Upgrading from a Laptop

[chiangrai]

This is a bit of a broad question and I don't want a huge debate.

My laptop(windows 7) is in hospital and I'm waiting for a diagnosis,

she may be terminally ill or dying of old age.

I know nothing about the machines I could upgrade to if I have to buy a new one.

Apple laptop

Apple Tablet or

Android tablet.

What I would be using it fo,apart from email,is downloading and editing.

I download torrents and uTube type files,video and audio.

Then I use VLC player to edit them,basicaly cutting them down to size,no mixing or anything.

So my opening questions are--! can I do that on a tablet

2 if not and I bought an apple laptop, would I run into problems downloading free...and would all the programs be more expensive.

[2008bangkok]

Damn that means your gonna have to come down the mountain if you want a knew one.

Maybe you could kill 2 birds wth one stone and post that ebay return while your there

[KittenKong]

I personally think that Apple software is a disaster. Badly designed, illogical and often incompatible with everything else, and usually locking you into paying Apple for extra things. Also very limited choice of free third-party software.

For the simple usage you describe if you dont like Windows (why not?) then a version of Linux like Ubuntu would do everything you need, mostly using free programmes that you may already be familiar with (Firefox, uTorrent, VLC). New PCs are quite often sold here with Ubuntu pre-installed.

A touch-screen tablet would not be my choice as I find touch-screens useless for any task that requires input or precision, though I suppose you could use a big tablet with an external Bluetooth keyboard etc.

[dddave]

Apple is fussy to learn, especially I-Tunes through which you will need to do almost everything regarding downloading and yes...you pay, and pay and pay.

Better Android tablets can run torrent aps and download from the net and output to your TV if the tablet has an HDMI port...not all do. It wouldn't hurt if you looked at some YouTube video tutorials: "Downloading torrents on Android"

I suggest you consider sticking with what you know; a new laptop if necessary and as it will probably have Win 8.1 as it's OS, installing "Classic Shell" and returning it to the Windows-7 environment you are familiar with.

[WhizBang]

I personally think that Apple software is a disaster. Badly designed, illogical and often incompatible with everything else, and usually locking you into paying Apple for extra things. Also very limited choice of free third-party software.

For the simple usage you describe if you dont like Windows (why not?) then a version of Linux like Ubuntu would do everything you need, mostly using free programmes that you may already be familiar with (Firefox, uTorrent, VLC). New PCs are quite often sold here with Ubuntu pre-installed.

A touch-screen tablet would not be my choice as I find touch-screens useless for any task that requires input or precision, though I suppose you could use a big tablet with an external Bluetooth keyboard etc.

Agree with pretty much everything KittenKong said.

If you really do not want another windows machine (why?), go with a flavor of Ubuntu. Touch precision on tablets is abysmal and an area that severly needs to be revamped if tablets hope to continue to grow.

Personally I would not buy anything apple, even if they were the only game in town, which, thankfully, they are not.

[chiangrai]

O.K...all clear advice.....

So If I go the windows laptop/note book route are there

ant tips for keeping the thing small and portable.

I don't want to go below a twelve inch screen,

What specifications do I need to look for to make sure the machine is

not slow,CPU size or something.

Are there certain brands that are more compact than others.

[robblok]

You can have an apple laptop like I do an macbook air and put windows on it. Don't tell it to Apple users they will crusify you. But the fact is the macbook air is quite a good laptop and if you put windows on it (make it dual boot) you can have both systems and see what you like best.

I use mainly windows and as other say I dont like the apple software itself.

[chiangrai]

Sounds good.....

Can you take the apple software off altogether

How much does it cost.

[robblok]

Sounds good.....

Can you take the apple software off altogether

How much does it cost.

You could in the end take it all off, however keeping it there is not a problem. How much it costs, that would be the price of a macbook air (configuration you can check on the site) plus a licence of win 8 or win 7.

Then i would also buy an usb drive as the macbook has an ssd drive and they get full fast especially if you put on movies.

I chose the macbook not because it was cheap but because it was small and for its size and battery power it was the best in its price-range. You can get cheaper and bigger laptops too.

http://www.invadeit.co.th/category/notebooks-laptops/

[samuijimmy]

I use very little of Apple's software, on my Mac Air and Mini, mostly I use third party free stuff, so you don't need to pay pay pay! Quite honestly you don't really need to use a windoooooze program on a Mac either!

Just be aware to check and add RAM on some of the newer Macs, you really need 8 g of Ram to run Yosemite... some cannot be changed later...

Not that hard to figure how to use.... much easier that Windooze 8... in my opinion!

[kkerry]

MacBook Air 13". 35k up... plus the cost of Windows.

Macbook Pro... 35k up, up, up plus Windows

Windows laptop: Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard disk, 13"-14" screen.

About 18-20k gets you a decent laptop for your needs, add-on the cost of Windows.

Upgrade to an i7 with 8GB RAM if you're serious about the video editing, 25k plus

Asus, Dell, Lenovo will all have models that fit the bill.

[Pib]

A person can buy an Apple laptop at a significantly higher price than other laptops, but when it comes to reliability in terms of hardware failures some other manufacturers have lower failure rates. For example see this SquareTrade reliability/repair report on various laptop manufacturers.

[chiangrai]

35k is way out of my price range

I've been looking at these convertible windows 8 touch and keyboard notebooks,

Lenova flec10 and flex2.

what would suit me best is a tablet that takes windows which could be used

with an external keyboard.

the editing I need is just trimming videos and audiobooks.

As I do with VCL record.record a section and delete the old file.

VCL for android doesn't have the record fungtion.

How do these convertibles or tablets manage for leaving them on all night downloading