What should I expect to pay for a quality laptop?

[RavenSword]

So, right now I'm trying to figure out my budget for a laptop and I'm wondering what I should aim for to get a quality, stable windows laptop. I hear that slot of times cheaper PC laptops crash and don't run well, so I'm wondering at what price point do we get solid and quality laptops? 400? 500? 600 dollars? Or do I need to get into MacBook price territory to get one I can use for 3 years or more from a performance/reliability factor? Any ideas ?

 

[trivor]

It depends what you want to do with it. If you want a thin, light (<3 lbs) laptop you are probably looking at an ultrabook costing $600 plus. If you want good performance you are going to want either an SSD only (SSD is solid state drive) or an SSD/HD combo which gives you more storage with some of the speed of SSD. If you're just looking for decent performance for around the house (don't care about weight) most 500-600 dollar laptops will be fine. Go to one of the big retail stores (Best Buy) and look at some of the brands and especially the different resolution displays to figure out what looks good to you and check out the keyboards and trackpads (they are locked down so you can't check the weight). The higher your budget the better the quality so it is more a matter of what's good enough for you.

 

[RavenSword]

It depends what you want to do with it. If you want a thin, light (<3 lbs) laptop you are probably looking at an ultrabook costing $600 plus. If you want good performance you are going to want either an SSD only (SSD is solid state drive) or an SSD/HD combo which gives you more storage with some of the speed of SSD. If you're just looking for decent performance for around the house (don't care about weight) most 500-600 dollar laptops will be fine. Go to one of the big retail stores (Best Buy) and look at some of the brands and especially the different resolution displays to figure out what looks good to you and check out the keyboards and trackpads (they are locked down so you can't check the weight). The higher your budget the better the quality so it is more a matter of what's good enough for you.

Yeah, main thing I'm worried about is track pad and keyboard I think. I heard trackpads could get pretty bad depending on what you get. Is there some recommended brands?

 

[LockOnTech]

Never had a problem with cheaper laptops crashes or have performance issues. Are you going to be using this for everyday use, school or work? Will you plan to keep it for more than 3-5 years? All those questions could be considered with your purchase.

 

[jojoe42]

Yeah, main thing I'm worried about is track pad and keyboard I think. I heard trackpads could get pretty bad depending on what you get. Is there some recommended brands?

HP's keyboards can be quite good, although nothing can compare with the Lenovo Carbon X1's (literally a dream to type on). My advice is to narrow your search down to a few machines online, and then go into a store and try out the keyboard/trackpad and the build

 

[rdubmu]

It depends on what you need.

Mid level laptops range from $800-1500.

Samsung Series 9, Surface Pro 3 and the Lenovo ThinkPad yoga is some of the ones you might want to look at


Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Laura Knotek]

Are you interested in a touchscreen or non touchscreen model?

 

[RavenSword]

I don't know if I necessarily care about a touch screen or not. But I think most midrange to high end laptops have it nowadays anyway, right? I don't care too much either way. Really, Im wanting this mostly for school, possible paper writing, internet browsing, things that are better on a keyboard and mouse/touchpad, email, maybe light gaming (but Im probably going to build a desktop PC for that anyway one day, so its not super important it play high end games), and possible light audio work since im into voiceover and radio as a hobby/possible career someday.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I don't know if I necessarily care about a touch screen or not. But I think most midrange to high end laptops have it nowadays anyway, right? I don't care too much either way. Really, Im wanting this mostly for school, possible paper writing, internet browsing, things that are better on a keyboard and mouse/touchpad, email, maybe light gaming (but Im probably going to build a desktop PC for that anyway one day, so its not super important it play high end games), and possible light audio work since im into voiceover and radio as a hobby/possible career someday.

If you are in college or university, you might be able to get a new PC at a discount through your college/university. If that is the case, does your college/university have any student discounts on PCs?

 

[rdubmu]

Right now the Surface Pro 3 is $150 off

 

[RavenSword]

Right now the Surface Pro 3 is $150 off

im still iffy on that device. it seems like a compromise of a tablet and laptop. like, its a ok tablet and a ok laptop. resulting in a decent product. for one, I hear the lapability is still not good enough, that it throttles under load, and the type cover still isn't as good as a dedicated laptop keyboard. ive messed around with one a few times at best buy, and it seems to be pretty good, but I don't know how itll be once I have it in use and out and about. reviews were postitive, but most said its still not quite a laptop replacement yet.

 

[osallent]

I'm waiting on the Surface 3 to drop $150-$200 in price next year before I buy it as a replacement for my laptop (which still runs fine). I'm sure we will see the price come down by then as Microsoft gets ready to release the Surface 4 or whatever the next model is called.

 

[Cleavitt76]

You certainly don't have to get into MacBook territory pricing to find an equally good or better laptop. Lenovo, HP, and ASUS all make some great laptops. There are others, but I have good personal experience with those. I would say that once you get to the $600+ range from any of those manufacturers you will be dealing with quality stuff that should last a reasonable number of years.

Personally, I really like the laptop/tablet hybrid concept (along with my desktop PC) so I have a SP3. However, if I were in the market for a laptop I would get one of the 13" Lenovo Yoga gen 2. Right now you can get the "Pro" version (QHD screen) with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD for ~$999 with a student discount.

Lenovo Yoga Laptop Series | Convertible Entertainment Laptops  | Lenovo US

I would stay away from Acer unless you are willing to do a lot of research before purchasing. They have some good products, but they tend to be too inconsistent so it's easy to buy a "high end" Acer product and find out that it has major issues and little support.

 

[rdubmu]

I agree about the Acer we have had many issues with the three acers my family and I have owned

 

[jojoe42]

I agree about the Acer we have had many issues with the three acers my family and I have owned

Agreed again. My grandpa had an Acer computer and it broke (motherboard failure) after 2? years...not cool. I'm now recommending him a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, because those things are well built

 

[RavenSword]

Agreed again. My grandpa had an Acer computer and it broke (motherboard failure) after 2? years...not cool. I'm now recommending him a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, because those things are well built

I heard the acer aspire S7 is well built.