new laptop purchase help

[piglet50]

Want to buy a new laptop for browsing, home office work, etc. Hoping to take advantage of back to school sales. Please tell me your thoughts on brands, etc. Any help appreciated.

eta that I tried a search but found older threads.

 

[amberpi]

Apple Mac Book Pro - forever, or until Apple makes a different/better kind of Mac laptop.

APPLE...

Totally devoted fan since childhood

 

[dumboiu]

Apple Mac Book Pro - forever, or until Apple makes a different/better kind of Mac laptop.

APPLE...

Totally devoted fan since childhood

Ditto

 

[tvguy]

I about fainted tonight. DD said she is DONE with Apple. She is 26 and on her second Apple Mac Book Pro. Got her first in 2009. It was shot by 2014 when she got her second and it is starting to fail. Her friends who got PC laptops in 2009 when they all graduated from High School still have them. She says she is having issues with software unavailability and compatibility and with using it for gaming.
So, I would suggest you talk to folks who use their laptops in similar ways that you do to see if Apple is really the best choice.

I am a Dell guy. Never had any issues, and we use them at work. Few issues, and when some fails under warranty, the new part is there the next day.

 

[4Hawks]

Another APPLE fan here. We have an ibook that's 10 years old and still running (although we can no longer update the OS) and 2 macbook pro. We have 2 kids that are rough on them, but they are holding up well.

My DH is a software developer and frequently complains about the PC laptop he has to use at work.

 

[mousehockey37]

ASUS...

Apple's are great for what they are, but the only way to add space with them is to get a detachable hard drive. PC's today can handle a lot. Hard drives can be swapped and upgraded, unlike the Apples.

Dell's are great too, mine died not too long ago after about 7 years of having it.

 

[amberpi]

I occasionally play MMOs on mine and use Visio, every kind of typical work program, all kinds of video conferencing, etc.

 

[bcla]

I'm an Apple fan, but I realize that there are cheaper options that work well enough. However, the biggest issue with web surfing is all the stuff that's power hungry, like animations and ads.

I bought my folks a Windows laptop in 2006. It hasn't exactly been trouble free but it still works. My wife has gotten PC after PC and they all seem to slowly start showing performance problems. She was even using my old 2007 MacBook because it was stable, even if the raw performance was lower than her machines. I can still use it, although I needed a new battery after the original swelled. It also gets almost no updates from Apple unless they're critical security patches.

 

[shelemm]

Apple is far less prone to viruses. For me it's Apple all the way unless you need to use a program that is only PC-based.

 

[Micca]

Consider taking a look at what Costco has to offer. They have a very good warranty & return policy on electronics.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

I'm a huge apple fan and pretty immersed in their ecosystem. I think they're stable, have pleasing UI and usability and all their products work well with each other because that's what they were built to do.

However, you are not going to find a lot of (if any) back to school sales on Apple products. When comparing specs, you can get a hell of a lot of PC before even coming close to what you'll spend on a Mac. Everything Apple is also black box meaning the only people who can really help you with your Apple products, are Apple. Also, as pp mentioned the machines aren't really reconfigurable after purchase (especially memory).

Apple is great and tides would have to really shift before I ever bought something else for myself, but I know what I'm getting into and why I'm paying that premium.

 

[Meriweather]

Dell person here

We are NOT an Apple family. DS and DH are both in the computer field and they won't have them.....good enough for me

 

[rwdavis2]

Dell. I despise Apple software after a forced OS upgrade made a $200 copy of Aperture no longer work. We have an iMace. We use Dell laptops at work. I would hesitate to recommend and Acer. I have one at home.

 

[dosekies]

Another Apple fan. Had mine since 2011 with absolutely no problems. I've had 2 Dells before this that did not last long at all.

 

[godders]

I try to mix and match my tech so I have my Ipod and Ipad, Samsung mobile and Dell laptop.

For what you're looking to use your laptop for most laptops and brands will be suitable so price-point may be a deciding factor.

These days tech is not built to last as long as it used to because everything updates so much more frequently so a mid-line laptop will probably do you well. ASUS, Dell, Samsung and Lenovo all do laptops to suit your purpose with pretty good durability and as others have mentioned non-Apple laptops tend to be more adaptable.

Personally, given what you are looking to use your laptop for, the extra cost of an Apple product wouldn't be worth it. Take some of that saved money and invest in a good quality virus protection.

 

[Lynne M]

Windows laptops aren't inherently more upgradable or powerful than Mac laptops, and especially with the advent of Windows 10, forced upgrades are just as much of a potential problem as they are with Mac laptops. Windows laptops also aren't inherently better than Macs for gaming. I have a pretty well tricked-out Dell laptop that I use for work, and I could go to the Apple Store right now and build a MacBook Pro that would blow it out of the water, specs-wise.

There are an enormous range of laptop products in the Windows space, and it's quite possible to buy a Windows laptop that's not upgradable, underpowered, and lousy for gaming. In fact, that's a lot of those bargain laptops you see advertised.

It really boils down to looking at the specs of individual laptops and seeing how well suited they are for what you want to do. If you want to do a lot of gaming, you can do that on either platform, but you'll probably need to do a custom build to get a good-enough video card, and that will drive the cost up. If you're interested in Apple, unless you're wanting to do a lot of gaming or high-end creative work, most people can get by very nicely with a MacBook or MacBook Air, which start around $1000. If all you're going to do is web browsing and running Office apps, a MacBook Pro will be a lot more computer than you need.

It also depends on what other devices you have. If you've got an iPhone or iPad, there are definite advantages to staying in the Apple ecosystem.

 

[loves to dive]

We are a Lenovo family, although I did buy my son a Dell desktop for Christmas for gaming. My honey is a computer consultant and works from home (o.k. the couch on his laptop). He does the high end behind the scenes crap that makes no sense to me, but anyway, we don't do Apple. The only Apple products we have is my old IPOD which I used to use when running and in my car before I got satalite, and an IPOD he had to buy to test some things for a client. It sits on the fireplace in a dish 90% of the time and only gets used if I don't want to take my little laptop on a trip with me. I have a Lenovo Yoga laptop, small and easy to use and suits my purposes, he has the big Lenovo laptop that he does all of his work from. I also work for a computer consulting firm and both our techs use Lenovo's and usually if a client needs a laptop, Lenovo is what we recommend.

 

[xlxo]

Want to buy a new laptop for browsing, home office work, etc. Hoping to take advantage of back to school sales. Please tell me your thoughts on brands, etc. Any help appreciated.

eta that I tried a search but found older threads.

Thoughts....

• what is the make/model of the machine you have now? Why do you want a replacement machine?
• how much do you want to spend?
• do you want a larger screen so you can read things easier?
• do you want a smaller screen that offers portability and longer battery life? (I couldn't decide so I bought two).

 

[lsyorke]

We're all Dell at work, being a medical facility. Very few electronic medical record/healthcare programs are Mac based. We've had good luck with Dells. Acer and Asus..never again. they died within months.

 

[klmall]

ASUS...

Apple's are great for what they are, but the only way to add space with them is to get a detachable hard drive. PC's today can handle a lot. Hard drives can be swapped and upgraded, unlike the Apples.

Dell's are great too, mine died not too long ago after about 7 years of having it.

I love my two Asus laptops. One from years ago still runs beautifully with heavy use every day. I only bought a second lighter weight one to travel with. And we have several Dell laptops and a desktop still running from more than 6 years ago.

All our early computers were Apple going way back to the '80s because that's what our school system used at the time and we got decent discounts. But we got tired of graphics programs, games etc. lagging behind in release for the Apple and bought Dells up until about 2013. Now I use only Asus; DH and DS buy components individually and put together customized desktops. We always install more RAM and upgrade graphics cards as well.

And remember that a large screen isn't always necessary to make things easier to read. My mom who is now 88 has been enlarging her font size for years.

And to be honest, we all are sort of turned off by the blind, cult-like devotion so many have for everything Apple. For years Apple was the underdog in the industry and we loved how easy it was to learn and use but now it seems like a different critter; demanding and spoiled!