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New Laptop

Sos24 · 20 · 1740
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us Offline Sos24

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New Laptop
on: December 13, 2020, 04:37:10 AM
I’m in search of a new laptop and looking for some advise because I’m not very knowledgeable and I haven’t had very good luck with my last couple picks.

This laptop is going to be for my wife, whose primary means of entertainment and relaxing consists of using her laptop to interact with family, friends and other people through wifi internet.

Some crucial characteristics (in non-computer savy speak) are:
- durable - this laptop will not be babied.  It will see constant daily use using lap-desk so strong hinges and case are important.
- preferably 15in screen
- quality video
- quality built-in speakers
- processor capable of multimedia multitasking. 
- large built in hard-drive is not important but need enough memory for doing a lot of things at one time
- long battery life would be nice but not critical

Her main uses are:
- Facebook - frequently live chatting with long distance friends and comment posts about movies that people are simultaneously watching on Roku channels.
- Kasting, which is an internet based service that allows someone to host a watch party where others watch and comment on the movie through live stream.
- Streaming and Listening to music and videos through YouTube.
- Fantasy sports usually using Yahoo.
- Web based email
- some very basic editing, saving and reviewing of pictures but does not need extensive hard-drive space

If you have recommendations, I would greatly appreciate it.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2020, 06:17:59 AM by Sos24 »
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ca Offline Altis

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #1 on: December 13, 2020, 05:20:45 AM
In all honesty, those tasks don't require much computing power at all. Pretty well any new laptop will be able to do all of it equally well.

Having said that, I do recommend making sure to get one with a solid-state drive (SSD) and an IPS display panel.

To recommend, it would help to know what price range you're looking in. Some pretty common choices are the Microsoft Surface Laptop and the Dell XPS 15.

us Offline Sos24

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #2 on: December 13, 2020, 06:13:12 AM
Quote from: Altis on December 13, 2020, 05:20:45 AM
In all honesty, those tasks don't require much computing power at all. Pretty well any new laptop will be able to do all of it equally well.

Having said that, I do recommend making sure to get one with a solid-state drive (SSD) and an IPS display panel.

To recommend, it would help to know what price range you're looking in. Some pretty common choices are the Microsoft Surface Laptop and the Dell XPS 15.

Thanks for your input.  I thought most computers are capable, but didn’t know if some were better optimized for such rather than production sort of tasks.  Also, which I should have emphasized more in the original post, is that for my wife’s needs durability is higher priority than latest and greatest tech.

My goal would be less than $1000, but if there is a standout especially in durability and quality for a little more then I am willing to go higher.  At the same time, I don’t want to spend money if a cheaper one is just as capable of meeting my wife’s needs without a quality/durability advantage.
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ca Offline Altis

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #3 on: December 13, 2020, 07:31:23 AM
Quote from: Sos24 on December 13, 2020, 06:13:12 AM
Thanks for your input.  I thought most computers are capable, but didn’t know if some were better optimized for such rather than production sort of tasks.  Also, which I should have emphasized more in the original post, is that for my wife’s needs durability is higher priority than latest and greatest tech.

My goal would be less than $1000, but if there is a standout especially in durability and quality for a little more then I am willing to go higher.  At the same time, I don’t want to spend money if a cheaper one is just as capable of meeting my wife’s needs without a quality/durability advantage.

For the stuff you describe, they're all pretty well equally optimized for it. You only really need to consider upgrades when you start doing more demanding tasks like gaming, video editing, running virtual machines, etc.

Having an SSD is essential though... most come standard with it now but there are a few with hard drive disks (HDD). Pretty much every case of a "slow computer" is a result of having a slow drive. In fact, I should ask: are you replacing an existing laptop because it runs slowly?

I'm in Canada so the prices and deals here are not very comparable. If durability/longevity is your priority, I'd definitely check out Lenovo's website... they have a lot of Thinkpads that are well known for durability. Some of their displays aren't particularly bright, though, so be cautious of that, but they tend to have great keyboards. Check out the IdeaPad Slim 7 15" and the T-series of laptops.

XPS 15 might be a little expensive but they have great displays and are probably one of the better Windows laptops.

Getting a second-hand 2015 MacBook Pro might be another option (specifically that year) if you're open to Apple. You can probably get a decent deal on them and that year is especially well built. Plenty of power, although battery life might not be the best by today's standards. You can run Windows on it but it would probably cost another $100 or so if you don't have an extra copy.

Whatever you buy, I recommend checking out if the Youtubers Dave2D or MobileTechReviews have a video on it. They're very thorough and have a history of exceptional integrity.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2020, 07:41:40 AM by Altis »

fr Offline Whoey

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #4 on: December 13, 2020, 10:58:29 AM
All our new fleet of laptops at work are Lenovo, and both our personal laptops too.

Our older laptops at work are a mix of HP elitebook and Lenovo thinkpad.

I love the new keyboards on the new thinkpads except the ctrl and fn keys are swapped vs our personal laptops. No idea why they have done this.

I do feel like the plastic housing on the lets the quality down, but I guess that's the price for being a budget machine.

That being said our Lenovo Yoga pro is great for virtually every thing but gaming, and is only a bit lacking for storage. They now have a number of good budget versions that might fit your needs vs when we got ours about 7 years ago for about 1400cdn. There are plenty of similar machines on the market from Dell and HP. Worth looking into.

My other personal laptop is a Lenovo legion, big, heavy and loaded with horsepower. Battery life is awful, but I bought it for the gaming abilities, not really to lug around, plus we have the super portable yoga for that. It was 900eur, so also likely out of your price range, and not really intended for what you want to do.

When I was considering buying the legion I was also looking at the IdeaPad range, they have some nice budget machines that might work for you.
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us Offline Sos24

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New Laptop
Reply #5 on: December 13, 2020, 10:59:29 AM
Thank you Altis and Whoey.  I will check out those you suggest, especially Lenovo because I have heard/read a lot of good things about them.

The laptop I am looking at replacing is actually still running well with the except a speaker no longer works and a few keys on the keyboard not working properly.  I figure I’ll get her a new one and put this away as a just in case or one that I’ll use when I need a computer instead of the tablet I normally use.

The plastic housing and hinges on so e laptops is frustrating.  The last laptop that stop work actually had developed a cracked housing on the corner near a hinge. 
« Last Edit: December 13, 2020, 11:05:46 AM by Sos24 »
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us Offline SteveC

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #6 on: December 13, 2020, 01:52:51 PM
Just bought a Dell Inspiron for my mom that she is pretty happy with.
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us Offline Barry Rowland

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #7 on: December 13, 2020, 03:36:08 PM
Same here Steve, for Mrs R.  She's pleased as well.
Barry
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il Offline pomsbz

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #8 on: December 13, 2020, 07:22:38 PM
Quote from: Whoey on December 13, 2020, 10:58:29 AM
All our new fleet of laptops at work are Lenovo, and both our personal laptops too.

Our older laptops at work are a mix of HP elitebook and Lenovo thinkpad.

I love the new keyboards on the new thinkpads except the ctrl and fn keys are swapped vs our personal laptops. No idea why they have done this.

I do feel like the plastic housing on the lets the quality down, but I guess that's the price for being a budget machine.

That being said our Lenovo Yoga pro is great for virtually every thing but gaming, and is only a bit lacking for storage. They now have a number of good budget versions that might fit your needs vs when we got ours about 7 years ago for about 1400cdn. There are plenty of similar machines on the market from Dell and HP. Worth looking into.

My other personal laptop is a Lenovo legion, big, heavy and loaded with horsepower. Battery life is awful, but I bought it for the gaming abilities, not really to lug around, plus we have the super portable yoga for that. It was 900eur, so also likely out of your price range, and not really intended for what you want to do.

When I was considering buying the legion I was also looking at the IdeaPad range, they have some nice budget machines that might work for you.

I just got a Legion 5 myself. Saying the battery life is awful is rather of an understatement.  :D Sucks that it doesn't have USB C charging either which might have mitigated the battery problem.
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fr Offline Whoey

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #9 on: December 13, 2020, 07:30:22 PM
Legion Y540 here.

All the new thinkpads at work are usb-c charged, and our new port replicator/docks work with that as well.

the dock works fine with my older HP elitebook, which in spite of it having inferior stats to the new laptops I rather prefer the metal casing and the aforementioned ctrl/fn key swap. :facepalm:

I get maybe 2h off a charge.
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us Offline MadPlumbarian

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #10 on: December 13, 2020, 08:04:15 PM
Our younger son wants a new comp, not a laptop though, we bought him one a few years back we thought it was good for what he needed, at first he thought it was awesome, cause it had the open side and three lighted fans on the back, but he’s grown up and is a total gamer, so he wants a new one but would rather have one custom made instead of just ordering from dell and paying for the name stamp.
So he’s been putting money aside trying to save up, all I can say is I don’t know the first thing about them, all this core, motherboard, tower, liquid cooled, tb storage, crap? :dunno:
The kid can sit there at the dinner table and drown me in like an alien talk and I’m like, huh? ???
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us Offline Sos24

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #11 on: December 13, 2020, 09:03:48 PM
Quote from: MadPlumbarian on December 13, 2020, 08:04:15 PM
Our younger son wants a new comp, not a laptop though, we bought him one a few years back we thought it was good for what he needed, at first he thought it was awesome, cause it had the open side and three lighted fans on the back, but he’s grown up and is a total gamer, so he wants a new one but would rather have one custom made instead of just ordering from dell and paying for the name stamp.
So he’s been putting money aside trying to save up, all I can say is I don’t know the first thing about them, all this core, motherboard, tower, liquid cooled, tb storage, crap? :dunno:
The kid can sit there at the dinner table and drown me in like an alien talk and I’m like, huh? ???
JR

I know what you mean, although my wife is even less knowledgeable than me on the technical spec.

Your post does remind me of one aspect that I didn’t mention earlier that is important- cooling.  Because it will be used for several hours at a time streaming on her lap (lap desk/pad), it needs good cooling. 
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ca Offline Altis

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #12 on: December 13, 2020, 09:28:19 PM
Quote from: MadPlumbarian on December 13, 2020, 08:04:15 PM
Our younger son wants a new comp, not a laptop though, we bought him one a few years back we thought it was good for what he needed, at first he thought it was awesome, cause it had the open side and three lighted fans on the back, but he’s grown up and is a total gamer, so he wants a new one but would rather have one custom made instead of just ordering from dell and paying for the name stamp.
So he’s been putting money aside trying to save up, all I can say is I don’t know the first thing about them, all this core, motherboard, tower, liquid cooled, tb storage, crap? :dunno:
The kid can sit there at the dinner table and drown me in like an alien talk and I’m like, huh? ???
JR

I much prefer a desktop to a laptop as well for the ergonomics. Nice thing about building yourself if you can just do rolling upgrades, ie. change out the bottlenecks as time goes on.

I usually do CPU + Motherboard + RAM all at once. The rest as-needed (Power Supply, drives, graphics card, case). More and more laptops have soldered components that are not user-replaceable... not great for the consumer.

Quote from: Sos24 on December 13, 2020, 09:03:48 PM
I know what you mean, although my wife is even less knowledgeable than me on the technical spec.

Your post does remind me of one aspect that I didn’t mention earlier that is important- cooling.  Because it will be used for several hours at a time streaming on her lap (lap desk/pad), it needs good cooling. 

New CPUs have hardware codecs for video, especially for streaming, so it shouldn't be much of a sweat.  8)

us Offline MadPlumbarian

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #13 on: December 13, 2020, 11:41:54 PM
Quote from: Sos24 on December 13, 2020, 09:03:48 PM
I know what you mean, although my wife is even less knowledgeable than me on the technical spec.

Your post does remind me of one aspect that I didn’t mention earlier that is important- cooling.  Because it will be used for several hours at a time streaming on her lap (lap desk/pad), it needs good cooling.
The problem with it sitting on her lap is normally it pulls air from down underneath then blows the hot air out the back, and by putting the laptop right on the lap it cuts off the airflow, I made a mini cooling station long ago for my old laptop, using two little dinky fans a few pieces of wood and a piece of diamond plate aluminum, I drilled a small hole in each center so the fans would pull the heat through and out the back, thus allowing me to sit wherever, I still have it but lost the plug, I thought I could take a pic, but I couldn’t find it :think: maybe the Mrs threw it away since we no longer have a laptop? But I found my pair of aluminum diamond plate clipboards!
JR
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As I sit on my Crapper Throne in the Reading Room and explode on the Commode, thinking, how my flush beat John’s and Jerry’s pair? Jack’s had to run for the Water Closet yet ended up tripping on a Can bowing and hitting his Head on the Porcelain God! 🚽
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us Offline Sos24

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New Laptop
Reply #14 on: December 14, 2020, 01:46:26 AM
Quote from: MadPlumbarian on December 13, 2020, 11:41:54 PM
The problem with it sitting on her lap is normally it pulls air from down underneath then blows the hot air out the back, and by putting the laptop right on the lap it cuts off the airflow, I made a mini cooling station long ago for my old laptop, using two little dinky fans a few pieces of wood and a piece of diamond plate aluminum, I drilled a small hole in each center so the fans would pull the heat through and out the back, thus allowing me to sit wherever, I still have it but lost the plug, I thought I could take a pic, but I couldn’t find it :think: maybe the Mrs threw it away since we no longer have a laptop? But I found my pair of aluminum diamond plate clipboards!
JR
She does not have it directly on her lap.  She uses a cooling stand/pad that has two fans that no longer work, but it is still vented.  Even when the fans did work, we had one laptop that still got really hot to the touch after a short period.
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us Offline MadPlumbarian

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #15 on: December 14, 2020, 02:05:26 AM
Quote from: Sos24 on December 14, 2020, 01:46:26 AM
She does not have it directly on her lap.  She uses a cooling stand/pad that has two fans that no longer work, but it is still vented.  Even when the fans did work, we had one laptop that still got really hot to the touch after a short period.
(Image removed from quote.)
Even without the fans running that would give it ventilation underneath and let the laptop breath and not overheat her!
JR
"The-Mad-Plumbarian" The Punisher Of Pipes!!! JR
As I sit on my Crapper Throne in the Reading Room and explode on the Commode, thinking, how my flush beat John’s and Jerry’s pair? Jack’s had to run for the Water Closet yet ended up tripping on a Can bowing and hitting his Head on the Porcelain God! 🚽
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us Offline Sos24

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #16 on: December 15, 2020, 02:07:16 AM
After doing some looking based on recommendations, I decided to go ahead and order a Dell XPS 15.

It was a little higher than I planned on spending, but I really liked that it had an aluminum case and that Dell offered a veteran discount that brought the cost down.

I am hopeful that this will work better than the last few purchases.

Thank you for all your help and input.
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us Offline Poncho65

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #17 on: December 15, 2020, 02:54:17 AM
Just seeing this :oops: Glad you have a found a laptop and those seem very nice :tu: Hope that it works out very well for you all :like:
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us Offline Sos24

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #18 on: December 15, 2020, 03:10:11 AM
Quote from: Poncho65 on December 15, 2020, 02:54:17 AM
Just seeing this :oops: Glad you have a found a laptop and those seem very nice :tu: Hope that it works out very well for you all :like:
Thanks.
Merit Badges Using EDC items randomly selected with a poker hand, post a photo of your EDC or a component of the EDC that got used during the course of the day for 4 weeks (or 30 consecutive days) Participate  in Challenge thread and post a photo of your EDC or a component of the EDC that got used during the course of the day for thirty (30) consecutive days. Participate  in a Challenge thread and post a photo of a Leatherman Skeletool for thirty (30) consecutive days. Only for the 14th year Anniversary Challenge. Post a photo of any gear for thirty (30) consecutive days during the MTo anniversary month. Participate and contribute in Challenge thread and post a photo of a different blade each day for thirty (30) consecutive days. Start a new thread and post a photo of the multitool for thirty (30) consecutive days. Start a new thread and post a photo of the discontinued sak/mt for thirty (30) consecutive days. Start a new thread and post a photo of any gear for thirty (30) consecutive days during the MTo anniversary month. Start a new thread and post a photo of a traditional folder for thirty (30) consecutive days. Participate in a Challenge thread and post a photo of  a Case knife  for 30 days Participate in a Challenge thread and post a photo  of 84 and 85 mm Swiss Army Knives (and Wengers) for 30 days Start a new thread and post a photo of an Executive or Director for thirty (30) consecutive days. Take part in the christmas pool or a rak type giveaway. Those wanting to say thank you for a rak may also nominate for the santa. Start a new thread and post a photo of your gear for thirty (30) consecutive days. You must carry at least one item from every category of the gear list every day. Participate in a challenge by carrying  a Combo Edged knife or Multitool and post a photo of it  for thirty (30) consecutive days. Participate in a Challenge thread and post a photo of a SAK-alike, aka multi-layered, knife-based pocket tools for thirty (30) consecutive days. In this challenge,  carry one(1) Pliers-based or Non-pliers multitool that we always have prejudice against, hate or even fear and post a picture everyday for 30 days Start a new thread and post a photo daily of any SAK 74mm or smaller ( you can switch it up daily ) for thirty (30) consecutive days. Participate in a challenge by carrying  a GEC knife and post a photo of it  for thirty (30) consecutive days. Build your own version of an MRE using off-the-shelf components, post a photo of the completed MRE and store at room temperature for 6 days or more. Consume the MRE after the storage period and post pictures and descriptions of the contents. Participate in a Challenge thread and post a photo of  a Bladeless Multitool for 30 days

us Offline SteveC

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Re: New Laptop
Reply #19 on: December 15, 2020, 05:33:40 PM
That's a nice laptop   :like:   I'm sure your wife will be thrilled !    :cheers:
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