UKC

My 4 year old Dell just went stone dead, looks like a power issue on the mainboard. It's out of warranty, it's from work and they've OK'd me to buy a new one. I will check out Dell's latest offering, but has anyone got any alternative suggestions that I should take a look at?

Budget up to about £1.5k.
Needs to have HDMI and Ethernet port built in. I realise this rules out a lot of options, but it's not negotiable. Displayport too, but this can be via an adapter.
Needs to be pretty solid and tough, but reasonably lightweight. Not super skinny but not some chunky monster.
Nice sharp screen about 14" to 15" HD. Any smaller is too small to read, any bigger is too big to carry. No use for 4k in that size.
Very good CPU performance, something that would have been top end a year or two ago, that sort of level. Not fussed about graphics as I don't play games. 
Needs to have actual trackpad buttons. I can't be doing with clicking on the trackpad.
As mentioned in the title, needs to be Windows.
Needs to be reliable. I was a fan of Dell up until yesterday...

So a pretty tough call to find something that meets all those. Any suggestions?

Definitely a tough call for all those requirements - I've been looking for something not too different for my wife, and hardly anything has more than 2x USB C/ Thunderbolt ports and 1x USB A port. As for trackpad buttons... they seem to be rare too. If you've gone off Dell, a Lenovo Thinkpad might do the job - some of those have ethernet and trackpad buttons.

I know you said that 4k is pointless at that size, but I've got a 4k screen on my 14" laptop and that's made my wife demand a 4k screen on her new one too. They might be a luxury, but they're very nice.

Get the nicest ThinkPad you can get for your budget. Job Done.

I think you'll find it really hard to get all those requirements at once, especially the ethernet port.  PCSpecialist have quite a few 14" options with HDMI but I don't see any with ethernet.  

Why is it critical to have ethernet in?  If you're plugging a cable in, does it make that much difference if the cable plugs in via an ethernet->USB-C adapter?  That's what I had to compromise on when buying my wife's new laptop recently.

My previous laptop was a Thinkpad and it wasn't bad, so I will check out their current offerings.

I have a 28" 4k monitor on my desk and it's at the limit of useability for me, I tend to scale it to 150% or so unless I actually need 4k for something. 4k on a 14" screen seems utterly pointless to me. We have a bunch of Surface Pros which are a similar pixel size and I find them a right pain to use at native resolution. 

In my line of work adapters are just a pain. The adapter is always in my bag at the other side of the site, or even worse on my desk in the office, or left behind at the previous site. It's bad enough that I can't get a laptop with a serial port any more. And I regularly need to plug in my laptop while holding it in one hand and the cable in the other because the cable is in a rack and and there isn't enough slack to rest the laptop anywhere. It's no problem doing this when the socket is on the laptop, but if the socket is dangling on a cable it makes it a three-hand job.

https://www.ebuyer.com/1327431-lenovo-thinkbook-15-g2-intel-core-i7-1165g7-...

HDMI, ethernet, 16GB RAM, 512 GB SSD NVMe, camera with privacy shutter, Intel i7, 15.6" full HD, fingerprint reader. No trackpad buttons as such but it is physically clicky at the bottom edge. Just buy a wireless mouse!

£939.99 (Inc vat)

I use similar model from 2 years ago, running very well

Looks a goodun to me!

Interfaces USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (supports Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort 1.4 Alt Mode) (Power Delivery 3.0) ¦ USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (supports DisplayPort 1.4 Alt Mode) (Power Delivery 3.0) ¦ USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Always On) ¦ USB 3.2 Gen 1 ¦ HDMI ¦ LAN ¦ Headphone/microphone combo jack Memory Card Reader 4 in 1 (SD Card, MultiMediaCard, SDHC Card, SDXC Card)

A little big and heavy for me, but that's the right sort of thing. That's good to know about the trackpad being physically clicky. It seems like actual trackpad buttons are a thing of the past, but a clicky trackpad should be OK. I have a wireless mouse, but it only works if I have a surface to use it on! So fine if I'm at home or in the office, not much use on the train or on site.

Another vote for Thinkpads, I've had loads of them and they're bombproof. And upgradeable......and therefore also repairable. 

Paul