gathermewool
Site Donor 2023
Since my college laptop died soon after graduation around a decade ago, I've only had to purchase a couple of laptops. Two were 17" desktop replacements that I had no issues traveling with. They stayed cool, provided great keyboards, a lot of screen real estate, and hardware better than or similar to 15.6" options, and much better than even small laptops for similar money. Compared to ultra-portables, the cost/performance is much lower.
My most recent purchase, almost four years ago, was an HP 11.6" ultra-portable with an AMD E-350 APU. All things considered it has served me well, though it is very slow at just about every task. I purchased it for travel, which I do 2-3X/year for 2-4 weeks/year, and was very happy initially. I also used it for tuning my previous car, an '08 STI, since it was very portable and had enough battery life to log long road trips. I was able to toss this thing anywhere and while small, the keyboard and other features were more than good enough.
Looking around, larger laptops that aren't purpose-built for gaming aren't popular any more, and aren't often seen on discount with mid or better specs AND at a good price or with better features. What do you guys think? Has the ultra-book craze affected the ability to buy a larger laptop with premium quality and content for a good price?
Speaking of cost:
My previous, larger laptops were all closer to a grand in cost, but were much better values, since they gave up portability for much more space to cram better gear. The latest was $450, but had middling to low specs, even back when I bought it.
Now that I'm not tuning any longer, I've noticed while on travel that I miss being able to game (not very often, but I do like to play games like Civ 5 and other RTS games in my free time) and perform more productivity tasks (even things like word, excel, etc. are much better on larger screens.)
What do you guys think?
My most recent purchase, almost four years ago, was an HP 11.6" ultra-portable with an AMD E-350 APU. All things considered it has served me well, though it is very slow at just about every task. I purchased it for travel, which I do 2-3X/year for 2-4 weeks/year, and was very happy initially. I also used it for tuning my previous car, an '08 STI, since it was very portable and had enough battery life to log long road trips. I was able to toss this thing anywhere and while small, the keyboard and other features were more than good enough.
Looking around, larger laptops that aren't purpose-built for gaming aren't popular any more, and aren't often seen on discount with mid or better specs AND at a good price or with better features. What do you guys think? Has the ultra-book craze affected the ability to buy a larger laptop with premium quality and content for a good price?
Speaking of cost:
My previous, larger laptops were all closer to a grand in cost, but were much better values, since they gave up portability for much more space to cram better gear. The latest was $450, but had middling to low specs, even back when I bought it.
Now that I'm not tuning any longer, I've noticed while on travel that I miss being able to game (not very often, but I do like to play games like Civ 5 and other RTS games in my free time) and perform more productivity tasks (even things like word, excel, etc. are much better on larger screens.)
What do you guys think?