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In the market for new laptop, could use some help.

lightsleeper23

lightsleeper23

Android Enthusiast
So as the title states, I'm looking for a laptop. I was interested in the chromebook, but I'm not sure if it will work for me. I need something that can act like a PC; flash player compatible and all that. Most of the lower priced units I've been looking at only have dual core processors? I don't want a laptop that's not even as powerful as my phone. Or am I missing something, should I not be looking at them the same way as an android phone?

I need it for basic computer stuff, mostly web browsing, file organizing, streaming videos from Netflix and whatnot... A basic CD drive would be nice, but not a deal breaker. I want to stay under the $500 range. Thanks in advance for your advice. Believe it or not, this will be my first laptop ever.
 
Toshiba's are pretty good, I've got two now (my first wasn't powerful enough to edit video) and have had no complaints. All the people I know who do have Toshibas say they've had no worries either...
 
Thanks. I'll look into Toshiba's as well. Is just looking at a lenovo on amazon, heard anything good or bad about them?
 
I might be able to help a bit. Recently I picked up a laptop and went a little over-budget, I'm glad I did.

Initially I was after 4+GB RAM, a 3rd gen i3, hard drive didn't matter too much and a 13"-14" screen (I prefer that form factor). After seeing what was out there my budget had to go up. I looked at a lot of different laptops from the $250 Acer C7 Chromebook to average $500 laptop.

The C7 Chromebook is not the greatest of builds (quality-wise) and by the time I upgrade the RAM and hard drive to a SSD; that would bring it to $450ish anyway. The reason I'd update the hard drive on the C7 is it would make for a faster system since the CPU in laptops (most) are not replaceable. The C7 comes with a dual Celeron which is not enough punch for my needs.

As for brands, I've had no issues with Acer, Toshiba or Fujitsu. I'd stay away from Dell as most are ridiculously hard to upgrade the HDD and/or RAM. Also, HP as most of the people I know all said the heat issues are common.

All the other laptops in the $500 (+/- $50) range;
Seemed to have everything from the Intel B960 (Pentium) to the many i3 variants out there. I'm not an AMD fan as they don't match Intel for power or battery life.
4GB+ RAM
320GB+ HHDs
typical 15.6" screens (some 13-14") and all have typical 1366x768 resolution.

Then I saw an Acer V5 for sale and looked at the specs; i5 (3317U), 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD and 14" screen. It was $100 more than my budget allowed however, completely worth it.

Good luck in the hunt as the smaller differences between models can be overwhelming! ;-)
 
I would look into getting a manufacturer refurbished laptop because that means it was sent back to the manufacturer upgraded and sent back out for a lower price
 
lightsleeper23 said:
So as the title states, I'm looking for a laptop. I was interested in the chromebook, but I'm not sure if it will work for me. I need something that can act like a PC; flash player compatible and all that. Most of the lower priced units I've been looking at only have dual core processors? I don't want a laptop that's not even as powerful as my phone. Or am I missing something, should I not be looking at them the same way as an android phone?

I need it for basic computer stuff, mostly web browsing, file organizing, streaming videos from Netflix and whatnot... A basic CD drive would be nice, but not a deal breaker. I want to stay under the $500 range. Thanks in advance for your advice. Believe it or not, this will be my first laptop ever.
Click to expand...

general eclect said:
Toshiba's are pretty good, I've got two now (my first wasn't powerful enough to edit video) and have had no complaints. All the people I know who do have Toshibas say they've had no worries either...
Click to expand...
I would agree, Toshiba's are generally the cheaper computers. I never owned one myself honestly. If All you really want to use it for is web browsing, Flash videos on Youtube, and even a File System, a Chromebook would not be a bad choice, as they are cheaper, and always up to date. Though it does lack a CD drive, with the low price point you can get an external one, and it may work, but I'm not sure. When getting a Chromebook, they do give you some extra GB in your Google drive account, and you can use that as a file system, but I am not sure what files it supports. I tried uploading a .ipt file to drive and it was incompatible.

But for basic use like that, I don't think it will be a bad choice.
 
sfbloodbrother said:
I would agree, Toshiba's are generally the cheaper computers. I never owned one myself honestly. If All you really want to use it for is web browsing, Flash videos on Youtube, and even a File System, a Chromebook would not be a bad choice, as they are cheaper, and always up to date. Though it does lack a CD drive, with the low price point you can get an external one, and it may work, but I'm not sure. When getting a Chromebook, they do give you some extra GB in your Google drive account, and you can use that as a file system, but I am not sure what files it supports. I tried uploading a .ipt file to drive and it was incompatible.

But for basic use like that, I don't think it will be a bad choice.
Click to expand...

Can you use a Chromebook for word processing if it is offline, or do you need a connection to use google docs or something similar? I'd like to know how useful they are without a connection.
 
I wonder if you can use the Google play music uploader with a chromebook? Its all Google, but still...I'm leaning towards a Toshiba Satellite. It has a disc drive that can play blu ray and burn DVDs and CDs and stuff. Comes with a quad core AMD CPU, and apparently they're not quite as good as Intel cores, but it should still be pretty good. 2.3 GHz I think, with self over clocking to 3.2 GHz. 8 GB of ram, 1 TB hard drive. Not bleeding edge but pretty powerful, with lots of storage for my library of music and DVDs.
 
Various models of the Toshiba Satellite have various CPUs, some AMD, some intel. I'm biased toward Intel due to issues I had with an AMD chip some years ago.
 
general eclect said:
Various models of the Toshiba Satellite have various CPUs, some AMD, some intel. I'm biased toward Intel due to issues I had with an AMD chip some years ago.
Click to expand...

Yeah i noticed that. Some I looked at did have an Intel core i5, but it's only a dual core, and those models had less ram and storage. So even though people say AMD isn't quite as good as Intel, I figured since it's a quad core compared to a dual core it's probably at least as good. Now as far as quality when it comes to failing or overheating, that's a different story and I guess I'll find out because I went ahead and ordered it.
 
lightsleeper23 said:
Yeah i noticed that. Some I looked at did have an Intel core i5, but it's only a dual core, and those models had less ram and storage. So even though people say AMD isn't quite as good as Intel, I figured since it's a quad core compared to a dual core it's probably at least as good. Now as far as quality when it comes to failing or overheating, that's a different story and I guess I'll find out because I went ahead and ordered it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was just about to mention that : I've seen some "quad core" CPU's in laptops that were either dual core - like the i5- or dual core with HT (not good for gaming)
 
brownchm said:
I would look into getting a manufacturer refurbished laptop because that means it was sent back to the manufacturer upgraded and sent back out for a lower price
Click to expand...
I read something really interesting about this. Now, it wasn't sourced or anything, just one person working in an accounting department. They said that you get a better tested product, rebuilt to spec. They lose money when it's sent back for the refurb, and if they have to repair a refurb, they lose even more.

I want to say that this was in reference to Apple products (who I believe offer a warranty on refurbs).

Sounded good to me (a cheap goof ;) ).
 
davoid said:
Can you use a Chromebook for word processing if it is offline, or do you need a connection to use google docs or something similar? I'd like to know how useful they are without a connection.
Click to expand...

Google Docs does have an offline mode. Some of the other word processors may, too, but I haven't checked the out, yet.
 
Brands I'd avoid:
-Lenovo (Reliability issues with every single one I've worked with)
-Toshiba (Reliability issues, frequent customer return for dead hard drives at my old job, <1 year ago)
-Dell (Proprietary, overpriced)

Brands I like:
-Acer
-Asus (but you can't get a great one for your budget... I've got the n56v which has silly specs)
-HP (Does have heat issues, but things never die)

My experiences with HP were that my HP laptop got sent in for RMA two or three times, but lasted over four years in heavy use, including a woods and metals lab, lakeside use, outdoors use, constant battery, etc. and still ran fine at the end of four years. My parents once bought a refurbed, Acer-era eMachines and that computer's still running strong.
 
I bought one of these for my wife not too long ago. Other than not liking Windows 8, she's pretty happy with it.

I just need to get it away from her long enough to load Windows 7 on it.
 
Given the OP's requirements, I'd say pretty much any laptop would be fine - the fact that something is 'only' dual core really won't make any practical difference for the sort of thing lightsleeper wants this machine to do. Basically, unless you're doing lots of gaming, video editing or CAD, they're all fine and have been for a decade.

These days, laptops are kinda like cars: unless you're racing, they'll all do the regular, day-to-day stuff just fine. Any differences are really only in price, taste, comfort and appearance. Go to a shop and try a laptops few out, see which keyboard you like best, which screen size and finish, which one looks nicest. Also count USB ports, SD card readers and the like, think about how much disk space you're really likely to need.

I've had Dells laptops for years. They work fine, they're cheap (comparing like-for-like specs), they look OK and my experience of the support has been excellent.

But any brand would do ..
 
Any brand would do.... Just not Packard Bell - EVER.
They're cheap for a reason; they're only missing one thing.... decent quality
 
The low-end Toshiba laptops in Office Depot & OfficeMax go on sale weekly ($229 to $299). They are AMD APU systems. They would suit your uses fine. I have two of them.

Don't forget to uninstall all of the bloatware that is found on new computers. PC De-Crapifier is a neat app for such.
 
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