Recommend me a laptop, v2018

Oil Can Dan

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2003
8,015
0-3 to 4-3
I know we've had laptop recommendation threads in the past but even a year ago is a lifetime in technology. I need a solid but unspectacular laptop for travel that will primarily be used for excel and light internet usage. I can't handle mining large data files on the iPad. I figured it would be easy enough to figure this out on my own but there are a million laptops and I don't know squat about what specs to aim for. I won't use this too often, but when I do I would really like for it to be fast.

Any recommendations?
 

Rudi Fingers

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
1,845
Adianoeta

Oil Can Dan

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2003
8,015
0-3 to 4-3
I’m fine with that price, but I’m just not a mac guy. It’s probably me but I really don’t like working in excel in anything other than a windows machine.
 

Toe Nash

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 28, 2005
5,597
02130
Don't get that Macbook air. It only supports up to 1440 x 900 resolution, which can be constricting for Excel. I would lose my mind trying to do anything in Excel with that resolution. The newest Macbooks are lighter than the Air, have better specs overall and the Retina screen is gorgeous. But they're pricey-ish.

What I would look for is something with:
full HD resolution or higher (1920 x 1080) so you can fit more stuff on the screen, unless you're going to use an external monitor most of the time
8 GB RAM
a solid state drive (this will make a huge performance and battery life difference)
Solid build quality

The Lenovo T series checks all these boxes since the T460. They just came out with the T480 line which has the latest "Coffee Lake" 8th gen processor. This is a nice upgrade if you can afford it because Intel has added more cores to this generation, making a big performance difference. But for your uses you probably won't notice that.

You can probably find a T470s on ebay refubished for around $700. The Dell XPS 13 is another good choice, lighter and more flashy design than the T series with a really nice display, but a little more expensive. Dell also gets high marks for support and their outlet site has good deals from time to time.

Other brands are hit or miss as far as the build quality. This matters less depending on how much travel you're doing.
 

VBSoxFan

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 8, 2005
354
Virginia Beach, VA
My home desktop recently died and I replaced it with a 13" Dell 2-in-1 (I have had good luck with Dell in the past). This is the model I bought on sale at Best Buy. It has the latest quad core i7 processor, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD and 1920 x 1080 screen resolution. It can also double as tablet. Plenty of ports for external devices.

The reviews I have read say the biggest drawback was a shorter battery life than others in its class. But, as this will be used almost entirely as a home computer, that is not much of a concern for me.

Edited to add: I have had it a little over a week and so far, have been pretty happy with it, but I do attach it to an external 27" monitor and the 1920 x 1080 resolution leaves a little to be desired. I am still playing with various configurations.
 
Last edited:

Marceline

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2002
6,441
Canton, MA
What Rudi said - need to know your budget.

I really like my HP Spectre x360. A new one goes for about $1000.

http://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/spectre-x360-232005--1#!&tab=vao

The Dell XPS 13 is also really good, but it has this adaptive brightness thing that can't be disabled and dims the screen for you - I am a bit OCD about those types of things and so I had to return mine, but it was otherwise a fantastic machine.

If budget is an issue, Asus makes some really good laptops in the $600-$800 or so price range.
 

Koufax

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
5,936
I bought an Asus Aspire R about 15 months ago for about $550. Great touch screen. It works fine.
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,671
I’m looking for a new laptop to purchase soon.

- I’d like to keep it pretty cheap; hopefully under $500 but I’ll consider going more expensive for the right computer.

- I’ve had a bigger laptop for the last five years and while I like having the big display; a smaller more compact computer makes more sense now that I travel more and use my computer on the go. So I’m looking for a smaller, more portable laptop.

- I have a new laptop for work that I use so I’m not going to need a pricey model that is going to be my lifeline at work. I just want something for fun other stuff; like playing games and shitposting on SoSH.

- I play games on my laptop but I’m not a hardcore gamer that plays real time strategy games so graphics aren’t a super big deal. Two of my favorites are Civilization and Planet Coaster; so having a nice bright display would be cool, but I’m not playing anything too graphically advanced.

- I think the key things I want to prioritize are a smaller size, good battery life and a steady cooling system. My current laptop was good; but after five years plus taking it all through college it’s on its last legs.

Let me know if you guys have any ideas. I’ve poked around some stores but I’d like to hear some suggestions.

-
 

Marceline

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2002
6,441
Canton, MA

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,671
Well; my current laptop is an HP I paid about $650 for five years ago, and it can handle all of my gaming needs; it is just very bulky and over the years has taken on a lot of wear and tear and it overheats easily so sometimes it feels like I'm using the ENIAC. I'm not looking for a real GAMING laptop; I'm primarily a console gamer that has a few old favorites on the PC. I'm not playing online or anything like that; and I'm not even really looking for something that is going to really enhance the aesthetics of the game, just something that can run the game without overheating or bugging out.

I've poked around in some retail stores and see smaller laptops in the $350-$500 range and I'm fairly confident that I'd be fine with those models, but I don't know much about PCs so I figured I would crowdsource this a bit. Do I really need to spend $750+ on a PC to do the things I want (basically internet access and light gaming) or all the cheaper models just really crappy? Like I said I paid $650 for my old computer and it is still technically fine, just a bit older. Have the prices for a quality product gone up?
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
From your elaboration, anything with a dual core i5 Intel cpu should be adequate and esp. in factory refurbs that's probably doable in the $500 range, i3 or lower cpus will be anemic. You want more than 4 Gig ram, if they charge much more for that, as long as the 4 Gig only use 1 of the 2 ram slots usually provided, you can add 4 or 8 more for dirt aftermarket.
 

Marceline

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2002
6,441
Canton, MA
I think the low end Asus ultrabooks such as the one I recommended for $750 is really the sweet spot right now as far as bang for your buck, but yeah you can probably get something that meets your needs for $500. It will be a bit bulkier but if you're coming from a 5 year old brick then maybe not an issue.

Looking around, Lenovo outlet usually has some good deals but not seeing anything decent under $700 right now (criteria: 8gb RAM, some type of SSD, 1080p screen)

Found this Asus refurb on Newegg for $650, looks pretty decent.
https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16834234938

Honestly you're probably better off spending an extra couple hundred to get something more future proof if you're the type to keep a laptop for 5 years.
 

Nick Kaufman

protector of human kind from spoilers
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Aug 2, 2003
13,410
A Lost Time
I’m looking for a new laptop to purchase soon.

- I’d like to keep it pretty cheap; hopefully under $500 but I’ll consider going more expensive for the right computer.

- I’ve had a bigger laptop for the last five years and while I like having the big display; a smaller more compact computer makes more sense now that I travel more and use my computer on the go. So I’m looking for a smaller, more portable laptop.

- I have a new laptop for work that I use so I’m not going to need a pricey model that is going to be my lifeline at work. I just want something for fun other stuff; like playing games and shitposting on SoSH.

- I play games on my laptop but I’m not a hardcore gamer that plays real time strategy games so graphics aren’t a super big deal. Two of my favorites are Civilization and Planet Coaster; so having a nice bright display would be cool, but I’m not playing anything too graphically advanced.

- I think the key things I want to prioritize are a smaller size, good battery life and a steady cooling system. My current laptop was good; but after five years plus taking it all through college it’s on its last legs.

Let me know if you guys have any ideas. I’ve poked around some stores but I’d like to hear some suggestions.

-
Look at LG Gram, HP Spectre, Lenovo Yoga and HP XPS 13.

Also, if you don't want the latest and greatest, you can also go for a used one of ebay.
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
Below are just 3 options at the Lenovo Outlet site this morning, quantities are small, stuff comes and goes. Shipping is free, full 1 yr warranties on everything, some are new, some are refurbs that are always indistinguishable from new. Just picked a few Thinkpads as they are still the most rugged Lenovo makes. All i5 cpu, some with HD some with SSD (which are all M2 format which means there's an empty HD bay inside which you can add for less than Lenovo wants). Most here already have 8 Gig ram. These are all between $500 - $600:

https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/outletus/laptops/thinkpad-classic/thinkpad-t-series-relationship-only/T440p/p/20AWX51500

https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/outletus/l-series/ThinkPad-L470/p/20J4CTR1WW-PF12B0BA

https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/outletus/thinkpad-e-series/ThinkPad-E580/p/20KSCTO1WW-PF11PQJS
 

Dollar

Member
SoSH Member
May 5, 2006
11,086
How about this one?
Acer Swift 3
$549 after rebate, Intel® Core™ i5-8250U Processor at 1.6GHz, 8GB DDR4 SDRAM, 256GB Solid State Drive, Microsoft® Windows 10 Home (64 bit), 14" LED-backlit Widescreen FHD IPS (1920 x 1080) Display, Intel® HD 620 Integrated Graphics
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
Acer stuff is 2 steps below Thinkpad, HP and Dell hardware. Take a look at the experience at Amazon on these models:

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Swift-i5-6200U-Windows-SF314-51-52W2/product-reviews/B01LWZ7JB2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewpnt_rgt?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&filterByStar=critical&pageNumber=1

also a laptop with a 256 Gig SSD and no option for a hard drive means you are stuck with a puter that has a whopping real 180 Gig of storage. You may believe in the Cloud, I'm not convinced, especially when you need some big file. Probably doesn't matter, a large % of this model is likely to go dead within 6 months....
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,671
Look at LG Gram, HP Spectre, Lenovo Yoga and HP XPS 13.

Also, if you don't want the latest and greatest, you can also go for a used one of ebay.
I went to Best Buy over the weekend and snagged a Lenovo Yoga 720 for $650. Its the perfect size and seems to do just about everything I want so far. I could have gone more expensive for gaming, but at this point I wasn't going to drop $350+ more just to play a few games from time to time.
 

Jim Ed Rice in HOF

Red-headed Skrub child
SoSH Member
Jul 21, 2005
8,256
Seacoast NH
Yay, another laptop recommendation request!

My daughter is starting college next month and it's time to upgrade the laptop we got her early in her HS years. Below are the recommendations from the school. Note - despite the WPI thing she won't be needing CAD software so I don't need to beef it up to extreme levels. She wants to stick with Windows vs. a Mac.

I'm looking to be sort of midpoint on price (let's face it, a laptop is kind of a rounding error when calculating college costs and she's kicking in to the cost although she doesn't know it yet). From the below requirements, any recommendations and what areas I should upgrade on (RAM, i5 vs. i7, etc.)?

WPI.JPG
 

Blacken

Robespierre in a Cape
SoSH Member
Jul 24, 2007
12,152
If you want something to last, look at a ThinkPad T480 or T480s. Just got a T480 for personal use, moving back from a Mac, and the thing is a tank. Feels good to use, too, and Lenovo's on-site repair is one of the few add-on warranties worth buying. (I got the T480 with the expanded battery and the thing gets sixteen hours on a charge even with the battery drain of the higher-end CPU and the higher-res screen.)

They also have the X280 for a smaller machine and the X1 Carbon if one likes spending extra money.
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member

Jim Ed Rice in HOF

Red-headed Skrub child
SoSH Member
Jul 21, 2005
8,256
Seacoast NH
Thanks to you both (and especially the link). I'll probably have to get one in my daughter's hands to see what she thinks. Not sure if the screen size will be an issue for her or not and I can't remember what she's got now.
 

Blacken

Robespierre in a Cape
SoSH Member
Jul 24, 2007
12,152
The 768p screen is really awful, it's dim and blurry. At minimum get 1080p, consider 1440p.
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
Damn they had close to a dozen earlier but all 'singles' and some of them had better res screens, I didn't look closely at the one I picked to link, now they are all gone, in fact they have NO Thinkpads of any model with better screens atm, but things change every day there....I'm going to guess that 'back to school' has the site being stripped very quickly right now...
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
7,878
Boston, MA
I'd never get a laptop with a standard hard drive, regardless of the school recommendation. The speed difference between that and an SSD is night and day.

The Microsoft Store has a sale on i5/8GB/256GB Surface Laptops for $999. I prefer the 3x2 aspect ratio on a laptop to 16x9, but that's personal preference.
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
The ideal is a laptop that can handle an SSD (these days an M.2 or pcie interface generally) and still has room for a mechanical hard drive. It's getting harder and harder to find such beasts, the bulkier Thinkpads can still do it, but it's close to impossible to find one that's actually sold with such a setup, generally you have to add the 2nd drive yourself, which requires a screwdriver and a bit of technical knowledge. The end result is not only versatile but you can backup your, usually 256 Gb SSD boot drive onto your .5 or 1 Tb hard drive.
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
When it comes to computers I'm a belt & suspenders kinda guy, I like the idea of a backup image of my entire boot drive available instantly. Now if your laptop gets stolen or run over by a bus, of course you need an external backup, but most of the time we're talking about a drive failure. No backup is faster or easier than to another internal drive. Of course, I still resist the idea of backing up to the cloud, the implied assumptions: that you can always get to the cloud with a fast and reliable connection I find dubious...yes and now get off my lawn....

Also, I agree if you only have one drive it should be a 1 Tb SSD of some sort, afaik you cannot find ANY major laptop maker that sells a machine sporting one... in the age of Chromebooks the very idea of a large amount of local storage seems to offend their sensibilities.
 

Blacken

Robespierre in a Cape
SoSH Member
Jul 24, 2007
12,152
Every major manufacturer sells 1TB SSDs. In professional models for professionals and in high-end enthusiast laptops. (I have one in my T480 and had one in my MBP before it.)

A student whose major doesn't involve creating digital works and who does not game having doesn't need more than 160GB of onboard storage. Maybe 256GB. Expecting a student to reimage and lose the data they did not fastidiously back up (because nobody backs anything up) is unreasonable and the idea of putting a loud, heavy power suck of a spindle into a computer "just in case" is silly.

Cloud storage of documents and whatever local install base for programs. Done. There's no need to overcomplicate things for people who just don't care or need to care.
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
after Win 10 x64 and even a smattering of programs, a 160 Gb drive has, maybe 100 Gb, I find that....pathetic...ymmv
Fortunately 256 Gb drives are so cheap anything less is just silly....I know many laptops have less than that, but saving the $25 (their cost is probably even less) is just being abusive to the customer who is not savvy. There are tons of laptops like that, also sporting low end i3 cpus ... it's buying a compact car with a Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine under the hood.
 

oumbi

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 15, 2006
4,167
What's your budget? You said boring... I'd say a $850 MacBook air that handles Excel just fine and truly lasts for 10 hours on a battery can't be beat. It is rock solid and highly unspectacular. It also has 2 good old normal USB ports to transfer large data files for mining.


https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-macbook-air-13-3-display-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-128gb-flash-storage-latest-model-silver/5465502.p?skuId=5465502
I second this suggestion. Go to an Apple store and look and HOLD an airbook. For travel it is hard to beat in terms of weight and ease of carrying. I prefer the MacBook because of the screen being much better, but the airbook is still a good screen.
 

3_games_down

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 1, 2007
137
Coastal NC
Our daughter is off to WPI as well, went with the ASUS Vivo after considering Apple Lenovo, and Microsoft offerings. $1,100 for a horse

ASUS VivoBook Pro 15 4K Touchscreen Laptop, Intel Core i7-7700HQ, Gaming GeForce GTX 1050, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD+1TB HDD, 15.6” UHD (3840 x 2160) WideView, Backlit Keyboard, Fingerprint,N580VD-DS76T

Can run anything from Matlab to Adobe Creative Suite.
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
Our daughter is off to WPI as well, went with the ASUS Vivo after considering Apple Lenovo, and Microsoft offerings. $1,100 for a horse

ASUS VivoBook Pro 15 4K Touchscreen Laptop, Intel Core i7-7700HQ, Gaming GeForce GTX 1050, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD+1TB HDD, 15.6” UHD (3840 x 2160) WideView, Backlit Keyboard, Fingerprint,N580VD-DS76T

Can run anything from Matlab to Adobe Creative Suite.
That's a desktop workhorse in a laptop configuration, the only issue is it, of course, has very limited battery operation.
 

Jim Ed Rice in HOF

Red-headed Skrub child
SoSH Member
Jul 21, 2005
8,256
Seacoast NH
Our daughter is off to WPI as well, went with the ASUS Vivo after considering Apple Lenovo, and Microsoft offerings. $1,100 for a horse

ASUS VivoBook Pro 15 4K Touchscreen Laptop, Intel Core i7-7700HQ, Gaming GeForce GTX 1050, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD+1TB HDD, 15.6” UHD (3840 x 2160) WideView, Backlit Keyboard, Fingerprint,N580VD-DS76T

Can run anything from Matlab to Adobe Creative Suite.
Small world. I ended up going through the WPI site which gave the same pricing I could get from my company. We got the above mentioned T480 with i7-8650U, 1080 screen, 16GB RAM, 512 SSD for like $1,400. The "built like a tank" description sold me because college.
 

Rod Becks Mullet

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 9, 2001
2,095
NYC
another bump for this thread as we near Shopping Hell Weekend.

I need a new laptop for personal home use. Wife prefers Windows based, I'm open to the idea of a Chromebook. Basic internet usage and other simple stuff such as Word/Excel. We did cut the cable cord recently, so something I could stream to would be great. I think I last bought our Dell about 12 years ago, it's struggling to the finish line. Obviously it's a vastly different world than it was then, I have no idea what I'm looking at, other than knowing I don't want to spend more than $500-600 if I can avoid it.

My additional thought to this, our oldest child is in 2nd grade with a 1st grader right behind. Do Chomebooks last long enough where I might be able to make it theirs in a couple years and upgrade to a nice desktop once I'm set up for one?

All over the place, I know. But any and all help is appreciated.
 
Last edited:

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
16,627
Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
This $299 HP 14-DF0023CL Laptop: Intel Core i3-8130U, 14" 1080p IPS, 4GB DDR4, 128GB SSD, Type-C, Win 10 is getting a lot of talk over at SD:

https://www.costco.com/HP-14-Laptop---Intel-Core-i3---1080p.product.100461207.html

Granted a 128 ssd is on the small side, but the ram is up-gradable, and the keyboard is backlit, and there'll be a ton of ssd deals over the next month. Someone found a nice matching 4gb stick of ram for ~$50. And IIRC Discover card has 5% cashback for wholesale clubs this quarter.

Shipping is $15, but it appears to be available at many Costco locations.

EDIT: my bad , Costco takes only Visa now.

If you find the thread over on SD, there were several suggestions for inexpensive RAM that should work/match.
 
Last edited:

Dollar

Member
SoSH Member
May 5, 2006
11,086
I missed that post earlier, but I picked up that laptop at Costco yesterday and it's great. Perfect timing for me because my previous laptop (Lenovo purchased in late 2012) just bit the dust within the last week. If anyone has any questions about it, let me know. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the more expensive options (touch screen etc) but it seems like a very solid, fast, and lightweight computer.
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
16,627
Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
I missed that post earlier, but I picked up that laptop at Costco yesterday and it's great. Perfect timing for me because my previous laptop (Lenovo purchased in late 2012) just bit the dust within the last week. If anyone has any questions about it, let me know. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the more expensive options (touch screen etc) but it seems like a very solid, fast, and lightweight computer.
There's a way to add an SSD, but supposedly the cable isn't readily available in the US. You have to order it from Europe.
 

DukeSox

absence hasn't made the heart grow fonder
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2005
11,742
I missed that post earlier, but I picked up that laptop at Costco yesterday and it's great. Perfect timing for me because my previous laptop (Lenovo purchased in late 2012) just bit the dust within the last week. If anyone has any questions about it, let me know. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the more expensive options (touch screen etc) but it seems like a very solid, fast, and lightweight computer.
Are there any drawbacks with this laptop? Looking to buy a laptop in the next couple days for an elderly family member who just needs internet and maybe office just to feel like it’s a complete system.
 

Dollar

Member
SoSH Member
May 5, 2006
11,086
Are there any drawbacks with this laptop? Looking to buy a laptop in the next couple days for an elderly family member who just needs internet and maybe office just to feel like it’s a complete system.
I can't think of any major drawbacks. The keyboard is backlit and feels pretty good to type on, the display looks great, and it starts up in a second or two and is very quick to open programs. The only drawback for me personally (which probably wouldn't be a drawback for an elderly family member) is the 4 GB RAM... I sometimes like to open a bunch of browser tabs and they can be a little slow when you do too much all at once. I'm adding another 4 GB stick (purchased for $35 on newegg) that should fix that issue for me. But I think it would be a great option for what you're looking for.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 2, 2006
10,736
NJ
Sorry to hijack, but ....Anyone know a good laptop for photography editing ? Would lean towards a macbook, but not sure how good of one I truly need? It's just a hobby and I edit everything in Lightroom.
 

DukeSox

absence hasn't made the heart grow fonder
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2005
11,742
I can't think of any major drawbacks. The keyboard is backlit and feels pretty good to type on, the display looks great, and it starts up in a second or two and is very quick to open programs. The only drawback for me personally (which probably wouldn't be a drawback for an elderly family member) is the 4 GB RAM... I sometimes like to open a bunch of browser tabs and they can be a little slow when you do too much all at once. I'm adding another 4 GB stick (purchased for $35 on newegg) that should fix that issue for me. But I think it would be a great option for what you're looking for.
Thank you
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
16,627
Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
Sorry to hijack, but ....Anyone know a good laptop for photography editing ? Would lean towards a macbook, but not sure how good of one I truly need? It's just a hobby and I edit everything in Lightroom.
Pricewise, isn't a Macbook overkill? There are a ton of loaded 15.6" Windows laptops out there right out. I mention that, as the reason so many are jumping on the HP at Costco that I posted is because it's an upgradable 14": 14" are always more expensive than 15.6" with the same specs.

BTW, a nice little 2TB Crucial SDD for $209:
 

jk333

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 26, 2009
4,323
Boston
Sorry to hijack, but ....Anyone know a good laptop for photography editing ? Would lean towards a macbook, but not sure how good of one I truly need? It's just a hobby and I edit everything in Lightroom.
I’ve used Lightroom on a year old MacBook Air perfectly fine. It’s SSD is an upgrade on many of the 400-$600 laptops that are available.

Therefore, dollar for dollar it’s pretty on par with the windows machines and the Adobe software has always worked well on Macs. You should be able to find a new one for closer to $800 than $1,000.
 

jtn46

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 10, 2004
9,757
Norwalk, CT
Just a heads up that announced at CES Nvidia’s RTX chips are hitting laptops on January 29th, so if shopping for a powerful laptop, wait until then. Latest and greatest will be RTX, which will he pricey, but laptops with current generation GTX figure to be cheaper.