High-End Notebooks

My Acer Travelmate 5744Z seems to be about to break, so I'm currently looking for a new notebook. As I use my notebook quite often and as this is the third notebook within three years that is not usable any longer (the screen of the first is defective and the graphics card / WLAN of the second does not work properly with the new Linux kernel), I would like to have a high-end notebook this time. I hope that I won't have to think about notebooks for at least 5 years after that.

Requirements

I work quite a lot with the computer, so the keyboard and the display have to be good. What does good mean? Well, the display has to be at least 15" and as I don't want to see my pixels any longer, it has to have a higher resolution than 1366×768. But it has to be smaller than 30cm × 38cm to fit into my knapsack. A reason why I do not always have my current notebook with me is that it is too heavy at about 2.5kg and only runs for about 3.5h. The new one should be lighter than 2.5kg and run at least 4h.

Ubuntu has to be supported completely, especially WLAN, sound and Bluetooth. Speaking of Bluetooth, I want Bluetooth 4.0, because it introduced a low energy protocol that might be useful for notebooks. As I live in a city and as I access the internet via my neighbor's WLAN (thank you!), I need a good connection: Dual band and 802.11a/b/g/n need to be supported by the notebook. (Dual band is sometimes also called 2x2).

I use it mainly for writing blog articles, LaTeX stuff and some Python programming and watching movies. I download movies via Online TV Recorder which adds up quite quickly. Transferring this to my external HDD always takes a lot of time. The new notebook should support USB 3.0 to speed this up. As I don't have to store anything large, 80 GB SSD is enough. It should be an SSD, because they consume less power, are more durable and are quieter.

I need at least 4GB RAM because ... well, did you ever try to use Eclipse for Java+JBoss programming with less than 4GB? I don't want to have that again.

It would be nice if I could use the notebook outside in the summer, which means it has to have a bright matte display.

I want a silent notebook, because I'm very sensitive to noise. My current notebook has less than 30 dB in normal mode (no heavy load). That should set the mark.

An SD card reader would be nice, but it is not required. Just like an RJ-45 port for network cables and a DVD drive, you can get it via USB.

A robust case is also important. I had trouble working on the train because the screen was wobbling like hell. But this is not a hard requirement for me as I don't work on trains that often.

Current Favorites

I've looked at a lot of notebooks and I mainly focused on the technical specifications and not on the price (I guess I might work about 10h every day in front of this machine. A good, working notebook is very important to me). However, when I see some notebooks that are ok according to the specs from above, I will take the cheaper one.

By the way, while searching for notebooks, I discovered that much of the data on Amazon is wrong. See for example the dimensions of the HP EliteBook 8570p-B6Q03EA-ABD (51.6 x 34.2 x 7.8 cm according to Amazon).

The WLAN chipset of the Samsung Series 9 seems to cause trouble with Linux, but this seems to be solved by a firmware update.^[4] But one hint seems to be important:

Before you install Linux on a Samsung Series 9, make sure you update the firmware, because that's only possible with Windows.

The Asus Zenbook also seems to work almost out of the box.^[5] I've just learned that you can use

sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name

to determine your exact laptop product name.

In the following, I will give you an overview of the notebooks I took a look at. I think all of them are very good.

In many cases, I will need some more equipment:

• Micro HDMI to VGA adapter: Samsung AA-AH2NMHB/E for 29.90 Euro
• USB Ethernet adapter: "Cable Matters - SuperSpeed USB 3.0" for 16 Euro
• External DVD burner: Samsung SE-208DB for 30 Euro works with DVD±R Dual layer disks and DVD±RW disks. Is there anything more important to look at?

Others:

• Lenovo Thinkpad T450s (20BWS1UT00 with i5-5200U, Nvidia GeForce 940M). See notebookcheck
• TUXEDO Book BU1505
• Samsung ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition
• Lenovo ThinkPad X1
• Notebook for developers

Acer

Apple

Although the hardware looks very nice, it is still comparable with both of my favorites.

Asus

Asus Zenbooks

Asus PU500CA-XO002X and Asus N550JV-CN201H

Dell

There seem to be other versions of the XPS 15:

• XPS 15 (L501X)
• XPS 15 (L502X)
• XPS 15z

However, I was not able to find any specification of those.

Fujitsu

HP

Samsung

Series 9

The next few lines show how the following models differ from the 900X4C A0A:

• NP900X4C-A01: Intel Core i5-3317U, 128GB SSD, no Dualband
• 900X3C A03: 3610 mAh, 1399 Euro
• 900X4B-A01: Intel Core i7 2637M, 1999 Euro
• 900X4C-A04: Intel Core i5 3317U, 1999 Euro
• 900X4C-A05: Intel Core i5 3317U, 128GB SSD, no Dualband, ca. 1200 Euro
• 900X4C A06: 256 GB SSD, 15.6" Display, 1629 Euro
• 900X4C A09: Costs 1999 Euro (any other difference?)
• 900X4D A03 also has a 15" display, but only 4GB RAM and a Intel Core i5-3317U and a 128 GB SSD. But it costs only 799 Euro.
• 900X4D K01: Intel Core i5-3337U, 128 GB SSD, 8400 mAh, Dual Band, 997 Euro

Samsung ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition

• Good audio quality: 24-bit, 192kHz audio, 2x 2W
• HDMI out, mini VGA, an SD card reader
• 720p webcam

Release date should be 28.03.2014 (source).

Sources

• techradar.com
• notebookcheck.de

Tuxedo

See also: tuxedocomputers.com, linux-onlineshop.de

• TUXEDO Book BU1505 (with Skylake, up to 16GB RAM, ca. 1240 Euro)

Librem 15

Other

At first glance, the Samsung ATIV Book 8 NP880Z5E-X01 looked quite promising. But it doesn't have an SSD and it weighs 2.54 kg, although it has no optical drive.

• Samsung ATIV 870Z5E-X03DE

• ATIV Book 8 870Z5E X04

• ATIV Book 8 880Z5E X01
• ATIV Book 9 900X4D K01 (notebookinfo.de)

Notebooks that did not meet the criteria

Display is too small:

• Chromebook Pixel has only 12.85"
• XPS 13 has only 13.3"
• Asus Zenbook has only 13.3"
• Lenovo IdeaPad U300s has only 13.3"
• All Samsung Series 9 X3A seem to have 13.3" displays
• Samsung Series 9 900X3D-A02: 13.3"
• Samsung Series 9 900X3C-A01: 13.3"
• Samsung Series 9 900X3C A07: 13.3"

Too low resolution:

• Acer TravelMate 6594eG-464G50Mikk
• Asuspro PU500
• All Acer Aspire TimelineU M5

Too heavy:

• Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p: 2.89 kg
• HP EliteBook 8570p-B6Q03EA-ABD: 2.91 kg
• Sony Vaio VPC-F21Z1E/BI: 3.17 kg

Availability: seems not to be available on Amazon

• Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A02
• Sony Vaio SV-E1511V1EW
• Sony Vaio VGN-TX2
• HP Envy 6-1000sg

Other:

• Acer Aspire M3-581TG: Too loud, only 667MHz RAM

Dear Notebook Manufacturers

After searching so much for notebooks, I have some hints for you on what you could do better:

• Add a single specification page for each notebook. This page should include at least:
• Weight in kg and dimensions in mm
• Battery life in mAh
• Display (size, glare or matte display, supported resolutions)
• Exact CPU name (not only Intel i5 - if it varies, list all possible CPUs)
• Disk (size, SSD or not)
• Wireless support (IEEE 802.11 supported standards? Dual band? Bluetooth? Bluetooth version?)
• Keyboard: Does it have a numpad? Backlit?
• Does it have a DVD-Player / Burner? Blu-ray?
• Webcam (resolution)
• Microphone
• Sensors (GPS)
• Image of the notebook
• A good specification page would include:
• Noise in dB
• Information about Linux support (especially Debian)
• Explain your version names!
• Provide a possibility to compare your products like Intel does with ark.intel.com for its processors
• Provide a possibility to filter your products by technical specification.
• Add an image of your product to Wikimedia Commons

References