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which laptop

h90

By h90
in IT and Computers

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h90 Star Member

h90

Posted
Posted

Old laptop is now finally dead....I looked for a new one but I am overwhelmed by the amount of variety (and lack of detailed description).

What I want to do:

light office work, having sometimes tons of documents open+a virtual machine with WinXP, I would use 8GB

Windows 7 or 8 or 10 (I would rather avoid 10). I set it up myself

no games

good screen

about 14 inch

DVD not needed

camera for chat not needed

good keyboard

not too heavy

several hours of battery but no need for some extreme long time

later I may connect a monitor + keyboard at the weekend house.

My first idea was to buy a fair priced i3 or i5 of the latest generation.

upgrade from 4 to 8GB...now I got told that in some cases it isn't possible and in all other cases I may loose warranty

add a 128 GB M.2 SSD. I got told M.2 is still rare --> OK take out the HD and put in a 256 + USB HD or 512 and whine all the day about the price.

Old laptop has a very bad screen, so I consider something better, but got told that the High Resolution Screens show everything very small in Windows so it is hard to read (really??).

Any recommendations, tipps/tricks or some warnings about things I should not buy?

robblok Star Member

robblok

Posted
Posted

Just get a mac and put windows on it, i did so made the mac quite useful. Soon ill delete the whole mac operating system I tried it hated it. But the laptop is good.

Pib Star Member

Pib

Posted
Posted

First, focus on a brand or a couple of brands. Then do research at their websites. I swear by Samsung.

As far as I know Samsung got out of the laptop market about a year ago.

SantiSuk Ruby Member

SantiSuk

Posted
Posted

Agree with Chicog if you want a lightweight high quality rugged-build road-warrior laptop that won't give up if you drop it. But you have to pay for the better quality ones (in the $1k to $2k class) I have used X-series laptops (and before them equivalent ThinkPads) for close on 30 years. They were always the supplier of choice for my firm when I was working, which is one of the biggest global buyers of laptops and reputedly had more staff in the air at any one time than any other business.

Can't comment on the cheaper domestic use variety - at the very bottom I would not be surprised if they were as cheap/poor as Acer

Pib Star Member

Pib

Posted
Posted

I too like my almost 2 year old Lenovo i7 CPU based laptop...cost me Bt23K. Lots of laptops out there in a wide price range from under Bt10K to Bt50K and even higher. I would recommend you get at least an i5 CPU based computer to have some good horsepower for today's apps.

h90 Star Member

h90

Posted
  • Author
Posted

yes Acer is usually not good (just the laptop which died (actually just the HD)) was a very old Acer that never let me down......All other Acer died pretty fast.

Apple: Not an option

I got told that only the expensive Lenovo are good. Don't know if that is true. Paying 2K USD= 65KTHB when a reasonable other costs 20K isn't an option.

If the cheap one only lasts 3 years the Lenovo must be competitive at 9 years of age....

Yes I didn't saw Samsung Laptops anymore :-(

Thanks for the input so far.....

ignis Ruby Member

ignis

Posted
Posted

Anything but Acer, utter crap

But are they ??

Mine is the 4720G, with max Ram added when bought, the sticker date is 07/08 so well out of warentee, so is very old now....... it was expensive around 38,000 baht in its day, but has never gone wrong, is used often [about 50 hours a month] same OS [XP with the M$ OS key sticker on] even the same battery [OK not used on battery as would last a good 5 mins]

The only thing that went 2 months ago was the keyboard, new one fitted 1,000 baht... sure a new laptop would be a lot faster, but as this one works fine why change...

My old Sony laptop [cost £1,500+ in the UK in year 2000] the the screen went fuzzy could not see anything + unable to find a replacement screen at the time] that is why I bought the Acer.......... saying that the 15 year old Sony I used for IPTV for a long time, couple of years ago I installed kodi on and it works fine plugged into the the bedroom TV to watch TV..

JB300 Silver Member

JB300

Posted
Posted (edited)

If you don't want to spend the money on a Mac then I'd recommend Dell (for style) or Lenovo (for durability):

Google Dell Outlet factory & see what's available as they sometimes have brand new kit that's been returned for damaged packaging etc...

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=2201&c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Edited by JB300
Pib Star Member

Pib

Posted
Posted

First, focus on a brand or a couple of brands. Then do research at their websites. I swear by Samsung.

As far as I know Samsung got out of the laptop market about a year ago.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops

Well, let me rephrase that, they are getting out of laptops in some major markets around the world like apparently in Europe. Doing some googling on Samsung Getting Out of PC market a person comes up with quite a few of such links announcing their departure. And apparently they have pretty much got out of the Thailand market also....and I expect it could even be for SE Asia.

Two years ago when shopping for a new laptop here in Bangkok I came down to deciding between certain Lenovo and Samsung models...I went with Lenovo but did indeed like the Samsung models I played with. Back then Samsung laptops could be easily bought in Thailand stores and Thailand online sites, but now Samsung laptops have pretty much disappeared from Thai stores. Computers stores like ITCity, BananIT, JIB use to carry them and usually had a whole counter in their stores displaying Samsung laptops but no more. Just took a quick look at the Lazada, ITInvade, and JIB online websites and no Samsung laptops listed.

From my research a few years they did indeed appear to be good computers, but they have gotton on of some major markets of the world...those markets may have leaned more towards tablets...and Samsung is definitely a major player, maybe the major player, in the Android tablet market worldwide. But when it comes to laptops they seem to have decided to downscale where they market their laptops.

h90 Star Member

h90

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Anything but Acer, utter crap

But are they ??

Mine is the 4720G, with max Ram added when bought, the sticker date is 07/08 so well out of warentee, so is very old now....... it was expensive around 38,000 baht in its day, but has never gone wrong, is used often [about 50 hours a month] same OS [XP with the M$ OS key sticker on] even the same battery [OK not used on battery as would last a good 5 mins]

The only thing that went 2 months ago was the keyboard, new one fitted 1,000 baht... sure a new laptop would be a lot faster, but as this one works fine why change...

My old Sony laptop [cost £1,500+ in the UK in year 2000] the the screen went fuzzy could not see anything + unable to find a replacement screen at the time] that is why I bought the Acer.......... saying that the 15 year old Sony I used for IPTV for a long time, couple of years ago I installed kodi on and it works fine plugged into the the bedroom TV to watch TV..

my old Acer went as server....

1 broken hinge (most probably my fault).

2x or 3x HD broken....blame WD (at least for the last one).

1x of the 2x2 RAM died...also not made by Acer.

Tried yesterday to put in an old SSD...could install Lubuntu which is very snappy. But when you turn it off and on again it can't find a partition....so I guess the ROM is too old for the SSD. And old OCZ aren't exactly know for their compatibility....

But other Acers were a disaster.....

h90 Star Member

h90

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well that rating is worthless

Reviews.....bought usually

Tech support...never called one....

Design....I look ugly, if my laptop is too nice it would destroy my ugly appearance tongue.png

Display: valid point

Innovations: ????

Audio: valid point

Value&selection: Value OK....but selection: I don't care as long as I find one there fit

Software......I always install software myself

Where is speed

power consumption/battery life

Wifi quality....poor wifi can be a big hassle

stability of the frame

heat production

everything important is missing....and how do you rank a company that has a few excellent laptops and some very bad.

You would need a parameter like uniformity over the models.

With Reviews/Support/Desgin it is clearly made for a other kind of user.....More of the gig who want to show off in the shopping placa will drinking coffee.

But it is still an interesting thing to read.....

xylophone Diamond Member

xylophone

Posted
Posted

Had a Dell for a few years and very happy with it, finally gave it to the daughter and bought an HP Pavilion G4 which I've had for 3 years and have found it great.

Cost then about 14k baht but cheaper now and I think an updated model.

Sophon Gold Member

Sophon

Posted
Posted

Anything but Acer, utter crap

But are they ??

Mine is the 4720G, with max Ram added when bought, the sticker date is 07/08 so well out of warentee, so is very old now....... it was expensive around 38,000 baht in its day, but has never gone wrong, is used often [about 50 hours a month] same OS [XP with the M$ OS key sticker on] even the same battery [OK not used on battery as would last a good 5 mins]

The only thing that went 2 months ago was the keyboard, new one fitted 1,000 baht... sure a new laptop would be a lot faster, but as this one works fine why change...

My old Sony laptop [cost £1,500+ in the UK in year 2000] the the screen went fuzzy could not see anything + unable to find a replacement screen at the time] that is why I bought the Acer.......... saying that the 15 year old Sony I used for IPTV for a long time, couple of years ago I installed kodi on and it works fine plugged into the the bedroom TV to watch TV..

my old Acer went as server....

1 broken hinge (most probably my fault).

2x or 3x HD broken....blame WD (at least for the last one).

1x of the 2x2 RAM died...also not made by Acer.

Tried yesterday to put in an old SSD...could install Lubuntu which is very snappy. But when you turn it off and on again it can't find a partition....so I guess the ROM is too old for the SSD. And old OCZ aren't exactly know for their compatibility....

But other Acers were a disaster.....

I have only had two laptops in my life, the first one was an Acer Travelmate (don't remember the model no.) that I bought in Thailand in 2003. I replaced it in 2009, not because there was anything wrong with it other than the battery only lasting one hour, but because it was outdated and I wanted one with a bigger screen. It wasreplaced in 2009 with an Acer Travelmate 7730 that I am still using today, and other than the battery being completely dead it's still working perfectly. Neither laptop have ever required any repairs or replacement parts.

So for me that's two Acer laptops each one still working fine after six years of heavy service. I know not much of a sample size, but when replacing my current laptop Acer will be one of the brands that I will consider together with Asus, Lennovo and Dell.

Sophon

Sophon Gold Member

Sophon

Posted
Posted

Well that rating is worthless

Reviews.....bought usually

Tech support...never called one....

Design....I look ugly, if my laptop is too nice it would destroy my ugly appearance tongue.png

Display: valid point

Innovations: ????

Audio: valid point

Value&selection: Value OK....but selection: I don't care as long as I find one there fit

Software......I always install software myself

Where is speed

power consumption/battery life

Wifi quality....poor wifi can be a big hassle

stability of the frame

heat production

everything important is missing....and how do you rank a company that has a few excellent laptops and some very bad.

You would need a parameter like uniformity over the models.

With Reviews/Support/Desgin it is clearly made for a other kind of user.....More of the gig who want to show off in the shopping placa will drinking coffee.

But it is still an interesting thing to read.....

Agree, reviews and support accounting for 40% of the score with design being another 15% (as much as keyboard/touchpad) while value for money (important for most people) accounts for less than 5%. And with other important factor omitted as you mention those rankings are, at least to me, utterly useless.

A cynical person could suspect that the weighing of the different categories were tailor made to put Apple on top.

Sophon

Pinot Gold Member

Pinot

Posted
Posted

I'm a Lenovo fan as well.

I bought a cheap Dell in the states last year and was having irratating intermittent problems with it. Afte a couple of calls, Dell sent a tecnition out who changed the motherboard and battery. That's great service! However it did need service.

I also have an Acer that I've paid for over again getting it repaired, never again.

I wouldn't shy away from Windows 10. It's been great. Just make sure you have 8 Gb of ram.

dddave Platinum Member

dddave

Posted
Posted

While professional grade Lenovo machines may still be a good choice, I deeply regretted buying a consumer level Lenovo laptop as a graduation gift for a family member. Motherboard fried in six months and Lenovo's 3rd party service center in Pantip Plaza was horrendous...

dddave Platinum Member

dddave

Posted
Posted

There was a thread on this forum a while back with a list comparing repair stats for various laptop manufacturers. I just tried to find it but failed. Maybe a better searcher can dig it up.

slipperylobster Ruby Member

slipperylobster

Posted
Posted (edited)

upgrade to ais....you get a free one. Ok, it's is not a laptop, but it's android, just get a remote keyboard. does everything you want...with the luxury of not dealing with windows at all. I got two android boxes for free...just pay 800 a month for my wifi. Yep..got tv channels too (don't use them). I am not a gamer...just do all the things you do. Writing, spreadsheets, videos, music... I just got tired with microsoft manipulating every frigging laptop system with their bloated crap. You get apple and every other laptop is infested with windows. thats crap. Android is on most phones anyways...

plug it into your tv.for the best and biggest computer you ever had. I use a 49 inch screen.Screw those tiny laptop screens. I had 3 laptops in 5 years that all were more expensive to fix (overheating, power supplies etc). Each one costing 12,000 baht or more. This stuff I have is free (if you buy the wifi service)...so I bought my gal an IPad with the money I saved.

I can unplug the android box (the size of a paperback novel) and plug it into any monitor in any hotel that has wifi).

Edited by slipperylobster

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