Current Events > How do people choose a new windows laptop?

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I feel like there are too many options and I can't figure out what I actually need. I'm not surprised a lot of people just get a macbook since there are only like two of them, but I don't have the budget to spend over a grand.

most just get something cheap. they're just get whatever is on sale and not really look at any specs.

i'll have friends come to me and ask if i think something is good or not. most still ignore what i say and buy something really cheap and then realize it's a piece of crap like a chromebook.

i made a value chart and assigned rankings to features based on how much they mean to me.

macbook, dollar-for-performance, is about double the cost of a windows laptop.

Keep in mind that the sweet spot for value is in the 700-1200 range (CAD, adjust appropriately for USD). Buying one of the budget laptops may be the cheapest option, but the value is ridiculously low because they really are pieces of shit.

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Don't get HP or Acer and you'll be fine
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You just ask some at best buy who looks like they haven't touched a girl yet, that includes the girls

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voldothegr8 posted...

Don't get HP or Acer and you'll be fine

See, it's uninformed statements like this that you need to avoid.

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The HP Envy line of laptops is pretty good.

The latest Lenovo Legion 5 is pretty good too.

8gb minimum ram, 16gb preferred.

go with a brand you like. I like asus and lenovo. thats it.

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Naysaspace posted...

See, it's uninformed statements like this that you need to avoid.

They're fine if you keep them for only 2 years or so. They're trash for the most part after that

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Unsugarized_Foo posted...

They're fine if you keep them for only 2 years or so. They're trash for the most part after that

Naysaspace posted...

See, it's uninformed statements like this that you need to avoid.

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Get the business line version.

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At this point I am really only ever going to buy ASUS or maybe a "professional" level Dell. The ASUS I bought several years ago still holds up really well, easily the best laptop I've ever owned (and I've owned many over the years).

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only thing i regret with my study laptop is i didn't research battery life.

i thought i would get at least 5-6 hours(good enough for a school day) but it barely lasts 3+ hours without some serious power saving.

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Naysaspace posted...

See, it's uninformed statements like this that you need to avoid.

Right I've only been working in IT for 10 fucking years. By all means though, how am I uninformed? By giving advise not to by from the companies with the worst build quality possible?
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Naysaspace posted...

See, it's uninformed statements like this that you need to avoid.

Naysaspace posted...

See, it's uninformed statements like this that you need to avoid.

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voldothegr8 posted...

Right I've only been working in IT for 10 fucking years. By all means though, how am I uninformed? By giving advise not to by from the companies with the worst build quality possible?

Lmao this means nothing, is pathetic, is a bad look, and further goes to show that you don't have a damn clue what you're talking about.

I mean, are you not aware of what product lines are? Holy hell man. You unilaterally write off a whole company because you yourself had a bad experience. Without telling us what model you had, how it was used, etc.

If you compute as recklessly as you give "Advice" online, fuck, I'm surprised it even lasted you 2 years.

Blocked btw, no need to reply.

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Naysaspace posted...

i made a value chart and assigned rankings to features based on how much they mean to me.

macbook, dollar-for-performance, is about double the cost of a windows laptop.

Keep in mind that the sweet spot for value is in the 700-1200 range (CAD, adjust appropriately for USD). Buying one of the budget laptops may be the cheapest option, but the value is ridiculously low because they really are pieces of shit.

I think double is a little much. You can get a solid windows laptop with the same specs for a few hundred cheaper than an Apple one, but 1/2 price is cutting into cheap crap territory. The M1 (new) MacBooks are also supposed to be crazy good, although I haven't kept up with how good they actually are.

But I agree with the 700 price at a minimum for a decent laptop. I'd personally say the bare minimum to look for is an SSD over an HDD.

Also need to be worried a bit about "high-end" versions of cheap laptops might reach the lower end of this price range, but are still **** laptops.

Got mine about three years ago cheap.

Was $800 but was on clearance for like $500.


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True Apple is more expensive, but I still always go Mac .

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Your bottom lines if you want a general-purpose laptop are a recent i3 or Ryzen 3, or better, CPU. To tell if it's recent, look at the four or five digit model number after the "i3" / "i5" / etc designation. The first digit tells you which generatoin it is, eg. i7 6700 is 6th-generation. For Intel (i3 etc) you want at least 8th gen and preferably 10th; for AMD (Ryzen 3 etc) you want at least 3rd. (It's important to note the generation should only be used when comparing the same brand, not to compare the two brands to each other.)

That aside, you want 8GB RAM and 256GB solid state drive. A little bit lower than 256GB is okay - 240 is fine for example - but you don't want to be getting something with ~128GB, it'll fill up way too quickly.

If you're after a gaming laptop, up that to an i5 / Ryzen 5 (same generations are still fine), and you might want either a larger SSD or a "small SSD + big HDD combo" setup (you should still try to get 256GB at least for the SSD if possible). You'll also want a decent GPU, I believe a GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 2060 is considered good as a "cheapish but still solid" GPU these days, but I could very well be wrong as I'm not too up to date on the GPU side of things.

But yeah - most important things, do NOT get Celeron / Pentium / Athlon CPUs, and don't settle for less than 256ish GB SSD.

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