Laptop shoppin!

[tbonecopper]

Recently, I've been laptop shopping. It's been a tedious task.... perhaps some of you can offer input!

My requirements:

1. 1080 or higher
2. upgradeable ram and hdd
3. high quality, preferrably a "enterprise or business grade" laptop, not cheapo consumer stuff
4. Minimum 8 gb ram and 320 gb hard drive

My "don't cares":

1. SSD
2. backlit keyboard
3. touch screen

And I'm probably leaving out something, but eh.

I'm looking at a Fujitsu U904 Ultrabook at the moment. However, I can't find much information about their products. Some reviews here and there, but many are several years old. Anyone here have or ever had (or known someone who had) a Fujitsu notebook? Any thoughts on them?

The reason I'm considering this is because, yes, it's an ultrabook, but unlike so many ultrabooks, I can upgrade the memory and hdd in it with ease. No proprietary crap (soldered to motherboard, etc). Also, it has a 3200x1800 resolution screen (which I know is totally overkill, but so is the v12 in the bmw 760), a backlit keyboard, and it's Made in Japan, which I found interesting, as a lot of stuff is made in China and Taiwan. In the 80s, Made in Japan used to signify quality.

Also on my list:

• Sony Pro 13 - really sexy design, great battery life, but wholly integrated, no upgrading of memory or hdd in the future. also, I had a bad experience with the sony
• the "new" Lenovo X1 carbon which has a 1600x900 res or a qhd screen that's something like 2250x1800 (not 100% on those exact numbers, but it's on the website). No upgradeable memory or hdd, but legendary Lenovo thinkpad quality.
• probably a few, here and there, but in the end it comes down to my requirements.

The Fujitsu, is $1349, i5 haswell, 6 gb, 500 gb (5400 rpm) hdd, and a 16 gb ssd cache, backlit keyboard, etc, etc. It's (imo) a better deal.

The Sony Pro is about 1800 bucks

The Lenovo X1 carbon is 2099.99 after my professional discount. (you have to get the higher one to get 8gb ram)

So, any thoughts on Fujiitsu or the others I've mentioned?

 

[Guytronic]

Have to say:
Try not to rule out the SSD.
I just switched to an SSD in an older notebook.
Talk about night and day!

I'm almost sure high cap hard discs in a laptop are much overrated.
...also go for discrete or off mobo graphics too.

 

[tbonecopper]

If the computer has a SSD, great. I won't opt out of having one. But I won't lose a deal on not having one.

 

[Paul May]

I would rather have 6GB Ram with SSD than an 8GB ram and no SSD. Even with the 6gigs it would run so much better IMO

 

[tbonecopper]

Perhaps my apprehension with SSD is because I've not actually owned (or used for an extended period of time) a computer with a SSD. What worries me, is their lifespan.

 

[Paul May]

Perhaps my apprehension with SSD is because I've not actually owned (or used for an extended period of time) a computer with a SSD. What worries me, is their lifespan.

I can appreciate that. My personal experience has been quite good, I use an SSD in my desktop which has been running almost non stop for 2 years. I don't turn it off so the only time is if we have a power outage or windows needs a reboot. I use it for my boot drive and the performance is amazing.