I am pretty much an idiot when it comes to such matters and was hoping the CF.COM community could assist in a recommendation for a new lap top computer. This will primarily be used for regular home office stuff, personal email, scheduling, word, creating proposals, excel etc,.
I have a Lenova ThinkPad E530 with Intel corei3 at work and it does the job. I was just curious if there were better options out there without breaking the bank. Would like to keep it somewhere between $500-$1,000.
Also, where is the best place to purchase these days? Online or box stores? I live in the Camden, SC area so Charleston stores really aren’t an option for us.
If it were me, I would probably buy a Surface Pro 4, or Galaxy TabPro. Laptops are starting to become dinosaurs, and it doesn’t sound like you will be running any serious software anyway. A tablet, that still has a good operating system and Microsoft suite, is great. Not talking about an Ipad here. Those things are just for consuming content. Emails, web, videos, etc.
But I have been very impressed with the Samsung and Microsoft laptop replacement tablets.
add office 365 for $49 first year, $99/year after and you’re set. You’ll have to buy MS Project unless you’re one of the few people that still has your install disk
Surface Pro 4 runs full Windows Pro. I don’t think they make the old tablets that ran Windows RT. That was the original Surface. Shouldn’t be any limitations, short of storage if you house a ton of media. Then you just pop in a big micro SD chip and double your hard drive.
I just don’t see the need to carry around a big heavy laptop nowadays with everything being so cloud based, and all software being touch screen driven.
add office 365 for $49 first year, $99/year after and you’re set. You’ll have to buy MS Project unless you’re one of the few people that still has your install disk
If you are only doing web + home office, you could get by with much less than 1k. No need to future proof unless you are getting into video games on it or doing data manipulation bigger than excel.
If I was shopping, I would look for:
240 gb+ SSD (solid state hard drive - makes boot time lightning fast and won’t shatter if dropped)
8gb+ RAM
windows 10 included
almost any i3 or i5 will be sufficient unless you are getting into photo/video editing or video games.
beefier processor and video cards and etc. can eat up battery life for stuff you aren’t using!
best deals are online instead of physical stores.
Edit: my work laptop has touch screen and i turned it off. unless you are drawing on it what is the point??
I work from home collecting building permit data from several building depts., most of it online and either copied or entered into Excel. I have 2 laptops, Lenovo and HP. They are both very basic computers and work fine for me. The Lenovo is 4 years old.
Do spend your money on a good monitor and wireless keyboard/mouse. Logitech makes some good keyboard/mouse combos for around $60.
Shop online, I bought a 14 page paper shredder for $20 yesterday from
Staples. They were not on display in store, but they did have them just had to ask.
The touchscreen is nice if you combine your work platform with a multimedea device. Itunes and streaming sites are easier with a touch screen.
For my business I do a lot of take off on drawings and I can do that directly on the screen with a pen while on a flight or sitting in the recliner without being confined to a docking station with mouse. Just preference. I am about to get rid of my HP Elite laptop and Ipad and combine them into a Surface. Just tired of having things split on different devices. Want all my movies, music, web browsing around the house, TWC streaming app, and work software and work files all in one place.
That’s a mighty big laptop for such a small keyboard. If I was carrying that kind of heft I would want a larger keyboard with a numbers keypad.
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Didn’t even look at pictures. I agree on keyboard does look small. Plenty of room to rest your hands.
It’s a standard 15.6 inch laptop. 17 inches are too big to carry, and people that aren’t super computer savvy usually don’t like anything less than 15, because they can’t see it. They’re so thin nowadays the bulk is pretty much a non-issue anymore. It will fit in a standard backpack, and it’s comfortable to work with at a desk.
I purchase computers for people at my work that have no idea what they’re doing, so these little quirks are something I’ve learned from dealing with that. Bought a 13 inch lenovo one time…you’d have thought I’d given them a smartphone screen.
That’s strange. The people here are the opposite. We are a $115m global construction consulting business, and we have laptops standard for all employees. 13.5" screens all the way around. We tried some larger 15"+ screens and they all came right back. Nobody liked carrying around that large of a footprint. I don’t think they even fit on an airline table.
Standard office layout is a docking station with dual 27" monitors, so the laptop monitor is only used when remote. Which in most cases you need a slim design. Nothing like sitting in a meeting hiding behind a 17" laptop monitor, or crowding out folks on a plane.
I always equate the big laptop screens to gamers. Not portable workers. To each there own.
HP - 17.3" Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 6GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive for $399
not a bad deal. You can get an SSD for <100 bucks and get the HDD duplicated over- i could help if you don’t have the tools for it. This is a BIGGER laptop than normal at 17" screen, so it will be heavier and battery life will be a bit less… Also kinda good that you could go touch it @ best buy in person.
Thanks for the help guys. I am leaning towards blowing my budget and opting for the Surface Pro 4 with 256 gb SSD core i5 and 8gb Ram.
If I get the Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse and also a cover/keyboard and office 365 I would be all in at $1,560 buying through Microsoft store.
Am I screwing up? Based on ■■■■■■■■ and yalls advice, that may not be the cheapest but I would be good to go for several years to come.
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Give,Give… Never Take.”
EC
I never buy cutting edge unless I need it (graphics). There is no “future proof” computer- and the things you say you want to use it for are easily handled by 5 year old equipment today.
That $399 laptop plus $140 in parts and 30 min of labor is about the same computer (processor, RAM, and HD) for 1/3 the price of a surface pro.
Weighs 4lb more than the surface pro tablet and probably has little shorter battery. Depends how much you intend to carry it and whether you want a good touchscreen.
I don’t personally understand spending another $1k to get super touchscreen functionality which you wont use to type email, proposals, or work spreadsheets on. You could get a separate ipad for tablet surfing and the laptop for work and STILL come out for a little more than half the price of surface pro.
