New laptop for the girlfriend

[Bambu Utila]

Looking for some help buying a new laptop for my girlfriend.



Right now she is using a Surface 2, but the keyboard is broken and she wants something with better "lapablity"

She uses her tablet at the moment for browsing and some simple games like Candy Crush. But she will in the near future need to start using it for some light office work like excel, word and lots of outlook.



The main things i'm looking for are that the computer is light and has good battery life, oh and she wants a touch screen since she is used to that now from her surface.



So far what i have come up with are the ASUS Zenbook with the latest Core M3 processor or the ASUS Zenbook flip with the same processor.

For her use i think the M3 will be fine, and it gives better battery life compared to the iCore processors. I would also like to have as much new tech on it as possible, like Windows Hello compatible camera and/or finger print reader, one USB-C port on it,.....



In the end i hope not to spend more than about $850 on the device.



Does anybody have any experience with either of these devices, or do you have some other laptop i could have a look at. I'm not stuck on the ASUS Zenbook, it just looks like it has most of what i want for her.



The other thing i would like some advice on would be on where to buy it. My situation is a bit complicated though. I'm from Belgium, with a Belgium VISA card, live in Honduras, but want to order my laptop in the US. Don't worry about how i get it here, that's all sorted out, I have a shipping address in the US. Amazon works well for me because it will accept foreign cc. So any store that would accept foreign cc or paypal will work for me.



Hopefully i get some nice ideas from you guys about a new toy for the house



Thanks

 

[ananve]

If she's already using Surface 2, buy her a Surface 3. The price is very interesting and it is a great machine running full W10.
It also comes with 1-year Office 365 and 1TB Onedrive storage.

Posted from my Surface 3 running W10

 

[Bambu Utila]

She wants a more traditional style laptop. Otherwise i would probably have gone with that.

We already pay for Office 365 Home Premium so we both have 1TB of OneDrive storage.

 

[NokiLumia520]

Dell xps13

 

[Bambu Utila]

I looked at the Dell XPS13, but with the touch screen it get pretty expensive. I'm really trying not to spend more than $850

 

[NokiLumia520]

I looked at the Dell XPS13, but with the touch screen it get pretty expensive. I'm really trying not to spend more than $850

Why does she exactly want touchscreen?

 

[Bambu Utila]

Why does she exactly want touchscreen?

Because she likes it and is used to it from 3 years of Surface 2 use.

 

[NokiLumia520]

Because she likes it and is used to it from 3 years of Surface 2 use.

Then buy surface book or surface pro 3/4

 

[NokiLumia520]

Or look up for some Lenovo laptops they are really good

 

[longlifexs]

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...-in-1-PC%2FproductID.333089100&token=7hcGVB0Y looks pretty good, maybe the i7 is a bit overkill for her expected usage scenarios, but for the price it seems like a great buy. 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM, 6th gen CPU...

Other options (all with SSD /128 or 256 GB/ and an m3 6th gen CPU) would be:
https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...n-Laptop%2FproductID.328071100&token=L7r40Av1

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...in-1-PC%2FproductID.3389258300&token=XKAsvDOH

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...t.com%2Fen-us%2Fstore%2Fb%2Fpc&token=vgK7JqnC

I think they should all work for well for her...and they are all under the 850 USD you are willing to spend.

I don't think many laptops have Windows Hello compatible cameras, at least not in this price range. The last 2 laptops on the list have USB-C (but the HP only has a single USB 2.0 apart from the USB-C, so that's maybe not the best).

Hope this helps.

Also, AFAIK MS Store will accept international cards for HW purchases if you get it shipped to the US and say that your billing address is in the US (you can use your Belgian address and then any US ZIP code).

 

[pankaj981]

You might want to check the HP X360, HP Spectre series or the Dell Inspiron 13 series.

 

[realwarder]

I like the look of the Zenbook you suggested. Lightweight.

 

[rory753]

I would get an 12" HP pavilion x2. Its a cheap(but reliable) surface book:
https://www.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3508196

 

[Jakoh]

Its called "going to best buy"

 

[jdballard]

Maybe it's me, but trading your girlfriend for a laptop makes your girlfriend seem fairly unimportant! :grin:

(If you don't get it, read the title of the thread!)

 

[Bambu Utila]

Thanks for all the effort.

So far i think i do like those Zenbooks the most. But i'll have to purchase from Amazon.
I tried buying my previous laptop from the MS Store and that was just a complete disaster
Accessing the Store from a Honduran IP address trying to use a Belgium CC card and sending it to a USA address. Let me just say it triggered a lot of red flags

So i might end up buying this one:
https://www.amazon.com/ZenBook-UX30...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3508420

It seems to do evrything she needs and stays well within the price range.

 

[Bambu Utila]

mmmm, after reading reviews on Amazon about the Zenbook with the Touch screen i'm starting to worry again
Lots of people complaining the touch screen doesn't work after waking up from sleep mode.

 

[ananve]

If she's used to the quality of Surface, she would found any other models are inferior in build quality. It's like you go from L9xx to 5xx or from galaxy s to galaxy j.
Actually why your girlfriend prefer a traditional laptop? For me S3, SP3, SP4 provides equally good laptop experience if not better (her S2 runs windows RT so it's not the same).

Posted from Lumia 640 W10M.

 

[lncLESLIE]

Shopping for tech is crazy, so many options!