I spend the bulk of my day on my work laptop but admin settings prevent it from being usable for things like Zwift or Garmin Connect. I am looking to buy a laptop essentially for internet searches and triathlon training apps and software. What’s my best choice? Ideally I’d spend less than $500.
Any of them? With windows or apple cause zwift isn’t linux or bsd
Would an iPad work for you? It sounds like it could be a simpler choice.
It’s worth investigating this: http://www.digitaltrends.com/...n-3000-cheap-laptop/
Guessing Windows?
Best Windows machine is IMO Microsoft Surface. You probably want better 3D graphics for Zwift etc. So Surface Book laptop then. The graphics speed on the Surface Pro tablet is probably not fast enough. I have the Pro and it barely runs 3D stuff. Low framerates.
If you don’t need portability and money is no object, then Alienware. No one makes machines like they do.
get IT to install vmware and run your personal workflow in a VM
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Something like a HP Pavilion dv7 would work great… honestly for what you want to do there are many laptops that will be perfect. I snagged a dv7 for around $400 at Best Buy for my wife with an i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 750GB of storage. Upgraded to Windows 10 and she loves it… more than anything pretty good sound for a laptop and good sized screen for her college… err Facebook games. 
I don’t Zwift but it looks like you might be using the screen and it has an HDMI output if you wanted to plug it into a TV. I’m a big fan of HP and I’d shop specs… 17" monitor, i5 or better processor, 8GB of RAM or better and 500GB of storage… definitely doable for less than $500.
The video card is key for Zwift and $500 isn’t going to get you much.
Dell i7559 on Amazon. It’s not in dells website but a laptop for retailers.
Core i5 processor latest gen
8gb memory and easily upgrade able
Nvidia 960m gpu with 4gb vram- this is as good as you can get for the price and will easily run zwift at all but the highest 4K settings
256gb solid state hard drive - a little on the small side but super fast
Price 799, but might occasionally get discounted to 749.
I love my MacbookPro but it sounds like a 747 taking off when I run Zwift. It hasn’t broken, but it’s a bit disconcerting and the neighbours have also started complaining.
I have a desktop with a water-cooled videocard and CPU and two massive copper radiators. Even when running at 100% it’s so quiet you can barely tell it’s on. It can easily run Zwift as its graphics aren’t as demanding as games that are several years old. The downside is that I need a cart to move it.
The video card is key for Zwift and $500 isn’t going to get you much.
^^^^This. To get the video card to Zift well at $500 you are probably looking at a desktop (or spending >$500).
I use Mac’s for everything but it was such a PITA to get home, turn it on, get the VPN online, start netflix, get trainer road set up etc, that I bought a laptop - windows - that I keep exclusively for Netflix and TR on the treadmill and trainer.
ASUS F555LA-AB31 15.6-inch Full-HD Laptop (Core i3, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD) with Windows 10
$350.00 I think, its great, cheap as chips and does exactly what I wanted it to
I spend the bulk of my day on my work laptop but admin settings prevent it from being usable for things like Zwift or Garmin Connect. I am looking to buy a laptop essentially for internet searches and triathlon training apps and software. What’s my best choice? Ideally I’d spend less than $500.
Are you married to the idea of a laptop?
I use Mac’s for everything but it was such a PITA to get home, turn it on, get the VPN online, start netflix, get trainer road set up etc, that I bought a laptop - windows - that I keep exclusively for Netflix and TR on the treadmill and trainer.
ASUS F555LA-AB31 15.6-inch Full-HD Laptop (Core i3, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD) with Windows 10
$350.00 I think, its great, cheap as chips and does exactly what I wanted it to
It won’t likely cut it for Zwift as it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card.
OP - For $500, to get a laptop with a dedicated video card, you might have to look on the used market. Maybe find an Alienware that is a few years old. I have a almost 3 year old Alienware 17, works great, good quality build too.
Thanks for all the feedback. I find technology totally overwhelming so this is very helpful (I make my husband nuts and my 7 year old is now showing me how to work the TV) and has me increasing my budget. I tend to move where my trainer is set up around a fair amount so I’d prefer a laptop to a desktop but at a certain price, maybe not.
The video card is key for Zwift and $500 isn’t going to get you much.
+1.
i have a 2009 macbook pro, and one of zwift’s updates last spring made it completely incompatible with my old integrated graphics card. i was pretty annoyed when i realized i’d have to buy a new computer to start using zwift again. haven’t given in yet, but i’ve thought about it…
anyway, not expecting you to buy a six-year-old laptop; just make sure you pay attention to the graphics if zwift is important to you.
I have a 1 y/o Lenovo Z50 laptop - runs Zwift just fine - Win8, Core i7, 8Gb RAM. Just for grins, I tried a Sony laptop about 6 y/o and with a old (of course) Pentium processor. 3 Gb RAM. No go for Zwift.
Get a Asus, they are good, solid, reliable machines at a good price
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ASUS X550ZE-DB10 features with15.6-Inch Laptop, AMD A10 Quad Core 2.5 GHz, Radeon Dual Graphics R7 M265DX
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ASUS X550ZE-DB10 features with15.6-Inch Laptop, AMD A10 Quad Core 2.5 GHz, Radeon Dual Graphics R7 M265DX
AMD, Eww, no thanks.