Computer peeps, new laptop advice

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Jan 8, 2018
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Against my better judgment I’ll ask you jokers about a new laptop haha.
back story: my wife recently started a law firm, working pretty much from home at the moment. She has a ~5 year old Dell Inspiron 15-7569. Her battery was bad so it had to be plugged in always. A few days ago her charger popped and burned a hole in the blanket it was laying on. Got a new charger and it worked but I got sick of it and bought a new battery. Plugged it in and charged for over 24 hours and it won’t even turn on. Put the old battery back in and it still won’t turn on. So we’ll just call it quits and have a local company back up the hard drive and get something new, it’s time anyway.

She said she was ok with a 13” laptop as it’ll be large enough to go to court etc and when back home or office she’ll have a couple monitors. I’ve always bought HP but my work laptop is Dell and really have no complaints. Any thoughts? It’s a new firm so budget is an issue but reliability is paramount. No Macs, even though she’s used them before.
 
Aside from Dell, also look into Lenovo Yoga. They're pretty sleek, especially in 13" screen size. I have one for work. Wife has one for home.

If you mainly use a laptop at your desk (plugged into AC power most of the time), then change your laptop's battery charging scheme, so that it only gets charged up to about 60%. Keeping it at 100% SOC all the time kills the battery much faster.

Also, this thread belongs in the Computer subforum.
 
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Dell is a solid machine. Lenovo as well. Costco has good prices but limited selection.
I am not a fan of HP, but they have improved.
Acer and Asus are excellent for the money.
Microsoft PCs are pricey but are Mac build quality.

If I were buying and wanted a top-of-the-line very portable notebook, I would strongly consider a Dell XPS.
Depends on your budget.
 
I usually suggest lenovo t series. but thats 14" and up.

how about this direct from lenovo steal?
via ebay.

$699

Lenovo ThinkPad X395 Laptop, 13.3" FHD IPS Touch 300 nits, Ryzen 7 Pro 3700U​

16GB, 512GB SSD, Win 10 Pro​


Not the best deal ever.. last years processor.. but best I could find in a good 13.3 on short notice.
 
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Lenovo. I couldn’t be happier with my Lenovo it’s great.
+ 1 on Lenovo. I bought a Lenovo ideapad 330 laptop with windows about 3 years ago ( updated to windows 10 now ) and a wireless mouse and it has been very reliable. I got mine new at Best-Buy and the price was very reasonable.

Lenovo is rock solid reliable and not over-priced.

My brother said they make a business class line that is even better, but mine is fine.
 
Recommend one of the dell business class machines, from their outlet or from dell refurbished website.

Stack rakuten bucks with your credit card cash back.

Recommend Latitude or Precision if you can afford it. SSD drive is the key thing to get.

You can get a 3 year warranty on dell outlet items.
 
Had great luck with HP Probook computers, that's what I've standardized on at the office and they've been excellent.

EDIT:
I should add that I've used:
- ASUS
- ACER
- Lenovo
- HP

We never got into Dell, because I couldn't buy them wholesale. We also have a few macs in circulation, but the majority of computers are PC's.

HP provides excellent long-term support of their business products, which includes regular BIOS updates, Intel ME updates, firmware...etc. Their old tool, HP Softpaq download manager was absolutely excellent for ensuring a system was up-to-date, but they've retired it now.

I'm a bit leery of Lenovo for political reasons.
 
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Just about any of the major brands’ business laptops are a good choice. They’ve become a commodity device, so much so that you’ll get more than adequate service and performance for the need you have described. You won’t need, and your budget will all the better for avoiding, gaming laptops.

That said, a good Lenovo X1 Carbon midrange or the Dell XPS 13 are good choices. Paired with a good IPS monitor and she’ll be better off than the old one by far.
 
Aside from Dell, also look into Lenovo Yoga. They're pretty sleek, especially in 13" screen size. I have one for work. Wife has one for home.

If you mainly use a laptop at your desk (plugged into AC power most of the time), then change your laptop's battery charging scheme, so that it only gets charged up to about 60%. Keeping it at 100% SOC all the time kills the battery much faster.

Also, this thread belongs in the Computer subforum.
Thank you I do that with mine but apparently my wife wasn’t aware. And you’re correct about the subforum my apologies
 
Wow thanks to all for the quick replies. I want to reply to everyone but that would take a while. It sounds like Dell XPS is a great choice as well as Lenovo. I’m pretty literate electronically but haven’t bought a new laptop in a while so wasn’t sure what was out there.
Thanks to Jeff for the Costco suggestion we have two within 20 minutes so I think we’ll take a trip probably tomorrow.
As others have suggested pretty much anything these days will work just fine. She’s not gaming so no major need for massive RAM or video cards.

thanks again!
 
My dad is a retired attorney and had his own general practice law firm.
I don't recommended going cheap. Security is an issue of concern. Say if she loses possession of her laptop.
You want something with better security. She should have something with a TPM. That will be lacking on some laptops people are recommending to you here.
 
My dad is a retired attorney and had his own general practice law firm.
I don't recommended going cheap. Security is an issue of concern. Say if she loses possession of her laptop.
You want something with better security. She should have something with a TPM. That will be lacking on some laptops people are recommending to you here.
Great suggestion. We’re not cheaping out on this
 
Wow thanks to all for the quick replies. I want to reply to everyone but that would take a while. It sounds like Dell XPS is a great choice as well as Lenovo. I’m pretty literate electronically but haven’t bought a new laptop in a while so wasn’t sure what was out there.
Thanks to Jeff for the Costco suggestion we have two within 20 minutes so I think we’ll take a trip probably tomorrow.
As others have suggested pretty much anything these days will work just fine. She’s not gaming so no major need for massive RAM or video cards.

thanks again!
Costco online is a different business than Costco brick and motar stores.
But you can return an online purchase to any Costco. Check out both.

Bottom line is, as long as you buy quality, you should be fine. They get pricey when you get into Ultrabook style notebooks.
Some have mentioned corporate vs consumer line... Corp is big bucks in comparison.
The real benefit of corporate is standardization across the company.

Personally, I program on a high end Dell. I use a Google Chromebook for everyday stuff; hard to beat.
FYI, we have perhaps 50 computers in the house, from Chromebooks to high end PCs to Mac, tablets and servers.
My wife is in charge of computer operations at a $10B Silicon Valley company.
 
Bought a used Dell Latitude E6230 with the 13" screen on Ebay 3 years ago for under $200 and have been pretty satisfied with it. Had HP years ago but support was non-existent. Can't really wrap my head around Leveno and how they killed off the IBM brand. I'd go Dell and if I remember, most come with a 3 year warranty.
 
I had HP and Dell from work and they were not good. Right before the wfh hit they gave me a Lenovo. It's been great. Rock solid. That's what I'd buy.
 
My dad is a retired attorney and had his own general practice law firm.
I don't recommended going cheap. Security is an issue of concern. Say if she loses possession of her laptop.
You want something with better security. She should have something with a TPM. That will be lacking on some laptops people are recommending to you here.
This and make sure you have a professional grade hardware firewall along with proper software including antivirus...
 
Make sure it comes with a DVD/CD drive, as companies are cheapening out and making laptops without them...
IMO, it's less about cheapening out and more about trying to satisfy the consumer's desire for lighter/thinner devices.

CD/DVD media is on its way out, anyway. But if you really need it, you can add an external one for $20.
 
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