What type of Laptop do you use?

[ravip]

I have been using HP for decades. Currently using a HP ProBook Intel i5 with 8GB RAM. Seems this PC has come to it's last legs - battery flat, some keys on the keyboard malfunctioning etc.

 

Now my computer requirements are not demanding. More or less, just internet browsing, MS Word, Excel, Power point only. So which brand, model and specs do you think would give me the best bang for the buck, as per your personal experience?

[Captain Monday]

MacBook Air

 

 

[ravip]

2 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

MacBook Air

 

 

Never been a Mac fan... hence reluctant to dive in now!

[Captain Monday]

Then get the cheapest chromebook you can find. Work it like a circus chimp treating it like it like crap and in 2 or 3 years when it dies get a new one.

 

[cjinchiangrai]

Lenovo but I have had Dell and HP in the past. They are all good. As long as you minimize the bloatware you will be OK. You might as well move to Win 11 if you are upgrading anyway.

 

To really compare, you need a hardware spec but they will be pretty comparable. Try Open Office instead of Microsoft office to save some baht.

 

I would be looking at an I7 processor with 32 Gb RAM, a 500GB SSD and a 4Tb hard drive. That should have plenty of clout without getting crazy.

[gargamon]

Used/refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad X class. X and T class are military spec.

 

Best laptop I've owned.

[save the frogs]

you don't need fancy specs, so look for whatever is on sale.

 

Asus (Taiwan brand) I think is decent value for money ... Apple is over-priced ... maybe Dell is over-priced. not sure. 

 

 

[brewsterbudgen]

I changed to a Macbook Pro for the first time a year or so ago.  Would NEVER go back to Windows!

[Thailand J]

I like Lenovo which has the letters in bold font on the keyboard. Much easier to see in low light at night.

 

my opinion this works for you, may be add another 8GB RAM if you want:

 

 

[Yellowtail]

I've had this for two years and it's been good: 

 

But last year I got a new Intel nuc desktop & 43" 4KTV for a monitor and love it. Between the phone and the desktop the laptop sees little us. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yellowtail]

7 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

I changed to a Macbook Pro for the first time a year or so ago.  Would NEVER go back to Windows!

I've had two MacBook Pros and they were both great. Keyboards are certainly better than the Acer. 

 

Still have one of them. 

[ignis]

Never had Intel, so no idea.......  Always had AMD, my old laptop AMD was 20 years old working slowly gave it to a local school... My 1st Desktop ran  Windows 3.2...   My present Desktop built 11 yeas ago, have added a few new things since but still going strong + heavy use now on Windows 10 [so say worst AMD CPU FX 8300] ..... 

 

My Partner has a Acer intel laptop on its last legs but was used a lot, is 14 years old and still on XP

 

Understand one of e best cheaper Laptop is the Intel i5-11400 

[Lacessit]

A fairly elderly ASUS laptop with a MXLinux OS. It still does everything I want, so I see no reason to upgrade it.

It seems to me PC systems, whether they be laptops or desktops, are in some kind of Red Queen's race, where Microsoft writes ever more complex operating software, and PC manufacturers expand memory, RAM, and speed. As I have no interest in solving Black- Scholes equations or Hamiltonian quaternions, I've dropped out.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

Edited June 22, 2023 by Lacessit

[sqwakvfr]

1 hour ago, ravip said:

Never been a Mac fan... hence reluctant to dive in now!

Had a Mac Air for 8 years(great machine and one battery change).  Tried something different and bought a Samsung Laptop(Galaxy Book Flex Alpha-long name).  A Windows PC and after two yeas of this I am going back to the new M1 Mac Air.  To me a Windows PC runs like an SUV and a Mac runs like a Porsche.  I also have an IPad Pro from 2017 and after a battery change it is going strong.  I recently went to the Apple Store in BKK at Central World and was very impresses with how helpful they employees were.  I will never go back to the Studio 7 stores again.  

[Moonlover]

Acer Aspire and have be for been for almost 20 years. I'm on my 3rd one now, bought here with Windows 11 installed. I began to have problems with the previous one, mainly overheating and shutting down. My new one. with SSD runs quickly smoothly and very quietly. It's a joy to use. It even has an illuminated keyboard.

[JayClay]

12 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

To me a Windows PC runs like an SUV and a Mac runs like a Porsche

Which is extremely important for the OP, who wants to write some word documents and browse the web... ????

 

My suggestion to the OP is pretty much anything on the market will do what you want, so just look for one that has any quality-of-life improvements that you think you may find useful, such as built in card reader, mouse nipple, or fingerprint login.

 

If there's no special features that you're interested in, then pretty much any mid-range laptop from any known brand will be fine for you.

[sqwakvfr]

9 minutes ago, JayClay said:

Which is extremely important for the OP, who wants to write some word documents and browse the web... ????

 

My suggestion to the OP is pretty much anything on the market will do what you want, so just look for one that has any quality-of-life improvements that you think you may find useful, such as built in card reader, mouse nipple, or fingerprint login.

 

If there's no special features that you're interested in, then pretty much any mid-range laptop from any known brand will be fine for you.

I used to think that way until I got my first Mac and IPad. The smooth and seamless way Apple machines operate is something that one gets used to.  The last Windows update I installed took 20 minutes to download and install.   The low end M1 Mac Air is going for 34,000 Baht.  This is a lot of money but I would guess this machined could last 7 or 8 years with a battery change.  From my perspective this is good value.  Others will disagree.  

 

I have owned Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung laptops though out the years but for my circumstance the Mac Air and IPad are my choices.  

 

Lastly, why do Windows computers  have so many updates? 

Edited June 22, 2023 by sqwakvfr

[Grumpy one]

I have a HP 15'' that was used by Noah when planning to build his Ark.

I don't want to bin it, but its a race as to who or what looses its memory first.

Me or machine?

[VinnieK]

None since I moved all the action to my phone.

Strongly recommended.

[grain]

Infinix INBook X1 14 Inches Core i5 (8GB RAM - 512GB SSD) Currently on sale for ฿14,488.00 at PowerBuy or Shopee.

[ravip]

24 minutes ago, JayClay said:

Which is extremely important for the OP, who wants to write some word documents and browse the web... ????

 

My suggestion to the OP is pretty much anything on the market will do what you want, so just look for one that has any quality-of-life improvements that you think you may find useful, such as built in card reader, mouse nipple, or fingerprint login.

 

If there's no special features that you're interested in, then pretty much any mid-range laptop from any known brand will be fine for you.

What's most important is the reliability and the smooth operation.

[OneMoreFarang]

Good, sturdy, reliable:

Lenovo ThinkPad

ThinkPad | Mobile workstations, laptops, & 2-in-1s for your business | Lenovo Thailand

 

If you can afford one, go for it. No headache, all fine.

[Yellowtail]

In my opinion, what's most important are: 

Keyboard

Display

Speed 

 

In that order. Reliability is a crap-shoot. I love Apple products and have had quite a few, but I do not think they are any more reliable than other brands I have had. 

 

My kid's three-year-old iMac had the HD go south a few months ago, while the 10-15 year old Acer it replaced is still going strong. My wife's 25-year-old SG IBM clone still works. 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I switched from PC to Mac about fifteen years ago. I have a Macbook Pro from 2012 that still runs just fine, albeit on obsolete software.

 

My experience is that Macs can't run the newer OS releases very well after about six or seven years and it is necessary to upgrade, but I haven't yet had a Mac of any description conk out for no reason. Even when my kids abused their Macbooks (broken keyboards, cracked screens) we simply hooked up external peripherals and they chugged on.

 

I would also recommend a Macbook Air with the M1 chip. It is inexpensive (for a Mac) and it should last a long time.

[dddave]

I have a 10 year old 15" HP Pavillion "Sleekbook"  Like yours, some keys weren't working, it was very slow on it's best days and the battery was long gone though I actually rarely needed the battery in the first place.

I was going to bin it but a friend suggested it was still basically a good machine for what I used it for.  He showed me a few YT videos on upgrading my specific HP and since free time is something I have in abundance, I decided to give it a try.  A new keyboard on Lazada was less than B1000 as was a battery. An SSD was about B1500.  I bought a set of small size screwdrivers at a B20 store.  It took a few days but with the YT video to guide me step by step, it went surprisingly well. Used free Macrium software to copy the old HD and Windows onto the SSD.

Shockingly, it booted up first try and has run very well since. It's five times faster than it ever was, no sticking keys.  The battery I bought was crap, died after six months but I really never need it anyway as the old laptop is too bulky to lug around.

Even if you take yours to a shop and have them do the work, it shouldn't cost more than B5-6000 and you end up with a good working machine you are familiar with.

Edited June 22, 2023 by dddave

[KhunLA]

I'm an ASUS fan, and mine have more RAM and vid card/non sharing, as needing the extra for editing photos & vids, so much larger files than you'll be dealing with.

 

You'll easily get by with a lower spec'd machine, <฿20k should provide for something very nice.  Mine & wife's only cost ฿25k+/-.   Hers being a Lenovo, and quite nice.

[ravip]

18 minutes ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

I switched from PC to Mac about fifteen years ago. I have a Macbook Pro from 2012 that still runs just fine, albeit on obsolete software.

 

My experience is that Macs can't run the newer OS releases very well after about six or seven years and it is necessary to upgrade, but I haven't yet had a Mac of any description conk out for no reason. Even when my kids abused their Macbooks (broken keyboards, cracked screens) we simply hooked up external peripherals and they chugged on.

 

I would also recommend a Macbook Air with the M1 chip. It is inexpensive (for a Mac) and it should last a long time.

Are you referring to the MacBook Air M1 Chip 13.3 inch 8GB / 256GB (Model: MGN63)?

What's the year of manufacture of this model?

(2020 or 2021 I've seen)

 

Edited June 22, 2023 by ravip

[Stocky]

I have two aging Dells, a Precision M4800 and a Precision M3800. The 4800 is almost 10 years old and is used as my desktop, the 3800 is almost 9 years old and is the one I take travelling. A few years ago I switched out the HDDs for SSDs, I've certainly had my money's worth out of them, hopefully they'll last a few more years.

[ozimoron]

I have an ASUS mini running linux with windows 11 pro in a VM but my daily driver is an Apple mac mini m2. I like linux and it was my OS of choice for a dozen years but recently changed to the mac since they brought out the mini for 20,800 baht.

[ravip]

8 minutes ago, dddave said:

I have a 10 year old 15" HP Pavillion "Sleekbook"  Like yours, some keys weren't working, it was very slow on it's best days and the battery was long gone though I actually rarely needed the battery in the first place.

I was going to bin it but a friend suggested it was still basically a good machine for what I used it for.  He showed me a few YT videos on upgrading my specific HP and since free time is something I have in abundance, I decided to give it a try.  A new keyboard on Lazada was less than B1000 as was a battery. An SSD was about B1500.  I bought a set of small size screwdrivers at a B20 store.  It took a few days but with the YT video to guide me step by step, it went surprisingly well. Used free Macrium software to copy the old HD and Windows onto the SSD.

Shockingly, it booted up first try and has run very well since. It's five times faster than it ever was, no sticking keys.  The battery I bought was crap, died after six months but I really never need it anyway as the old laptop is too bulky to lug around.

Even if you take yours to a shop and have them do the work, it shouldn't cost more than B5-6000 and you end up with a good working machine you are familiar with.

Yes, maybe I will try this. Changing the keyboard is simple, and yes... a ssd should give it a bit more pep!

Thank you.