It depends on what you want.
If you want legendary reliability and tank-like toughness, get a Lenovo w520. These things are built to last, but they are not really lookers.
The bad thing is that it's not available in 17". Lenovo used to have a 17" W701 with *gasp* dual screen, but they are not made anymore so should be somewhat dated if you happen to find one. The 15" w520 still has a 1920x1080 screen though, wide gamut.
The w520 can hold 3 hard drives, 2 standard 2.5" SATAs and an mSATA which can be installed at a later date. Installing and upgrading hardware is purposefully kept easy, because it's an actual workstation (which means they are built with IT-dept. upgrading them down the road in mind).
You can get any SSD you want and pop it right in easily. Just the same with RAM, you can get 8GB (2x4) dirt cheap these days on the internet. Here is a config that rivals the best of what you throw at it:
2 huge batteries guaranteeing a lot of juice on the road. Fingerprint reader, 3 hard drives (who needs optical drives built in anyways, but you can get a blu ray drive if you so desire but you better roll the money it would cost and smoke it, or use it to wipe your ass because its a dumb buy). And a workstation class graphics card, which makes mincemeat of acad, maya, 3dsmax, etc, at lest until something newer and betterer comes along.Price $3,608.99
Sale price $2,717.99
Savings $891.00
Total $2,717.99
Estimated ship date: 6/28/11**
System components
Intel Core i7-2820QM Processor (2.30GHz, 8MB L3)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA Quadro 2000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
Color Sensor
4 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM)
UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader
720p Camera
Internal RAID - Configured by Lenovo
Primary SATA RAID 1 - (2 HDDs required)
Dual RAID HDDs, 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
RAID via Bay Adapter
Express Card Slot & 4 in 1 Card Reader & Smart Card Reader
9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 55++
Country Pack North America with Line cord & 170W AC adapter
Bluetooth 3.0
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)
Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable
Services and software
2Yr Onsite Warranty Next Business Day
Accessories
ThinkPad Battery 55++ (9 Cell - T410/420, T510/520, W510/520, L Series)
The W520 looks simply black, like straight out of a government's contractor or something. Some say it's ugly, others like it. I personally have no problems with it.
If you want something that looks pretty, go Apple. Their reliability is industry standard, but not legendary. This means you can still expect them to fail and that the warranty will come through. Plus they have abnormally high resale value, which can most likely be explained by the effects of the Apple Koolaid.
The clincher is the operating system, which is pretty good nowadays. Together with an iPhone you have the PIM side down pat. Windows has made quite a few strides to get relevant again lately, so it gets down to taste. Plus having an Apple gives you insta rep points in some circles; its almost as if you need an Apple to show people that you are really a *seriouz biznezz dezignr* and not some snotnosed kid. It sucks, but that's how it is nowadays.
The Apple can also use the hypermac line of external batteries for more juice on the road.
Consider the carrying, and if you would like to live with the increased heft of these laptops on a day-to-day basis. Me personally, I would get a Macbook Air for the road (which can handle Social Shit, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver with aplomb) and a huge mofo desktop to handle everything above plus Video and 3D for my home base. It would cost you roughly $3.5K~$4K.
Reply With Quote