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Author Topic: What laptop would you buy, now?  (Read 15007 times)

Brad

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What laptop would you buy, now?
« on: April 23, 2015, 01:45:18 PM »
I'm considering a new laptop and need your advice as to what to get.  I don't play games and mainly use it for surfing the web from my Ultimate Command Recliner, so it does not have to be small and portable - I have tablets for that.

1. OS: I'll probably go Linux again, what is your favorite desktop Linux Distro and why do you like it?  I'm also open to getting Windows or OS X laptop but tell me why I should over Linux.

2. Hard Drive:  solid state vs. conventional and how big?

3. Optical: Is having a Blu-ray drive worth paying extra?

4. Size: okay I know I said size wasn't important, I'm considering a 15.6 inch screen but if somebody thinks it should be smaller or larger I'll consider it.

Any suggestions will be helpful.
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Travoli

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2015, 02:29:08 PM »
If you can wait, Intel is shipping its new Skylake CPUs this Summer. In addition to being faster, it'll be capable of wireless charging and wireless external monitor connections. Both of which would be pretty cool for a living room browser.
15.6 is a great size for recliner duty.  IPS screens are very nice (vs TN) because of the wide viewing angles. Matte screens are nice, but harder to find. SSD's are silent and fast.  Disc players are phasing out as people stop using CD/DVD/Blu Ray. It makes for a thicker, heavier machine.  For browsing, 128gb would probably be ok.  Anything more than that, I'd go 256gb.

I don't know what your budget is, but there are some nice machines in a range of prices.  I like ASUS.

Just got my parents this model, and almost bought one for myself.  http://www.amazon.com/N550JK-DB74T-Touchscreen-Aluminum-i7-4710HQ-Solid-State/dp/B00LO3K002/

And the super-thin, $$$ flagship version: http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ZenBook_Pro_UX501/
« Last Edit: April 23, 2015, 02:31:26 PM by Travoli »
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littleman

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2015, 03:15:55 PM »
I don't really have any recommendation when it comes to hardware but it seems that Ubuntu does a pretty good job of being compatible with lots of makes out of the box.  I'm partial to Debian myself and setting it up the way I like it.
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Brad

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2015, 03:31:52 PM »
Travioli - Some real good advice. Thanks.

>ASUS

Wow! Both of those are really good looking!  Thanks.

littleman - we are thinking along the same lines, seems like Ubuntu is going to have the most drivers, support and stability.  I'm kinda leaning toward Kubutu since I like the UI better than Unity.
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jetboy

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2015, 04:20:25 PM »
I'm way out of date with this stuff. I didn't realise that DisplayPort allows laptops to power multiple external monitors. Apparently the upcoming DisplayPort 1.3 will handle two external 4K displays.

I'm wedded to the ThinkPad TrackPoint, so that really limits my choice. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is very nice, but probably not fantastic value.
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werty

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #5 on: April 24, 2015, 01:49:08 AM »
Since I am a little apple b###h I would buy a macbook pro 15" retina and max out the ram. MAYBE the 13" macbook pro retina. Basically twice the price that they should be, but really easy to move into. "Migrate from time machine backup" and done.

I would ONLY ever buy a machine with an SSD. ANY MACHINE ever. So much better.
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BoL

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2015, 01:53:05 AM »
I'd also go with SSD given the choice, from what I've read even an external one via USB3 would perform better than an internal spinning disk.
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nffc

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2015, 07:05:11 AM »
New Macbook, all you need for browsing and the clincher.... Gold.
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Torben

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2015, 08:37:34 AM »
I recently upgraded an 8 year old Dell laptop that the kids are using. It was so slow that I don't know why I even bothered upgraded it.

Anyway, I tried putting a solid state drive in it just to see the performance impact on an way too old computer. When the old pita bios is done Windows 8.1 now boots in 15 seconds.

Imagine what a SSD can do you in a new computer.
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Brad

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2015, 11:11:29 AM »
I'm learning a lot in this thread:

Definitely going SSD based on your recommendations.

Hm, the Macbook is swimming back in the picture because so many of you have recommended one.  I always hate getting caught up in Apple's walled garden but maybe I should look at a Macbook again before I commit to Linux.

Linux is always a tradeoff with some plugins like Silverlight not working for me on it.  Mostly Silverlight does not mater, but our County government publishes real estate properrty owner maps  using Silverlight so that becomes a PITA.

How about chips?  I'm seeing i3, i5 and i7 all available is there anything I must have?
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rcjordan

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2015, 11:22:34 AM »
While you're building the perfect laptop, a backlit keyboard would be nice.  And, at least for me, touchscreen is pretty much worthless.
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nffc

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2015, 01:30:03 PM »
>maybe I should look at a Macbook again before I commit to Linux.

Why not have both, pretty sure you can run Ubuntu on most Mac's?
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buckworks

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2015, 02:13:06 PM »
I seriously love my 11" Mac Air. It does everything I need and its small form factor is great for travelling.

When I ordered it I maxed out every spec and it's more powerful than my desktop.
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Brad

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2015, 02:44:46 PM »
>Mac  Air

A friend, who is a writer, loves his Mac Air. He carries it everywhere, which makes sense.



>Why not have both, pretty sure you can run Ubuntu on most Mac's?

Now why didn't I think of that?  Of course Parallels will run Ubuntu on a Mac and that gives me the best of both OS's.  Thank you nffc, this is exactly why I posted. 
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rcjordan

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Re: What laptop would you buy, now?
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2015, 02:52:37 PM »
>11"

Yeah, I was going to post that my 13.1-Inch lenovo is on the brink of being too big.  It's fine for a semi-stationary desktop replacement but I really don't have to have all the real estate.
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