Laptops under $1000

[peter12]

Yeah, this no thanks business is taxing.

[To Be Quite Honest]

Originally Posted by rubecube

This one seems almost identical to the other one, but with a cheaper AMD processor.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16834315219

Did a comparison though and the AMD seems to grade out as well or better than the Intel i5. I suppose this one doesn't come with the Nvidia graphics card, but if she's not playing games, that probably doesn't matter, right?

Keep in mind that when she is home she can connect her laptop to a separate screen/monitor for a bigger experience. My mother wanted the same thing as your gf but I convinced her to go to a smaller screen and a monitor for home. She thanks me every time I visit because she takes her laptop everywhere and it's so light to carry and convenient.

This was 2 years ago but she got $600 of the asus zenbook. Much like this one http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX59094 at boxing day. My 2 cents, asus over acer everyday of the week.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by To Be Quite Honest

Keep in mind that when she is home she can connect her laptop to a separate screen/monitor for a bigger experience. My mother wanted the same thing as your gf but I convinced her to go to a smaller screen and a monitor for home. She thanks me every time I visit because she takes her laptop everywhere and it's so light to carry and convenient.

This was 2 years ago but she got $600 of the asus zenbook. Much like this one http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX59094 at boxing day. My 2 cents, asus over acer everyday of the week.

Yeah, she doesn't really take her laptop anywhere other than from her desk to the living room, and she often likes to just watch shows on the laptop itself so that's why she likes the bigger screen. Her current laptop is also has a a 17-inch screen I believe.

[To Be Quite Honest]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Yeah, she doesn't really take her laptop anywhere other than from her desk to the living room, and she often likes to just watch shows on the laptop itself so that's why she likes the bigger screen. Her current laptop is also has a a 17-inch screen I believe.

My mom got rid of her monitor and just uses the little screen and she'll never go back. (Her words)

Anyway, I would still avoid Acer. Asus, MSI, Toshiba are the go to laptops (MSI is a gaming build so that's out). Don't by the others until they up their quality!

[Stealth22]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Yeah, she doesn't really take her laptop anywhere other than from her desk to the living room, and she often likes to just watch shows on the laptop itself so that's why she likes the bigger screen. Her current laptop is also has a a 17-inch screen I believe.

Still, a 17" laptop is heavy as ####. You could get a 15" with the same resolution and be far better off. She probably wouldn't even notice the difference, to be honest.

If she likes to watch shows from the laptop, and there's a TV in the living room, you could also get a Chromecast.

What kind of budget are you looking at?

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by To Be Quite Honest

My mom got rid of her monitor and just uses the little screen and she'll never go back. (Her words)

Anyway, I would still avoid Acer. Asus, MSI, Toshiba are the go to laptops (MSI is a gaming build so that's out). Don't by the others until they up their quality!

Or... consider a business grade laptop. (IMO, Apple's laptops are built as business grade laptops which is why they last a few years longer than the typical consumer grade laptop

HP consumer grade laptops suck. Stay away. However, their elitebook and probook line are pretty good. Envy and Spectre are meh. (I own an Envy)

Lenovo is the brand I prefer if price isn't an object. There is a huge difference in quality from the X/T series vs their Y/G series. Though you won't go too wrong with a Y or G series Lenovo.

The same goes with Dell. The Latitude and Inspiron series (not sure if these lines still exist) were garbage, but their XPS weren't bad.

Toshiba Tecra is way better built than the Satellite line, but like the Lenovo, you can't really go wrong with either IMO.

Acer and Asus are a wash to me based on the models I've dealt with, but I do find the Asus often look better while Acer looks like it hasn't updated the designs since 2010. I haven't been able to differentiate any type of lines other than the very obvious ultra portables laptops.

Based on what I've seen so far, nearly all Ultra portables laptops are built closer in quality to business grade laptops. Business grade and ultraportables I believe have about a 20-40% premium to consumer grade but will have things like superior build quality (ie: Metal vs plastic body), better keyboard, vent positioning and often last longer than typical "crap" laptops. $1000 should be a very reasonable budget for a laptop. $600-700 should also yield many quality options.

I could go on and on about bloat ware and stupid programs that turn on at start up too. Those make your computer slow and can bring you to a point of replacing a perfectly good computer much earlier.

[rubecube]

Yeah, she doesn't want to spend more than $800 or so just because she is such a casual user. She's been using the same HP laptop for 6-7 years now and the only reason she wants to replace it is because it's really slowed down lately.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Yeah, she doesn't want to spend more than $800 or so just because she is such a casual user. She's been using the same HP laptop for 6-7 years now and the only reason she wants to replace it is because it's really slowed down lately.

You might be able to breathe new life into that laptop by putting a solid state drive into it. Consider doing a fresh install and it should run decently well. I had a core2duo laptop I purchased in 2007 that was still chugging along nicely a month ago (Owned it 8 years before I gifted it to someone) with an old 80GB SSD in it. It loaded pages reasonably fast and streaming was good and fluid.

Even if you decide to get a new one anyways, consider tossing a SSD into her old laptop and leave it as a dedicated HTPC connected to your TV?

[DoubleF]

Oh, and if it's something you don't mind, refurbished and display models are a great way to save a little cash on occasion. Often, I'll figure out if there's any weird issue within 60 days and decide whether to return it or not (only ever returned once because it seemed like the laptop had been dropped).

For instance:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Clearan...f-e5a47a62f4fd
$440 for a touch screen i7 with a replaced HDD (I personally would replace again for SSD anyways). My dad has this one. It's a decent laptop.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Clearan...9-83bfd012e29c
This one is $490. Not as great of a deal as the above, but still a great laptop from Lenovo.

[Azure]

So I'm looking for a laptop right at $1000 or a little over that has Windows 10 pro for business use. Just wondering if the touchscreen models are worth it. I do a lot of CAD stuff and I'm wondering if anyone has experience doing CAD stuff with a touch screen. I know the Surface Pro series looks nice, but by the time I'm done buying all their useless crap like Office I'm almost at 2k. The Dell XPS series looks pretty nice. Lenovo has some pretty nice models as well, and the HP x320 I think is nice as well.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Azure

So I'm looking for a laptop right at $1000 or a little over that has Windows 10 pro for business use. Just wondering if the touchscreen models are worth it. I do a lot of CAD stuff and I'm wondering if anyone has experience doing CAD stuff with a touch screen. I know the Surface Pro series looks nice, but by the time I'm done buying all their useless crap like Office I'm almost at 2k. The Dell XPS series looks pretty nice. Lenovo has some pretty nice models as well, and the HP x320 I think is nice as well.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=153509

I'm being lazy today. You'll have to add a little bit to the price to upgrade to Win 10 pro though.

I hear touch screen CAD is a bit clumsy, but works.

[To Be Quite Honest]

That is a sweet deal on a laptop.

I have no idea what Badger does for a living but that dude sells more stuff than Future Shop... *wink*

[DoubleF]

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=153483

Asure, you said you liked the Surface Pro... so I thought it relevant.

[Azure]

I'm still deciding. The Surface Pro looks good though.

The hybrid part is also nice.

[flamesrule_kipper34]

Like many others thought I'd piggyback on this thread.

Looking for a new work laptop, my must haves are:

Light weight (I travel a lot for work and walk to the office need it to be light)
SSD would be nice 256GB at least (500 would be nice but I know how pricey that can get)
Personal use will be a lot of movie watching so good screen would be nice
Heavy use will be Office products so that's key, at least 8 gigs of memory
Won't be dual monitoring so the bigger the screen display while keeping it light would be perfect

Would like to not break the bank, not sure how realistic $1,000-$1500 is for a budget but willing to move up depending on the cost.

Let me know if anyone has some thoughts on this, thanks!

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by flamesrule_kipper34

Like many others thought I'd piggyback on this thread.

Looking for a new work laptop, my must haves are:

Light weight (I travel a lot for work and walk to the office need it to be light)
SSD would be nice 256GB at least (500 would be nice but I know how pricey that can get)
Personal use will be a lot of movie watching so good screen would be nice
Heavy use will be Office products so that's key, at least 8 gigs of memory
Won't be dual monitoring so the bigger the screen display while keeping it light would be perfect

Would like to not break the bank, not sure how realistic $1,000-$1500 is for a budget but willing to move up depending on the cost.

Let me know if anyone has some thoughts on this, thanks!

$1000-1500 seems like a reasonable budget.

But when you say bigger screen display, do you mean like a 15" screen or higher resolution screen?

Sounds like you're in the market for an ultra portable.

Is 256GB a hard number? Some SSD are 240 and far cheaper than the 256GB. 256GB SSD usually are business grade SSD and carry a hefty premium.

500GB SSD aren't super expensive now, but still around the $200 ish range. You can easily fit this in if for instance you can manage with an i5 processor vs i7 processor.

Seemingly random question... are you a clumsy typer? Some of the new keyboards on laptops piss me off to no end due to the size of the keys. There's no real way to search based on this criteria, but keep it in mind if you end up trying to decide between two similar spec laptops.

[flamesrule_kipper34]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

$1000-1500 seems like a reasonable budget.

But when you say bigger screen display, do you mean like a 15" screen or higher resolution screen?

Sounds like you're in the market for an ultra portable.

Is 256GB a hard number? Some SSD are 240 and far cheaper than the 256GB. 256GB SSD usually are business grade SSD and carry a hefty premium.

500GB SSD aren't super expensive now, but still around the $200 ish range. You can easily fit this in if for instance you can manage with an i5 processor vs i7 processor.

Seemingly random question... are you a clumsy typer? Some of the new keyboards on laptops piss me off to no end due to the size of the keys. There's no real way to search based on this criteria, but keep it in mind if you end up trying to decide between two similar spec laptops.

Screen wise I meant higher rez, I think screen size as long as it's not under 13" I'm good.

If it made a significant difference I'd be open for 240 for a SSD.

I haven't really thought of myself as a clumsy typer...

I've been looking at Dell's New XPS 13 Non-Touch models, but they're Dell's and I'm not sure if it's the right way to go.

The fact that it's under 3lbs is super enticing though.

Any thoughts?

[Azure]

After a bit more digging around, I don't think I want the hybrid. The time I would actually use the tablet part of the 'hybrid' is pretty low. I think I would just prefer to good laptop with good battery life, 15" screen, 8GB or more RAM, decent video card and SSD drive. I think I could save a lot of money by not going with the hybrid.

EDIT: I should mention it would be nice if it had windows 7 or 10 pro.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by flamesrule_kipper34

Screen wise I meant higher rez, I think screen size as long as it's not under 13" I'm good.

If it made a significant difference I'd be open for 240 for a SSD.

I haven't really thought of myself as a clumsy typer...

I've been looking at Dell's New XPS 13 Non-Touch models, but they're Dell's and I'm not sure if it's the right way to go.

The fact that it's under 3lbs is super enticing though.

Any thoughts?

I'm no computer whiz, but my company supplies me with an HP Elite book. I also travel alot and I think it's great. Very lightweight and very well built. Powerful enough for my uses.

I believe pricing is within that budget.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by flamesrule_kipper34

Screen wise I meant higher rez, I think screen size as long as it's not under 13" I'm good.

If it made a significant difference I'd be open for 240 for a SSD.

I haven't really thought of myself as a clumsy typer...

I've been looking at Dell's New XPS 13 Non-Touch models, but they're Dell's and I'm not sure if it's the right way to go.

The fact that it's under 3lbs is super enticing though.

Any thoughts?

Dell XPS are business grade models and perform a bit better than consumer grade lines like Inspiron for instance because they use higher quality parts than the consumer options. The XPS is not a bad option. It's worth considering. As with all electronics, you randomly run into lemons. Dell is pretty good at replacing things though.

CroFlames discussing the HP Elite book is another business grade option along with the Probook. Those aren't bad as well.

Toshiba has the Tecra line.

Lenovo has the X and T series which are my personal favourite.

Usually swapping out the hard drive yourself for an SSD is the cheapest way to go. My personal favourite is the Samsung 840 (250GB) and 850 EVO (500GB) which are great price, reliability and speed.

The keyboard thing isn't a huge deal. There's just some ultraportables being made these days with super cramped keyboard that are flimsy feeling and overly sensitive IMO. Many business grade laptops make sure the keyboard is easy to use over long periods of time. Many commercial grade laptops don't care and give you cramped keyboards with num pads so they can list it as a "bonus" on the spec sheet.