Sub $600 laptop

AdamF

Both the Asus and Dell look pretty good. The SSD is what makes the difference. I still can't believe these new laptops have 5400 spinning drives.

Francesco Provino

I've seen some thinkpad t450 new in box for 600 on ebay. Very solid machines.

scottalanmiller

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

I've seen some thinkpad t450 new in box for 600 on ebay. Very solid machines.

But then you are stuck with Lenovo gear. And stuff from eBay. That's a lot of risk in two different ways when good vendors have stuff in the pricerange, too, without needing to go to eBay and taking that risk.

Francesco Provino

@scottalanmiller said in Sub $600 laptop:

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

I've seen some thinkpad t450 new in box for 600 on ebay. Very solid machines.

But then you are stuck with Lenovo gear. And stuff from eBay. That's a lot of risk in two different ways when good vendors have stuff in the pricerange, too, without needing to go to eBay and taking that risk.

But no one other than Lenovo has a good trackpoint.

coliver

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

trackpoint

The more expensive Dell ones aren't bad. But you're right Lenovo's trackpoint was the most useful one.

Reid Cooper

What about the Lenovos are so nice? Haven't used one in a long time. Remember the IBM nipples?

travisdh1

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

@scottalanmiller said in Sub $600 laptop:

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

I've seen some thinkpad t450 new in box for 600 on ebay. Very solid machines.

But then you are stuck with Lenovo gear. And stuff from eBay. That's a lot of risk in two different ways when good vendors have stuff in the pricerange, too, without needing to go to eBay and taking that risk.

But no one other than Lenovo has a good trackpoint.

No other company steals and spies on you nearly so well as Lenovo does either. I agree with you that they make the best laptops around hardware wise, but that just can't negate the rest of what they do to us, the customer.

scottalanmiller

@travisdh1 said in Sub $600 laptop:

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

@scottalanmiller said in Sub $600 laptop:

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

I've seen some thinkpad t450 new in box for 600 on ebay. Very solid machines.

But then you are stuck with Lenovo gear. And stuff from eBay. That's a lot of risk in two different ways when good vendors have stuff in the pricerange, too, without needing to go to eBay and taking that risk.

But no one other than Lenovo has a good trackpoint.

No other company steals and spies on you nearly so well as Lenovo does either. I agree with you that they make the best laptops around hardware wise, but that just can't negate the rest of what they do to us, the customer.

We have one and it's not good hardware. It's not cheap, not good. Forgetting the spying stuff, it's not up to par with far cheaper vendors in my opinion. The track pad is fine, but nothing good enough that I would ever have thought to mention it. Seems roughly the same as my Asus trackpad. But we had to replace the wifi card to even get it to work, and it has been only moderately reliable. Definitely not the worst hardware, but certainly not good enough to qualify as "good". I'd put it below Mac and Dell in quality.

travisdh1

@scottalanmiller said in Sub $600 laptop:

@travisdh1 said in Sub $600 laptop:

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

@scottalanmiller said in Sub $600 laptop:

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

I've seen some thinkpad t450 new in box for 600 on ebay. Very solid machines.

But then you are stuck with Lenovo gear. And stuff from eBay. That's a lot of risk in two different ways when good vendors have stuff in the pricerange, too, without needing to go to eBay and taking that risk.

But no one other than Lenovo has a good trackpoint.

No other company steals and spies on you nearly so well as Lenovo does either. I agree with you that they make the best laptops around hardware wise, but that just can't negate the rest of what they do to us, the customer.

We have one and it's not good hardware. It's not cheap, not good. Forgetting the spying stuff, it's not up to par with far cheaper vendors in my opinion. The track pad is fine, but nothing good enough that I would ever have thought to mention it. Seems roughly the same as my Asus trackpad. But we had to replace the wifi card to even get it to work, and it has been only moderately reliable. Definitely not the worst hardware, but certainly not good enough to qualify as "good". I'd put it below Mac and Dell in quality.

Do you still just have that spindly, silly, Yoga? I spend like 30 seconds with one when I was at a MicroCenter once, felt like I could snap the thing just thinking about moving something in the wrong way. I've still got an X220 (I picked it up used and it was still being shipped to me when the news about Superfish hit), now that thing is a tank compared to any other laptop/notebook I've ever used. Can't count the number of times it's been dropped or fallen off the bedside stand. Still going strong. Yet I still can't bring myself to tell you to try one out, for some odd reason.

scottalanmiller

@travisdh1 said in Sub $600 laptop:

@scottalanmiller said in Sub $600 laptop:

@travisdh1 said in Sub $600 laptop:

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

@scottalanmiller said in Sub $600 laptop:

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

I've seen some thinkpad t450 new in box for 600 on ebay. Very solid machines.

But then you are stuck with Lenovo gear. And stuff from eBay. That's a lot of risk in two different ways when good vendors have stuff in the pricerange, too, without needing to go to eBay and taking that risk.

But no one other than Lenovo has a good trackpoint.

No other company steals and spies on you nearly so well as Lenovo does either. I agree with you that they make the best laptops around hardware wise, but that just can't negate the rest of what they do to us, the customer.

We have one and it's not good hardware. It's not cheap, not good. Forgetting the spying stuff, it's not up to par with far cheaper vendors in my opinion. The track pad is fine, but nothing good enough that I would ever have thought to mention it. Seems roughly the same as my Asus trackpad. But we had to replace the wifi card to even get it to work, and it has been only moderately reliable. Definitely not the worst hardware, but certainly not good enough to qualify as "good". I'd put it below Mac and Dell in quality.

Do you still just have that spindly, silly, Yoga? I spend like 30 seconds with one when I was at a MicroCenter once, felt like I could snap the thing just thinking about moving something in the wrong way. I've still got an X220 (I picked it up used and it was still being shipped to me when the news about Superfish hit), now that thing is a tank compared to any other laptop/notebook I've ever used. Can't count the number of times it's been dropped or fallen off the bedside stand. Still going strong. Yet I still can't bring myself to tell you to try one out, for some odd reason.

Yeah, but we keep getting closer and closer to justifying replacing it.

scottalanmiller

Our plan is to get an Asus ZenBook once the finances allow. Much better quality and design.

Francesco Provino

Maybe Dell build quality is better than Lenovo, but I can't find a suitable high-end ultrabook... the XPS 13 has that terrible coil whine issue, I've follow the whole story in the Dell official forum. Seems that they aren't capable of fix this issue... it's the second or third generation with coil whine, both 13' and 15' XPS.

scottalanmiller

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

Maybe Dell build quality is better than Lenovo, but I can't find a suitable high-end ultrabook... the XPS 13 has that terrible coil whine issue, I've follow the whole story in the Dell official forum. Seems that they aren't capable of fix this issue... it's the second or third generation with coil whine, both 13' and 15' XPS.

@Stuka has the XPS 13. Do you get any whine from it?

scottalanmiller

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

Maybe Dell build quality is better than Lenovo, but I can't find a suitable high-end ultrabook...

Have you checked out the Asus ZenBook 3? I'm really interested in that.

ASUS ZenBook 3 UX390UA

Not under $600. But not crazy.

travisdh1

@Francesco-Provino said in Sub $600 laptop:

Maybe Dell build quality is better than Lenovo, but I can't find a suitable high-end ultrabook... the XPS 13 has that terrible coil whine issue, I've follow the whole story in the Dell official forum. Seems that they aren't capable of fix this issue... it's the second or third generation with coil whine, both 13' and 15' XPS.

#1: Keep in mind that Lenovo is a never-use company now. Basically anything requiring you keep full control of data will regulate away the use of Lenovo at all.
#2: #1 makes me very sad, because their Thinkpad line is the only custom made notebook chassis anymore. They're more durable, and I love the little eraser mouse.