Difference between consumer grade vs business laptop

With the release of new Intel Montevina, it's time for me to buy a notebook. My current laptop is old Sony VAIO (FS and S series). In works like a charm and never had any problem until today. Sony however doesn't really have consumer-grade / business notebook. So I am not really sure which category my laptop belong to, but they are durable IMO.

Now I plan to buy either HP/Dell b/c SONY doesn't have 14.1 anymore. When I browsed HP and Dell web, they do have consumer grade and business notebook. I am not really sure what the difference is as they are very similar. But some people in this forum mentioned that consumer grade NB is not really durable, which concerns me.

Anyone has feedback suggestions between consumer grade vs business NB?

 

Its correct that consumer-oriented products are less durable and more stylish than business-oriented because of the difference in material quality and cost..
For a 14.1" consider Lenovo Thinkpad T61 its business-type and awesome build quality and great specs..

you should consider posting a FAQ because I dont really know your budget/usage to recommend anything else..

 

Business line:
Advantages over home line(ex: inspiron):
Less bugs: home line can have a failure rate of, for example, 0.00001%. Business line's failure rate must be at least 100 times lower.
Less bloatware (not always true, thou)
Better build quality and structure(in other words: less plastic, more metal)
Components optimized for professional works (ex: professional grade graphic card)
Better consumer support(theoretically )
Less WOW, more functionality

Disadvantages:
Price
Generally less sexy (lenovo x300 is an exception)
They will usually ship with windows vista business, which lacks some multimedia feature compared to windows vista home premium
Graphic cards have more conservative drivers: less power (not good for gaming). However, it can be solved by changing the driver.

etc. etc.

Normally, business lines worth the extra. However, if you want business class' quality but want style and multimedia feature, go with something like dell's xps or macbook pro.

 

look at Panasonic... now there is a quality 14 inch one, not the
military range, the normal range...

http://www.toughbook.eu/ENG/notebook_cf-y7.aspx

if an update comes here...

http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2008/01/07/Panasonic-ToughBook-CF-Y7/p1

it looks good and you can sit on it or write for 6+ hours

http://executive.toughbook.eu/en/

 

I always thought the difference was that the consumer grade notebooks were stolen at universities and business grade notebooks were stolen at airports.

 

You should definitely take a look at some of Lenovo's laptops, as they have some great ratings.

 

There is a difference in build quality, and from my experience, the business laptops are a lot more durable. I beat up my laptops, everyone tells me this, but my Latitude D630 seems to be holding up nicely since I got it a month ago. When I had my Inspiron 6000, within a month it already showed abuse, and had issues.

If you want something you plan to constantly take around (ie to class, work), I'd go with the business class. I see people everyday in my classes with Inspiron's, all of which seem to be falling apart now (and everyone is complaining about them).

 

1. Regarding the Dell (Precision) laptops; they are bullet proof but they are HEAVIER.

 

LMAO ROFL..

 

Hi All, thanks for the feedback. I forgot to mention my budget. Here it is:

Budget is not a concern for me at all. What I really need is:

1. I will use the NB for both work & home.
2. 14.1" WXGA+ and as thin as possible (very important).
3. I need a NB as durable as business NB, but also as sexy as consumer grade NB (must be slim/thin).

So what come close to my expectation above?

I have done some research, here is what I found:
- The new SONY VAIO looks fine, but they only released 13.1 13.3 and 16.4.
- Waiting for Dell Latitude E (anyone knows when?)
- Waiting for HP Elitebook
- Want to check Lenovo as well.

By the way, anyone knows where I can see/feel HP business NB in person? Most stores only sell consumer grade.

 

How about the Sony CR series? They have a WXGA+ screen, 14.1" screen, and look very sleek. I'm not quite sure about their durability though.

 

A business grade laptop is a significant improvement over a consumer machine. I have previously owned a Dell Inspiron and I currently own two Dell latitudes.

The Inspiron was a good machine for it's day (Geforce 2 series or something like that). I was relatively careful with it, never dropped it and left it in a docking station most of the time but the screen hinges are now showing cracking cracking.

By comparison, I have subjected my Latitude to every possible form of abuse imaginable. Water spills on the keyboard, my sister spat hot chocolate over it, it has been dropped repeatedly from about waist height, knocked off my bed and bashed it into a wall, etc. You name it, I've done it. And what has it got to show after all that abuse? Absolutely nothing! Only real wear and tear are a few scratches on the lid (Which has now been replaced, free of charge, by Dell under warranty on an unrelated issue). That is where the difference is.

Is it worth the lack of style and gaming power for having a notebook which still works reliable day-in-day out? Well, from why I am buying to replace it you would think the answer was "no" but, in fact, that would be wrong. I am still keeping my Latitudes and will be using the D420 as my primary on-the-go machine and keeping the D610 as a backup.

 

The other thing to consider is whether the use of a dock would be helpful. Many business laptops are dockable while consumer ones are not. If you have stuff you'll connect to frequently like external keyboard, mouse, 2nd monitor for an extended display, various USB or firewire stuff, hard-wired ethernet, etc. it can be very nice to have a dock.

 

everyone who has mentioned build quality is right on about the difference. CPUs, memory and hard drives are going to be pretty much the same. Mag-alloy skins for the D630 and more plastic on the consumer lineup.

Video cards are going to be different. You are going to see the option for integrated on both, NVidia geforce for consumer and quadro for business.

Docking stations are options on he busines sones and not on consumer(I am not counting those 3rd party USB ones).

You have a modular media bay on the D630 that you can use for optical, floppy and bay battery. Consumer is a fixed drive.

And the last thing I can think of is probobly the most important to me... support. Business support= US call center and shorter hold times. 3 years on site support. Consumer=Foreign call center and unless you upgrade or have XPS, mail in support.

 

The support and warranty does deserve a special mention: If you have any sort of problem that they can't solve on the phone then they will send a tech over next business day. He will bring the required parts and replace them on the spot, he even replaced my screen because it was a bit scratched and keyboard because it had some dirt under it.

 

Business NB are built differently because they have to withstand the rigors of the business person's busy schedule. It's heavier, the material is thicker and the batteries usually last longer too.

 

According to an email I got today, the official Launch of the E series is August 12th. Dell is airing several webcasts on the 29th of July on the E series.

As far as consumer vs business grade laptops, besides the chassie material, there are several difference with material and design of the internal circuitry as well.

For example, the capacitors used between consumer grade and business grade laptops are different. The business grade uses a different type of capacitor that is less likely to leak/rupture/wear out vs the typical electrolytic
capacitors you'll find in standard consumer grade machines.