OT: Laptop purchase advice sought

[Hans Sprungfeld]

My targeted specs:

Intel 5 processor
256gb solid state drive
8gb RAM
Backlit keyboard
HD screen
W10, 64 bit
I don't see the need for touchscreen, though most have it. The one without the touchscreen (Acer) has the most connection ports and an optical drive.

My questions:

Which brand to choose/avoid? I've looked at/read about
Lenovo Yoga 710 14",
Dell Inspiron 7100 15.6",
ASUS 556,
Acer Aspire E-15
Any other I should consider?
(These are in intended budget of $500-700)

Where to purchase/avoid?

Went into Best Buy and read online reviews
Will go to Costco
Read Amazon reviews
Anywhere else?

Should I buy a Square Deal warranty through Costco?

Anything else to consider FOR THESE SPECS?

Thanks in advance...

 

[boba]

8 GB Ram is a bit small for Win 10; you might consider 16GB if you do anything that is memory intensive. And especially with laptops, getting right at the start is the key. Also the SSD at 256Gb is OK if you have a second drive (external?) but it's going to be half full once you load programs and OS. (I checked, my 512 GB SSD has 102 GB used, Win 10 and Office and a few other programs. It fills fast, all the data goes to the second HDD.)

That said, it's what you like more, namely the track pad, keyboard, and display (as well as it's performance with external displays). They are all pretty much the same in performance and price, so how the device behaves is the important factor, and that's always a personal choice.

Newegg is a good retailer, and they have all sorts of reviews and deals. But really, and I can emphasize it enough, it's best if you try before you buy to make sure you like how the track pad keyboard etc., perform. (That is unless you just plug in external keyboard and mouse, and use the internals sparingly. Then price is the big one)
Edit: Oh and sure enough, I looked at Newegg, and now guess what advertisements appear in the sidebar. Lots of under $600 laptops being offered too. (Newegg is a geek's favorite because Lee Cheng doesn't pay patent trolls, he fights them in court.)

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

If you want all of those things I would say, yeah, go for it, buy a laptop.

 

[husky99]

Wait to xmas. Bought a crazy crazy good HP at BJ's. Beats all those specs for 550 and accident protection for 3 years. I think i robbed them

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

8 GB Ram is a bit small for Win 10; you might consider 16GB if you do anything that is memory intensive. And especially with laptops, getting right at the start is the key. Also the SSD at 256Gb is OK if you have a second drive (external?) but it's going to be half full once you load programs and OS. (I checked, my 512 GB SSD has 102 GB used, Win 10 and Office and a few other programs. It fills fast, all the data goes to the second HDD.)

That said, it's what you like more, namely the track pad, keyboard, and display (as well as it's performance with external displays). They are all pretty much the same in performance and price, so how the device behaves is the important factor, and that's always a personal choice.

Newegg is a good retailer, and they have all sorts of reviews and deals. But really, and I can emphasize it enough, it's best if you try before you buy to make sure you like how the track pad keyboard etc., perform. (That is unless you just plug in external keyboard and mouse, and use the internals sparingly. Then price is the big one)
Edit: Oh and sure enough, I looked at Newegg, and now guess what advertisements appear in the sidebar. Lots of under $600 laptops being offered too. (Newegg is a geek's favorite because Lee Cheng doesn't pay patent trolls, he fights them in court.)

Thanks, this is helpful. I do in fact have external hard drive, cloud storage, keyboard, and wireless mouse all covered, so what's driving the specs is the shift to a solid state drive. That, and my W7 computer freezing in such a way that not even rebooting in Safe Mode w/Command Prompt would work. I do not need heavy computing power, intensive graphics, or massive storage. I imagine this as my last computer of sorts, with so much shifted to devices. Or seen another way, a step up from a Chromebook.

My help request was more on the nature of opinions & experience manufacturing quality, return/priving/service considerations. I did play with Acer, HP, Lenovo, and Dell keyboards & track pads today.

This is always a fun place to ask for help. The last time I considered a new computer, things got as far afield as someone suggesting I build a Raspberry Pi media server before I settled on Spotify which has met my needs spectacularly even with its limitations.

Similarly, I am very happy with a 55" Samsung 1080 TV that perfectly fits into the only space in the house that could accommodate it, and looks great from the only corresponding viewing distance. Oh, maybe it could fit somewhere else, but I think that would shift things over to the Tao of Married Life thread.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I double posted and Edited to delete the content.

 

[intlzncster]

8 GB Ram is a bit small for Win 10; you might consider 16GB if you do anything that is memory intensive. And especially with laptops, getting right at the start is the key. Also the SSD at 256Gb is OK if you have a second drive (external?) but it's going to be half full once you load programs and OS. (I checked, my 512 GB SSD has 102 GB used, Win 10 and Office and a few other programs. It fills fast, all the data goes to the second HDD

Given the specs he's looking at, I doubt he's gonna be taxing the 8GB. I've got a Dell XPS 13 with only 8GB, and things like Photoshop etc work seamlessly. Heck, I've got a 2GB MS Tablet that runs Win10 ok. 8GB's gonna be fine.

 

[huskypantz]

I like Dell inspiron. I would also suggest an I7 as do most of my colleagues, but that might move the pricepoint a bit. I like having a larger HD - I avoid the cloud as much as possible and back up to an external HD that is in a separate secure location, but that's just me. You can get by fine with 8GB on win10.

 

[NYC_HUSKY22]

I've been a HUGE fan of this site for electronics, computer parts, monitors and the like. Everything is refurbished but I have never had an issue with anything i've bought. They have some great deals and are constantly offering new types of laptops. You'll definitely find a good deal here. www.woot.com

 

[NYC_HUSKY22]

Check these out. May have to settle for a slightly smaller SSD but like huskypantz mentioned you can use the SSD as your boot drive and back up everything to an external.

Business Class Laptops with SSD Drives

 

[jleves]

As @intlzncster said, unless you are some amazing power user (in which case you probably wouldn't be asking here), 8GB of memory and 256GB SSD will be fine - particularly if you use the cloud to store stuff - and even if you don't that's still a lot of space.

You didn't give a budget - that makes a huge difference. For my money, if I were buying a laptop (not a tablet hybrid like a Surface Pro), I would go with a Dell XPS 13 or Dell XPS 15 (if I wanted a bigger screen) with as much upgrade to processor as I could afford. You can usually find them through costco for the best price delivered to your home.

If you have more questions, let me know. This isn't my first rodeo.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

As @intlzncster said, unless you are some amazing power user (in which case you probably wouldn't be asking here), 8GB of memory and 256GB SSD will be fine - particularly if you use the cloud to store stuff - and even if you don't that's still a lot of space.

You didn't give a budget - that makes a huge difference. For my money, if I were buying a laptop (not a tablet hybrid like a Surface Pro), I would go with a Dell XPS 13 or Dell XPS 15 (if I wanted a bigger screen) with as much upgrade to processor as I could afford. You can usually find them through costco for the best price delivered to your home.

If you have more questions, let me know. This isn't my first rodeo.

The specs I wrote, and the models that fit them, seem to range from $550-700.

My last two computers (WXP Dell Vostro & W7 HP) were bought with a similar cost consciousness, essentially staking out a minimal 'good' computer.

To someone like you, I might ask whether the build quality of the Acer will noticeably matter versus Dell or Lenovo. Whatever I get will have light use (Firefox, Word, simple personal Excel, iTunes, TurboTax, photo organization) and stay in one place >85% of the time. Maybe Chromecast HuskyGames to the TV.

 

[jleves]

The specs I wrote, and the models that fit them, seem to range from $550-700.

My last two computers (WXP Dell Vostro & W7 HP) were bought with a similar cost consciousness, essentially staking out a minimal 'good' computer.

To someone like you, I might ask whether the build quality of the Acer will noticeably matter versus Dell or Lenovo. Whatever I get will have light use (Firefox, Word, simple personal Excel, iTunes, TurboTax, photo organization) and stay in one place >85% of the time. Maybe Chromecast HuskyGames to the TV.

Looks like the xps are outside your budget. If i were looking for a budget system, I would start with Acer. If you can get a screen you like with 256gb ssd and 8gb of memory for less than 800, that's s great deal. I would try to make sure the screen is 1080p. It's not going to have apple or xps build quality but should be fine for the use you described.

 

[August_West]

As @intlzncster said, unless you are some amazing power user (in which case you probably wouldn't be asking here), 8GB of memory and 256GB SSD will be fine - particularly if you use the cloud to store stuff - and even if you don't that's still a lot of space.

You didn't give a budget - that makes a huge difference. For my money, if I were buying a laptop (not a tablet hybrid like a Surface Pro), I would go with a Dell XPS 13 or Dell XPS 15 (if I wanted a bigger screen) with as much upgrade to processor as I could afford. You can usually find them through costco for the best price delivered to your home.

If you have more questions, let me know. This isn't my first rodeo.

You are a contracted staff writer (in the Hardware Specialty area) with the award winning boneyard blahg "August Tech Tips™ "

While your information is good, you have violated your Contract with aforementioned employer. We don't go rogue on my team.

You may encourage this discussion to continue under the:
OT: Augusts Tech Tips® blahg


or

 

[intlzncster]

The specs I wrote, and the models that fit them, seem to range from $550-700.

My last two computers (WXP Dell Vostro & W7 HP) were bought with a similar cost consciousness, essentially staking out a minimal 'good' computer.

To someone like you, I might ask whether the build quality of the Acer will noticeably matter versus Dell or Lenovo. Whatever I get will have light use (Firefox, Word, simple personal Excel, iTunes, TurboTax, photo organization) and stay in one place >85% of the time. Maybe Chromecast HuskyGames to the TV.

Whatever you do Hans, I would strongly suggest you road test a few models at places like Best Buy, Microcenter or a Microsoft store. You'll find things like annoying track pads, keyboard configurations, or screens that are underwhelming. That solidified my decision to go for an XPS (not suggesting it -- I know is out of your budget) becausee the build quality was so much greater. For the record, I got mine on sale for $800; it only had a 128 SSD, but I swapped it for a much faster 512gb model.

You can also save some bucks by simply buying a 128gb microsd like this, and putting it permanently in the SD slot of your laptop, assuming it has one. There's a little adapter like this that will make it happen. This little cheat will get you an extra 128gb for only $40 or so.

You sacrifice a bit of speed, but it's a little work around that can save you a bunch of money. Although, you'll want to back up regularly to an external or the cloud to protect your data.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Looking like the winner is Dell Inspiron 5000, 13.3", from Costco because they double the warranty to 2 years and offer 90 day returns. I liked the keyboard and touchscreen surprisingly more than Lenovo, HP, and Acer.

At opinions, pro or con, for purchasing a 3rd year of parts & labor warranty, plus drop & spill protection for the full 3 years from Square Deal via Costco for $99 more?

 

[boba]

Your Dell is on sale:

Dealmaster: Grab laptops, gift cards, and more at Dell’s Black Friday in July sale

 

[HuskyHawk]

Looking like the winner is Dell Inspiron 5000, 13.3", from Costco because they double the warranty to 2 years and offer 90 day returns. I liked the keyboard and touchscreen surprisingly more than Lenovo, HP, and Acer.

At opinions, pro or con, for purchasing a 3rd year of parts & labor warranty, plus drop & spill protection for the full 3 years from Square Deal via Costco for $99 more?

As someone who is likely to be working for Dell in a few weeks, I endorse this choice. Of course I get pretty cool discounts.

Aside from that, I had some pretty bad luck with my Lenovo laptop purchase. I loved the old IBM Thinkpads, but the Lenovos don't hold up as well. I recently bought a Dell Chromebook for my daughter and the build quality is impressive.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Given the specs he's looking at, I doubt he's gonna be taxing the 8GB. I've got a Dell XPS 13 with only 8GB, and things like Photoshop etc work seamlessly. Heck, I've got a 2GB MS Tablet that runs Win10 ok. 8GB's gonna be fine.

not if you want to save pics, and load music... but I guess not

 

[storrsroars]

I can't really speak to laptops as my most recent experiences have been on older 2012-13 vintage Lenovos (and I despised the touchpads on those).

However, I'm on my 3rd ASUS Chromebook (first two were stolen) and my wife's laptop in an ASUS. Love the things. Best feature of all, we've both had a couple of keyboard spills and they're back up and running in a day or two.

I use an Air for work and have a desktop in my home office if I need to do anything heavy duty for PPs or database/Excel work.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I can't really speak to laptops as my most recent experiences have been on older 2012-13 vintage Lenovos (and I despised the touchpads on those).

However, I'm on my 3rd ASUS Chromebook (first two were stolen) and my wife's laptop in an ASUS. Love the things. Best feature of all, we've both had a couple of keyboard spills and they're back up and running in a day or two.

I use an Air for work and have a desktop in my home office if I need to do anything heavy duty for PPs or database/Excel work.

I have bought four Asus laptops over the last several years and they have performed well. Asus has generally had the best bang for the buck in terms of the specs for PCs. They also used to have an included year of accidental damage warranty coverage--don't know if that is over or not.

 

[intlzncster]

not if you want to save pics, and load music... but I guess not

Just note, I'm not talk about hard drive storage space. As mentioned above, you want at least 256GB of HD space. Plenty of room for music, video, and pics for an average user.

I was speaking about GB of memory. So 8GB of RAM is plenty for everything he wants to do.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Just note, I'm not talk about hard drive storage space. As mentioned above, you want at least 256GB of HD space. Plenty of room for music, video, and pics for an average user.

I was speaking about GB of memory. So 8GB of RAM is plenty for everything he wants to do.

yeah thats way more than enough...

another thing is Battery Life... 6 Cell or better but we know that most "cheap" laptop do not come with a quality battery which actually makes the price lower

 

[sledog]

Also looking as MSFT will not support Win7 after July 30. So if my 6 year old Win7 n/b craps out next month, I'm screwed. And it's been slowing a lot lately - Win update code now probably occupies more HDD space than original W7, and the registers probably need a major cleanse.

I'm looking for 16GB of RAM as I open many windows at the same time, and multi window use is a major drag on northbridge performance. But Dell does not do 'custom' order anymore, so I need to order 8GB, and buy/install another 8GB from the aftermarket. Also, the 14" n/b with i3 MPUs can not be expanded beyond 8GB (according to Dell), so you may need to go 15.7" screen

I'm using Dell here, but the other brands obviously all use the same components - mostly. Acer / ASUS always seem to cost more, and I don't know how reliability of service from a non-US brand compares in a pinch. Their US market share is small.

Be sure that you get a 6th gen INTC MPU (usually listed as something like core i5 6200U - note the '6'). A lot of PC inventory at Best Buy / Micro Center is cheep (ask them what sells best and they'll say LOW price) because it's old inventory that INTC hasn't produced in a while (gen 6 started production in Oct '15). I don't need games / super-speed graphics, so a core i5 will do it. And it supports multi-displays as well.

Many are cautious on the SSD/HDD decision. Flash has a history of loosing bits to the ether over time. But if you use SSD as a temp repository, and store it all on a satellite HDD, should be good. SSD is FAST in delivering data to RAM/MPU from storage.

fyi, Neonode will offer (end August?) an aftermarket device - AirBar - (will be distributed by Ingram Micro to the retail channel including Amazon) that attaches along the bottom of a notebook display (connect thru the USB plug) and converts a non-touch to touch (you obviously still need Win10). I've seen the prototype, and it works. It employs u/v LED array above the glass, so is more effective and cheaper than the existing capacitance touch that overlays the monitor screen under the glass. And more functional since it can sense gestures above the glass (no need to literally 'touch' the screen). So $60 for an AirBar add-on, or $100-150+ for a new capacitance touch monitor? You decide. Neonode tech also now used on printers, Amazon e-Reader, and auto entertainment center consoles.

Check air.bar for details.

Good hunting.

 

[August_West]

Also looking as MSFT will not support Win7

Win 7 is supported until 2020