best laptop w/ windows 7 pro

[JaxGTO]

I really like my Asus G73 Series. Its a gaming laptop but has 2 256G SD drives in raid 0 to start it (about 9 seconds to login) then a 1.5T spinning drive, 24G ram. It does have Windows 8 Pro but I just launch VMWare Workstation from there. It is heavy though 10.5lbs. On IO checkout I connect to it with my iPad Air so I don't have to carry it around.

 

[sbaum]

Another vote for the Lenovo Thinkpad T540p.
Been using one daily for almost 2 years now and it is standing up very well.

 

[Kujo80]

I just upgraded mine with a Dell Latitude E7450. Half the weight of my old Dell Latitude E5220. So far it's nice.

 

[Paullys50]

At the risk of being accused of sacrilege, I'm going to suggest a macbook pro?

I've been wanting to go this route too! But until they are updated with Skylake it's best to hold off. They are due for a refresh.

 

[bkottaras]

Lenovo Thinkpad W530 here.
It is an actual workstation in a notebook form.
Get the one with the 9 cell battery that sticks out of the back a bit (cylindrical I think it is called) excellent battery life up to 5 hours or more.
I get the 16GB min memory pre-installed (I bumped this one up to 32) but choose one that will allow for empty slots if you plan to install more memory after purhase.
Also a solid state drive (you can get a 500 nowadays).
The new models are W550's, haven't gotten one as the last one keeps going strong after 2 or so years.
Real work horse!
Estimated price around $2500.00.

 

[ASF]

I've been wanting to go this route too! But until they are updated with Skylake it's best to hold off. They are due for a refresh.

True - I was hoping that was going to happen before we had to buy the latest but unfortunately not. Still, I can highly recommend it. Very light and portable, and as powerful as any desktop.

 

[OdinIII]

Dell XPS 15" or the Dell m3800. Both are powerful, sleek and smaller than what I have recommended in the past.

I currently have the Dell m4800 and would love to downsize. Prior to that had the Dell m6700 (freakin' beast).

The XPS and m3800 are at a point where SSD and 16GB of RAM are easy to get in a small package with a good price point. Plus they are straight up ***y!

EDIT: OS is a non-issue, VMs FTW!

I've been wondering if you thought the switch to the 15.6" was a good move. It sounds like it was. I like how my M6700 runs but would love more portability and battery life.

I'm due for a new laptop soon and have been considering the new Dell Precision 5510. I think it is a sister to the XPS15.

 

[Paullys50]

I've been wondering if you thought the switch to the 15.6" was a good move. It sounds like it was. I like how my M6700 runs but would love more portability and battery life.

I'm due for a new laptop soon and have been considering the new Dell Precision 5510. I think it is a sister to the XPS15.

Yes! My preference is the 15", when I got the m6700 a few years ago I got over the size just because of the power of the thing. But traveling with it really really was annoying. The m4800 is great, smaller and the power brick size makes a difference too.

Now that computing power is being packed into smaller and smaller footprints I'm all about reducing size again. So the Dell XPS/M3800/Macbook Pro would be my next step. The Dell is great because of the edge-to-edge display, so really the 15" is more like a 14" in-terms of physical footprint. Just be sure to get the 1080p display for work, the 4k screen is awesome but not all software scales properly for it.

 

[boneless]

One up for Lenovo, W530 here as well. Pricey, but totally worth it.

SSD has become a must for me as well, I also replace the DVD with a caddy.

 

[Psymon]

At the risk of being accused of sacrilege, I'm going to suggest a macbook pro?

I have the 15" rMBP and I love it. I had Windows 7 installed with bootcamp so it booted natively into Windows. Worked awesome except I was working on a project where the HMI's used about 80 parameter files and they took FOREVER to compile. I tried VMWare Fusion, and it is awesome. Battery life and speed alone make this thing great. I really never knew how great it was to have a thin light laptop until I picked up my old Dell Precision M4700.....wow. The only thing I wish it had was a built in Ethernet port, but if that's the only downside, I can live with that.