Your suggestion for a new computer

[CRLLS]

My last 2 new laptops have been Lenovo. The 1st had battery life problems. Even replacement batteries did not give a good life either. The newer one, the battery life is great even after several years. But the keyboard ended up with a few sticky keys after a couple of years. I tried cleaning them to no avail. I looked at replacing the keyboard but that was built into the entire top panel at a cost that was not worth it for an older laptop. So I bought an off-lease HP for about the same cost as a keyboard. Now the keys on the Lenovo are working just fine. the HP sits on the counter waiting.

[jim584672]

I would build one from parts. A SSD is a must. At least 8gb ram. You can add/update things as needed. For the OS I would use Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, which is free.
The Pentium G4560 is a good value (@$60) cpu or an i5 if you are going for power.

[cathy63]

I got this one a few months ago: Inspiron 13 7378 2-in-1 Laptop with 7th Gen Intel Core | Dell United States

Things I like:
- light weight
- thin
- touch screen
- blazing fast

Things I don't like:
- keyboard layout, as harley said, the pg up/pg dn keys are secondary functions now - ugh!

DH got a slightly different Dell with a 1TB drive so he can do photo processing while traveling, and we got a docking station and external DVD drive, so we can use a regular keyboard, mouse and multiple displays. We find that we're hardly ever using the docking station though.

[Ronstar]

I had Dell or HP desktops and laptops for years when I was working. Fairly reliable, but not as reliable (and nice) as my MacBook Pro and IMac

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harley I've also been a long time Dell user. Haven't bought anything else for at least 5 generations of laptops. I tend to replace them every 3 or 4 years. But I've been very unhappy with my most recent XPS 15". Crappy jumpy touchpad, and they got rid of the page scrolling keys, combining them with the arrow keys, so you have to press two buttons with two hands to scroll complete pages. I've gotten around that by writing a script. It still takes two keys, but at least they're on the same side of the keyboard now. [...] Anyway, what I meant to say before I started ranting was to pay attention to the little things like keyboard layout and slots and stuff. Things that you might not be consciously aware of can cause a lot of annoyance if they go missing.

+1

I always use Dell for desktops, but I agree that some of Dell's choices with the XPS laptops have been very user-unfriendly. I hate the lack of dedicated page-up & page-down keys, and I also abhor the lack of a true HDMI output port. On mine, there is a ridiculous Mini Display Port output that makes hooking the laptop up to a 4K TV painfully difficult. I will never again buy a laptop that doesn't have a true HDMI video output port. Also, my XPS doesn't have an SD card slot, which I find to be pretty aggravating.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cathy63 Things I don't like: - keyboard layout, as harley said, the pg up/pg dn keys are secondary functions now - ugh!

If you want, you can use this script. I forget where I found the concept, but what it does is make the right shift key a hotkey so all you have to do is hit the right shift and the page button to get it to page. It's a quick one handed operation instead of having to hit the Fn button with one hand and the page key with the other. Obviously the concept is adaptable if you have other combinations that would be handy. I keep the file on my desktop so I can double click it whenever I boot up. I should probably set it to run at startup, but haven't gotten around to that since it's so simple this way.

Hmmm... couldn't upload it, the forum file attachment program didn't like the file type. Just take this (below), save it into a Notepad text file, then rename it to .ahk instead of .txt. Mine is called Pagekeys.ahk. Let me know if you have any questions.

#NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
; #Warn ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir% ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
;page-up/down using right-shift
>+Up::send {RShift Up}{PgUp}
>+Down::send {RShift Up}{PgDn}
>+Left::send {RShift Up}{Home}
>+Right::send {RShift Up}{End}
Return

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jetpack For Windows laptops or desktops, I recommend Dell Refurbished. https://www.dellrefurbished.com/dell-coupons You can get a desktop with more power than you need for like $200. No Bloatware, as these are business machines. I've bought a few for friends, and they all looked brand new and have had zero problems with them. For examle: https://www.dellrefurbished.com/dell...010-84307.html coupon 7010DESK40 $161 + tax (free shipping)

This is a nice deal, plus you can get one with Windows 7.

[street]

Was out this morning and checked the thread and all I can say is WOW! I haven't read all the posts yet but thanks so much for the information.

I want a laptop. I also see where everything is touch screen does that mean I can't use a mouse any more?

I will filter through the posts but will be gone for a while so won't get them all read right away..

Thanks

[cathy63]

Quote:

Originally Posted by street I want a laptop. I also see where everything is touch screen does that mean I can't use a mouse any more?

Nope. Touchscreen laptops still come with a trackpad and you can always plug a mouse into a USB port or docking station.

[JustCurious]

I recommend a Chromebook.

https://www.google.com/chromebook/

[zedd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset ... The downside to Ubuntu for me is I can't do my taxes on my machine with it, would have to use online account, so I do use my windows laptop for taxes.

I use Ubuntu daily. But you are correct, there aren't any tax software ports to Ubuntu. I get around that by installing VMWare workstation player on Ubuntu then install a Win7 VM inside of that. The ONLY time I fireup windows is to use TurboTax. The Win7 instance is lightning fast as it contains neither bloatware nor security software.

[Midpack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R Apparently Windows 10 is more difficult to deal with, if one has to download and install the upgrade (which I have never done). I haven't had any problems with it in my Windows 10 laptop computers, all of which had it pre-installed at the factory.

This may well be true, but I installed Win10 on my Dell desktop back when it first came out without any issues at all. I had more more trouble with Win8 (pre-installed on my PC) and then way more trouble going to Win8.1 than I've had with Win10. Just another data point FWIW.

[tfudtuckerpucker]

I'm a fan of Lenovo Thinkpad business notebooks. You can pick up a used one for around $200. They are built very solid. Maybe like this one, with 8GB RAM and ssd.

[Ian S]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfudtuckerpucker I'm a fan of Lenovo Thinkpad business notebooks. You can pick up a used one for around $200. They are built very solid. Maybe like this one, with 8GB RAM and ssd.

Main problem with used laptops even high quality ones tends to be the battery. A tired battery is not a problem if you are using the laptop in lieu of a desktop and really don't need the best battery life. New batteries may or may not be available depending on the laptop and its age. Plus if the "new" battery is actually old stock, its life may still not be great. IMHO, the newest portable devices seem to have much better power management and efficiency so that for a given size of laptop (or phone or tablet), the number of hours you can run on a charge is pretty impressive.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfudtuckerpucker I'm a fan of Lenovo Thinkpad business notebooks. You can pick up a used one for around $200. They are built very solid. Maybe like this one, with 8GB RAM and ssd.

No Operating system either (on the linked one). So the buyer will have to purchase Win 10 or install a legal copy of Win 7 or 8. Then the issue may be device drivers and those should be available for downloading, but it's a PIA.

Unless one really needs a powerful laptop, a nice $200 Chromebook is good enough for most things, especially with cloud software (Docs, sheets).

[street]

Thanks for all the recommendations and advise.

My use will mostly be emails, pictures, I have a few websites I enjoy going to daily etc.. I won't be using it for business any more. I do save material etc. in documents but that is about I use mine for any more.

[Katsmeow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by street Was out this morning and checked the thread and all I can say is WOW! I haven't read all the posts yet but thanks so much for the information. I want a laptop. I also see where everything is touch screen does that mean I can't use a mouse any more?

I had a touchscreen laptop for awhile. I only used it for certain things. Used in regular mode I could use a mouse and keyboard like normal. I didn't in touchscreen mode.

As far as what kind of laptop it depends a great deal on what you want to do and how much you want to spend.

I have had many different Laptops over the years. I have generally found Dells to be reliable and a huge, huge, huge plus for them is that you can get in home service which is really helpful with a problem that needs to be fixed. It is no fun to have to send off your laptop to be repaired.

The only brand I absolutely 100% will never buy again is Lenovo. Their service was beyond horrendous. The details are in brackets below which you can skip.

[A few years ago I bought a wonderful Lenovo notebook that had a convertible touchscreen and everything I wanted. We bought in home service. Had a problem and guy came in to fix it and couldn't. He fixed one problem but not another and called and told them and told me to follow up with them. We did and Lenovo asked us to send it in (even though we were entitled to in home service). We agreed to. Looking back on it, we should have refused. We carefully took the notebook to Fed Ex and shipped it. We got it back a few days later with the case literally cracked and it totally not working. They claimed they got it that way and asserted it must have been broken before we sent it.

We pointed out that the serviceman in our home would have noticed if it had a huge crack and he didn't. Anyway -- the killer was that even if we HAD dropped the notebook (which seemed to be their claim although mere dropping couldn't have done the damage that was done to it) we had coverage for that. We had paid extra for it! So they escalated to another level of service. It was a nightmare after that. We could never get anyone to talk to us. Regular service sent us to the Phillipines and they said they couldn't talk to me because it was escalated and someone would call me. No one ever did. I'm leaving out a lot of details, but we literally could never get a response and finally just threw the computer away.

I will never, ever, ever, ever buy a Lenovo as their service model is bad.]

[pb4uski]

I replaced my old and tired Thinkpad with a Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 700 (8GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, Win 10) in January.... I got a great deal (less than $600). Very happy with it... very fast, great battery life, very stable OS (I can't recall a single crash). No fan so totally silent. Highly recommended.

We have had many Lenovos and never a problem... solid workhorses that just get old and tired and get put put to pasture in our experience.

[Just_Steve]

I went Mac in 2010 and will never go back.
I have become an Apple fan boy.

[Katsmeow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski We have had many Lenovos and never a problem... solid workhorses that just get old and tired and get put put to pasture in our experience.

Which just goes to show that different people can have different experiences. My Lenovo was a complete and utter nightmare. Actually right up until the initial problem happened, I had loved it. I don't usually let one bad experience necessarily color me against an entire brand but in this case it is because of the brain dead way Lenovo handles warranty service (I could write a lot about the flaws). When I went to research this on the internet after I had my problem, I found that I was not alone in my complaints.