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Help Me Buy Yet Another Laptop!
Noxy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey all!
Back in 2011 I asked for help picking out a laptop for wife. This forum delivered!
That computer has been great and still works fine, despite needing a good clean up.
The problem with her current laptop is that it is kinda huge. She just started an accelerated BSN program and the next 12 months are going to be hell for her. I would like to lighter her load, literally, by getting her a new computer to use for school. I still get lost when looking at laptops but maybe Help / Advice can save my bacon once more!
Labor day sales are starting to happen and I figure I better hop on something soon.
What I am looking for: (can be flexible, for sure)
1. Something light and thin for easy transport.
2. A screen that is between 13 and 14 inch. Under that is too small for her. Bigger than that is probably too big.
3. Something without a red ball in the middle of the keyboard. She cannot explain why, but they freak her out. Mostly found on some Lenovo laptops.
4. I'm poor as dirt. Finding a place that will finance with no interest for a while would be preferable.
5. Price... uh.. $800 or less. Higher is fine if I can make payments. Lower is best if I can't. I can flex depending on circumstances.
6. Bad experiences with past Dell computers, but she can probably drop her prejudice for the right laptop.
7. Something powerful enough to handle her school applications, document readers, various media, and maybe some low requirement indie games without bogging down.
8. Respectable battery life.
9. No Apple products. Not compatible with some of the applications. I'm not a huge fan of the company. We don't want to arse with it.
I want the most bang for my buck but shopping has been stressful and confusing.
If anyone can help me narrow this down or find a good match, you'll be our hero.
Back in 2011 I asked for help picking out a laptop for wife. This forum delivered!
That computer has been great and still works fine, despite needing a good clean up.
The problem with her current laptop is that it is kinda huge. She just started an accelerated BSN program and the next 12 months are going to be hell for her. I would like to lighter her load, literally, by getting her a new computer to use for school. I still get lost when looking at laptops but maybe Help / Advice can save my bacon once more!
Labor day sales are starting to happen and I figure I better hop on something soon.
What I am looking for: (can be flexible, for sure)
1. Something light and thin for easy transport.
2. A screen that is between 13 and 14 inch. Under that is too small for her. Bigger than that is probably too big.
3. Something without a red ball in the middle of the keyboard. She cannot explain why, but they freak her out. Mostly found on some Lenovo laptops.
4. I'm poor as dirt. Finding a place that will finance with no interest for a while would be preferable.
5. Price... uh.. $800 or less. Higher is fine if I can make payments. Lower is best if I can't. I can flex depending on circumstances.
6. Bad experiences with past Dell computers, but she can probably drop her prejudice for the right laptop.
7. Something powerful enough to handle her school applications, document readers, various media, and maybe some low requirement indie games without bogging down.
8. Respectable battery life.
9. No Apple products. Not compatible with some of the applications. I'm not a huge fan of the company. We don't want to arse with it.
I want the most bang for my buck but shopping has been stressful and confusing.
If anyone can help me narrow this down or find a good match, you'll be our hero.
0
Posts
something like that might be right up your alley
it's very macbook like but it hits most everything you listed
a bit on the higher end
but I like ASUS as a brand for computer stuff
the other option is going a bit higher for a system that supports USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 like the razer blade stealth, but I doubt she needs that kind of laptop
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-thinkpad-yoga-2-in-1-14-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-black/4456400.p?id=1219749486129&skuId=4456400
I was looking a lot at the Surface Pros/Book as I have a coworker who uses a Pro 3 and I've been pretty impressed with it in general. This is a pretty similar option in terms of power, at the cost of being a bit bigger/heavier, though also much cheaper. It has an active stylus/digitizer so note-taking/drawing/etc is very nice compared to most standard touchscreens. It also has a dedicated mobile GPU, which probably doesn't matter much in terms of typical school tasks, but helps it be decent with a lot of games.
And Best Buy definitely offers 0% financing on their store card, I think for 12 or 18 months on a laptop at this price point.
Though I realize none of that matters if the mouse thing is a dealbreaker.
If the mouse is all a person is worried about, a $10 wireless mouse would likely get a person by.
Edited to remove redundant.
She has to quickly walk past the Lenovo section. Kinda makes me sad because some of those computers otherwise look fantastic. I'd use one for sure.
If you can get used to them you'd never go back to a touchpad. I had one on my Thinkpad T42p back in the day and after a month of forcing myself to use it, I got so used to it (and became so efficient) that I would never buy another laptop without one. Most business laptops have it I think. They are much more accurate and speedier than touchpads IMO.
The one concern may be battery life. We both tend to use it while plugged in, so not sure what the typical battery life is. Also that model is a 15.6, but I would imagine they have something similar in the 13.3 range.
Do not trust laptop reviews. Unlike PC's, laptops are subject to forces that require significant testing to adequately simulate over their lifespan, and very few reviewers put them through their paces. This is why you will see high marks for Dell and HP laptops that are clearly too slim to manage their heat appropriately, and then see reports a few months after their releases of users whose laptops die on them - it's because the components can't withstand the heat over the long term. Or people will have their laptops slide around in the backseat of the car and discover that the video card will come loose if the laptop is shaken. So while many laptops look good in specially-designed performance tests that you run overnight, when it comes to actual day-to-day use they fail miserably over time.
Given your wife's usage habits I don't think she needs something premium. She could likely get away with last year's Surface, for example, and just use the saved money to upgrade sooner. There is a lot less power creep on applications nowadays unless you do some heavy duty graphics/video editing stuff, or you play cutting-edge games. Everything else is really just a matter of how much battery life it sucks up, and how quickly.
10/10 a great small tablet/computer
I prefer the full notebook style laptops though to it
I got mine for drawing but I really barely use it for that. Despite that I love the damn thing. I think it covers a lot of the needs posted in the OP quite handily. The older Surface 3 model (this is the one I have) with type cover will run you 630 - 730 depending on the hdd size.
The biggest problem I see there is getting it financed. Maybe be able to find one at a Best Buy or something.
Ultimately it depends on if she could see the benefits of a hybrid tablet/laptop or just wants a traditional laptop where the other suggested devices would probably work better.
Coding on the surface is a bitch. The keyboard is not nearly as comfortable to use for long periods of time. (Personal opinion) My surface is cool, but I'd prefer a standard clam shell for long use periods.
She is open to a 2 in 1 or a standard laptop at this point. The keyboard and how it works on the surface turned her off. Hmm.
I wouldn't for home use. (Sadly, I don't have a choice workwise, as we're a Lenovo shop.) The Superfish fiasco last year pretty much killed my faith in Lenovo machines.