And I don’t know what to buy. Help please? I use it for surfing and watching videos, My budget is maybe $700 or so. I would like a biggish screen and don’t plan on taking it out of the house. I like brick and mortar stores. Any recommendation?
A few more details, including opinions from a @sammydog01 family member and some useful ideas from @communist can be found here and in the following comments:
Are you running any specialty software, are you going do full install of MS Office? Any other special features or uses to consider?
Besides Best Buy, what other B&M stores are you near? Microcenter? Frys? Staples or Office Depot? What else?
Would you be willing to order online from someone if they had a local B&M where you could get support?
(I don’t know which chains cooperate this way with customers.)
Well, if you will only use it to surf and watch videos, you can certainly buy something for way less than 700.
I would go for something lightweight and that has a touchscreen. Don’t go for the extremely cheap ones as they tend to be really cheap in many ways…
@dashcloud Thanks for the suggestions! I will run over to Best Buy and look at them. The sales changed after last night. Is the ssd thing good? I’m used to a lot of storage- I’m a digital hoarder. But I should learn to dump stuff on the cloud.
@sammydog01
SSD is storage like a hard drive, but is much more durable, quiet, efficient, lighter, and lasts longer.
SSDs are resistant to drops less than thirty feet or more, whereas hard drives (HDDs) can die after a single drop onto a hard surface. They make almost no noise compared to HDDs, use much less power, and weight a fraction of the weight of an HDD. Finally, certain varieties of SSDs can last over twenty years of daily use, while most HDDs can reliably last six years.
The only drawback is that SSDs have smaller storage for the same price. For $100 you can get a 2 TB HDD, but only about 256 GB SDD, if you are lucky (about 1/8).
Luckily, prices are rapidly falling. Just since last year, the prices for SSDs have almost halved, as have HDD prices.
@sammydog01 SSDs are finally priced such that mere mortals can afford larger sizes- about $200 for a 1TB SSD.
If you’re willing to put a little work in, you can always upgrade from a regular HD to an SSD, or from a small SSD to a larger one.
There’s other options if you need to store a lot of data locally.
@sammydog01
I would go with SSD. An i7 processor is overkill for web browsing and watching movies. If you start gaming, developing, or video editing, it may come in handy, but otherwise, not so much.
SSDs are a reliable way to store data. If you have critical data, get an SSD, otherwise get a cheap HDD and upgrade in two to four years, when SSDs will be much cheaper.
In short, for web browsing and movies, these are my minimum recommended specs:
Processor: Intel i5
RAM: 8-16 GB
Storage: 1TB HDD or 512 GB SSD
For movies, I would recommend at least a 15" 1080p display.
The ones @dashcloud came up with seem to be nice machines. One thing to note: the ones I looked at have smaller ssd drives. Ssd drives are always smaller and more expensive, but they are faster. People use some form of external storage to hold their massive media libraries, like an external usb drive or a desktop with a big drive.
You can get a machine with a large conventional hard drive, like the one you looked at already at BB. But that machine will always run slower.
If you find a machine you like in online inventory for a chain that has a local store and allows local pickup, would you be ok with that? Or do you want a machine that’s in stock locally?
@f00l sad but true… I paid a little more for my desktop years ago… It was an i7… I priced out an i5 machine that was decent… and looked like an upgrade… flipped to benchmarks to verify… and decided wait another year or two before replacing the desktop… Benchmarks on brand new i5 were worse than my 3rd gen i7… So I still wait…
One more thing. Some laptop models get too hot. The problem is worst in gaming laptops I think, and you’re not shopping in that category. But he sure to check reviews of whatever model - or a similar model - before your purchase.
And if you can, test the keyboard and trackpad. Or test a similar model. I’ve had nice laptops where I never adjusted well to the keyboard.
Small question: If you are not taking it out of the house, does it need to be a laptop? You can get quite a good small-footprint desktop or all-in-one in your price range, with more storage and speed than a laptop.
So thank you, everyone, for the help. I learned a lot. But it appears that I will have laptop wrapped under the Christmas tree. Which is nice because I am terrible at making decisions. I’m sure that whatever it is I can click my Meh buttons every night.
Not everybody likes HP laptops, but I love the workstation I have at the office (Z Book 15) and I think the high-end models are solid. This refurb Elitebook from Best Buy has a fast i7, full hd display, & 18mo(!) warranty for $480. Small HD (128GB), but at this price maybe invest in a bigger (or external) drive
A few more details, including opinions from a @sammydog01 family member and some useful ideas from @communist can be found here and in the following comments:
https://meh.com/forum/topics/which-major-retailer-is-having-the-biggest-meltdown-of-the-season#5855fb8eea4f0c0a38339c63
@sammydog01
Are you running any specialty software, are you going do full install of MS Office? Any other special features or uses to consider?
Besides Best Buy, what other B&M stores are you near? Microcenter? Frys? Staples or Office Depot? What else?
Would you be willing to order online from someone if they had a local B&M where you could get support?
(I don’t know which chains cooperate this way with customers.)
@f00l Best Buy and Staples are here. The geek squad has been nice to me.
Well, if you will only use it to surf and watch videos, you can certainly buy something for way less than 700.
I would go for something lightweight and that has a touchscreen. Don’t go for the extremely cheap ones as they tend to be really cheap in many ways…
@ELUNO Yeah, it’s for my birthday and Christmas so my husband is encouraging me to go big.
Here’s a couple- tell me what you think of them:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-yoga-710-2-in-1-14-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-silver/5579143.p?skuId=5579143
14’’, latest-gen parts, comes with an SSD
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-2-in-1-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-gray/5606500.p?skuId=5606500
15.6’’ screen, latest-gen parts, has an SSD
This one from B&H Photo Video is very nice as well:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1263206-REG/acer_nx_gg5aa_004_15_6_aspire_e5_575_521w_notebook.html
15.6’’, SSD, the very latest in USB- 3.1 Type C (no more fumbling with which way to plug in the cable!)
We can always count on @dashcloud to give us some great ideas. Thanks!
@Barney Thanks Barney!
@dashcloud Thanks for the suggestions! I will run over to Best Buy and look at them. The sales changed after last night. Is the ssd thing good? I’m used to a lot of storage- I’m a digital hoarder. But I should learn to dump stuff on the cloud.
@sammydog01
SSD is storage like a hard drive, but is much more durable, quiet, efficient, lighter, and lasts longer.
SSDs are resistant to drops less than thirty feet or more, whereas hard drives (HDDs) can die after a single drop onto a hard surface. They make almost no noise compared to HDDs, use much less power, and weight a fraction of the weight of an HDD. Finally, certain varieties of SSDs can last over twenty years of daily use, while most HDDs can reliably last six years.
The only drawback is that SSDs have smaller storage for the same price. For $100 you can get a 2 TB HDD, but only about 256 GB SDD, if you are lucky (about 1/8).
Luckily, prices are rapidly falling. Just since last year, the prices for SSDs have almost halved, as have HDD prices.
Anything else you would like to know?
@DVDBZN So I should try for a SSD? Thanks for the info. In a trade-off would you go for the SSD or I-7 over I5?
@sammydog01
You could take a downgrade on memory perhaps and go for both the i7 and the ssd if you get lucky and find the right deal.
Memory can be added later. Easily. Oh - do it soon, it’s cheaper sooner than later. And add all the machine will take.
There are sites that will tell you exactly what to buy. The teenager ought to be able to help with this.
@sammydog01 SSDs are finally priced such that mere mortals can afford larger sizes- about $200 for a 1TB SSD.
If you’re willing to put a little work in, you can always upgrade from a regular HD to an SSD, or from a small SSD to a larger one.
There’s other options if you need to store a lot of data locally.
@sammydog01
I would go with SSD. An i7 processor is overkill for web browsing and watching movies. If you start gaming, developing, or video editing, it may come in handy, but otherwise, not so much.
SSDs are a reliable way to store data. If you have critical data, get an SSD, otherwise get a cheap HDD and upgrade in two to four years, when SSDs will be much cheaper.
In short, for web browsing and movies, these are my minimum recommended specs:
Processor: Intel i5
RAM: 8-16 GB
Storage: 1TB HDD or 512 GB SSD
For movies, I would recommend at least a 15" 1080p display.
@DVDBZN Thanks for the advice, but I bet that’s not what I’m getting. Maybe I can exchange it.
Staples has this as one of the laptops in their 1 hour store pickup, so there’s a chance it’s available in store to look at:
http://www.staples.com/Lenovo-Flex-4-14-8-GB-RAM-256-GB-SSD-Intel-Core-i5-6200U-Windows-10-Touchscreen-Notebook-80SA0004-/product_2273846
I always buy mine from the lenovo outlet. It is sometimes a headache, but if you’re patient the prices are great.
@sammydog01
The ones @dashcloud came up with seem to be nice machines. One thing to note: the ones I looked at have smaller ssd drives. Ssd drives are always smaller and more expensive, but they are faster. People use some form of external storage to hold their massive media libraries, like an external usb drive or a desktop with a big drive.
You can get a machine with a large conventional hard drive, like the one you looked at already at BB. But that machine will always run slower.
If you find a machine you like in online inventory for a chain that has a local store and allows local pickup, would you be ok with that? Or do you want a machine that’s in stock locally?
@f00l It does not need to be in stock locally- I just want to be able to take it in if I have a problem. That’s why I like Best Buy.
@sammydog01
If you budget matches, get an I7 instead of an i5.
Don’t think it will make a huge diff now, but an i7 machine will run snappy for perhaps more years.
@f00l sad but true… I paid a little more for my desktop years ago… It was an i7… I priced out an i5 machine that was decent… and looked like an upgrade… flipped to benchmarks to verify… and decided wait another year or two before replacing the desktop… Benchmarks on brand new i5 were worse than my 3rd gen i7… So I still wait…
@sohmageek I know, right? An i7-2720QM from 2011 is still better than all but the very latest handful of high end i5
One more thing. Some laptop models get too hot. The problem is worst in gaming laptops I think, and you’re not shopping in that category. But he sure to check reviews of whatever model - or a similar model - before your purchase.
And if you can, test the keyboard and trackpad. Or test a similar model. I’ve had nice laptops where I never adjusted well to the keyboard.
Small question: If you are not taking it out of the house, does it need to be a laptop? You can get quite a good small-footprint desktop or all-in-one in your price range, with more storage and speed than a laptop.
@rockblossom I would like to drag it around the house.
So thank you, everyone, for the help. I learned a lot. But it appears that I will have laptop wrapped under the Christmas tree. Which is nice because I am terrible at making decisions. I’m sure that whatever it is I can click my Meh buttons every night.
best buy has this laptop http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-2-in-1-15-6-4k-ultra-hd-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-940mx-256gb-ssd-pearl-black/5579132.p
normally its $1,100 (with display models in stores so you can try before you buy )
its on sale for $900 + tax
but as of right now you can get an open box for only $760+ tax with free 2 day shipping
it seems to tick all the boxes
4k display
16 gigs of ram
touch screen
dedicated graphics card
only 4 pounds
@communist Ooh, that one is nice. I’m pretty sure that’s not what I’m getting though.
Not everybody likes HP laptops, but I love the workstation I have at the office (Z Book 15) and I think the high-end models are solid. This refurb Elitebook from Best Buy has a fast i7, full hd display, & 18mo(!) warranty for $480. Small HD (128GB), but at this price maybe invest in a bigger (or external) drive
Fry’s electronics
I would make the suggestion if you want one that will last forever grab a bussiness laptop. Example Lenovo Thinkpads, HP Z/Elitebooks, Dell Latitudes.
I love the thinkpads.