PC laptops

[Knoxbanedoodle]

I'm thinking of getting a PC laptop. I've never had one. What's there to say about Dell's Inspiron series these days? Lenovo? Acer?

Thought I'd throw this one out to the good people of OWA. I want 8GB system memory, 1080p resolution, an Intel i5 processor, and to spend as much less than $1,000 as I can, without having purchased a piece of shit.

[HudsonHawk]

I've had a Dell and thought it was garbage.  I have a Lenovo for work, but it's way more than $1,000, probably double that.  My personal machine is an Asus brand, and it's been the best computer I've ever owned.  I have a Core i7 processor, but you can't get what you want in that brand for around $700-800, I think. 

[Waldo]

Some people view laptops as disposable and will buy the cheapest laptop they can get.  I prefer to view them as an investment and will spend more to make it last longer.  If you're like me, don't buy an Inspiron, or any "home" laptop for that matter.  If you don't get burned by the preloaded bloatware or the crappier build quality, you'll get burned by the crappier support and overall dearth of driver updates (which can really hurt later on if your laptop starts having driver issues).

If you're gonna go Dell, get a Latitude.  A 14" Latitude 3000 (E3470) with those base specs will set you back about $775 (plus tax and  shipping).  A comparable 14" Latitude 5000 (E5470) is just shy of $1000.

I'm a big fan of Thinkpads.  A Thinkpad E460 with those specs is about $725, or if you want a grown-ass Thinkpad a comparably equipped T460 is right around $1000 before tax and shipping.

You mentioned screen resolution but not screen size, so I'll also throw out the Microsoft Surface Pro as a viable option.  The Surface Pro 4 has been out for almost a year, which means some good deals can be had for the Surface Pro 3, like this one (the exact model I have, which was selling for over $1000 just a few months ago).  The Surface type cover costs an extra $100 but you're not likely to find a better 12" hybrid with pen support and Quad HD resolution for the price, and the form factor is really hard to beat.  The only real caveat to this is that the Surface Pro + type cover is not quite as versatile with typing surfaces; it's great on a flat surface but not in your lap, in bed, etc.

[Outlawscotty]

I vote Lenovo since Toshiba has basically gone consumer/non-customization only.  Dell and HP are beyond garbage.  The Acers I have seen seem to be good, but I don't know if you can customize them or not.  I am speaking from a business platform, so I'm always thinking of reliability and ease of use because I have to support them.  You can surely customize a Lenovo for under $1000 and get a great machine.

[HudsonHawk]

Now that someone mentioned screen size, this is where I say I'm not a fan of big laptops.  The smaller the better.  My Lenovo X250 is a 12.5 inch screen, and it's incredibly lightweight, and the battery lasts about 15 hours.  Of course, I travel a lot with it (halfway around the world, regularly), so that's why the smaller the better for me.  If I had it to do right now, I'd spend the extra bucks and get the Lenovo X260.  But again, my Asus has been a fantastic little machine for half that price. 

[Knoxbanedoodle]

Thanks for all the great insights!

In fact typing is very important to me, so the Surface wouldn't work. And as for screen size, in the ballpark of 15" would make me happy, but it's not a sticking point.

And, finally, I don't have any particular loyalty to Dell. (The last PC I owned was a Gateway.) I'm a blank slate in PC land.

[Limey]

I have a Lenovo T440 Thinkpad for work.  It's at least a year old (I don't think it was new when I got it), but it's a trooper.  It works for me as a desktop replacement.  For some reason, it really struggles opening PDFs, but I think that's my company's super-hobbling software modifications (it's a very skinnied down and locked down OS) rather than the Lenovo.

Then there's always the MacBook line of laptops, which can run Windows as the native OS or inside a MacOS window.  They're pricey, of course.

[Waldo]

I vote Lenovo since Toshiba has basically gone consumer/non-customization only.

Agree.  Toshiba is total shit.  I wouldn't wish a Toshiba on Rougned Odor.

Dell and HP are beyond garbage.

Disagree about Dell, at least the Latitude line.  Except for some hiccups in build quality when they first introduced the E series in 2008, Latitudes are hard to beat for value.  I like Thinkpads better personally, though (except for the fucking terrible touchpads they started using a couple years ago).

[mrpink]

I've had Dell Latitudes almost exclusively for work for the past 13 years and I agree that they're good machines.

[Outlawscotty]

I'll modify my statement concerning Dell to say that it my history regarding desktops, is less than stellar .  Otherwise I stand by my stance, local be damned.

[Waldo]

I'll modify my statement concerning Dell to say that it my history regarding desktops, is less than stellar .  Otherwise I stand by my stance, local be damned.

What are you buying, Inspirons/Vostros?  The Dell Optiplex family is probably the best desktop product line available for the price.

[Outlawscotty]

I wasn't buying them, just servicing.  The Optiplex in particular had issues with capacitors on the motherboards that rendered them inoperable.  Granted this was 1st generation P4, they may have resolved this issue.  I'm sure it was an issue with the supplier, but it still skews my view toward someone else if given a choice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/technology/29dell.html?hp

I'm also not fond of their tech support practices or service.  Just an overall poor experience with them.  When I needed to integrate a PC for a customer, I would build out with an Intel desktop board and processor and customize the rest around a corporate environment.  The only failures experienced with these was the hard drive, which is understandable given the MTBF.  Intel no longer offers 'desktop' motherboards and is concentrated on server platforms, of which I still build many.  As you can't really 'build' a laptop, I was pimping Toshiba until they basically folded and went Gateway.  In order to fill that void, I am currently using the Lenovo brand for laptops and desktops.  I never had a dislike for their products, but the price point was such that nobody in San Antonio would want to purchase them, especially when they were branded IBM.  Once the spin-off happened, they corrected the difference and I think offer a superior product.

As a conceding side note, when you have such a large market share as Dell does here locally, you tend to see more broken Dells simply because there are more to break.

[Waldo]

To my knowledge, widespread blown caps haven't been much of a problem since certain models of 2007-2008 era Optiplexes.  I think the small form factor 745s and 755s were most prone.

Re: Dell's tech support - my experience has never been all that bad with doing chat sessions.  Way better than Toshiba.  Better than Lenovo, even, based on the few times I've had to contact Lenovo for support.

Don't get me wrong, I love Lenovo's Think-branded products and choose them over Dell for my own purposes.  But Dell makes a pretty good product too.