Entry level laptop
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Hi all,
Wanted to get a decent light weight entry level laptop for home use. For power use i already have an iMAC and an assembled desktop machine which takes care of all my IT requirements, but lack of having a laptop make me sit in front of the desk all the time. Thought of a MAC air, but guess i could get a cheaper one. Usage will be browsing, MS office, music and watching videos. HDMI would be a plus but not necessary, as i have a chromecast at home so that won't be an issue.
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What about a Chromebook? Very basic but they are solid and cheap.
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MS Office doesn't work on a Chromebook, but you can use the web versions.
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We would like to use a Windows laptop as we need to have the desktop office app. Plus I might need some storage and offline editing in office apps. I guess online office doesn't provide offline functionality like Google docs.
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HP makes some extremely entry level Windows laptops. Maybe those would work.
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Maybe try either the Acer or Dell 2n1?
This is what I bought for myself last year
Acer - Aspire 2-in-1 14" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 6GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - SilverSadly they are discontinued now. But has been good thus far.
This is what I got for my wife.
Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1The Dell Inspiron is just a little more than a Chromebook..
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The Inspiron looks nice, touch and like the tablet functionality as well. Let me check the local market and see if i can get it here.
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I'm not sure how cheap you were looking for, but MS had a great little machine the other day. Might check MS store... Plus not crapware... MS STRIPS it clean.
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Keeping the budget of between $400-500 for this laptop
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Had a MACbook Pro 15" late 2011 which was working fine and had display issues, thought if i give it for repair, will cost me a lot. Turned out, its a know issue from Apple and they are fixing this for FREE!
Took my MAC to the service center and they said the motherboard is faulty and replacing it for free, so that saves me some money on the laptop
Thanks a lot guys.
For those who are looking for cost effective laptops, i saw Lenovo Yoga 500, its not very cheap, looks good with 8GB RAM upgrade, the local price is approximately equal to $750.
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@Ambarishrh said:
For those who are looking for cost effective laptops, i saw Lenovo Yoga 500, its not very cheap, looks good with 8GB RAM upgrade, the local price is approximately equal to $750.
Considering Lenovo's break of the public trust on at least 2 occasions, if not three... I can't in good conscience buy or recommend them anymore..
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@Ambarishrh said:
For those who are looking for cost effective laptops, i saw Lenovo Yoga 500, its not very cheap, looks good with 8GB RAM upgrade, the local price is approximately equal to $750.
Even beyond Lenovo's breaches of ethics that would absolutely make them a "never buy" for me no matter what they offer, we have a Yoga 2 Pro here and it is total garbage. $750 would be a terrible price for the much "higher end" Lenovo that we have.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Ambarishrh said:
For those who are looking for cost effective laptops, i saw Lenovo Yoga 500, its not very cheap, looks good with 8GB RAM upgrade, the local price is approximately equal to $750.
Even beyond Lenovo's breaches of ethics that would absolutely make them a "never buy" for me no matter what they offer, we have a Yoga 2 Pro here and it is total garbage. $750 would be a terrible price for the much "higher end" Lenovo that we have.
That's really weird. I have two Yogas - Dec 2013 and Sept 2014. I did end up having to replace the internal WiFi card of the 2013 unit. Once I did that the WiFi has been rock solid. Though for fairness I must report that my bluetooth does have issues from time to time. To fix it I have to delete the bluetooth devices from Device Manager and rediscover them to fix it.
The 2014 model hasn't had a single connectivity issue since day one. I did update it to Windows 10 a few months ago and it's been going fine.
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@Dashrender said:
That's really weird. I have two Yogas - Dec 2013 and Sept 2014. I did end up having to replace the internal WiFi card of the 2013 unit. Once I did that the WiFi has been rock solid. Though for fairness I must report that my bluetooth does have issues from time to time. To fix it I have to delete the bluetooth devices from Device Manager and rediscover them to fix it.
I can't get over that you don't stop at but I had to replace some of the hardware for it to work as making it not good. I've never, not once, in my entire career had to replace the hardware of a laptop by design for basic functionality. The Yoga 2 is far and away the worst laptop hardware I've ever worked on or dealt with first hand, and I was a laptop tech for a while.
The wifi is worthless. Even after replacing the wifi hardware it's not as good as other, cheaper, older devices that we have. Bluetooth is an issue for you (we don't use it so don't know.) All kinds of driver issues, display issues, etc. Nothing works like it should and nothing works well at all.
Literally the only positive we found to say about the unit is that the power connector is nice. One of the best that we have dealt with.
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So away from Lenovo laptops!
And for the MAC guys, https://www.apple.com/ae/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
About apple repairing the display issue free of cost, and also refunding any charges previously taken by resellers/apple
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I'm not a Mac fan but Apple does take care of their customers (if you live in a region that they support.) Having lived in Panama which does not have an Apple Store and does not border a country that borders a country that borders a country with an Apple Store... you are left pretty much on your own.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
That's really weird. I have two Yogas - Dec 2013 and Sept 2014. I did end up having to replace the internal WiFi card of the 2013 unit. Once I did that the WiFi has been rock solid. Though for fairness I must report that my bluetooth does have issues from time to time. To fix it I have to delete the bluetooth devices from Device Manager and rediscover them to fix it.
I can't get over that you don't stop at but I had to replace some of the hardware for it to work as making it not good. I've never, not once, in my entire career had to replace the hardware of a laptop by design for basic functionality. The Yoga 2 is far and away the worst laptop hardware I've ever worked on or dealt with first hand, and I was a laptop tech for a while.
The wifi is worthless. Even after replacing the wifi hardware it's not as good as other, cheaper, older devices that we have. Bluetooth is an issue for you (we don't use it so don't know.) All kinds of driver issues, display issues, etc. Nothing works like it should and nothing works well at all.
Literally the only positive we found to say about the unit is that the power connector is nice. One of the best that we have dealt with.
You're absolutely right. And I won't be buying another one. But, I've had no problems once I did replace the card.
I can't imagine that I wouldn't have the video issues I've had with any high resolution laptop/desktop with things like the text mode of Minecraft or VirtualBox.
These are the two things that jump to mind when I'm having high resolution issues.
I don't own anything with resolution even remotely as high, so I can't confirm the issues don't exist with other devices, but considering it's a size problem on screen, I can't imagine it being another issue.
This makes me hesitant of buying another high resolution display.
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I can report some off and on Bluetooth issues on a Thinkpad from the Lenovo outlet. No wifi issues for me, but after resuming from hibernate I often have to uninstall the monitor to be able to adjust the brightness at all.
The price was pretty right. But yeah that was before Superfish etc. too. I put in more memory and an ssd, reinstalled Windows fresh and we'll see if anything catastrophic keeps it from holding me over for a while.
The display isn't too hot though, and makes me want one of those 1080 Toshiba Chromebooks for some browsing (and playing with Crouton).
