… it’s just never easy when you’re picky like me.

So as you’ll have noticed from my previous posts, I’ve been using my wife’s Asus 1005P (Atom CPU) and a 7 year old Vaio C2M/W. Over the last month or so I’ve been suffering from a “crisis of confidence” where I’ve been asking how I managed to become a senior developer. After reading Scott Hanselman’s blog on the topic, it seems that it’s a common feeling amongst developers.

So, to cut a long story short… to keep myself learning by trying things out, I’m after a new laptop but as those who know me will confirm, I’m very picky and I like things to be just right. As a result, I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe the laptop I’m after just doesn’t exist.

My requirements:

No bigger than a 14" screen The screen must have a resolution of 1080p or better Must have an Intel i7 CPU (3rd or 4th generation) Must have at least 8Gb RAM Must have an SSD, or be upgradable to an SSD This has resulted in very few options. Obviously, a Macbook Pro would cover all that but as a .NET developer, it wouldn’t be a great fit. Here’s a few from the list:

Dell XPS 13 (13.3") Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon (14") Dell Inspiron 14 7000 series (14") Toshiba Kira The Toshiba is out straight away. I had a Toshiba once and it had power problems. I was given another a few years later which also had power problems. I just keep away from them now.

The Dell Inspiron is out too - too many reviewers complained about the short travel keyboard which would drive me insane.

The Lenovo, to get a 1080p+ resolution will be too pricey, so that leaves the XPS 13.

Yet I’m still not convinced. Any ideas?