What do you guys use for a laptop?

[JohnS.]

I've gone on a few vacations this year and have come to the realization that I want a laptop. I'd mainly use it for uploading and viewing photos from my camera and general web surfing/video watching/music/movies when I'm bored. Obviously I don't need anything fancy to do any of that but I don't know much about laptops so I'd like to see what others use. Budget? Under 400 would be great. If I could play games on it too, that'd be nice. I'd probably install less graphic intense games like minecraft or league of legends. Something to make the time pass.


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[rexbobcat]

My laptop is...expensive. You might look at the Dell XPS Some of them are expensive, but I'm positive you can find others that have enough graphical horsepower to play games and do general surfing without breaking the bank.

 

[SnappingShark]

I run a suped up Macbook pro 13" from 2012.
Memory boosted to 16gb, original 500gb HDD removed and 500gb SSD installed. DVD removed and extra 256gb SSD installed.
Works a treat. Hooked up to a 24" DELL HD monitor, using external Apple keyboard and trackpad, and a Wacom tablet (medium) for editing.

However for under $400, I'm not sure. Probably an XPS, or an Acer of some sort.
I would look into the second hand market too - you can get some good deals.

 

[table1349]

Maxed out Mid 2009 17" MPB. MBP's are not in your price range but if you can afford one, you can make them last a long time. This thing runs great. Never had a Windows laptop that would work this good after 5 years.

 

[keyseddie]

Macbook pro with loads of extra memory. Way over your budget but Mac products are all I've ever used.

 

[robbins.photo]

I use an older Dell Studio 1745, I3 processor and 8 gig of ram. Gets the job done pretty well, I like the bigger screen since my eyesight isn't the greatest and the full sized keyboard since I have big bear paws and the average laptop keyboard is just too small IMHO. It is a bit of a job carrying the thing around though, it's a big laptop so it has it's own carrying case. Normally when I'm out and about I'll just use the tablet for most light duty stuff, I only take the laptop if I'm planning to edit on site which is pretty unusual for me.

 

[astroNikon]

Dell Inspiron 15 .. not the fastest, or lightest, or smallest (but a nice 15.6 HD Display) but I run all my software on it. Lightroom, etc.
It's my desktop, laptop and tablet (it's a touchscreen too).

It's $450 after I just checked the price but I think I got it as a Christmas special for $400 or $350 new. Get it without the touchscreen and it saves some $$$

It won't match the speed of other high end laptops but it get's the job done and has the features that I need.

 

[limr]

Actually, I just replaced my laptop. It gave me the Black Screen of Death a few days ago and even though literally baking the motherboard at 350 degrees F for 5 minutes can 'fix' the problem, I decided that it was finally time for a replacement. I'd had a 17" HP Pavilion dv7 that was 6 years old. It worked great until Friday.

So I ended up getting another 17" laptop (this time a Gateway) for $500 but went through a lot of options before I settled on that one. Here's a quick search on Newegg for laptops $310 and under. I also filtered for screen size (a lot of the options are essentially netbook sized with 10 or 11" screens) with 14.8 minimum size (no reason for the $310 and 14.8" limits - that's just where the slider stopped and it was close enough for government work )

Shop Laptop Computers- Newegg.com

At that price point, mostly Acer or Celeron processor (or both) come up in the search. I personally didn't want the Celeron processor but it does certainly bring the price down. There are a few refurbished machines with more modern Core processors. Increasing the upper limit to $350-400 will definitely give you more options. If you search on Best Buy, there are tons of options as well (again, mostly Acer but a few HPs and a random Toshiba or two.) I tend to avoid the Marketplace but if that doesn't bother you, then you can increase your options.

 

[D-B-J]

Similar to others, I use a suped up Macbook Pro. Lots of ram, big video processor, and 750GB HD. Works like a charm, and had it since June 2011.

Jake

 

[astroNikon]

My last laptop $350 was an HP Pavillion until it bit the dust this past December after nearly 5 years of use (just before the NetBook craze hit). I replaced the Harddisk and now my kids use it.

I really like my old and new laptop keyboard layout as they have the numeric keypad on the right, which compensates for the larger screen.
The screen on my new laptop though is tons better than the old one, though still has some deficiencies.

 

[Pejacre]

Macbook Pro here too, a 2014 with Retina, 16GB RAM and 500 GB SSD

 

[cynicaster]

I've gone on a few vacations this year and have come to the realization that I want a laptop. I'd mainly use it for uploading and viewing photos from my camera and general web surfing/video watching/music/movies when I'm bored. Obviously I don't need anything fancy to do any of that but I don't know much about laptops so I'd like to see what others use. Budget? Under 400 would be great. If I could play games on it too, that'd be nice. I'd probably install less graphic intense games like minecraft or league of legends. Something to make the time pass.

My on-the-go computing solution is a Microsoft Surface tablet. It has the small/light/thin form factor you'd expect from a tablet, and a USB port that enables me to review photos directly off of my DSLR using a standard cable or USB card reader. Quick and easy, and no "cloud" or Wi-Fi is required. The USB port is also good for an XBOX controller if games are your thing. Of course, it also does the usual web surfing, video watching, music playing, etc. just fine. You can beef up your storage by means of a micro-SD card (I've got a 64 GB card in mine). This is nice for storing lots of music and movies for on-the-go entertainment, or even as a means of backing up your photos in the hotel room before dinner (again, by means of that glorious USB port). I got my Surface on black friday for $200, and love it. It's the "first gen" model, which is by no means a powerhouse, but for light computing along the lines of what you described it is perfectly adequate--don't let anybody tell you different.

I should mention that the Surface is an ARM-based device and thus cannot run "full Windows" software like Photoshop. It's not much good for photo editing, beyond a handful of apps that will do Instagrammy type things. This doesn't bother me though, because I do all of my "heavy lifting" tasks on my i7 desktop at home, while sitting in my big cushy office chair, with lots of desk space, a 24" monitor, wacom tablet, keyboard, mouse, and all that.

If you're looking for an all-in-one device that you would use regardless of whether you're at home or traveling, then a budget laptop is probably the best bang for your buck.

 

[jeveretts]

I use a Lenovo Yoga Pro 13", i5 8GB and a 256GB SSD. It just seemed an all around better laptop than a Macbook Pro, better display, lighter, folds into a tablet. A bit pricey though. I am not sure how it does with games, my guess is not so great.

 

[IzzieK]

Mine is a two-year-old Asus gaming machine, bought merely to use for travel and recipe searching for dinner meals and Photoshop to do quick edits. Changed to SSD harddrive for primary this year, maxed out my RAM last year and it is running like an expensive Mazerati, Windows 7, dual core processor, Intel i7 with 3 harddrive altogether and I love it. Constantly using it here downstairs so I can watched the animals downstairs make a fool of themselves or behave. Last year, I barely touched it because it was so slowwwwwww. I thought maxing the RAM will do it Wrong. It was dead weight going to and back from Australia as I was so embarrassed to even show it to my kids over there. Anew SSD drive changed the speed a lot more than I can ever imagined it would.