended to bloat in time (we keep the machines about 4 years) and could split a chassis open if not checked regularly after 2 years or so, which requires removing the bottom cover. Haven’t seen this with the current models yet.

For our next batch of replacements, we are considering other brands and tested Lenovo’s and the Fujitsu’s U731x and U931x.
I must say I was impressed with the latter. Plenty ports there, including the RJ45 which everyone else has given up, and the 731x model even has a battery readily accessible. The U931x is ultra light, less than a kilo. Support is a big question mark as I have zero experience with them. But I’m willing to try 'em out!

4 Spice ups
9

We are a Dell shop , however given the choice, i’d probably switch back to Lenovo’s which I had before, but there’s not much in it between the big players. Everyone will have their own preferences and probably their own horror story’s about support from one make or another.

4 Spice ups
10

When I arrived, we were HP but I had really terribad experiences with support. Slowly moving over to Dell and although the hardware is the same, the support I’ve gotten has been much better.

5 Spice ups
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Anything other than Surface Pro, except for the people that just want to look important.

7 Spice ups
12

This…

6 Spice ups
13

Dell shop here, we standardized on the Precision 55XX series. Probably have about 40 machines between the 5530-5550 line. Excellent machines did two different configs. One for CAD/power user, one for less power used more for generalized staff(marketing, BD, Some of our engineers). Great machines in the almost 3 years of us having them ive only put in two support tickets. Which is a great run imo. The only real issues we’ve had with them hasn’t even been with the laptops but with the docks. If you go for this line use the WD19 dell dock. If your user is like some of ours and must have 3 screens go for the thunderbolt dock(WD19TB). Just be sure to run the dock firmware update and then you should good to go.

4 Spice ups
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I agree 100%, after working with Dell Pro Support for 5 years, there isn’t anyone out there that does it better.

6 Spice ups
15

We use all three (HP, Lenovo, Dell), and they all perform well enough. It’s mostly based on what our suppliers have. I would say personally, go with HP, as I find from a performance point, their Probooks are pretty decent. Not that this really matters, but I just like the way they look, and their keyboards are quite good. We also have a good number of Lenovo T450s, and they work quite well. I know they aren’t in production any more, but its current line, the T14s would be about the same quality.

3 Spice ups
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I’ve had good experience with HP. Whenever I had an issue with a machine they fixed it pretty quickly. Sending techs on site or instructions to send a machine in. I even used an HP Elitebook as a personal daily driver for awhile.

4 Spice ups
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I second this. WD15 docks were a nightmare. The WD19 is a lot more reliable although I am still scared to do firmware after all the WD15 bricks I made. We also use cheap 3rd party generic USB-C docks off Amazon without issue for those that don’t need the 3 monitors and such.

5 Spice ups
18

We are almost a 100 percent Lenovo shop now, especially after our last Dell laptop fiasco we had (all of our new laptops had major battery issues that required replacing before a BIOS update was released to fix it).

3 Spice ups
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I’d avoid Lenovo, especially if you need a motherboard replaced. From my experiences what should be a 1-2 hour job turns into an all-day affair with calls to support on draconian command prompt sequences.

Even with their problems, I still recommend Dell as a balanced vendor. Repairs are quick, options ample, and SMB managers really cut the pricing down a lot.

At the end of the day, YMMV cannot be stressed enough. Go with what you know and stick with it because jumping to another ship may have unforeseen issues.

1 Spice up
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We used to use Dell but had a lot of issues with batteries swelling, USB not working, keyboards falling to bits etc. and that was one top end premium machines. Plus I started to get the impression that Dell were only interested in very large customers buying hundreds of units at a time and I was sick of listening to Frank Sinatra for hours waiting for their technical support who mostly seemed to just be reading from a script!

We switched to Microsoft Surfaces 2-3 years ago (a mix of Pros, Laptops and Books) and haven’t had any major issues with them, although initially some of the docks were a bit flaky until they had a firmware update. They seem to be very robust and well put together and have even seduced some of our Mac Book users away. The list prices are high but it does seem to be possible to negotiate a discount.

3 Spice ups