[Help] choosing durable notebook for work

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
1

Which one should I choose?

  • T16s gen3 (intel - OLED)
  • T16s gen3 (intel - sRGB)
  • P16s gen 3 (intel ultra 9 - OLED)
  • P16s gen 3 (intel ultra 9 - IPS)
  • P16s gen 3 (intel ultra 7 - OLED)
  • P16s gen 3 (intel ultra 7 - IPS)
  • P16s gen 3 (intel ultra 7 - IPS + GPU)
  • P16v gen 2 (intel ultra 7 - OLED)
  • P16v gen 2 (intel ultra 7 - sRGB)
  • P16v gen 2 (intel ultra 7 - sRGB + GPU)
  • other
0 voters

Hello everyone,
I am planning to replace my glorious and very-aged Siemens M4 from 2014 I am using at work, with something lighter, more powerful and with the same (or near), sturdiness.

I am a plc developer and I work for a machine building company so, unfortunately, for the most of the time the laptop will be placed in the worsts possible places, near dirt, oil & grease, etc.
This especially when I am at the customers factories around the world (do you remember that quote at end of blade runner? “…I’ve seen things you people…”, thats me when I return to office :sweat_smile: ).

Anyway, the machine I want to replace is a rock. Literally :innocent: (it weights near 4 kgs).
Ok, it is not the fastest laptop on earth but for normal office stuffs / browsing and programming works fine.
Or at least it did, because, the last version Tia Portal (the Siemens programming tool I use), is very heavy and needs tons of ram, especially when editing the hmi pages.
It is funny because now Siemens recommend at least 16-24 gb of ram to run a program to build programs for devices with the same specs of a pc of a '90 (old 486s and less then 16mb of ram (in the best case :man_facepalming:).

So, I am not looking for another rugged notebook (this one has a full magnesium body with rubber angles, reinforces everywhere, etc), but something cool, light and durable.
In 10 years on the M4 I changed only the battery and the ssd with a bigger one and I am using it for at least 45 hours/week.

These are the goals I am looking for:

  • durable (it must stay at least 5 years)
  • durable (case and display must survive to travel and very dirt places)
  • durable (the display must not crack if I put it into a backpack
    or scratch if I didn’t clean it with a proper nap approved by the manufacturer)
  • easy to clean (no rubberized plastic covers, etc)
  • water resistant (some splash, I am not planning to surf the web while surfing waves or diving :smile:)
  • replacement parts easy to find worldwide: new, used or refurbished (so no exotic brands)
  • clear and bright display
  • usb c charging, optional but better to have (so I don’t have to bring with me the battery charger)
  • high compute power (to be future proof)
  • at least 64gb of ram
  • long battery life
  • RJ45 since plc, hmi and all the device I have to connect use this interface, so no dongle
  • GPU, optional, now it is not required to run the Tia Portal, but who know in future?
  • “reasonable price” max 3000 euro / 3200 usd

It is strange, maybe this is the first in history where someone do a request for help in choosing hardware where cpu/ram and gpu are not on top of the list. :rofl:

I was looking at the Thinkpad series since it seems they are very used and very durable machines.
(if many uses them the issues will been low - at least i think :innocent: - and also in future there will been a lot of spare parts)

Also, all thinkpad are military specs but I am not sure about the materials used. (not sure what means military specs, high durability?)

Below I put some configurations I did on the lenovo website as well as the links to them and the specs of the M4 just for fun.

Unfortunately, at the moment there are only AMD with 8th series and 16" …sad.
So for now only Intel versions.

Unfortunately 2, since these models are new, at the moment there are no reviews to do comparisons…

Do you guys own these or the previous versions? which one do you suggest?

little note

The OLED display is a 360 euro option, it is cool no doubt, and should consume less power, but my fear is that to get something readable on the 16" I should scale up the resolution something like 125% or so and I don’t know how Tia Portal would react to this (blurring texts etc). Also, since I will use it for programming, how long it will live compared to an IPS?
will it burn in?

notebook

T16 gen 3 (Intel)

component description
cpu ultra 7 165U
ram 64 ddr5 (2x32)
video intel arc integrated
monitor 16" WQUXGA (3.840 x 2.400) OLED or 16" WUXGA (1.920 x 1.200), IPS, antiriflesso, non-touch, sRGB
disk 1 1 tb nvme performance g4 tlc opal
disk 2 none
battery 86 Wh
power usb c
rj45 yes …but
material ? plastic ?
price 2.998 euro (OLED) - 2.638,00 euro (IPS sRGB)
weight 1.63 kg
up bigger battery, usb c charging, if no oled better screen than others
down not sure about resistant / materials used, no sec. nvme slot, intel U instead of H series, rj45 half size (with partial cover)

P16s gen 3 (Intel)

component description
cpu ultra 9 185H
ram 64 ddr5 (2x32)
video intel arc integrated
monitor 16" WQUXGA (3.840 x 2.400) OLED or 16" WUXGA (1.920 x 1.200), IPS, antiriflesso, touch, NTSC
disk 1 1 tb nvme performance
disk 2 none
battery 75 Wh
power usb c
rj45 yes
material ? plastic ?
price 2.948,01 euro (OLED) - 2.588,01 (IPS)
weight 1,82 kg
up cheaper
down not sure about resistant / materials used, no sec. nvme slot, rj45 half size (with partial cover)

P16s gen 3 (Intel)

component description
cpu ultra 7 155H
ram 64 ddr5 (2x32)
video intel arc integrated
monitor 16" WQUXGA (3.840 x 2.400) OLED - 16" WUXGA (1.920 x 1.200), IPS, antiriflesso, touch, NTSC 45%, 300 nit, 60 Hz
disk 1 1 tb nvme performance
disk 2 none
battery 75 Wh
power usb c
rj45 yes
material ? plastic ?
price 2.768,01 euro (OLED) - 2.408,01 euro (IPS) - 2.688,02 euro (IPS + GPU RTX 500 6GB)
weight 1,82 kg
up cheaper
down not sure about resistant / materials used, no sec. nvme slot,rj45 half size (with partial cover)

P16v gen 2 (Intel)

component description
cpu ultra 7 155H
ram 64 ddr5 (2x32)
video intel arc integrated
monitor 16" WQUXGA (3.840 x 2.400) IPS
disk 1 1 tb nvme performance
disk 2 secondary slot available
battery 90 Wh
power lenovo connector
rj45 yes
material ? magnesium ?
price 2.618,01 euro (IPS 3840) - 2.388,02 (IPS 1.920 sRGB) - 2.638,02 (IPS 1.920 sRGB + RTX 500 4GB)
weight 2,2 kg
up bigger battery, low price, should be more resistant, sec. nvme, full size rj45
down bigger, proprietary power connector, ultra 9 only with GPU

links

2

Your first two requirements say Panasonic Toughbook, sorry. I see a Getec brand that has similar claims, but the price difference is small enough to just buy the real thing and know it will last through industrial knocks and abuse.

There are a lot of different “military” specs, they test different things and I doubt any of the Thinkpads will be rated for water splash. If they were, they would probably have an IP5x or IP6x rating very boldly listed in the specs. Toughbook FZ40 lists all of these MIL-STD-810H, MIL-STD-461G, IP66 and optional C1D2. MIL 810h seems to be mounted in vehicles or buildings where it is roughly sheltered, I stopped scanning the pages after about the first 100 pages (out of 1082). That said, I bet the IP66 is only for the laptop closed and sealed up.

The question then becomes, if you can get a year out of XXX at $500usd, in 9 years you will be at a break even point and have had 9 years of upgrades. But without seeing your environment, or even what your computer looks like right now, it would be difficult for me to suggest that this cheaper every year path would be wise. It might only last a month before the keyboard was filled with junk and stopped working.

3

Thanks for the suggestion :+1:, but this time I would avoid the these type of rugged notebooks.
I know that are very robust but the portability as well as specs are often not at top…
Travel with one of that beasts into the backpack is …an experience :sweat_smile:

I know that Siemens will present another field pg but I don’t know the specs. I could consider that but it heavy as my current m4 and the Pana you suggested…

To the list I could add the p1 gen 6 or 7, I know that are in magnesium and aluminum, it should be a “tuff guy” enough for my daily job.

Do you know which materials are used by the thinkpad P16 / s / v and T16 series?

4

What they are made from is much less important than how they deal with dust and water (in my opinion). Anything with an aluminum or magnesium case should be plenty strong. Even many of the plastic cases will be OK if treated even somewhat carefully. Magnesium or Titanium are the ultimate in light weight and strong though, but you pay for it.

If my memory is correct, the T and X series are a better build quality. I would also look and see what Fujitsu might offer, they used to have real industrial laptops and tablets that would last forever, not sure about their current Lifebook series.

Dell has a series of rugged, still big and clunky but only 4.35 pounds (1.96kg). They get a huge amount of money for ram, so it might be in your interest to buy a low ram model and upgrade for yourself. Only issue that I don’t like is the 11th generation processor, for the price I’d like to see at least 12th gen. https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/latitude-5430-rugged-laptop/spd/latitude-14-5430-laptop/xctolr5430usvi?redirectTo=SOC

They have other models here, but you are right back at Toughbook pricing https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/scr/laptops/latitude-rugged/appref=37871

How often are you out in full Sun trying to program? A daylight readable display might be something you want if the answer to this is often. If not often, then I suggest some Day-vue film over the display https://nushield.com/ I’ve used it on several computers and the difference in full Sun is worth the price. Going from cursing to tolerable to work on. And if never out in Sun, then maybe skip the protective film.

1 Like
5

Thanks again.

I just checked, but both Fujitsu and Pana has not a big market here in Italy (they mainly sell electronic devices like tv, ampli, etc and air conditioners).

Also, there are no “official” reseller in Italy (at least I didn’t find any near me) so no “real” shops. And on the “well known” online shops I only found some old/refurbished units or entry level.

The Dell seems good but it has small display (the m4 I am currently using has 15.1" but often is too tight for me, especially when edit the hmi pages) and uses “relative old” cpu (Intel 11th gen).

The sun is not a big problem since I will use it on office and inside the factories, a matte display should be enough to avoid any reflex.

I am thinking on the p1 gen 7 or maybe past gen.
The price gap - with similar specs - between the two is around 1000 euro, so maybe I think I will go with the gen 6.

Ok it has a 2 gen old cpu and it doesn’t have the nic, so I will need a dongle…
but the last one could be a compromise even if I am not totally convinced…