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//update

By chance - any documentation/empirical evidence out there explicitly stating Alienware/gaming laptops are a poor choice for business use?

Greetings All,

My CEO needs a new laptop - his last one Asus Taichi (purchased before I came onboard) has been a nightmare to support. Luckily because of its severe limitations and recent physical damage - he is shopping for a replacement.

I have recommended my CEO get a Latitude E7240 or E7440 (also commented HP folios being good as well). However he has this penchant for non status quo machines (see the taichi above, before that Viaos…ugh) that really aren’t business/heavy travel use friendly (ie good on site warranty, most likely wont shatter if dropped, docking station would be nice, etc)…

I can tell he really didn’t want a “boring” Dell (The CEO didn’t say it, but it was written across his face) - However I might have hit some luck this time - He was shopping this weekend and seems to be attracted to the Alienware 13. Spec wise its great, and you can get a NBD 3-4 year warranty on it - Its a bit larger and 1lb heavier than the latitudes (he’ll have to work it out if hes ok with that…) and of course it has the non standard Corp issue look to it – I think I may have struck it lucky he is not fawning over another Viao or Asus experimental laptop?

So beyond the standard stuff lacking in an Alienware vs Latitude (swap-able battery, docking station, standardized parts, etc) - Is there any other disparaging things about using a smaller alienware laptop for a semi road warrior/demanding type user? Even though this is a performance laptop, it should be rock solid for daily mundane things (Outlook & Office Apps primarily)?

@HP @Dell_Technologies @Lenovo

23 Spice ups
2

Any gaming rig is going to be able to support any office / business function very well. They are built for performance so things like MS office should scream with speed and efficiency. The only thing I will say is you can probably pay the same for much better specs from Lenovo.

7 Spice ups
3

Sounds like the CEO doesn’t really know what he wants except the fact that is has to be “cool”. He needs to base his decision on what he actually needs in a laptop, not entirely based on what he thinks he needs. He would be purchasing a gaming laptop going with an Alienware so is he going to be gaming…I hope not.

3 Spice ups
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Lattitude E7440 with an SSD should do just fine. We have a couple here and they are snappy machines. I don’t think all the specs an alienware laptop offers are really needed.

I’d go with the Lattitude, has a 3 year warranty, easy docking solutions, lightweight, mobile, and all around a good machine.

10 Spice ups
5

YOU will be the one supporting it, so you should do everything you can to get him into the latitude. Get him some friggin’ stickers if it is too boring for him.

C-levels like this are what really grind my gears… why do a$$hats get to be in charge???

7 Spice ups
6

Yeah, get the CEO an Alienware … if you want to repeat: “…has been a nightmare to support. …”
My CEO and managers have the same setup that all users have. Simple to support!

4 Spice ups
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CEO need GORTware laptop…

2 Spice ups
8

The problem is that the OP needs to make the CEO happy. Get him an over priced Alienware and have him be happy with it. The only problem I see is that he probably does not really need anything more than a cheap laptop, but if he wants one that is Alienware then get him that.

1 Spice up
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the E7440 is an awesome device, we deployed dozens so far. They are light weight, have backlit keyboard, rj45 port, wwan, dell docking port, good battery life and so on.

4 Spice ups
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I wonder what he would think on the new Dell XPS 13 with the carbon fiber case?

3 Spice ups
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I am groot

3 Spice ups
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I agree with this. Just put an SSD in the Latitiude and call it a day. Unless he is doing heavy gaming, there is no reason to pay the extra for an Alienware.

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I’m pretty sure Alienware has a poor track record for reliablilty. They try to squeeze too much out of the machine, and they use parts that haven’t been tested much yet. I’d push heavily for the Latitude. The Latitude is generally our go-to laptop here, and we’ve had very few issues with them.

1 Spice up
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Buy two of these … one for the CEO and one for the OP!
Problem solved…

1 Spice up
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Latitude for sure.

16

This will get you into all kinds of trouble if you just conform to what the boss wants… Rather tell him the lattitude is better (say its business driven or something likewise, give specific tech specs) and that alienware is meant for gaming so it’s “better” parts are used for video games that aren’t used for document processing, etc. As IT we need to protect ourselves from future headaches, this is a future headache.

1 Spice up
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He’s the boss, and he helps earn money for the company. IT is a service department, we don’t make money in the conventional sense (we do help enable better efficiencies…), bla bla bla…

Therefor he gets what he wants fortunately or not, and I would definitely encourage the Alienware which is backed by Dell with a descent warranty, rather than an obscure brand or a model with even less.

However if you do have the pull obviously I would push for a Latitude.

4 Spice ups
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We have been testing a Dell Precision M3800 with 16GB RAM and 512 GB SSD drive. This unit has about the same weight as a MacBook Pro. Boot to login with this config is about 15 seconds, according to the user. I would recommend M3800 for your CEO.

7 Spice ups
19

I have one of these on the way for my CEO as well. Excited to play with it, heard it’s a really nice machine. I’ve got some other mobile Precisions but this is the first M3800 for us.

1 Spice up
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If he travels a lot we like the yoga pro’s from lenovo, great for on the plane with the touchscreen etc.

4 Spice ups