in the market for a new laptop


The best value laptop is last year's Thinkpads. Consumer laptops are built like garbage to hit a certain price. You can pick up a used Thinkpad off ebay for the same price with better specs and higher build quality. Lots of companies have a mandatory laptop refresh policy that generates great deals.

Make sure whatever you buy still has a hard drive with a valid OS installed.

THESE ARE EXAMPLES DO NOT TAKE THIS AS BUY ADVICE
 
I am not an apple guy. That being said...

I went to iPhone 3.5 years ago and am happy. I had no problem with my androids, but I like the apple better.

My school computer went to an iMac 9 months ago. Elated. I had been on HP or Lenovo for a decade plus, WinOS. I still have a pretty solid MSI at home, I haven't touched it since I got my iMac.

I was fine with it, but the mac is simply better in every way. It's an M4 macbook air, I know they cost more, worth it.

Battery, vastly superior. That was the big one for me. Light yet strong. Ergonomic is much better. I even got an imouse, wow. It mimics the trackpad! (swiping, squeezing, etc). Also a massive battery (I've charged it twice in six months).

Screen is very clean, so when I use for video it's nice. I had to learn it, obviously, but it wasn't that bad and just so many good features it's worth it. I hadn't been a regular macOS user since the early 2000s, my first job lol, but the learning curve wasn't bad at all.

Dongles aren't an issue for me. I haven't used an HDMI in a long time (they got us a USB/HDMI dongle, I used the USB once in the last year, I'd guess it costs less than $20). There is an audio port, which I do use.

Just making a pitch. Good luck.
 
I'll make the cheapskate argument: if your current laptop has an Intel core-anything CPU, especially anything from the last 10 years, consider giving a lightweight Linux a try. If course, if it's broke, please ignore my unsolicited advice.

As far as buying new, my 2 cents is that pretty much anything will be fine in terms of performance, it's really down to durability/longevity. I'm a total Thinkpad guy because as broncc pointed out, they're tanks and they're built to be upgraded and repaired. I also admit that the new MacBooks are pretty great in their own way, but whether the price for what you get is worth it... Personal decision I guess.
 
I also admit that the new MacBooks are pretty great in their own way, but whether the price for what you get is worth it... Personal decision I guess.
I must admit I probably would not have a macbook if it wasn't "free".

That being said, now that I've used it, idk, might pay the extra if it was left to me. It'd be close though.
 
Huge fan of the unibody 13" macbook pros (2009-2012).
Replace the primary sata drive for SSD, as well as swap out the dvd for a sata hard disk for additional storage.

Quality hardware without the apple tax, and get to run Linux to boot.

Win Win
 
We sell a ton of Dell and Lenovo laptops at work. Both have been very good except for the Dell XPS laptop line, I really do not care for those. HP has historically been very frustrating to work with and I would avoid those. Apple is good. I can't really comment on other brands since I rarely see them.

That one you posted should be fine. I would consider a 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM to be the absolute minimum for a new PC. The i7/Ultra 7 CPU line is good, i5/Ultra 5 is what I would consider the minimum there - don't waste your time with an i3 or other cheapo's.

A lot of PC's do not have upgradable RAM these days so if you can spend the extra on a 32GB right off the bat, do it, you may regret it later when you need it and can't upgrade it.
 
Thinkpad has been a recommendation here, a good one. Some get confused with the cheaper line of Ideapad.
 
The best value laptop is last year's Thinkpads. Consumer laptops are built like garbage to hit a certain price. You can pick up a used Thinkpad off ebay for the same price with better specs and higher build quality. Lots of companies have a mandatory laptop refresh policy that generates great deals.

Make sure whatever you buy still has a hard drive with a valid OS installed.

THESE ARE EXAMPLES DO NOT TAKE THIS AS BUY ADVICE
Ive had nothing but problems with my think pad. I had a Dell that was about 5 years old "engineering laptop" battery was a little weak towards the end. Company "upgraded to think pads. Its about to have its 3rd keyboard replacement in under 2 years. They have a ton of keyboard recalls. Ive used the laptop keyboard maybe 6 times a year at this point. Everytime the computer updates something stops working, last update the camera and mic didnt work. Time before that it couldnt do dual screens.


for home use i think a 2-3 year old macbook would be the move.
 
The used market for macs is really good, that's a great avenue as well.
 

Sponsored Ad

TRS Events & Gatherings

Latest posts

Recently Featured

Want to see your truck here? Share your photos and details in the forum.

TRS Latest Video

Official TRS Merchandise

Follow TRS On Instagram

TRS Ranger Sponsors


Product Suggestions

Back
Top