atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information RECOMMENDATION of NEW LAPTOP for TELECOM TECH

Hello, I am in the market for a new laptop and am having a difficult time finding one with all the options I would like. I need a 9 pin serial connection but I dislike the USB to serial adapters. I would also like a built in Modem.
I have heard the Express Card serial adapters work well so I was planning on going that route. Any suggestions on an alternate for an internal modem would be appreciated.
Looking for a 15" screen I7 with Express card slot. Would also like a built in SD card reader. THANKS!

I know this is old, but since no one responded I thought I should...I'm part telecom, part IT.

Pretty much your only choice for a laptop with a built in modem and serial port is going to be the Panasonic Toughbook 53. The other 2 Toughbook models have serial ports as well, but not a modem.

The upside of this is that it is a very sturdy, reliable laptop. It is meant for field work, and can survive some water and drops. The downside is that they are not the greatest performing laptops, and they are expensive. Starting price is about $1300.

I used to work with the Anhsuer Busch distributors supporting their mobile sales system. The Toughbook was heavily used across the country. Good little machine, and I only recall ever sending 1 in for repair.

You won't get a serial port or modem from Dell or HP at all.

You can add a cards to a laptop that will give you a hard IRQ serial port. But ya, I really dislike usb/serial connectors. Especially when loading router configs.

Oh crap! I guess I'm going to have to tell my Dell Latitude D620's to quit working LOL

I have 3, one I paid about $200 for and the other two were "free". They show up on eBay for about $100 or less.

Carl

I too have a D620 that I use for serial stuff.

I haven't treated it well...about 6 years ago I ran it over (in the laptop bag) with my car. Cracked the screen, but otherwise survived. Put a new screen in it.

If one requires a *brand new* unit with warranty, most Panasonic ToughBooks can be configured with a serial port. Their prices are on the high end of the spectrum, though.

Second-hand market is a chock full of CF-19, CF-31 and CF-52 units which can be had for a fraction of their original price tag and are virtually indestructible in my experience.

As always, YMMV.

I use the cheapest USB-serial adapter I could find on eBay and it works just fine with Windows 7, Windows 10 and Cisco equipment. It cost around $5, and I did not even have to install a driver.

My HP laptop cost $200 in WalMart two years ago. It came with Windows 7. Last year I upgraded it to Windows 10 without any problem.

Just saying....

I have Toughbook CF-74 laptops for my techs. They're listed for $300-$400 on Ebay with Windows 7 Pro. We swap them out with SSDs for even better performance and additional drop protection. Techs don't need to watch HD videos so no need for the latest processors.