Laptop recommendations

[stateofmind]

Looking to buy a home laptop, and possbily one that has a touch screen that removes. Any recommendations on one that would stay under $500 and have some pretty good storage? I want this to be the computer that I store most of my images on.

Also, where do you recommend buying from?

 

[cyrevkah]

We tend to go to Best Buy. They've normally been pretty good to us. My mother in law just bought a new laptop there.

I think this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/satelli...=3325047&st=categoryid$abcat0502000&cp=1&lp=9

 

[00clone]

No particular model recommendations, but I will say that I had a Dell that suddenly bricked on me, wasn't worth repairing, but the repair guy said he sees it frequently with Dells. On his recommendation, I've had 2 Toshiba's since with no problems.

 

[JUKEBOX]

Try to get a solid state drive.

Maybe something like this is what you are looking for... (edit: more than 500)

[video=youtube;OtMbOTd1_8Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtMbOTd1_8Y[/video]

 

[SWCy13]

I'd recommend an Asus. I bought mine for about $450 in 2010 and it still runs as well and as fast as it did the day I bought it.

 

[bos]

No particular model recommendations, but I will say that I had a Dell that suddenly bricked on me, wasn't worth repairing, but the repair guy said he sees it frequently with Dells. On his recommendation, I've had 2 Toshiba's since with no problems.

Oh really? Frequently...on Dells. Interesting. Sounds like somebody was getting a kickback from Toshiba.

Not a knock on Toshiba at all, good stuff, but generalizing Dells like that is shady.

 

[algonacy]

Do NOT (and I will repeat that in case it wasn't obvious enough) DO NOT skimp on the battery. Pay a little extra for the best battery they offer. You will never regret that one decision.

 

[ZachsterPoke]

Definitely recommend looking around beyond Best Buy. There are tons of sites that will have better deals on laptops, such as www.microcenter.com and www.newegg.com .

 

[JSmoove]

For some perspective, I purchased a not very fancy laptop computer from Best Buy in '11 for around $700. The computer works fine but the resolution isn't the greatest.

If you are looking for a laptop that is both a tablet and computer I'm thinking you're gonna need to up your budget. Especially if you are using this for image viewing. Unless technology has become waaayyy cheaper in the last few years or there is some website I don't know about with great deals, $500 is not going to cut it. With that budget you'll either compromise on image quality or computing capabilities.

Ill let someone else prove me wrong.

 

[ThurgoodMarshal]

I'd recommend an Asus. I bought mine for about $450 in 2010 and it still runs as well and as fast as it did the day I bought it.

I'll second this. Bought mine around the same time and it's still running strong.
I also agree with the gentleman that recommended the upgraded battery. You will not regret it

 

[notengonacho1]

Definitely recommend looking around beyond Best Buy. There are tons of sites that will have better deals on laptops, such as www.microcenter.com and www.newegg.com .

I agree with this. Best Buy is usually more expensive and they tend to sell laptops with a lot of bloatware. Amazon is usually competitive with newegg and microcenter. Also, keep an eye on slickdeals.net. There are laptop deals all the time

 

[00clone]

Oh really? Frequently...on Dells. Interesting. Sounds like somebody was getting a kickback from Toshiba.

Not a knock on Toshiba at all, good stuff, but generalizing Dells like that is shady.

I work with the guy, he does computer repair on the side because it interests him, he doesn't really do it for the money.

Why did I trust him? Because when I said I had a laptop that I wanted him to look at that wouldn't power on, he said "Is it a Dell?" (he had no reason to ask that other than my statement that it wouldn't power on)


I responded"yeah"..."Ahh, yeah, I see it a lot, it's usually the motherboard, but sometimes it's a power supply, bring it in, I'll take a look." Came back the next day and said it was the motherboard, and that if I wanted to buy one online, he'd put it in, but it likely wouldn't be worth it...which it wasn't. I asked what I owed him for his time, he said "nothing"...I had to twist his arm to accept a couple bottles of homemade wine as a 'thank you'. So, considering he pegged it dead to rights just on his experience, I suspect he has seen it a lot with Dells, and not so much with others.

 

[bos]

Ill jump on the Asus boat. They seem to make some nice looking and well functioning machines.

 

[Cydar]

I use this site just to monitor current deals

http://dealnews.com/c49/Computers/Laptops/

 

[bos]

I work with the guy, he does computer repair on the side because it interests him, he doesn't really do it for the money.

Why did I trust him? Because when I said I had a laptop that I wanted him to look at that wouldn't power on, he said "Is it a Dell?" (he had no reason to ask that other than my statement that it wouldn't power on)


I responded"yeah"..."Ahh, yeah, I see it a lot, it's usually the motherboard, but sometimes it's a power supply, bring it in, I'll take a look." Came back the next day and said it was the motherboard, and that if I wanted to buy one online, he'd put it in, but it likely wouldn't be worth it...which it wasn't. I asked what I owed him for his time, he said "nothing"...I had to twist his arm to accept a couple bottles of homemade wine as a 'thank you'. So, considering he pegged it dead to rights just on his experience, I suspect he has seen it a lot with Dells, and not so much with others.

You always get a few here and there, but I support Dell products and honestly have almost everywhere Ive been. He may have seen a bad run of a certain model, but I would never generalize for their entire line. Having dealt with many over the course of my career from HP, Gateway, Dell, IBM, etc, I have always just sided with Dell on price point and reliability. You tend to be at the mercy of the hardware supplier. As an example: I had a bad run with the E-series gateway desktops on power supplies and hard drives. But others were fine...once gateway moved to a new supplier for those parts.

Too much information, I know. Just thought I would throw it out there. Dont want folks thinking Dells suck, when they dont.

Nice to see he works for wine. Thats pretty solid. =)

 

[colbycheese]

I bought an Asus laptop at the recommendation of my brother back in 2010. It's still going strong! My wife later bought an Asus tablet (Android) and seems to like it a lot. Everyone I know that use Asus products love them, especially since they last so long.

My wife has had Dell products that all crapped out way too soon. I bought one Toshiba laptop and promised myself I would never buy another Toshiba again. We plan on sticking with Asus from now on (and away from Dell and Toshiba).

As far as a touchscreen laptop under $500 goes, I've also been shopping for something like this. Asus makes a few 2 in 1 computers that intrigue me (in the $300-$500 range). From what I understand they basically have the same capabilities as the traditional netbooks in that price range, but with perhaps better processors. If it's going to be a casual-use PC that's portable, then these machines might work. If you want something with some serious computing power, you might want something different.

 

[stateofmind]

I found this one on Groupon today that appeared good. But I've had more problems with my work HPs than I did with the Dell's, and that's saying something. My current one has the solid state drive.

http://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-hp-2-in-1-split-ultrabook-touchscreen-laptop

Any experience with this one?

 

[jdoggivjc]

I'll jump on the Toshiba bandwagon. I have a Qosmio laptop for 2.5 years (this will be well out of your price range). Performs like the day I received it. Worth every penny I spent on it. The only two issues I've had with it is, as with most gaming laptops, it has a tendency to overheat when pushed for too long (GPU issue), bt I've found that a working laptop cooling pad has addressed most of this and haven't had an overheating issue since. The other is Toshiba does this really weird thing with their power cords. It wouldn't be a big issue if it weren't for the fact that it unplugged very easily, which also wouldn't be a huge issue if it weren't for the fact that the computer cuts it's performance in half when disconnected from power to save battery life, which is very noticeable when gaming. However, this wouldn't prevent me from buying another Toshiba.

I also wouldn't discount Dell, but at the time I didn't see any Dells that came with an 18.4 inch screen, and that was a deciding factor for me. I couldn't tell you what Dell or Toshiba are selling simply because I haven't looked the last several years.

 

[carvers4math]

I don't think it has the memory you are looking for but the kids got me a $178 HP at Walmart for Mother's Day and it is pretty sweet for the price. One son recently got a Lenovo Thinkpad and has been happy with that. Another son had a Dell that his slob of a roommate spilled a Coke on the entire thing and they replaced the motherboard for nothing and he got it back in about four days. Other than that, no problems with his Dell.

 

[00clone]

You always get a few here and there, but I support Dell products and honestly have almost everywhere Ive been. He may have seen a bad run of a certain model, but I would never generalize for their entire line. Having dealt with many over the course of my career from HP, Gateway, Dell, IBM, etc, I have always just sided with Dell on price point and reliability. You tend to be at the mercy of the hardware supplier. As an example: I had a bad run with the E-series gateway desktops on power supplies and hard drives. But others were fine...once gateway moved to a new supplier for those parts.

Too much information, I know. Just thought I would throw it out there. Dont want folks thinking Dells suck, when they dont.

Nice to see he works for wine. Thats pretty solid. =)

Well, and to be fair, maybe this was what he was saying, and I was just over generalizing/over simplifying. It's like new cars...one in X number will have a major issue and for the most part they're reliable, but if you run into that one who had the bad one and ask their opinion, they'll have a strong one. I guess I'm that guy with Dell laptops....I know, I know, 'don't be that guy'.

:wink: