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I need a laptop. Recommendations?
Vigo:
From the brands that I used:
HP: Definitely much better than a few years ago. Used to be very problematic back around the time they bought out Compaq. These still have their share of problems, but if you find a solid model, they seem to be about the best bang for your buck.
Acer: Not very classy looking, but these are hands down the most reliable laptops I have ever encountered. I have one from 2002 going strong, and never had a single hiccup in it's entire life. (That is until I detached the LCD from the base a couple months ago to see how well it would work for a slim bartop machine. ;D )
Asus: If I was not such a tightwad and found a huge deal on an HP, I would hands down Asus right now. Classy, strong laptops that are reliable and comfortable. They are simply great machines.
Toshiba: Another Great Brand. This is the brand laptop I recommended to my parents. The design of these can sometimes be a little dumb though. USB ports on some models are on the right front, and if you plan on hooking up a real mouse, and wires in the right front are horribly annoying.
Sony: Battery Hogs. I just dont tread around sony laptops for that reason alone.
Dell: There is too much bad blood between me and dell for me to ever be unbias against them again. I think they are garbage, but the one my brother got a few years back actually doesn't seem so bad. I still don't think I could rank them as terrific.
Apple: I haven't used an apple laptop on a serious level since the clamshell days. All I can say is that unless you specifically need the OS, pass. For the amount you would spend, you could get some very serious hardware in a different brand.
OK, with all that "brand" gabbelygook said, my advice is don't heavily base your purchase on the brand. With a laptop, you are stuck with the monitor and keyboard, and those two things are gonna be far more important than the brand you go with. Go to Best Buy, look at the placement of the USB ports, the usability of the functions buttons, quality of speakers, look of the screen...things that are tangible to your senses. At the end of the day, the specs from brand to brand in any given price range are not too far off from each other.
Oh, and one more thing. If you are a desktop user, you may find it difficult to live without a number pad. Consider that when picking a laptop, because even with widescreen, they don't always come with one.
--- Quote from: RayB on February 03, 2012, 09:56:38 pm ---I've been checking the Windows 7 "rating" they have in "System" and so far the best I found was a 5.4 . My own desktop is rated 5.9. Anything around 5 should be good enough.
--- End quote ---
Eh, I always thought the windows rating was a bunch of BS. The score is only as strong as it's weakest score, and sometimes that weak link is not critical to what you do. The numbers are arbitrary as well, windows can and does change the scale system on a whim. I think the thing is there just to get PC gamers to buy a new gaming rigs every 2 years. ;D
BadMouth:
--- Quote from: Vigo on February 07, 2012, 11:14:11 am ---Oh, and one more thing. If you are a desktop user, you may find it difficult to live without a number pad. Consider that when picking a laptop, because even with widescreen, they don't always come with one.
--- End quote ---
It always annoyed me not having one on my old laptop.
So when I bought a new one, I made sure it had a number pad.
....Then quickly became annoyed that I had to hold my hands to the left to type. :lol
Bought a new laptop in December and made sure that I got one without a number pad.
(a fairly specc'd out i7 Alienware m14x. They are overpriced, but I had some killer discount codes that brought it down to what I wanted to pay. Very happy with it)
knave:
--- Quote from: BadMouth on February 07, 2012, 12:12:17 pm ---(a fairly specc'd out i7 Alienware m14x. They are overpriced, but I had some killer discount codes that brought it down to what I wanted to pay. Very happy with it)
--- End quote ---
I can't think of anyone I know who has purchased an alienware and regreted it. (they all seem to use the PC for a long time 3+ years)
Xiaou2:
We had a customer who bought a netbook. I think it was Asus. Thing was Horribly slow, for even the most basic of tasks.
MonMotha:
--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on February 07, 2012, 03:47:46 pm ---We had a customer who bought a netbook. I think it was Asus. Thing was Horribly slow, for even the most basic of tasks.
--- End quote ---
It's a netbook.... They're kinda slow by design. The theory behind them was to get good battery life, be small, and have just enough horsepower for casual web surfing and media consumption ala an appliance. Then people decided they wanted them to be "real" PCs that just happened to be cheap, Windows got thrown on them, and the market died having been supplanted by the modern tablet (ala iPad, etc.).
I have a Thinkpad W500, and I'm pretty happy with it still despite it being over 2 years old. It's in very good shape (I use it hard, but I'm pretty nice to it physically - seems well built, though). It has pretty quality components, decent design, etc. Being an older model, it's lacking things like eSATA, USB3, and a few other modern niceties, but the modern models (W520 is I think the current model in that line) have all those. I got mine late in the model cycle because I wanted the 16:10 WUXGA, but all the new ones are 16:9 1080p. A friend of mine has the W520 and likes it. Just be aware that the stock Windows build can be a bit "polluted" with Lenovo garbage (not trialware, etc., but their "utilities"). This has gotten better, apparently: my friend's W520 was pretty clean except for some branding whereas mine was barely usable. A clean install fixed all that.
I like the look of the Thinkpad bricks over the "modern styling" found on most other models, but that's personal preference.
I know people who have Alienware and Dell XPS series machines, too, and they're reasonably happy with them. I did have a client recently purchase a Latitude E5520 (Core i5), and while it works well enough, I found it to be no faster than my 2 year old W500 (Core2 Duo) even with a clean Windows build. I suspect the factory hard drive may be to blame, but I didn't really investigate.
You tend to get what you pay for. Even if things have "similar looking" specs, the one that costs twice as much probably (but of course not guaranteed) probably has better supporting components and/or secondary specs, and you'll probably notice it if you're anything more than a casual user.
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