Tell me what laptop to buy

[mi223]

I need to buy a new laptop for my small business. I want a windows based computer to run quick books and surfing the internet. I do not need to run any powerful software or anything like that.

I need something very basic for my very limited computer skills. My budget is open but I don't think I need to spend a ton to get what I need. I have been shopping and I honestly can't tell one from the other. Hope to get a few solid recommendation from others that know more than myself.

Thanks

 

[Changed]

If you want easy, macs are the way to go.

A MacBook Air will last years longer than a pc, and all of the connections are soldered. You get free OS updates until the machine is obsoleted. Comes with a robust word processor, spread sheets and presentation software.

All settings are in one area of the machine. Not spread out like pc.

 

[Franko]

Check out Dell or HP. The model numbers change pretty fast but here is what I would be looking for:

1. 128 to 256 GB solid state drive (SSD); try for 256 as 128 can fill up pretty fast
2. at least 8 GB of ram
3. 15 or so inches form factor
4. I lean towards Intel processers in laptops as Intel has dominated this space and support is likely to be better. The newest AMD processers are supposed to be great but AMD has only recently managed to be competitive so their track record is shorter.

Here are two laptops that should meet your needs: (I prefer the Dell)

Dell

HP

 

[rjacobs]

Isnt quickbooks mainly on the cloud these days?

My sister is a Quick Books Pro and has clients all over the country and she doesnt remote into their computers, she does everything on the cloud.

 

[skl1]

Isnt quickbooks mainly on the cloud these days?

My sister is a Quick Books Pro and has clients all over the country and she doesnt remote into their computers, she does everything on the cloud.

Sadly, yes. It's probably migrated to the cloud so that all your work and records can be cut off/held for ransom and won't be available locally on your hard drive. But regardless, the OP will still likely need a PC to access the cloud-based Quickbooks.

I think Franko's guidance is good. I'd also go for an Intel processor. i5 or i7. I'd try to buy from one of the bigger names like Dell or HP, might add Lenovo (formerly IBM Thinkpads) if you find a good deal. I think Acer and Asus are generally good bets.

With Dell and HP, you'll see PC's with vitually the same specs $1000 apart, like $600 and $1600. In general these are "business grade" vs "consumer grade" computers. They do hold up to travel better, but I don't think absent banging them around, they're worth the price difference. YMMV.

 

[plong]

Quickbooks Pro Desktop is still available. Its what I use for a number of companies; incredibly versatile and powerful for a sub $400 accounting platform. I maintain a strong preference for local install to cloud-based apps.

oh... and... Dell XPS purchased during one of their (many) sales is my usual recommendation for your use case.

 

[mi223]

Thanks guys. Like mentioned above the prices seem to be all over the place for what looks like similar specs. I don't know enough to feel confident to make a good decision on what to buy. I figured there would be some people here that would be helpful

 

[mi223]

Quickbooks Pro Desktop is still available. Its what I use for a number of companies; incredibly versatile and powerful for a sub $400 accounting platform. I maintain a strong preference for local install to cloud-based apps.

oh... and... Dell XPS purchased during one of their (many) sales is my usual recommendation for your use case.

This is not the first recommendation for the Dell XPS I have gotten. They have sales directly through dell often?

 

[DocRDS]

If you want easy, macs are the way to go.

A MacBook Air will last years longer than a pc, and all of the connections are soldered. You get free OS updates until the machine is obsoleted. Comes with a robust word processor, spread sheets and presentation software.

All settings are in one area of the machine. Not spread out like pc.

No.

I despise macs with a passion. The keyboard breaks within a year, it costs 5X what a PC costs, and the cult dues are unbearable. But don't mind me, I just work in IT support. Nothing like a useless $3k laptop cause the damn spacebar came off. I beat the crap outta my laptops (probably had 10+ over the years), only macs have problems.

Read what Franko said. Dell or HP, A nice Intel Based model should setup you back less than $400. I think I got my daughter a touchscreen for a little less than that. 8G ram, 256G storage or more. Processor speed is largely irrelavant these days for office work.

AMD runs hot, in a laptop thats a dealbreaker (disclosure: I run AMDs in my desktop homebuilt system, as does my son) so stick with Intel processor for now.

 

[plong]

This is not the first recommendation for the Dell XPS I have gotten. They have sales directly through dell often?

Yes, sales direct through Dell.com, many times per year. Its also worth it to check both the personal and "Small Business" areas of their website. Interestingly, prices and discounts can differ by a fair bit between the two depending on what they have going on at the time.

 

[mi223]

Damn. You guys are good! Sale going on currently from dell

 

[Changed]

No.

I despise macs with a passion. The keyboard breaks within a year, it costs 5X what a PC costs, and the cult dues are unbearable. But don't mind me, I just work in IT support. Nothing like a useless $3k laptop cause the damn spacebar came off. I beat the crap outta my laptops (probably had 10+ over the years), only macs have problems.

Read what Franko said. Dell or HP, A nice Intel Based model should setup you back less than $400. I think I got my daughter a touchscreen for a little less than that. 8G ram, 256G storage or more. Processor speed is largely irrelavant these days for office work.

AMD runs hot, in a laptop thats a dealbreaker (disclosure: I run AMDs in my desktop homebuilt system, as does my son) so stick with Intel processor for now.

Interesting.

I don't see the numbers you do. However, I have had great success with my Macs (business Macs).

I've always been impressed with the operating system. They make it stupid simple to migrate as well.

 

[W54/XM-388]

I'd recommend at least 16gb of memory and at least a 512gb NVMe drive in your laptop.

 

[mi223]

Is the Dell vostro a step up over the insperon line? They are currently around 40% off vs the insperon at sub 20%


This one is roughly 100 more than the one recommended above with what looks like a lot better specs

| Dell USA

www.dell.com

 

[W54/XM-388]

Vostro is sort of the Inspiron line rebranded with a few tweaks added to be better, so yes, a bit better but not a lot better.

 

[plong]

Is the Dell vostro a step up over the insperon line? They are currently around 40% off vs the insperon at sub 20%


This one is roughly 100 more than the one recommended above with what looks like a lot better specs

| Dell USA

www.dell.com

In a word... Yes. Vostro is targeted toward business users, Inspiron is targeted toward the entry-level, "budget conscious" consumer market. The primary differences will be in "build quality" aka physical sturdiness. That being said I've done a rather large business deployment utilizing Inspiron desktops and laptops in one of my past lives. IMHO: Inspiron < Vostro < Lattitude < XPS, however if physical sturdiness was the primary consideration I'd pick Lattitude. If its just going to sit on a desktop, I doubt you'd see any difference between any of the four.

 

[*Nine]

No.

I despise macs with a passion. The keyboard breaks within a year, it costs 5X what a PC costs, and the cult dues are unbearable. But don't mind me, I just work in IT support. Nothing like a useless $3k laptop cause the damn spacebar came off. I beat the crap outta my laptops (probably had 10+ over the years), only macs have problems.

Read what Franko said. Dell or HP, A nice Intel Based model should setup you back less than $400. I think I got my daughter a touchscreen for a little less than that. 8G ram, 256G storage or more. Processor speed is largely irrelavant these days for office work.

AMD runs hot, in a laptop thats a dealbreaker (disclosure: I run AMDs in my desktop homebuilt system, as does my son) so stick with Intel processor for now.

I hope your rates are cheap because between your misinformation and your hyperbole I wouldn't expect your IT support skills would be particularly useful.

A $400 laptop is going to be and run like garbage right from the start (garbage build quality, garbage display quality, generally the absolute cheapest/slowest internals, etc...) AMD's mobile CPUs are absolutely better than Intel's offerings for the past few generations in power, performance, and thermals. A MacBook keyboard isn't going to break within a year and they absolutely don't cost 5X what a Windows laptop costs (even the cheap garbage you're recommending.) Lastly, perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to brag that you "beat that crap outta my laptops", but even then it's impossible to believe that only the Macs have problems.

OP, a M1 powered MacBook Air would be a great machine for what you're looking to do, and it has fantastic build quality, support, and performance that outpaces an awful lot of Windows laptops. That said, you could do well with a lower cost (but not some garbage $400 thing, it really is going to suck) Windows laptop too for basic use. In either case, guys like I quoted above who spew ridiculous hyperbole and information that's years out of date should be called out and then ignored.

 

[W54/XM-388]

In a word... Yes. Vostro is targeted toward business users, Inspiron is targeted toward the entry-level, "budget conscious" consumer market. The primary differences will be in "build quality" aka physical sturdiness. That being said I've done a rather large business deployment utilizing Inspiron desktops and laptops in one of my past lives. IMHO: Inspiron < Vostro < Lattitude < XPS, however if physical sturdiness was the primary consideration I'd pick Lattitude. If its just going to sit on a desktop, I doubt you'd see any difference between any of the four.

Generally the Precision Laptops are a step above the XPS ones, especially the full featured ones.

If physical sturdiness is the primary consideration and cost is nowhere in the concern list:

Dell Latitude 7424 14 Inch Laptop

A 14 inch rugged notebook with enhanced graphics performance and up to 4TB of storage. Featuring an intuitive hot swap battery and USB Type-C connectivity.

www.dell.com

 

[W54/XM-388]

Generally no love is lost between the Apple religious zealots and the Windows users.

Then the Linux outcasts sit back with some popcorn and a pile of parts left over from what they built/upgraded themselves, and watch the show while bringing up google to search for whichever 200 character command starting with SUDO that they need to make something work...

 

[seansmd]

Bought the lenovo yoga with the Intel gen 11 evo, been pleasantly surprised. Especially wakeup time from sleep and battery life.

Full disclosure I do work for Intel

 

[*Nine]

Generally no love is lost between the Apple religious zealots and the Windows users.

Then the Linux outcasts sit back with some popcorn and a pile of parts left over from what they built/upgraded themselves, and watch the show while bringing up google to search for whichever 200 character command starting with SUDO that they need to make something work...

If you're referring to my post note that I said a decent Windows computer would be fine too. I manage 100+ users in an environment where we have Macs, Windows computers, and Linux computers in a production environment. I do prefer Macs personally but I don't pretend they're the only answer for every situation.

What I do take issue with is the weird people who go ballistic at the thought of a Mac and spew ridiculous and outdated information and make claims that any even moderately tech-savvy user can instantly identify as BS.

 

[DocRDS]

I hope your rates are cheap because between your misinformation and your hyperbole I wouldn't expect your IT support skills would be particularly useful.

A $400 laptop is going to be and run like garbage right from the start (garbage build quality, garbage display quality, generally the absolute cheapest/slowest internals, etc...) AMD's mobile CPUs are absolutely better than Intel's offerings for the past few generations in power, performance, and thermals. A MacBook keyboard isn't going to break within a year and they absolutely don't cost 5X what a Windows laptop costs (even the cheap garbage you're recommending.) Lastly, perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to brag that you "beat that crap outta my laptops", but even then it's impossible to believe that only the Macs have problems.

OP, a M1 powered MacBook Air would be a great machine for what you're looking to do, and it has fantastic build quality, support, and performance that outpaces an awful lot of Windows laptops. That said, you could do well with a lower cost (but not some garbage $400 thing, it really is going to suck) Windows laptop too for basic use. In either case, guys like I quoted above who spew ridiculous hyperbole and information that's years out of date should be called out and then ignored.

My skills are so useful half the helpdesk was replaced with my chatbot, not to mention foretasting inventory for a Fortune 100 company. Play with your cult all you want. There is a reason PCs dominate the market. Since I travel and am forced to use a laptop for work, YES i do beat the crap out of them. Think of it as a "hard use" computer. Macs can't stand anything but being babied. And yes, my mac keyboards always break (issued for work). Usually stupid butterfly key spacebar. I've get 3 "garbage" pcs laptops running on 3+ years at home including tablet/lapttop hybrids.

And don't even get me started on my desktop which is NOT a laptop that I use for data science. STILL cheaper than a mac with 64GB Memory (yes I use that) and 2 Professional GPUs for AI work.

And while your information is correct for DESKTOP, laptop is still intel's world. Go home before you hurt yourself

 

[*Nine]

My skills are so useful half the helpdesk was replaced with my chatbot, not to mention foretasting inventory for a Fortune 100 company. Play with your cult all you want. There is a reason PCs dominate the market. Since I travel and am forced to use a laptop for work, YES i do beat the crap out of them. Think of it as a "hard use" computer. Macs can't stand anything but being babied. And yes, my mac keyboards always break (issued for work). Usually stupid butterfly key spacebar. I've get 3 "garbage" pcs laptops running on 3+ years at home including tablet/lapttop hybrids.

And don't even get me started on my desktop which is NOT a laptop that I use for data science. STILL cheaper than a mac with 64GB Memory (yes I use that) and 2 Professional GPUs for AI work.

And while your information is correct for DESKTOP, laptop is still intel's world. Go home before you hurt yourself

The butterfly keyboards have been gone for a while now. I'm sure you knew that though because you're obviously very up on current hardware. I'm sure all those $400 Windows laptops you recommend stand up great to your "hard use" though.

I have no idea what your desktop is and it really doesn't matter, as it was not brought up before and has nothing to do with this conversation.

As far as mobile CPUs, the 11th Gen Intels have clawed back some but the Ryzens are matching them in single core/thread cases and crushing them in multithreaded use, at lower power levels. And now that Apple is finally ditching the Intel albatross the M1s (which is a proof of concept and is soon going to get replaced by much more powerful chips) are already crushing the performance of Intel mobile chips in nearly every use case at even lower levels of power use.

In any case, I really don't care to debate you as I'm not expecting you to be reasonable or change your mind. I'm merely calling out the ridiculous hyperbole you were spewing as a pretty huge red flag that your recommendations aren't based on what's actually good, but what makes you feel validated personally. In other words I'm not trying to convince you of anything, just to warn people who don't know as much that they should take anything you're saying with a huge grain of salt.

 

[plong]

Generally the Precision Laptops are a step above the XPS ones, especially the full featured ones.

...

Agreed... I didn't go there since it seemed we were concentrating more toward the Inspiron/Vostro end of the spectrum. And... there wouldn't be much use for workstation-level performance to run Quickbooks and browse the internet...

 

[Holliday]

I'd recommend at least 16gb of memory and at least a 512gb NVMe drive in your laptop.

I concur. Just upgraded mine to 16g and what a difference......

 

[DocRDS]

The butterfly keyboards have been gone for a while now. I'm sure you knew that though because you're obviously very up on current hardware. I'm sure all those $400 Windows laptops you recommend stand up great to your "hard use" though.

I have no idea what your desktop is and it really doesn't matter, as it was not brought up before and has nothing to do with this conversation.

As far as mobile CPUs, the 11th Gen Intels have clawed back some but the Ryzens are matching them in single core/thread cases and crushing them in multithreaded use, at lower power levels. And now that Apple is finally ditching the Intel albatross the M1s (which is a proof of concept and is soon going to get replaced by much more powerful chips) are already crushing the performance of Intel mobile chips in nearly every use case at even lower levels of power use.

In any case, I really don't care to debate you as I'm not expecting you to be reasonable or change your mind. I'm merely calling out the ridiculous hyperbole you were spewing as a pretty huge red flag that your recommendations aren't based on what's actually good, but what makes you feel validated personally. In other words I'm not trying to convince you of anything, just to warn people who don't know as much that they should take anything you're saying with a huge grain of salt.

You wont--because only a jackass mac user recommends someone buy a mac when the OP asked for windows. (to run windows software)
Damn cultists.

 

[*Nine]

You wont--because only a jackass mac user recommends someone buy a mac when the OP asked for windows. (to run windows software)
Damn cultists.

See, again you seem kind of unhinged and angry. "Jackass" "Cultists" this is the kind of stuff that flags you as someone who probably isn't giving very balanced information.

If you read my first post you'd note that I also said a quality Windows laptop would be just fine as well. The real issue I had was with your terrible advice to buy some sub-$400 piece of shit and then the rest of your ridiculous claims. Like I said, I just wanted to point that out so someone who doesn't know better wouldn't read what you wrote and be like "oh, he's in IT support, he must know what he's talking about."

I'm not offended or hurt if the OP buys a Windows laptop, but he should buy one based on balanced and correct information rather than hyperbolic nonsense.

 

[W54/XM-388]

Agreed... I didn't go there since it seemed we were concentrating more toward the Inspiron/Vostro end of the spectrum. And... there wouldn't be much use for workstation-level performance to run Quickbooks and browse the internet...

As I run Quickbooks and browse the internet from a Desktop with Dual 12 core Intel Xeon cpus, 128gb memory and a Quadro video card, because well the parts were laying around so I just threw them all in something for fun.

 

[Scrubsr1]

laptop is still intel's world. Go home before you hurt yourself

Mobile AMD Ryzen 4000 and 5000 series say hello. Seriously, in every performance metric(barring single core) AMD trounces Intel on the MOBILE front. You're looking at a 7nm chip in AMD up against a 10nm in Intel. That smaller die is going to give mucher higher performance per watt, leading to better thermals and battery life. AMD leads the value segment as well...Intel has some catching up to do.

 

[DocRDS]

Mobile AMD Ryzen 4000 and 5000 series say hello. Seriously, in every performance metric(barring single core) AMD trounces Intel on the MOBILE front. You're looking at a 7nm chip in AMD up against a 10nm in Intel. That smaller die is going to give mucher higher performance per watt, leading to better thermals and battery life. AMD leads the value segment as well...Intel has some catching up to do.

Well at least you aren't a mac fanboi

In the lower price segment, it hasn't trickled down. I do not advocate (obviously) spend much money on computers (my desktop being an exception--again I use it for AI research). They are a commodity.

I have a handy flowchart for computer buying:

(1) Do you want a real computer?
Yes? Build a desktop
(1A) Did you install Linux?
Yes? Of course you did
No? GO to the corner and think about what you did.
No? Go to 2
(2) Do you have too much money or need a man bun?
Yes? Buy a mac
No Go To 3
(3) Are you mainly watching Porn?
Yes? Buy a chromebook
No Go To 4
(4) Are you gaming?
Yes? Slap yourself in the nuts and go back to #1
No
(5) Go find the best laptop for about $400

While I don't want to start the holy war of AMD vs Intel (I have used both). Intel dominates laptops so the general rule is "get an intel laptop" Yes AMD has caught up, but that is in the higher market. They have been hit or miss. If you are an enthusiast, you can get the right model, but most people don't give a crap. (Running AMD is my research machine after 2-3 cycles of Intel, and I ran an AMD when we were designing the Intel Prescott Core mfg process--i took a lot of shit for that).

Its the handgun way of saying "Buy a Glock 19" Yes there are better alternatives, but you can never go wrong with a glock 19.

And by the way--I really hate laptops--give me my desktop/clank keyboard/big monitor I'm tired of these stupid small screens.

Almost as much as I hate macs. 25 years in computing apple is all about style over substance. So I am freakin tired of the same old WHAT ABOUT MAC WHAAAAARGARBL

Also they killed my IIGS. No forgiveness.

 

[LuvDog]

Stay away from the Inspiron.. I've had nothing but trouble supporting them over the years.

Stick wit the XPS or the Lattitude series and you should be fine.

 

[*Nine]

Well at least you aren't a mac fanboi

In the lower price segment, it hasn't trickled down. I do not advocate (obviously) spend much money on computers (my desktop being an exception--again I use it for AI research). They are a commodity.

I have a handy flowchart for computer buying:

(1) Do you want a real computer?
Yes? Build a desktop
(1A) Did you install Linux?
Yes? Of course you did
No? GO to the corner and think about what you did.
No? Go to 2
(2) Do you have too much money or need a man bun?
Yes? Buy a mac
No Go To 3
(3) Are you mainly watching Porn?
Yes? Buy a chromebook
No Go To 4
(4) Are you gaming?
Yes? Slap yourself in the nuts and go back to #1
No
(5) Go find the best laptop for about $400

While I don't want to start the holy war of AMD vs Intel (I have used both). Intel dominates laptops so the general rule is "get an intel laptop" Yes AMD has caught up, but that is in the higher market. They have been hit or miss. If you are an enthusiast, you can get the right model, but most people don't give a crap. (Running AMD is my research machine after 2-3 cycles of Intel, and I ran an AMD when we were designing the Intel Prescott Core mfg process--i took a lot of shit for that).

Its the handgun way of saying "Buy a Glock 19" Yes there are better alternatives, but you can never go wrong with a glock 19.

And by the way--I really hate laptops--give me my desktop/clank keyboard/big monitor I'm tired of these stupid small screens.

Almost as much as I hate macs. 25 years in computing apple is all about style over substance. So I am freakin tired of the same old WHAT ABOUT MAC WHAAAAARGARBL

Also they killed my IIGS. No forgiveness.

Ah yes, an old person with outdated knowledge who also wants to complain about Linux, gaming, Apple, man buns, laptops, small screens, etc... and talk about how long they've been using computers. This is all coming into focus very nicely.

I'll throw you a bone though, I'd probably hate laptops too if I limited myself to $400 Windows laptops like you keep telling people to do.

 

[DocRDS]

Ah yes, an old person with outdated knowledge who also wants to complain about Linux, gaming, Apple, man buns, laptops, small screens, etc... and talk about how long they've been using computers. This is all coming into focus very nicely.

I'll throw you a bone though, I'd probably hate laptops too if I limited myself to $400 Windows laptops like you keep telling people to do.

Yes Clearly Linux is terrible. That's why we all do research with it.
we: Google, Facebook, Amazon, everybody

How are those nVidia drivers on the mac working out for ya.

I'll wait.

Also you know the MacOS is based on FreeBSD (you know Unix, OG OS), but like everything apple does, is a bastard stepchild so it suffers from lack of support in AI research.

 

[Tchitcherine]

Fucking hilarious thread, I LOL'd and my spacebar fell off.

 

[plong]

As I run Quickbooks and browse the internet from a Desktop with Dual 12 core Intel Xeon cpus, 128gb memory and a Quadro video card, because well the parts were laying around so I just threw them all in something for fun.

I must confess I've been guilty of same, except I've always been partial to Radeon Pro for video. My wife, who does AP for one of our companies, has a desktop with a high-end Ryzen processor and a Radeon Pro video card (not that she knows any of this... ) Why...? Well... because that's what I had laying around when her old desktop gave up the ghost (Windows 10/dated ASUS MB driver compatibility issues... ) Needless to say the fan(s) don't run much !

 

[*Nine]

Yes Clearly Linux is terrible. That's why we all do research with it.
we: Google, Facebook, Amazon, everybody

How are those nVidia drivers on the mac working out for ya.

I'll wait.

Also you know the MacOS is based on FreeBSD (you know Unix, OG OS), but like everything apple does, is a bastard stepchild so it suffers from lack of support in AI research.

I am enjoying watching you flail around like some agitated monkey.

 

[DocRDS]

I must confess I've been guilty of same, except I've always been partial to Radeon Pro for video. My wife, who does AP for one of our companies, has a desktop with a high-end Ryzen processor and a Radeon Pro video card (not that she knows any of this... ) Why...? Well... because that's what I had laying around when her old desktop gave up the ghost (Windows 10/dated ASUS MB driver compatibility issues... ) Needless to say the fan(s) don't run much !

I really wish AMD would get in the research game for AI/GPU. nVidia is killing us with prices. Its one of the things I do not understand--google of all people got their TPUs out and we still have no AMD CUDA equivalent. Market needs some competition. Badly.

 

[Holliday]

Yes Clearly Linux is terrible. That's why we all do research with it.
we: Google, Facebook, Amazon, everybody

How are those nVidia drivers on the mac working out for ya.

I'll wait.

Also you know the MacOS is based on FreeBSD (you know Unix, OG OS), but like everything apple does, is a bastard stepchild so it suffers from lack of support in AI research.

I see you have stirred up the clan of the cave apples!

 

[rtB]

To the OP, nobody mentioned it but I would get a 17" screen at least 1920x1280. Or hook up an external monitor. I really dislike working for any length of time on a tiny laptop screen.

 

[LuvDog]

I would be very hard pressed to get a 17” laptop unless I was gaming. Lugging that around is a huge pain. I suppose if it never leaves the desk then it would be ok, but then why not just get a desktop PC.

I travel with mine a lot (well, I did pre COVID) and it’s nice having an ultra portable 14”

 

[VA-Varminter]

Dell is shit right now.
Just finished trying a couple of them and they are shit.

If you're running QuickBooks that's numbers, which means you want a 15 inch class machine so you'll have the dedicated number pad on the keyboard.

I have purchased about 6 of these recently and they've all been top notch for reasonable money.
Having being able to flex into tablet mode is a bonus.
If you want a larger display or 2 or more displays add a USB C dock and an external monitor.

Amazon.com: HP Envy X360, 15.6" FHD IPS Touchscreen, 2019 Flagship 2 in 1 Laptop, AMD Quad-Core Ryzen 5 2500U(>i7-7500U), 8GB DDR4, 256GB PCle SSD, AMD Radeon Vega 8 802.11ac Backlit Keyboard Windows Ink Win 10: Computers & Accessories

Buy HP Envy X360, 15.6" FHD IPS Touchscreen, 2019 Flagship 2 in 1 Laptop, AMD Quad-Core Ryzen 5 2500U(>i7-7500U), 8GB DDR4, 256GB PCle SSD, AMD Radeon Vega 8 802.11ac Backlit Keyboard Windows Ink Win 10: Laptop Replacement Parts - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

smile.amazon.com

 

[Det. John McClane]

I own two law firms and have dozens of laptops. I use the Lenovo ThinkPad T15 with the 10th gen Intel Core i-7 processor. They have a 15" screen, and keyboards do have a dedicated 10-key for numbers right now too. I get about 7 to 8 years of heavy use of them. It's nice because I can buy a docking station for them, and I have have two 27" monitors hooked up. They are a bit expensive, around $1,500 each, plus another $200 for the docking station, but they hold up very well under heavy daily use.

That being said, I also have a MacBook Pro that I bought in 2010 that still works pretty well. The optical drive and hard drive both failed. I took them into the Mac Store and they replaced both for free or very minimal cost, and I use that for all of my marketing stuff.

 

[Strykervet]

I'm on a ten year old Toshiba uh, 20"? The ex bought it. I've thrown the motherfucker out the front door into the woods, dropped it a few times (no SSD it turns out). A few years ago a couple keys went out, I got pissed and hammered the fuck out of it and destroyed the rest of the keyboard but it uses a USB keyboard and mouse now and it's worked fine. The screen is JUST now starting to go, dark spots in the corners, but the touchscreen still works. This thing should have died a long time ago.

She paid $2k for it. It wasn't cheap but it's been solid. I can for sure see having spent $2k on a few cheaper ones had she not bought this.

Only reason I'll be replacing it sooner than later is because of the screen and fear of it finally just dying on me.

Never had a Dell or HP anything last this long. Ever. Not even close. So Toshiba is at the top of the list now for me.

 

[kenny1773]

I will throw some thoughts out there, you already have some good information in this thread
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Dell or HP are the top two for windows based laptops

The different price points offer different performance and/or durability.
With Dell, Inspiron is generally the low end, moving to Vostro as the low end business class.
XPS is higher end residential and Latitude is higher end business class
Dell Precision being the highest - these run forever (I guess Mac people have never seen them)
business class usually has better build quality than residential class, however that isn't always true.

Business class generally provides all the same exact hardware from unit to unit over an up to 12 month period of time, where the residential class you can buy 3 units of same model over 3 weeks and all could have slightly different parts on the inside.

That said, don't treat your laptop like a football and kick it around and it will most likely be fine, even with an Inspiron

I currently have two HP Elitebooks that are going on 7 years old (Ivy Bridge era) and for email and web surf they work great. I upgraded them to 512gb SSDs and 16GB of ram, and of course run windows 10 on them, they just run and work, never any issues and they get used every day and have for their entire life.

Something that Apple has missed for business critical users is NBD onsite warranty repair, this is where DELL kicks everyone's ass. Shit happens, things break, how does it get support at that point? Dell wins this over Apple any day of the week. Please don't start in with your 'I just take it to the genius bar and they fix it' I am talking about the cases where the genius bar can't fix it, then they ship it off to an Apple depot and you have no idea when you are getting it back. When I supported business users that wanted Apples, I would hand them a Dell when their apple crapped and had to be shipped and gone for 2 weeks. I would also LOL at them as they usually told me at one point that Apples never break or the genius bar will fix it, um nope, not the case.

My advice for BUSINESS users is buy a Dell and get the 3 year onsite warranty (repeat every 3 years), buy with a credit card that extends warranty and maybe repeat every 4 years.

( I generally self warranty as I have extra laptops and can source any dell or hp part I want off ebay and replace myself, not everyone wants to do that)

No matter what you own, you have to ask yourself, what do I do when this breaks?

 

[Tchitcherine]

Scott McNealy famously said Compaq was not a computer company, "they're in the sheet metal business." There's still plenty of competition in how to package those Intel reference designs. Amazing. RIP Sun.

 

[W54/XM-388]

No matter what you own, you have to ask yourself, what do I do when this breaks?

Yank the SSD out of the laptop shove it in another one you have sitting around spare and boot back up?
(Assuming the SSD didn't go bad).

If the SSD went bad, put in a new one from the pile of spares you have, boot from your backup recovery media and download the restore image off the network?

 

[101stinfantry]

I'm not a Laptop guy, but my daughter has a Mac, and a Lenovo Yoga for school. Apparently a lot of universities require windows, and the work around for the Mac is less than ideal. I think the Lenovo was around $800.