Business compact laptop

[Flibb]

I have been asked to sort out a laptop for a relative, he is self employed and needs something to keep in his van to access his office files. Probably looking at going the Office 365 route using his phone for portable connection. He runs a window cleaning business so needs something that's not going to fall apart after five minutes. Budget is up to £400, looking at 13" or less.

Initial thought was to look at new thinkpads, but the smaller one in budget are Celeron, is Celeron still a deal breaker in modern laptops?
2nd thought was to get a 2nd hand thinkpad X220, add an ssd and some more memory.
3rd thought, what about a Toughbook, it would have to be an old model, but should be tough enough.

Any other models I should look out for that's reasonable size, well built, reliable?

Cheers

[cptwhite_uk]

I bought my parent s a Dell Latitude E7440 and it makes me smile everytime I use it, it's got fantastic build quality and an awesome keyboard. Bit bigger than what you were wanting but should be within budget if buying second hand.

[herulach]

I use an X230, and its bomb proof, the X220 I had at the old place even more so. You'd need to be going some to smash it. Maybe not use it up the top of ladders, but if its sitting in a van it'll be fine.

[DDY]

My E7440 gets stuffed in an overloaded backpack about four times a day and rides in a top box on the back of my motorcycle. It has fallen off my bed a few times and I've even spilt a glass of orange juice over it, good thing the keyboard has a liquid spill drain port and that the system is easily disassembled.

The E7440 isn't a rugged machine but it can take hits where it matters.

[Guy]

Does it need to be a laptop? First thought that came to mind was tablet and some kind of hard case.

[Flibb]

Thanks for the comments, I lent him a tablet and set it up with google docs, but he found it to be a pain in the aris to navigate some of the larger spreadsheets he uses. He has several blokes spread across multiple vans working for him.

I will have a look at the E7440 as an option.

As a side not I have just picked up a Lemovo miix 3, suprisingly good for £120 with keyboard, got it from John Lewis so comes with improved warranty.

[scaryjim]

... I have just picked up a Lemovo miix 3, suprisingly good for £120 with keyboard ...

Can't say I'm surprised by that - I picked up a Toshy Click Mini when I was on holiday in November (~ £150 after conversion from euros, but it's an 8.9" 1920x1200 screen so a notch up from the usual ones you find on Win 10 tablets) and it's an absolute delight to use as both a netbook and a tablet (once you upgrade it to Win 10, anyway). Very good balance for a consumer electronics device that's capable of productivity uses. Must pick up a bigger microSD card for it at some point, mind...

[fredsmith999]

Sandy Bridge Thinkpads (X220 gen) are just as good in almost every way as new laptops - just poor battery life! (the common i5 2520m processor performs the same as a new U series i5). Much better built than consumer laptops but still not very rugged.

[badgericho]

Lenovo Yoga, my friend has this one, he is been using it for 2 years, without any problem

[FatalSaviour]

Sandy Bridge Thinkpads (X220 gen) are just as good in almost every way as new laptops - just poor battery life! (the common i5 2520m processor performs the same as a new U series i5). Much better built than consumer laptops but still not very rugged.

Would agree with this - having used the X220 and X230s as work laptops, I almost prefer them to the X1 Carbon's that they have been replaced with. Only downside as you've said was the battery life, but how much do you need OP?