topic Re: Advice Laptop in Electronics

Advice Laptop

bonnielu — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 21:13:39 GMT

Spent four days buying and then cancelling Laptops. HSN--- BEST BUY--- STAPLES and Amazon.

I want a powerful model that will have enough speed and memory to do my pictures, stream movies and allow me to shop and write email. I was told to get a solid state with I7 and lots of Ram. I also would like a touch screen and good camera and sound.

I am going crazy. So much out there and a sale a minute.

Anyone have a brand they like or anyone have a model or any advice at all.

Re: Advice Laptop

mspatmac — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 21:31:33 GMT

@bonnielu You didn't mention if you shopped in a Best Buy store. My suggestion is to try before you buy. To me laptops are like handbags, a personal decision. They all vary so much in weight, size of screen, 17in on a laptop is pretty big. Price point is another consideration. I buy at best buy because I like service with my purchases. Since sales associates are not on commission they don't push the highest price. I personally wouldn't purchase on line as most laptops have a different feel, screen ratio etc. I am a mac girl and love mine. Everyone will have a different opinion but you have to be comfortable with it. Good luck

Re: Advice Laptop

Jordan2 — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 21:54:30 GMT

@bonnielu I am no expert in electronics, however I have read many times on these boards you could do much better than buying a laptop at QVC or HSN. I have always shopped for electronics at Best Buy.

Re: Advice Laptop

I am still oxox — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 22:09:57 GMT

I love my Mac Book, they are pricey but really worth it

Re: Advice Laptop

Nuttmeg — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 23:33:51 GMT

I buy Dell Alienware laptops, and XPS desktops.

The company has a nice 15" basic level XPS laptop for 1199. The i5-10300H is a very good processor paired with a Solid state drive. If you need a faster processor, more RAM, or larger SS drive, these items are available.

There should be many reviews for this product online.

Dell gives a one year in home warranty with this product.

Dell began selling a new 17 XPS laptop.

Re: Advice Laptop

bonnielu — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:52:19 GMT

I actually took one from Best Buy home this weekend, never opened it and returned it today. I realized that it would not have enough storage and since I did not research it before I bought it... I probably made a mistake. I too like Best Buy.

Re: Advice Laptop

glb613 — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 10:46:47 GMT

@bonnielu wrote:
Spent four days buying and then cancelling Laptops. HSN--- BEST BUY--- STAPLES and Amazon.

I want a powerful model that will have enough speed and memory to do my pictures, stream movies and allow me to shop and write email. I was told to get a solid state with I7 and lots of Ram. I also would like a touch screen and good camera and sound.

I am going crazy. So much out there and a sale a minute.

Anyone have a brand they like or anyone have a model or any advice at all.

The only way is to compare is to look at their specs and hardware installed. The things I look for is the processor, amount of RAM, video chip or card and storage. I'm a Apple gal and recently bought an iMac and I love, love, love the retina display. I do a lot of photos and videos so I need a lot of RAM and storage. I also play games and need a good processor. Another important thing to check is where the vents are. Over heating is one of the biggest enemies of a notebook computer.

In the past year I purchased a new iMac and Macbook pro. The Macbook I bought at Best Buy and the iMac from Apple. I prefer to buy local so I don't have to wait at home all day for a delivery. But, I couldn't find an iMac available within 250 miles of where I live. Good luck.

Re: Advice Laptop

gardenman — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 11:22:23 GMT

@bonnielu wrote:
Spent four days buying and then cancelling Laptops. HSN--- BEST BUY--- STAPLES and Amazon.

I want a powerful model that will have enough speed and memory to do my pictures, stream movies and allow me to shop and write email. I was told to get a solid state with I7 and lots of Ram. I also would like a touch screen and good camera and sound.

I am going crazy. So much out there and a sale a minute.

Anyone have a brand they like or anyone have a model or any advice at all.

For what you list as needs, pretty much any laptop will do fine. A lot depends on what you mean by "do my pictures." If you're doing intensive Photo Shop editing, a faster processor and say eight gigs of RAM could be helpful. If you just mean store your photos then anything will suffice. A solid state drive is pretty much standard these days with the newer Nvme drives becoming more common than the older 2.5" SSDs though both work fine.

I would highly recommend using a cloud service for photo storage like Prime Photos, or Google's/Microsoft's cloud. They'll back up your photos automatically and you can quickly and easily retrieve any photo you want to keep on the laptop. That reduces the amount of hard drive space you need dramatically and keeps your photos safe.

Streaming movies shouldn't unduly stress any reasonable laptop. ( My Chromebook streams movies just fine.) "Lots of RAM" is pretty much unnecssary for the needs you specify. Four to eight gigs should be more than enough. Likewise for the needs you specified an i7 is overkill. Any competent modern CPU will do the job fine.

The recommendations you've been given more apply to someone doing video editing or someone who does high-end gaming. For the needs you specified, pretty much any laptop will do fine. Your best bet is to head into stores and test the keyboards and trackpads to see how they feel to you. Find one that feels right and forget pretty much everything else. If you find a computer that meets your specs but has a lousy keyboard or trackpad, you'll hate it. And bear in mind if you buy an overly powerful computer you'll get much less battery life and it'll be more prone to overheating.