Laptop

[chopin]

About to buy myself a new laptop, 10-11 inch, max 25 000TB. Best option?

[CharlieH]

Search! This has been asked sooo many times there are many threads to get info from.

Edited April 13, 2014 by CharlieH

[Rice_King]

The best advice I can offer you.

Edited April 13, 2014 by Rice_King

[transam]

What ever you choose, be sure to make sure it has a genuine Windows and the disk/validation thingy is given to you.

Many are installed with copies which will be hassle in the near future.

[eeeya]

im too lazy to use google, so I will post on ThaiVisa.

Rather than taking other peoples opinions, why dont you make it a project and research what it is you actually want / need.

[poooket]

Without telling what you mainly will be using it for how do you expect to get a "best option"?

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[KhunBENQ]

10-11 inch, you call a laptop?

For such a tiny "netbook" thing, 25000 Baht is a hell lot of money.

My idea of a laptop starts at 14 inch.

[robblok]

Yes it really depends what the use will be, without knowing the use it hard to say what you need.

I bought a macbook and put windows on it (prefer that) and it works good.. Never had a smaller and lighter laptop, and no need for mac os as you can still put windows on it if you don't like mac os. They are actually cheap if you want a laptop where size and battery is an issue. Its small and light good for travel. For heavy work there are other options.

[KhunBENQ]

I am not too satisfied with my ASUS thing (K43E). 14 inch, i5, cost about 17000 Baht about 18 months ago.

Display with a very small angle of visibility.

In the meantime:

touchpad-mousekey gets stuck

cursor-up key works no more.

USB and HDMI connectors worn out.

Still useable but a pain. Using it as a download machine / multi media player.

A case for the repair man.

Good to sit at my 5 year old desktop PC.

Edited April 13, 2014 by KhunBENQ

[chopin]

Im only using the computer to read news on internet, send email. Nothing more, so i dont need any fancy stuff. And as i travel between thailand and europe 4 times a year i want a tiny one, but i need keyboard, so a tablet is not an option. And i wrote maximum 25 000TB, so wont mind if its cheaper,,,,,,,,,

[slipperylobster]

Sometimes you just do not need the best, unless you need high quality 3d graphics and super fast processor speeds for gaming.

Nice to have 4 gigabytes of ram, and a nice, large screen. Plenty of USB ports are a plus. Battery life is important as well.

Most people I met here are not gaming...they just get online and use the web, facebook, email, skype, etc.

More money on a laptop will not buy better connection speed. Your internet provider does that.

As for me...I got by on an EEE pc....(old technology). The reason was, portability and battery life. I still connect in via HDMI to my 36 inch tv and to a good speaker system. I bought a remote keyboard and mouse setup, and just sit anywhere I like. The small pc stays next to the TV. When I travel, it takes almost no space, and I get 6 to 8 hours battery life. I cannot play 3d games, but can play most others. I Run linux on one partition and windows 7 starter (yes, you can) on the second partition.

all this for 175 usd. Can surf just as well as anyone with a 1000 usd laptop...but i last longer on the plane.

[robblok]

Too bad the macbook air is just out of your budget, they are tiny and that is what i like about them. I put windows on it but if its only for reading the news and send email you could even use it as a mac as that does not differ too much from windows. If more as that there is a learning curb. For me it was more practical to put windows on it as was for business use.

[KhunBENQ]

An often cited mail order shop has a very small selection in this range (11 inch or smaller with keyboard).

What about Lenovo (ex IBM)?

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/notebooks-laptops/lenovo/flex-10-59405083-black-intel-celeron-n2805-2gb-ddr3-500gb-10inch-touch-windows-8-p018636/

http://shop.lenovo.com/ae/en/laptops/ideapad/flex/flex-10/]

top notch over(!) your price range:

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/notebooks-laptops/lenovo/ideapad-yoga-11s-59403113-silver-intel-core-i5-4210y-8gb-ddr3-128gb-ssd-11-6inch-touch-windows-8-1-p018635/

http://shopap.lenovo.com/th/en/laptops/ideapad/yoga/yoga-11s/

Edited April 13, 2014 by KhunBENQ

[GuyL]

For about half your max budget:

http://thesystem.co.th/products/previews.php?code=A0065122

Still under 25000 baht:

http://thesystem.co.th/products/previews.php?code=A0061851

Edited April 13, 2014 by GuyL

[slipperylobster]

No need to pay even 10,000 baht.

You have not specified the use for it. If just for internet....and general use (no heavy 3d gaming)...you can cut cost dramatically.

1.Mininum hard drive capacity will reduce your price.

You bay extra for more storage that you will throw away when the notebook/laptop dies. Most people do not bother removing the internal hard drive because it is not practical. Much better you buy an external drive (At least one Terrabyte) with the money saved. You partition that and can but a windows installer on one small partition (for the future computer/quick fixex on the current one) and all your movies, music, important documents and photos on the second partion. These external drives are very small and plug in to the usb port. (not a thumb drive).

2, Dual core processor but make sure it is higher than 2.4 ghz. Processor speed

Anything higher is unecessary, only for gaming. As your internet speed is probably not lightning fast anyways.

Most people...like me...can use even lower processor speeds. My internet..and public internet..is that slow. These old computers still can load a page fast enough.

3. Check to make sure it has ports for HDMI, and SD Card input. SD cards are handy if you have people like me with old fashioned cameras. You just take out the SD card and push it into the laptop. Also, at least 3 USB ports will be handy for external devices....like remote mouse and keyboard....remote camera...usb sound device...etc.

4. Battery life at six hours. To get that, you have to diable wifi and bluetooth. Also use the lowest power mode and screen brightness.

6. Laptop/notebooks eventually get dropped, or the screen breaks off, or you just want something else. You want something you can part with in a few years without losing 25000 baht for.....not to mention the price of the new one. It becomes expensive. Its just a plastic keyboard, lcd screen, and motherboard with hard drive. Nothing really justifies 25,000 for most of us.

[1Ping1]

Slightly off topic but surly related...........

I am more than a little frosted that less than six months ago I bought a "real" copy of windows 7 pro and MS office for my ASUS laptop. I paid roughly 9,000k for these. Now, of course, MS has came out and said that they are no longer going to be supporting windows 7 and thereby forcing us all to transition over to windows 8.0.

My question is this, how long do we truly have before security is an issue for using windows 7.0? Hell, that was my number one reason for upgrading to a "real" copy of windows. So that I could maintain the upgrades and maintain some sort of internet security for online banking.

On topic question I think as anyone planning on buying a new laptop should at least (I think) be asking this same question...............

Advice truly and greatly appreciated. And yeah, I am still a little pissed over buying this to then find out shortly it would no longer be supported as Bill Gates needs to restock his treasure chests. . Fricken MS...........................................................

Whenever I see Bill Gates getting attaboys for donating money to charity, and he and his foundation do donate millions, I think Good For Him........... It is not his money he is donating, it is ours.

[GuyL]

[...]

I am more than a little frosted that less than six months ago I bought a "real" copy of windows 7 pro and MS office for my ASUS laptop. I paid roughly 9,000k for these. Now, of course, MS has came out and said that they are no longer going to be supporting windows 7 and thereby forcing us all to transition over to windows 8.0.

[...]

Microsoft still supports Windows 7! It's Windows XP that is not officially supported anymore since April 8th this year. Windows XP had been supported for more than 12 years, thus, you can expect that support for Windows 7 will probably last several years more than your Asus laptop.

[bobbin]

Slightly off topic but surly related...........

I am more than a little frosted that less than six months ago I bought a "real" copy of windows 7 pro and MS office for my ASUS laptop. I paid roughly 9,000k for these. Now, of course, MS has came out and said that they are no longer going to be supporting windows 7 and thereby forcing us all to transition over to windows 8.0.

My question is this, how long do we truly have before security is an issue for using windows 7.0? Hell, that was my number one reason for upgrading to a "real" copy of windows. So that I could maintain the upgrades and maintain some sort of internet security for online banking.

On topic question I think as anyone planning on buying a new laptop should at least (I think) be asking this same question...............

Advice truly and greatly appreciated. And yeah, I am still a little pissed over buying this to then find out shortly it would no longer be supported as Bill Gates needs to restock his treasure chests. . Fricken MS...........................................................

Whenever I see Bill Gates getting attaboys for donating money to charity, and he and his foundation do donate millions, I think Good For Him........... It is not his money he is donating, it is ours.

Gotta love a long rant based on incorrect information...

BTW, it is his money and he is giving it away. He and his wife will be doing good things long after they pass away due to the massive amount of money he has and will be donating. Unlike that other guy.

[BB1950]

[...]

I am more than a little frosted that less than six months ago I bought a "real" copy of windows 7 pro and MS office for my ASUS laptop. I paid roughly 9,000k for these. Now, of course, MS has came out and said that they are no longer going to be supporting windows 7 and thereby forcing us all to transition over to windows 8.0.

[...]

Microsoft still supports Windows 7! It's Windows XP that is not officially supported anymore since April 8th this year. Windows XP had been supported for more than 12 years, thus, you can expect that support for Windows 7 will probably last several years more than your Asus laptop.

Yeah, the end of support for Windows 7 SP1 is January 14, 2020. Maybe he's confused because the Windows 7 RTM support ended on April 9, 2013. But if he had his updates enabled, he should be running SP1.

Possibly he's confused between mainstream support (which ends January 13, 2015) and extended and extended support (which ends January 14, 2020). Mainstream support offers full support, extended support offers offers only paid support and security updates, but doesn't offer hotfixes, design changes, and feature requests.

Microsoft typically uses 5 year cycles between support intervals. Windows XP support was extended because of the Vista fiasco.

ref: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

Edited April 14, 2014 by BB1950

[slipperylobster]

Slightly off topic but surly related...........

I am more than a little frosted that less than six months ago I bought a "real" copy of windows 7 pro and MS office for my ASUS laptop. I paid roughly 9,000k for these. Now, of course, MS has came out and said that they are no longer going to be supporting windows 7 and thereby forcing us all to transition over to windows 8.0.

My question is this, how long do we truly have before security is an issue for using windows 7.0? Hell, that was my number one reason for upgrading to a "real" copy of windows. So that I could maintain the upgrades and maintain some sort of internet security for online banking.

On topic question I think as anyone planning on buying a new laptop should at least (I think) be asking this same question...............

Advice truly and greatly appreciated. And yeah, I am still a little pissed over buying this to then find out shortly it would no longer be supported as Bill Gates needs to restock his treasure chests. . Fricken MS...........................................................

Whenever I see Bill Gates getting attaboys for donating money to charity, and he and his foundation do donate millions, I think Good For Him........... It is not his money he is donating, it is ours.

Don't forget...Microsoft and Apple are not the only options.

Try a linux distro... Some of them are actually very simple to put on a thumbdrive. No need to even install many of them, "Puppy" will run itself in RAM. Best part of all this is, you just turn off the computer and pull out your thumbdrive for security. No traces of your passwords or bank/credit info and private documents left on the laptop. Also...can plug that into any other computer you have access to.... No more crappy, bloated, infected, monopolized Windows.. I am laughing at Bill. Actually I do keep windows 7 installed on my laptop...but only use that for gaming or playing. Linux is for the serious stuff.

[slipperylobster]

Forgot to add..................Linux is free...free I say.... and free updates...and free support. Take that bill.

[phazey]

Forgot to add....... Linux needs a little bit of a clue.

[slipperylobster]

Forgot to add....... Linux needs a little bit of a clue.

There are so many distros out there, and some are pretty user friendly. I used many of them, but SolydX seemed to work out best for me. A ten minute easy installation. I use an eight gigabyte bootable thumb drive.

You o need to know how to select USB booting from your bios....mine is the F1 key.

The Linux of your choice is downloaded. A program called USB Installer is downloaded as well. Very self explanatory. Run the USB installer and load the Operating system on the USB. Turn on your computer and select boot from bios.

Almost all the distros are in live mode...so no need to install in on your hard drive just yet. You just run it of the usb. Pretty simple stuff.. Easier than installing windows. Most of the software is incuded. You just click on the menu as you would in windows to run a browser or anything else. Solydx comes with firefox and tons of other stuff. easy to download more. It is not harder...just different.

If you install in on your harddrive...make sure you put it alongside windows...do not erase bill's money making machine. You will have the choice of using either. If you put linux on a separte hard drive partition, then things may get a bit more technical (formatting/partioning/boot menu) ..but not unreasonable.

I keep it on a different partition, but had to fiddle with the boot manager to get both systems working. All this is avoided if you choose the first installation option of putting it alongside windows...

Linux MacPup needs not installation ever... it just loads off the usb into ram and then, when you shut down, it saves everything back on the usb.

Most of the others will not save anything. You load off the usb, and then you review it. Installation on hard drive must be made if you then decide you like what you see... You can use it off live CD but your settings will not be saved, nor any changes. That is actually a good thing...you can use it for security.....such as online banking.

[Rice_King]

For installing a Linux disto on thumb drives, I use the excellent LinuxLive USB Creator.

Supports many Linux distributions

They are almost all there: Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE, Mint, Slax, CentOS, ArchLinux, Gentoo, PCLinuxOS, Sabayon, BackTrack, Puppy Linux ...

No reboot needed

Are you sick of having to reboot your PC to try Linux? No need with LinuxLive USB Creator. It has a built-in virtualization feature that lets you run your Linux within Windows just out of the box!

Persistence

Having a Live USB key is better than just using a Live CD because you can even save your data and install software. This feature is called persistence (available only on selected Linux.)

[slipperylobster]

good info. I always end up installing anyways...on a 2nd hard drive partition. Some off the live distros will run faster of the hard drive. You can use the live mode if you only want to try it out....but might run a bit slower and make you think it is not as fast as windows. No need even to use a new laptop...get a second hand one cheap from somebody trying to upgrade. Your linux on their old computer will oftentimes run faster that windows on their new one. Save a whole ton of money. I got four dinosaur laptops I experiment with.