Corporate laptops
Discussion
Somehow I find myself with the responsibility of spec’ing an entire business worth of laptops. The joys of working for a small company.
My general corporate goto laptop is the ThinkPad T-Series. (Low on Vanity, high on build quality). However at spec these are coming out at £1,300 a unit.
Half will go to “head office staff”. Lots of teams meetings. Lots of spreadsheet and coding work, 2 screen support, a bit of powerpoint and word. Etc etc.
Other half for call centre staff, so probably less processor intensive, but lots of screens open. Probably doesn’t need exciting screens, although my assumption is we will need decent build quality as they will be abused.
Any recommendations? Everywhere I’ve ever worked has used Dell (seemed okay) or Surface books (okay, but touchscreen pointless, metal cases chips and get very hot).
Main requirement is not too expensive and just work. No specialist IT support so can’t be dealing with hassle. Ideally all one make for interoperability of chargers, batteries etc etc.
My general corporate goto laptop is the ThinkPad T-Series. (Low on Vanity, high on build quality). However at spec these are coming out at £1,300 a unit.
Half will go to “head office staff”. Lots of teams meetings. Lots of spreadsheet and coding work, 2 screen support, a bit of powerpoint and word. Etc etc.
Other half for call centre staff, so probably less processor intensive, but lots of screens open. Probably doesn’t need exciting screens, although my assumption is we will need decent build quality as they will be abused.
Any recommendations? Everywhere I’ve ever worked has used Dell (seemed okay) or Surface books (okay, but touchscreen pointless, metal cases chips and get very hot).
Main requirement is not too expensive and just work. No specialist IT support so can’t be dealing with hassle. Ideally all one make for interoperability of chargers, batteries etc etc.
I work for an IT reseller (small, but we're on Government frameworks) - I usually deal more with the server/storage/security enterprise stuff but I can also do desktops/laptops and peripherals etc. You'll get loads of good and varying advice from knowledgeable PHers here throughout the day, happy to help out with my thoughts and getting budgetary pricing for you (I can also raise bids with vendors for larger orders to get some extra discount although this is dependent on quantities). We're resellers for HP, Lenovo & Dell.
If you want to, drop me a line via PH and let me know here - PH doesn't always forward emails to me for some reason.
If you want to, drop me a line via PH and let me know here - PH doesn't always forward emails to me for some reason.
Edited by Funk on Monday 20th January 09:20
I could choose my own and for years had 14” Thinkpad T Series. Last one is a couple of years old, Gen 3, and it was £1K in a Black Friday deal. Only thing I’d say is watch how bright the screen is - they used to have 300nits displays as standard which were poor. Mine has 400 and it’s fine.
Pretty well everyone else in our company had some sort of MacBook. They gave me a Pro as an ironic retirement present. It’s still in its box.
Pretty well everyone else in our company had some sort of MacBook. They gave me a Pro as an ironic retirement present. It’s still in its box.
SP_ said:
HP Probook or Elitebook
My work laptops have always been HP Elitebooks, they seem pretty tough and reliable in the main. If they weren't, I'm sure the company would have gone for something else. They're certainly a step up in build quality from the HP laptops I've bought myself from the likes of PC world.How many is the order ?
Look at the support on offer, even upgrade the cover if necessary.
All the major brands use 3rd party companies to do the support.
Get an example of the models you are considering. You said above about twin screens, if that's via a dock try it for compatibility.
Most of the higher end business laptops will be powered\charged via usb type c, making compatibility easier.
Look at the support on offer, even upgrade the cover if necessary.
All the major brands use 3rd party companies to do the support.
Get an example of the models you are considering. You said above about twin screens, if that's via a dock try it for compatibility.
Most of the higher end business laptops will be powered\charged via usb type c, making compatibility easier.
Funk said:
We're resellers for HP, Lenovo & Dell.
I'd go for one of these. IIRC Lenovo and Dell keep the power bricks, etc standard for years and years so you can extend the life as far as possible but I am out of date.Our company plans a 5 year duty cycle for Windows laptops and 7 years for Macs.
Do contact centre staff need laptops? How many actually take them home or could you reduce the cost by having desktops for some?
[quote=(steven)]Somehow I find myself with the responsibility of spec’ing an entire business worth of laptops. The joys of working for a small company.
My general corporate goto laptop is the ThinkPad T-Series. (Low on Vanity, high on build quality). However at spec these are coming out at £1,300 a unit.
Half will go to “head office staff”. Lots of teams meetings. Lots of spreadsheet and coding work, 2 screen support, a bit of powerpoint and word. Etc etc.
Other half for call centre staff, so probably less processor intensive, but lots of screens open. Probably doesn’t need exciting screens, although my assumption is we will need decent build quality as they will be abused.
Any recommendations? Everywhere I’ve ever worked has used Dell (seemed okay) or Surface books (okay, but touchscreen pointless, metal cases chips and get very hot).
Main requirement is not too expensive and just work. No specialist IT support so can’t be dealing with hassle. Ideally all one make for interoperability of chargers, batteries etc etc.
[/quote]
I've had nothing but Dells from my last three employers over the last 15 years. They seem fine to me. The only thing I don't like is the fact that they got rid of the tracker ball thingy for an HP-like tracker pad which I hate. The machines themselves seem pretty tough and reliable and I bought a refurbed one from my own use.
My general corporate goto laptop is the ThinkPad T-Series. (Low on Vanity, high on build quality). However at spec these are coming out at £1,300 a unit.
Half will go to “head office staff”. Lots of teams meetings. Lots of spreadsheet and coding work, 2 screen support, a bit of powerpoint and word. Etc etc.
Other half for call centre staff, so probably less processor intensive, but lots of screens open. Probably doesn’t need exciting screens, although my assumption is we will need decent build quality as they will be abused.
Any recommendations? Everywhere I’ve ever worked has used Dell (seemed okay) or Surface books (okay, but touchscreen pointless, metal cases chips and get very hot).
Main requirement is not too expensive and just work. No specialist IT support so can’t be dealing with hassle. Ideally all one make for interoperability of chargers, batteries etc etc.
[/quote]
I've had nothing but Dells from my last three employers over the last 15 years. They seem fine to me. The only thing I don't like is the fact that they got rid of the tracker ball thingy for an HP-like tracker pad which I hate. The machines themselves seem pretty tough and reliable and I bought a refurbed one from my own use.
Wow! That was quick! Thanks All.
Volumes with be about 30-50, but we need them over a 2 year period, hence trying to do volume deals is difficult.
Brands aside, what about models? Are the cheaper business laptops (Inspirion? and the Thinkpad L or E series) worth it, or are they basically consumer laptops and will fall apart in a year?
Volumes with be about 30-50, but we need them over a 2 year period, hence trying to do volume deals is difficult.
Brands aside, what about models? Are the cheaper business laptops (Inspirion? and the Thinkpad L or E series) worth it, or are they basically consumer laptops and will fall apart in a year?
steven said:
Wow! That was quick! Thanks All.
Volumes with be about 30-50, but we need them over a 2 year period, hence trying to do volume deals is difficult.
Brands aside, what about models? Are the cheaper business laptops (Inspirion? and the Thinkpad L or E series) worth it, or are they basically consumer laptops and will fall apart in a year?
I'd be able to get you some discount on smaller quantities but only as they're available at the time - I've had an email with some Jan promos on Lenovo, for example:Volumes with be about 30-50, but we need them over a 2 year period, hence trying to do volume deals is difficult.
Brands aside, what about models? Are the cheaper business laptops (Inspirion? and the Thinkpad L or E series) worth it, or are they basically consumer laptops and will fall apart in a year?
ThinkPad T16 Gen 3, Core Ultra 5 125U, 16GB, 512GB, 16” WUXGA IPS, Integrated Intel Graphics, Windows 11 Pro, English, WWAN Upgradable to 4G - currently £185 discount/unit being offered - I'm just waiting to check the detail with my Lenovo partner manager but it'd be under £1k ex VAT.
Something like that is pretty much the sweet spot for a device you'll want to get 3-4 years of use from; decent CPU, sufficient RAM and decent enough SSD capacity. Cheaper/consumer kit is definitely built down to a price and just isn't as hard-wearing (that applies across all the vendors, not just Lenovo) and you can sometimes get caught out with it coming with Win11 Home rather than Pro etc. You'll be able to solve any connectivity issues/considerations (such as multi-screens) with docks.
I would go Lenovo first, then Dell - the Latitudes I've had to play with recently just feel better than the equivalent HP kit (although all of them are decent once you're looking at the Carbon/XPS/Dragonfly devices etc. but they come with price tags to match). Our public sector customers seem to prefer the boggo HP kit though which is fair enough.
If you have kit to recycle/trade in then I might be able to get you something back for that too.
Edited by Funk on Monday 20th January 11:15
Funk said:
I'd be able to get you some discount on smaller quantities but only as they're available at the time - I've had an email with some Jan promos on Lenovo, for example:
ThinkPad T16 Gen 3, Core Ultra 5 125U, 16GB, 512GB, 16” WUXGA IPS, Integrated Intel Graphics, Windows 11 Pro, English, WWAN Upgradable to 4G - currently £185 discount/unit being offered - I'm just waiting to check the detail with my Lenovo partner manager but it'd be under £1k ex VAT.
Slightly off topic but do you have any views on the 16" 3840x2400 (16:10) OLED displays? No problems or best avoided? ThinkPad T16 Gen 3, Core Ultra 5 125U, 16GB, 512GB, 16” WUXGA IPS, Integrated Intel Graphics, Windows 11 Pro, English, WWAN Upgradable to 4G - currently £185 discount/unit being offered - I'm just waiting to check the detail with my Lenovo partner manager but it'd be under £1k ex VAT.
Mr Pointy said:
Slightly off topic but do you have any views on the 16" 3840x2400 (16:10) OLED displays? No problems or best avoided?
I'm not sure I would use OLED on a business machine, risk of burn in with this technology, and I would probably say 4k resolution is overkill on a laptop, you'd be better off with FHD or QHD for a screen this size, plus 4k is a drain on battery life.TameRacingDriver said:
Mr Pointy said:
Slightly off topic but do you have any views on the 16" 3840x2400 (16:10) OLED displays? No problems or best avoided?
I'm not sure I would use OLED on a business machine, risk of burn in with this technology, and I would probably say 4k resolution is overkill on a laptop, you'd be better off with FHD or QHD for a screen this size, plus 4k is a drain on battery life.Usually in a corp environment the extra cost of OLED is difficult to justify (although you often find quite a few of the more senior folks in organisations seem to get them... 
). I haven't supplied enough to be able to form a valid opinion as to whether there are any recurring or fundamental issues with this particular tech I'm afraid.
That said, I use my TV as a giant PC monitor at home and screen-burn is one of the reasons I've held off moving to OLED for so long - my screen would have a lot of static elements on it (such as the Start bar and associated icons/systray etc) and there's only so much things like 'pixel shifting' can do to ameliorate it. I would hope monitor tech should be better as it's designed to be used mainly as a monitor rather than as a TV so static elements will be a given in that use-case.
). I haven't supplied enough to be able to form a valid opinion as to whether there are any recurring or fundamental issues with this particular tech I'm afraid.That said, I use my TV as a giant PC monitor at home and screen-burn is one of the reasons I've held off moving to OLED for so long - my screen would have a lot of static elements on it (such as the Start bar and associated icons/systray etc) and there's only so much things like 'pixel shifting' can do to ameliorate it. I would hope monitor tech should be better as it's designed to be used mainly as a monitor rather than as a TV so static elements will be a given in that use-case.
Mr Pointy said:
TameRacingDriver said:
Mr Pointy said:
Slightly off topic but do you have any views on the 16" 3840x2400 (16:10) OLED displays? No problems or best avoided?
I'm not sure I would use OLED on a business machine, risk of burn in with this technology, and I would probably say 4k resolution is overkill on a laptop, you'd be better off with FHD or QHD for a screen this size, plus 4k is a drain on battery life.I'm not sure I would pay extra for it in any event, but that's just me.
Our firm uses 14" Lenovo machines with a full HD resolution 1920x1200 and it's good enough really for work.
Funk said:
Usually in a corp environment the extra cost of OLED is difficult to justify (although you often find quite a few of the more senior folks in organisations seem to get them... ). I haven't supplied enough to be able to form a valid opinion as to whether there are any recurring or fundamental issues with this particular tech I'm afraid.
That said, I use my TV as a giant PC monitor at home and screen-burn is one of the reasons I've held off moving to OLED for so long - my screen would have a lot of static elements on it (such as the Start bar and associated icons/systray etc) and there's only so much things like 'pixel shifting' can do to ameliorate it. I would hope monitor tech should be better as it's designed to be used mainly as a monitor rather than as a TV so static elements will be a given in that use-case.
Thanks, I expected that they would be for the C-Suite types but this might be the last laptop I ever buy so I was looking at going a bit over the top. The screen is a significant price increase but it's the thing you look at all day. It's a pity I can't see one in the flesh. ). I haven't supplied enough to be able to form a valid opinion as to whether there are any recurring or fundamental issues with this particular tech I'm afraid.That said, I use my TV as a giant PC monitor at home and screen-burn is one of the reasons I've held off moving to OLED for so long - my screen would have a lot of static elements on it (such as the Start bar and associated icons/systray etc) and there's only so much things like 'pixel shifting' can do to ameliorate it. I would hope monitor tech should be better as it's designed to be used mainly as a monitor rather than as a TV so static elements will be a given in that use-case.
Go for something "Tier 1"... It makes support easier as they typically have a more structured approach to hardware, device drivers, standardisation, etc. It makes the production of a 'Standard Desktop' build a lot easier. However, I'd avoid Dell as they have a habit of changing stuff (hardware, firmware versions, etc) without telling people.
HP or Lenovo are typically the go-to these days.
But it's also worth noting that whilst a few pennies can be saved on the hardware purchase, most of the spend is usually in software licenses & support services. Once you factor in those additional support costs, even Apple Mac hardware becomes affordable.
Another option worth looking at is to have the high-end devices for those that need the compute, etc and then Chromebooks for those doing the more noddy type stuff.
HTH
M
HP or Lenovo are typically the go-to these days.
But it's also worth noting that whilst a few pennies can be saved on the hardware purchase, most of the spend is usually in software licenses & support services. Once you factor in those additional support costs, even Apple Mac hardware becomes affordable.
Another option worth looking at is to have the high-end devices for those that need the compute, etc and then Chromebooks for those doing the more noddy type stuff.
HTH
M
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