Laptop recommendations/thoughts

[BoxsterCy]

It's getting time to retire the seven year old Toshiba Satellite, aka "The Brick". Been a faithful tool for seven years. Although it's not that I don't get mocked about it when I use it to stream games for local gamewatches.

Kinda narrowed down to 15" size +/- (used to that size screen) , 256GB SSD (based on how much space I used on The Brick), average RAM plus decent graphic card (not gaming or video editing), good higher end display. Kinda ruled out true 2 in 1's but would maybe like the touch screen. Will be using just as much as a computer as a media player/streamer. I do a lot of photo editing. Don't travel much or carry my computer with me during the day but lighter weight and longer battery life are on my check list.

Was thinking Dell XPS 15" or 13" (video display and compact/lightweight) put when I went to look at them in real life I hated the keyboards. Any of the newer keyboards will be an adjustment for me after years on my bigger work Dell and The Brick. So, thinking for sure 15" and with keyboard not as squeezed as the Dell XPS series. Also going to have to adjust to touch pad without the traditional mouse left/right button keys....almost no one issues laptops with those anymore.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I've had an ASUS ROG for about three years and really like it. A bit on the heavy side, but I went for power over anything else.

 

[AgronAlum]

Lenovo ThinkPad.

 

[jdcyclone19]

What ever you get, if its a windows computer get a SSD and atleast 8gb of ram. Anything less than 8gb can really handicap a windows computer.

Don't be afraid of the new AMD stuff too. I have a ryzen 5 and vega 8 graphics. No complaints over the I5 and intel HD graphics it replaced. I've read the vega graphics is superior to the intel integrated graphics.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

Lenovo.

Would not recommend until they can get their act together. They have repeatedly been caught putting malware on machines, releasing your info to 3rd party companies, and using horrible manufacturing practices.

 

[AgronAlum]

Would not recommend until they can get their act together. They have repeatedly been caught putting malware on machines, releasing your info to 3rd party companies, and using horrible manufacturing practices.

Didn't know anything about that. I've had a couple ThinkPads through my company and have never really had an issue with them. They have a great feel and performance has been fine.

 

[CYdTracked]

Dude... you're getting a Dell!

 

[CYdTracked]

Would not recommend until they can get their act together. They have repeatedly been caught putting malware on machines, releasing your info to 3rd party companies, and using horrible manufacturing practices.

I used to love their business class Thinkpad models but yeah the company I work for ditched Lenovo all together a couple years ago as one of our brands because of these reasons.

 

[MeowingCows]

New-ish Ryzen laptops from AMD are very competitive with Intel offerings, often cheaper. Definitely worth looking into, no longer the garbage piles that the FX and A-series machines were. Similar CPU performance, better graphics, similar heat/power, cheaper.

Other than that, no matter what you get, wipe and reinstall the OS straight out if the box. Windows 10 makes this process incredibly easy and life without bloatware is the best. Oh, and make sure it has an SSD of some sort -- life-changing.

 

[Sigmapolis]

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/p-p-p-powerbook

 

[BoxsterCy]

I've had an ASUS ROG for about three years and really like it. A bit on the heavy side, but I went for power over anything else.

Looked at some of their slimmer line ones (first quick look through at that Big Buy store) and did like their keyboard better than some others.

 

[4theCYcle]

I love my HP Spectre. Got it last year. It's 15" has a 500 gb SSD. It has more RAM, but I think there was a cheaper version at the time. I do a lot of photo editing.

 

[CYdTracked]

In all seriousness though I've been pretty impressed with the Dell Latitude E series and the HP Elitebook G series laptops. I'll ditto some of the other recommendations above about getting a SSD Hard Drive and at least 8 GB minimum of RAM. I'd probably even go 16 GB of RAM these days depending on what you use it for but you'll see much more of a performance boost out of the SSD hard drive upgrade than you would RAM upgrade with a spindle hard drive.

The one thing that does drive me nuts lately is that you pretty much have to stay on top of checking the manufacturer's websites regularly for BIOS and driver updates for these newer models. Dell and HP especially seem to come out with a new BIOS version or new version of a critical driver like your display/graphics driver to fix a glitch or patch up an issue that happened after Microsoft released a new round of security patches for Windows 10 or new build version.

 

[BoxsterCy]

What ever you get, if its a windows computer get a SSD and atleast 8gb of ram. Anything less than 8gb can really handicap a windows computer.

Don't be afraid of the new AMD stuff too. I have a ryzen 5 and vega 8 graphics. No complaints over the I5 and intel HD graphics it replaced. I've read the vega graphics is superior to the intel integrated graphics.

Yeah, 8gb ram is kinda my floor.

 

[BoxsterCy]

I love my HP Spectre. Got it last year. It's 15" has a 500 gb SSD. It has more RAM, but I think there was a cheaper version at the time. I do a lot of photo editing.

Still shopping but need to get a move on as The Brick is still Windows 7. Was leaning towards Acer or Dell SXP but seeing too much bad stuff on Dell reliability. BIL had bad luck with his Dell. Looking hard at the Spectre now. Wish their new slimmer one was coming out now and not in April but he 2019 model for 15" with 16 GB memory is down to $1050 or so, not a bad price for this. Problem is they seem to be out a month for shipping them Grrrr.

 

[Candide]

The Spectre fits the bill for what you have described needing.

I would say that you would be more excited to use the Mac Book Pro, but the extra thousand bucks would suck a lot of that excitement out of you. That is unless you are doing some serious full-time editing, then you would be more than excited.

The Surface Pro might be a dark horse budget beater for you though. We use them more and more at work and they fit most people's needs just fine.

 

[simply1]

Regarding reliability Per consumer reports, so your view on them may matter

https://www.geckoandfly.com/6311/th...p-survey-best-netbook-reliability-comparison/


From squaretrade

SquareTrade analyzed failure rates for over 30,000 new laptop computers covered by SquareTrade Laptop Warranty plans and found that one-third of all laptops will fail within 3 years. SquareTrade also found that netbooks are 20% more unreliable than other laptops, and that Asus and Toshiba are the most reliable laptop brands.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Kinda down to Dell XPS 15, HP Spectre 15 or maybe an Acer Swift 5. Acer doesn't have the new Thunderbolt. Dell retains the SD slot I use frequently for my Nikon card. HP has micro SD slot which doesn't help me. HP retains the number pad. The good deal on the HP is for 8th gen chip but it's like $400/500 off and won't ship for a month. Boo that. Same with newer gen chip and same other specs ships in a day but without the deal.

 

[aforstate]

https://www.reddit.com/r/LaptopDeals/

A somewhat useful resource.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Likely just buying a cheap computer for vacation travel and keep shopping for my main one for mostly home or close by. Walmart has a Lenovo 8GB 128GB Idea Pad S340 for only $329. Amazon has a similar Acer Aspire 5 for $313. Lenovo is not HD. Acer is HD and has keyboard lighting. Neither, older, have the USB C but at $300 not really expected as older closeouts things. Cheap as a mini storage notebook but with a real SSD and decent memory. If it gets broken or stolen it's not like I am out a $1500 computer.

Will probably keep looking at HP 360 or Dell XPS configured with everything I want. They are just too slow at HP in building/shipping, like out a month to ship them (lot of choices but slow) and Dell configs seem to vary.