Another four years since my 2012 post on notebooks, and the 2008 before that. Right about time to do another update, since there’s been a whole bunch of machines since that point. Here’s what the table looks like now:
| Manufacturer | Model | From | To | Screen | CPU | Type | OS | |
| 1. | Toshiba | Satellite Pro | 1997 | 2000 | 12″ | Pentium | Full-featured | Win 95 |
| 2. | Dell | Inspiron 3000 | 1999 | 2000 | 14″ | Pentium | Full-featured | Win 98 SE |
| 3. | IBM | Thinkpad 240X | 2001 | 2001 | 10.4″ | Pentium III | Ultraportable | Win 98 SE |
| 4. | Toshiba | Protege 3000 | 2001 | 2002 | 11.1″ | Pentium III | Ultraportable | Win 98 SE |
| 5. | HP | Omnibook 500 | 2002 | 2004 | 12.1″ | Pentium III | Ultraportable | Win XP |
| 6. | Sager | 5650 | 2003 | 2005 | 15″ | Pentium IV | Full-featured / Gaming | Win XP |
| 7. | Acer | Travelmate 3001 | 2005 | 2007 | 12″ | Pentium M | Ultraportable | Win XP |
| 8. | Dell | XPS M1210 | 2007 | 2008 | 12″ | Core 2 Duo | Ultraportable / Gaming | Vista |
| 9. | IBM | Thinkpad T60 | 2007 | 2011 | 14″ | Core 2 Duo | Full-featured | Win XP |
| 10. | NEC | Versa E6310 | 2008 | 2010 | 14″ | Core 2 Duo | Full-featured / Gaming | Vista |
| 11. | MSI | Wind U100 | 2008 | 2013 | 10″ | Atom | Netbook | Win XP |
| 12. | Apple | MacBook Pro 13 | 2009 | 2012 | 13.3″ | Core 2 Duo | Full-featured | iOS |
| 13. | Dell | Studio XPS 16 | 2010 | 16″ | i5 m460 | Full-featured | Win 7 | |
| 14. | Apple | MacBook Pro 15 | 2011 | 2015 | 15″ | Core 2 Duo | Full-featured | iOS |
| 15. | Samsung | N305 | 2012 | 11.6″ | AMD Dual Core | Netbook | Win 7 | |
| 16. | Apple | MacBook Pro Retina | 2012 | 2015 | 15″ | Quadcore | Full-featured | iOS |
| 17. | Asus | Zenbook UX31E | 2013 | 13.3″ | i5-2557M | Ultrabook | Win 7 | |
| 18. | Microsoft | Surface Pro 3 | 2015 | 12″ | i5-4300U | Tablet hybrid | Windows 8.1 | |
| 19. | Dell | XPS 13 | 2015 | 13.3″ | i7-5500U | Full-featured | Windows 8.1 | |
| 20. | HP | Pavilion 15 p257TX | 2015 | 15.6″ | i7-5500U | Full-featured | Windows 8.1 |
Entries 17 to 20 are new since the 2012 post. Here’s the reckoning, notes, updates and whatnots for these and others:
- #11 MSI Wind U100: Traded this in for a refurbished Asus Zenbook UX31E (#17) a couple years ago.
- #13 Dell Studio XPS 13: Ling used it for a couple of years – the laptop still has an amazing screen and was very fast-performing especially after I did that home upgrade to an SSD. The keyboard however has gone kaput, as is also the power adapter. The notebook is currently now in cold storage. I’ll have to find some time to disassemble and salvage what I can from it later this year.
- #14 Apple MacBook Pro 15: office notebook that was returned last year.
- #15 Samsung N305: still going on great and currently used by parents at Lentor , and I recently bumped the OS from Windows 7 to 10.
- #16 Apple MacBook Pro Retina: Ran great for the first year, had a motherboard failure immediately after the first year of warranty ended, begged for and got a repair waiver, and the laptop continued having issues last year. Finally stabilized it, and had it traded in.
- #17 Asus Zenbook UX31E: a fairly lightweight ultrabook with premium build. Bought it at bargain bin refurbished prices. The processor is a little slow though, as is also the SSD that doesn’t run nearly at typical SSD speeds. I’ll probably sell it away soon.
- #18 Microsoft Surface Pro 3: great screen and lovely little machine that I use in the bedroom every night, but the 4GB RAM is barely adequate to run Windows 10.
- #19 Dell XPS 13: my current workhorse laptop. Beautiful screen though with some light bleeding at the screen edges, comfortable typing, though I don’t quite like the carbon fiber wrap.
- #20 HP Pavilion 15: Ling’s home notebook that was picked up last year too.
I’ve been continuing to keep an eye on the Aftershock notebooks, and they sure look tempting – the more so given their very attractive price points. Perhaps one will be in my purchase radar soon!
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