Recommendation for new laptop

JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
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My wife's laptop is in the shop with an undiagnosed problem. It just died while she was using it. So far, the shop has ruled out the charging brick and the battery. They will open it up next week to see if they can figure out if it is reparable. If not, I want to get her a good new laptop, but my technical days peaked about 20 years ago.

I want her to get a good quality, reliable MS WINDOWS laptop capable of running Photo Shop Element.
It should have at least a TB SSD and lots of memory. Weight is not all that important because she doesn't travel with it. She just moves it from a cabinet to her desk or a table when she needs to use it.

What else should I consider? What should I be looking at?
 
This is not just a bump, but also a clarification.

I guess what I was asking was a recommendation of manufacturers, or sources. Is Dell still reputable (or reputable again)? Is ASUS generally better than HP?

If I were buying a desktop for myself (which I still use) instead of a laptop for my wife, I would go down to my favorite computer shop and have them build me a system according to my specs using quality parts. But nobody builds laptops according to custom specs. You have to buy one from one of the big guys. I used to like Gateway, but they don't exist. I used to like DELL, but they have cycled up and down. Is Intel better than AMD? Who is the manufacturer of choice today?
 
These days, I consider laptops to be commodity items. Except for look/feel/specs, there isn't much to distinguish one from the other.
 
My corporate laptops have all been Lenovo (first 2 or 3), Dell (the last two), and now the newest one, an HP. If I were buying…. and it looks like I’m about to buy a bunch…. I’d probably look at those, or maybe Asus. Our last Asus was…. cheap, but not great, but that was years ago. Like, Vista old.

My son had a Surface Pro at work. The battery swelled up after less than a year; the IT guy tells him they see a lot of that. The same thing happened to my mist recently retired company Dell.

Take all of that for what it’s worth, i guess. I think @asicer has it right. Whatever she likes and you can get at a reasonable price.
 
Dell xps 13 has been a tank for me. Any mid budget or higher windows laptop should be fine. Ive done a few gens of the xps 13 and 15 both have been great so im biased.
 
This is not just a bump, but also a clarification.

I guess what I was asking was a recommendation of manufacturers, or sources. Is Dell still reputable (or reputable again)? Is ASUS generally better than HP?

If I were buying a desktop for myself (which I still use) instead of a laptop for my wife, I would go down to my favorite computer shop and have them build me a system according to my specs using quality parts. But nobody builds laptops according to custom specs. You have to buy one from one of the big guys. I used to like Gateway, but they don't exist. I used to like DELL, but they have cycled up and down. Is Intel better than AMD? Who is the manufacturer of choice today?

Your questions are good but they also raise low wing vs high wing debate in laptop world, they do make customized laptops, but they are primarily for gaming and costs exorbitant amount of money.

Intel usually runs cooler than AMD (another low wing is good logic)

Asus is generally good and I use their motherboards for all my custom builds. Every model by every manufacturer will have some issues. If you read the reviews on Amazon or Best Buy you will find out soon enough.

I haven’t kept tabs on Lenovo but at one point they were having least number of issues.

In your use case, I would just go with Asus. Get more RAM if you can like 16 GB DDR 4 at least if down the road some video editing is in order and you can use RAM Disc to make it blazing fast .
Most issues arise from incompatibility among various IRQ mismatch from various hardware.

If they have an option of NVRam and M.2 SSD, I would spend the extra money on it.
 
Most all consumer laptops are made in one of three or so sweatshops in China and they all perform about the same.

I always recommend to buy two identical inexpensive laptops and just chuck one if it pukes. Swap the SSD from the bad one into the spare and keep working with only a few minutes of interruption.

Several friends have thanked me for that advice, but you are free to throw the dice and hope for the best...
 
If you want reliable you will need to come to the dark side and buy a MacBook....

I use mine daily for work and personal use, it’s a 2013 model and works as good today as it did the day it arrived! The charger cable just broke... used on eBay $17.00 is the only money I’ve ever had to spend on it. No bugs, no issues, nothing, nada... just 8 years of top notch performance.

this simply doesn’t happen with windows machines.

If I jinxed myself and it pukes tomorrow it doesn’t owe me a dime!
 
I have gotten good service out of Fujitsu. They still offer anachronistic features like removable batteries, a physical network port, DVD drive etc.

I write this from a work macbook Pro that has 4 different dongles sticking out of the 4 different ports and runs so hot you can fry eggs on the thing.
 
1. Yes, it does.
2. see #1.:D

is this example of the one windows laptop that did this on display somewhere or in a traveling exhibit? :)

A windows unit that’s 8 years w no bugs, virus’s, or need to reload windows or some major issue ever?

everyone I ever had, a couple years in and it was buggy and needed maintenance. I haven’t so much as changed the oil in this ol MacBook.

I think this topic ranks up there w oil additives, continental vs lycoming, high wing vs low, etc ;)
 
If you want reliable you will need to come to the dark side and buy a MacBook....

I use mine daily for work and personal use, it’s a 2013 model and works as good today as it did the day it arrived! The charger cable just broke... used on eBay $17.00 is the only money I’ve ever had to spend on it. No bugs, no issues, nothing, nada... just 8 years of top notch performance.

this simply doesn’t happen with windows machines.

If I jinxed myself and it pukes tomorrow it doesn’t owe me a dime!

As I type this on my 2020 16" Macbook pro (which sort of replaced my 2011 13" Macbook pro - I still use it for some things) - I will caution people that there have been some changes to the macbook lineup - one of the changes relates to the keyboard. One of the main reasons I bought the 16" was because I absolutely hated the feel of the keyboards on the new macbook air or the new 13" macbook pro.

to put it a little less wordy: some of the new macbook pros aren't necessarily as nice as the 2013-era macbooks.

edit: I know the OP doesn't want the Mac OS.
 
A windows unit that’s 8 years w no bugs, virus’s, or need to reload windows or some major issue ever?

Yeah, one of my Fujitsus, from 2009 to 2018. Replaced the battery pack once and upgraded the memory somewhere along the way. Eventually bits and pieces of the plastic came off, that's when I replaced it with another Fujitsu.
My 2016 Macbook Pro was obsolete by 2020. Too slow, no upgrade path for the memory or storage. Its now my kids school laptop. Expensive piece of junk.
 
A windows unit that’s 8 years w no bugs, virus’s, or need to reload windows or some major issue ever?
I have used Windows desktops and laptops for decades. My wife had a Windows laptop for several years before she switched to her iPad (which I had to replace after 4 years or so, by the way). Our kids all shared the use of a family Windows machine through middle school and high school. We’ve never had a virus on any of them…. Not one. And I haven’t needed to reload Windows (which used to be a very common thing) since 7 was introduced over 10 years ago.

All it takes is a moderately competent user and not doing really stupid things like opening .exe files emailed from random people. Even my 80-year-old in-laws don’t have any real problems.

I’m not exactly a Windows cheerleader, but there are a lot of very old complaints about long dead versions of Windows that are often used to justify the jump to a Macbook. It’s really unnecessary. If you want a Mac, then by all means buy a Mac and be happy.
 
If you want reliable you will need to come to the dark side and buy a MacBook....

I use mine daily for work and personal use, it’s a 2013 model and works as good today as it did the day it arrived! The charger cable just broke... used on eBay $17.00 is the only money I’ve ever had to spend on it. No bugs, no issues, nothing, nada... just 8 years of top notch performance.
That's the difference between a systems company that sells to the end user and a component company that sells to integrators.
My 2016 Macbook Pro was obsolete by 2020. Too slow, no upgrade path for the memory or storage. Its now my kids school laptop. Expensive piece of junk.
Systems companies are great until the marketing department takes over. :)
 
I have used Windows desktops and laptops for decades. My wife had a Windows laptop for several years before she switched to her iPad (which I had to replace after 4 years or so, by the way). Our kids all shared the use of a family Windows machine through middle school and high school. We’ve never had a virus on any of them…. Not one. And I haven’t needed to reload Windows (which used to be a very common thing) since 7 was introduced over 10 years ago.

All it takes is a moderately competent user and not doing really stupid things like opening .exe files emailed from random people. Even my 80-year-old in-laws don’t have any real problems.

I’m not exactly a Windows cheerleader, but there are a lot of very old complaints about long dead versions of Windows that are often used to justify the jump to a Macbook. It’s really unnecessary. If you want a Mac, then by all means buy a Mac and be happy.

i guess that’s about the time frame I exited the windows works... so valid points maybe things have changed while I was gone :)
 
Just retired a Dell Latitude this week. Replaced by a Dell XPS 13”. Smoking fast, powerful, and tiny. I use docks with dual screens in my offices so the small form works great. I have no need for desktops anymore.
 
Given that weight isn't a constraint, there are a few good choices out there. If it were to be a constraint, then Lenovo Yoga, hands down. Mine has spent a lot of time traveling internationally, and it's still fast enough and reliable enough to use as my sole computer at home. No need for desktops anymore.

Here's the thing though, it's the little things that will get you. Keyboard layouts are more important than you think. I recently picked up an HP laptop for the office (not my personal machine) and although it seems to be a fine machine in terms of speed and reliability, the keyboard layout is just bad. So if I were you, or her rather, I'd spend a little bit of time playing with some floor models just to make sure they are going to work okay.
 
What about touchscreens.?? Are they worth it or stay away from.??

Seems like everyone I see the screen is all smudgy.
 
What about touchscreens.?? Are they worth it or stay away from.??

Seems like everyone I see the screen is all smudgy.

No, and no. Don't touch the screen and it's just like a regular laptop. The touchscreen is nice in a pinch if you lose the mouse.
 
On my new $2500 work Dell Laptop, I turned the touchscreen off because I was constantly hitting it with my left pinky finger.

I have also made the mistake of buying a laptop without considering the keyboard and it forced me to use an external wireless keyboard.
 
Touchscreens are really only useful in work environments where you need to take a tablet somewhere with you for light input or pulling up reference docs, but then return to a docking station later for heavy input. A doctor's office is a good example. They don't make much sense for the average consumer.

Sent from my SM-N976U using Tapatalk
 
Lenovo Thinkpad line. Or really just any of the business lines of any of the major manufacturers. The consumer lines are cheaper for a reason.
 
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