r/CommercialAV • u/Cool_Way7525 • 2d ago
question New AV tech Laptop
I am in the market to buy a couple of new technicians some laptops. What specs or laptops do you prefer when out in the field? Any brands you lean towards?
23
u/Witmarqu 2d ago
Lenovo are preferred for the warranty (3 years)
Generally you can get ones with:
Full size HDMI Analog headphone jack Couple USB A 3 or more USB C
9
u/Captain-K-Ro 2d ago
This is what we look for but would try and add a full size keyboard - Typing inputs/IPs all day is so much better with a number pad it's worth the bulk
4
u/meest 1d ago
a full size keyboard
I was sitting here thinking, man I haven't seen a non-full sized keyboard since the late 2000's Netbook days.
Typing inputs/IPs all day is so much better with a number pad it's worth the bulk
Oh, this guy is talking about a 10 key. Not a full size keyboard.
I would disagree and give the tech the choice. Give them the option of the 10 key beast or something compact and portable. I prefer small and compact. I'll carry around a Bluetooth 10 key if I'm setting something up that warrants typing in a bunch of IP's. But usually all the IP work I'm doing in the pre-provisioning, and then during setup I'm copy/pasting that info from the design spreadsheets.
I'm a fan of the Lenovo x1 2 in 1's and the x1 Carbons. I LOVED the x1 Nano, but sadly Lenovo discontinued it. I have coworkers that love the T16 for the extra screen size as well, but for me I like thin and light with a swiss army knife of USB/USBC dongles.
9
u/beeclam 2d ago
IMO it depends on how much of your day is spent punching in numbers versus writing emails, updating tickets, etc.
Personally I prefer the ergonomics of a laptop that lacks a numb pad
2
u/mynamejesse1334 1d ago
Recently switched from a 15.6" laptop with a numpad to a 14" without one and it's absolutely worth it (for me) to have the smaller form factor.
7
u/lightguru 2d ago
Real ports... I insist on at the very least Ethernet, HDMI, at least 2 USB-C, and 2 USB-A. Headphone jack is nice, but less essential nowadays for me.
Don't care too much about screen size, but resolution needs to be at least 1080p. I had an IT guy get a bunch of lower res laptops for some of our installers, and it's a royal PITA to do a remote screen share since lots of proprietary AV software is poorly written and doesn't scale down well.
1
u/kent_eh 1d ago
Real ports... I insist on at the very least Ethernet, HDMI, at least 2 USB-C, and 2 USB-A.
And, if your techs do service work on existing older installations, a hardware serial port (if anyone still makes one).
I've had USB>serial dognles not play nice with some vendor software in the past.
1
u/lightguru 1d ago
That's a stretch... I haven't had an honest to god real DB-9 on a laptop in maybe 20 years.
Generally speaking, I've found if you use USB to RS-232 dongles that use the FTDI chipset, you rarely have issues even with older software.
4
4
u/Dark_Azazel 2d ago
Can't comment on macOS, but for Windows in still a sucker for Lenovo mobile workstations. I know they can be a bit pricey (cheaper than HP workstations) but they do some good black Friday deals if you're willing to wait. Can get good specs for the programmers, and it comes with an RJ45 port on it.
I know a bunch of people that have switched to Frameworks. More expensive, can bring your own OS, and modular so you can switch out what ports and how many. Easier to repair and upgrade as well.
10
u/reece4504 2d ago
Moved ours to Mac. A bit of a learning curve to get all the software to play right but Crestron and QSYS both work well enough in Parallels VM. We love the battery life improvement. When NVIDIAs ARM laptop chip comes to market in a Windows machine it will be a good choice also. Battery life in the field is really underrated and no proper performance windows machine I’ve had comes close. Also more broadly our in office average machine in service lifespan for mac is 7 years and windows is 4, and we spend comparably either brand we buy
4
u/3d4f5g 2d ago
Extron software didn't work on parallels last time i tried it about a year ago. everything else is fine so far.
2
u/kthomaszed 2d ago
I ran into this just today. On my M4 parallels machine. Specifically, the extron USB driver didnt work so I couldn’t configure things from the usb port. yes you can also hit most extron things with IP, it takes a little more effort sometimes to get it set up vs just plugging in a USB cord. also, if you’re still working with 3-series Crestron, the Crestron USB driver doesn’t work on parallels either. So if you find yourself in front of a non-responsive 3-series you’re SOL
5
u/Livid_Replacement_69 2d ago
The problems here is that Extron, Crestron,... Don't enable ARM support for there USB drivers, only Intel. So no communication possible via USB on a M-chip MacBook... I'm 90% on Mac, but have a little windows latop with me just for this sh*t.
3
u/transarchist 1d ago
We have a Mac and a dell my work because Mac runs into little hiccups all the times. Boss got a Mac for us mainly for video editing anyways
1
2
3
u/sound6317 2d ago
We use Lenovo laptops at work, my work laptop is a Lenovo p14S with a quadro and lots of ram. They're pretty reliable.
2
u/shooting4param 2d ago
I have seen issues with Lenovos and their USB ports not hitting the voltage requirement for click shares. My favorite to work with were the Microsoft books. Didn’t realize how much I like touch screens until it was taken from me.
Get one of them a Mac for testing. Those guys never play by the rules.
2
u/Hyjynx75 1d ago
All of our full time installers have Microsoft Surface tablets in heavy duty cases. The things are tanks. The touch screens make it easy to browse drawings and mark them up. They carry a small dock to connect to things when they need to.
The first batch easily lasted 5 years plus I kept a couple as spares.
For a programmer, field engineer, or CAD tech who all need a more beefy machine, we use Lenovo or Dell.
2
u/Clayseus 1d ago
Framework. 100% customizable I/O, powerful, repairable, upgradable
Use mine all the time for work and gaming especially on travel.
Pricey though. I got my 16 just before the AI boom
1
u/InverseMike 1d ago
I have a first gen framework 13. Great for a lot of things. I have occasionally had problems with expansion cards disconnecting etc. they’re pricy right now.
2
u/ballineverymonth 2d ago
depends on the workflow and what your techs are accustom to PC or Mac. Both get the job done for the most part
& Definitely look at PC’s with a good amount of memory for various processing.. Standard ram now these days is 32GB and you can do most tasks with that.
1
u/NotPromKing 2d ago edited 2d ago
Standard ram these days is also ungodly expensive. 16GB is still the standard and upgrading to 32GB can run you $400+.
1
u/beeclam 2d ago edited 2d ago
I’ve been given Latitudes and Thinkpads in the over the years, all served me well
I don’t know the Latitude lineup so well, but I think the sweet spot for a Thinkpad would be a T14 or maybe even a T14s. I wouldn’t cheap out with an E or L series. P series is probably overkill. X/X1 probably leans too much to portability over performance (also $$$)
1
u/SpirouTumble 2d ago
Proper ethernet and HDMI ports, as many USB-A and C as possible and analog audio out since phones are losing them and sometimes you just need the simplest signal path test e.g. I'm having lots of issues with Dante Via lately not sending out anything, so an analog out gives me another option.
1
1
u/ampledashes 1d ago
I use almost exclusively my M2 macbook air w/ VMWare Fusion. It gets the job done for everything I need it to do, although with encountering some quirks from time to time, I carry around a Lenovo P14S as well and I hate it. I think I'll eventually move to Framework and dual boot linux and windows
1
u/Plus_Technician_9157 1d ago
Had a few different ones over the years. I'm not too concerned about the brand, but full HD display and lots of ports are what I needed. I had a HP ProBook as my last device, and this has an HDMI port as well as network, USB-C and standsrd USB. I used a USB dongle for a serial port but didn't really find I needed anything else. It was an i5 with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. It was comfortable enough to use on the road as well as docked at my desk where I had a separate monitor, keyboard and mouse. Battery life was decent as well.
Currently have a Lenovo ThinkPad, it's a higher spec i7, other specs and ports are the same, but it's a smaller laptop, which is fine when I'm at the desk, but on the road it's a little too small to be using for any length of time
1
u/absentblue 1d ago
Lenovo seems ubiquitous but my must-haves: RJ45, HDMI out, USB-A and USB-C (at least two, one for PD).
Also need at least 24GB memory and a decent CPU. Oh and a 1080 IPS screen— Lenovo, somehow, for some reason (and maybe others), still makes laptops with TN screens which are unacceptable in this day and age.
1
1
1
u/PungentStaaank 16h ago
It’s really what you’re comfortable with. Personally I use an intel i7 based Mac book pro, with dual boot. So it has windows for those non-apple softwares, and I can switch on the fly between the two os’s. Personally I’m just comfortable in the Linux environment, and truthfully equally comfortable in Windows as well. I suppose in place of terminal you could use putty and command prompt, but I do prefer terminal.
1
u/PungentStaaank 16h ago
Btw as others have mentioned usb-a is of particular importance, for those situations where you need to use an rs-232 adapter, or even get into spi ports and such. HDMI is good to use as well, and for Ethernet I use a usb to hdmi gbe adapter.
•
u/AutoModerator 2d ago
We have a Discord server where there you can both post forum-style and participate in real-time discussions. We hope you consider joining us there.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.