Oppo! Have Any Laptop Recommendations?

"Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis" (Dwhite95)
09/16/2015 at 17:50 • Filed to: None

So my old Toshiba is (probably) well on its way to death. The screen is about to snap and its starting to run very, very hot a lot of the time, which happens to be the same thing that killed my old Toshiba. And as it was originally just $300 a few years ago I’d rather upgrade than put any money into it. So if you had a budget of around $600 what would you buy? Only add-on, while not a requirement, is I’d love to upgrade to an i5 or equivalent.

Have a Lister XJS for your time

DISCUSSION (27)

ReaperChief > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 17:55

Lenovo Yoga or Asus Zenbook if I went for an Ultrabook or an HP or Thinkpad if I went for firepower (computational, graphical and practical power).. PS: Sweet car you’ve found..

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > ReaperChief
09/16/2015 at 18:01

Looks even better in blue.

Kinja'd!!!

Textured Soy Protein > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 18:08

There are a lot of ways you can go depending on what features you value:

Do you want something thin and light, or a big screen?

Touchscreen?

Hard drive or SSD?

Backlit keyboard?

Good battery life?

Do you care about resolution? I hate crappy 1366x768 laptop screens, personally.

NotRichBMWOwner > ReaperChief
09/16/2015 at 18:17

Can confirm Lenovo Yoga is nice.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > Textured Soy Protein
09/16/2015 at 18:19

Screen: Larger is nice, but nothing oversized by any means. My current laptop is 15.6 and it works quite well for me.

Touchscreen: Not important at all

Drive: SSD would be nice, but my budget I’m limited.

Backlight: Nice feature, but not needed

Battery Life: More is better.

Resolution: To be honest I’ve never really seen anything wrong with 1366x768

BrettAM > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 18:20

STOPTALKINGANDPOSTMOREJAG

Megamullin > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 18:21

This one seems to tick all your boxes. Credit the Wirecutter for this pick:

Kinja'd!!!

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 2 14

The Best Budget Laptop

It’s powerful and portable enough to be your main computer and has a battery that will last all day. $650* from Lenovo

Like all laptops in its size and price range, the $580 Lenovo Flex 2 14 is a lot thicker and heavier than an ultrabook like the MacBook Air. It has a low-resolution screen and lacks an SSD. But it has a fast dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB hard drive, plus a decent keyboard and trackpad and good enough battery life that you don’t need to keep it plugged in all day. It’s lighter than a lot of its peers, too, and feels less cheap than many laptops in its price range.

More options on the link: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-b…

P.S. the Wirecutter.com is my most trusted tech review site because its thorough, gives a lot of weight to price, and has straight-forward, practical writing and advice. I have never purchased a product they recommend and regretted it. I know that’s anecdotal, but I can only speak to my personal experience. They recommend waiting a bit because they’re updating their results with a new pick. This one

SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 18:30

That sounds like the demise of my Toshiba too. I used to sit in front of the same kid in class and during the winter he would lean back more to feel the heat radiating from my computer. It was seriously that bad.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 18:36

If you care about ruggedness, you can get a used Panasonic Toughbook:

http://www.ruggednotebooks.com/panasonic

The Toughbook is the type of laptop oil services, exploration and other companies use for rougher environments.

If you want a decent laptop built to a higher standard and you can increase your budget a little, get a Dell Latitude 5000 series. I deployed several of these at my work:

http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/…

The Lenovo T series such as this one is typically a well designed and well built laptop:

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/…

The Lenovo and Dell I’m recommending won’t look like the best deal on paper. But they are well designed business laptops meant to hold up even in heavy use by people in Sales who travel a lot. They simply work and don’t have problems caused by shitty design like I’ve seen on so many consumer-focused laptops.

And if you care about gaming, keep saving until you have at least $1200 and get a gaming laptop from either MSI or Asus.

Textured Soy Protein > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 18:39

So this is slightly more than your price range and 14” but I think overall a very nice machine:

Lenovo Flex 3 14” - $649

Intel i5-5200U
8 GB RAM
14” 1920x1080 screen
500 GB HD + 8 GB SSD cache

Nibby > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 19:09

buy a used machine off ebay that’s decent (look at elitebooks and thinkpads) and upgrade them a bit. You’ll be amazed at what you can get for less than $400.

Performance wise, even a Sandy Bridge era laptop is on par with today’s ULV Intels (including the ULV i7)

Bandit > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 19:11

Woah. Need more info on that jaaaaaaaag

facw > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 19:15

Zenbook UX305FA

Kinja'd!!!

$690

13.3” 1080p display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD.

Not the fastest machine, but very light, good battery life, nice high-res screen. Sturdy aluminum construction (available in dark grey or silver). Trackpad isn’t great, but for the price, it’s a nice ultrabook.

Frank Grimes > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 19:30

wait a little bit and save a little bit 800 is the sweet spot and score one with those new skyfox or skydale processors.

Rico > facw
09/16/2015 at 19:50

That's a great price sheesh. You're getting an SSD and 8Gb of ram that's good.

Phyrxes once again has a wagon! > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 19:51

I’d go with a Lenovo but buy it direct instead of a store that carries them, that way you get what you want not what they have on hand. For your price range and specs I’d look at the z50 if if they have it on sale running an i7 but a bit lower on ram and HD space or if you want to step down to an i5 and pick up some ram HD space go with a g50.

facw > Rico
09/16/2015 at 19:56

Yeah, and it’s a gorgeous machine. If you want to play the newest games on it, then it is not the right machine, but otherwise it’s a really good deal.

JGrabowMSt > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 20:03

Samsung, acer, Asus, or even a new Toshiba. Avoid Dell and HP completely.

Rico > facw
09/16/2015 at 20:03

Yeah I don't associate ultra book and high end gaming lol they are definitely more focused on battery.

hike > ReaperChief
09/16/2015 at 20:09

I vote Yoga. I’ve recommended it to 3 friends and they all love it. Also agree, beautiful car.

Scary__goongala! > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 20:22

Don’t get a HP. Mine basically nuked itself.

Grindintosecond > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 20:26

I have a Dell Venue 11 tablet. I’m not suggesting this for you I am just using it as example. It’s basicly that detachable keyboard fad computer. I seldom see any need to separate it from the keyboard EVER unless I am marking up a document for editing later using the digitizer, but then that’s specialist needs. Do you need the flex of these Yoga or 3 in 1 computers? Do you need anything at all more than what a laptop gives you? Consider a non Flex or non Yoga type notebook becuase it will save you a decent chunk of money in the end.

random001 > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 20:29

Surface 3?

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > JGrabowMSt
09/16/2015 at 20:30

That has always been my philosophy when it comes to laptops.

anon-sxmcyecofnu1eocpqsk9iq > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 21:52

Nice Jag. I would go for a Dell laptop if you can get one for a good price. I’m typing on a $600 Inspiron 15’’ with an Intel Core i5 and 6GB RAM. The newer model has Windows 8.1/10 and a touch screen. I’ve been buying Dell for as long as I can remember. They’re extremely durable, reliable, fast, and good-looking. On the other hand, I don’t recommend HP. They tend to overheat and have problems, at least the ones my friends own.

anon-sxmcyecofnu1eocpqsk9iq > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 21:53

That is sex.

nostradimas > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
09/16/2015 at 22:33

Probably would take that advice with the smallest grain of salt the world has to offer.