The wife has decided she needs to buy a new laptop to replace her ancient one. I've recommended Win10 Pro so she can use Bitlocker. She doesn't want to spend too much on it. She's a frugal person, doesn't see the need to spend a lot on such a device. I might convince her to spend 700 dollars. She's not a gamer, doesn't run any programs requiring lots of memory or the fastest CPU. She surfs the net, might watch an occasional movie on it, maybe video conference with her family. She won't be carrying it around, so, a 17" screen would be nice.

No refurbs. My experience with refurbs is that they're fine except that the battery charge life is sometimes next to nil.

Any recommendations? Thanks

Since you’re not looking at refurbs, I would check out Costco. They usually have a decent selection of middle of the road laptops. I prefer Dell over most other manufacturers.

It’s only a 15”, but it’s also only $600.

https://www.costco.com/dell-in...oduct.100646486.html

I've been extremely pleased with my Surface pro
I know its a little more than you want to spend but mine has been trouble free
When the wives IPAD dies, she said she wants a Surface.

Just about any $700 laptop is going to come with Windows Home, not Pro. You would probably have to upgrade it to Pro after you bought it, which costs about $100. You could probably get by with an i3 or i5 processor with 8gb of ram but I would recommend at least an i5 or i7 processor and 16gb of ram to make it last as long as possible. You should also look for as much storage space in an SSD as your price point allows. Usually an SSD can be upgraded down the line, but if you aren't comfortable opening your laptop to service it then the more space you have to start with the better. I would look for at least 500gb but that might be hard to find at $700 and 17" screen size.

Also, most new laptops have a HDMI out option now. So you might consider a smaller laptop and plug it into a larger monitor that you may already have available with an HDMI cable. Then you would have two screens available to work on, which is never a bad thing.

I would be comfortable with any brand name manufacturer I've used in the past like HP, Acer, Asus or Dell but would also be comfortable trying brands like LG or Samsung.

quote:

No refurbs. My experience with refurbs is that they're fine except that the battery charge life is sometimes next to nil.

Yeah... it can be hit or miss on the battery charge life. Still, the batteries are plug and play and not expensive to replace.

At Christmas time, so about 7 months ago, I bought one from cbc-computing and have been very pleased. I would buy from him again.

Lenovo W520 - Quad Core i7 @ 2.20 GHZ/16GB RAM/512GB SSD/ Windows 10 Pro!
Item price $269.00
Shipping was free...

I talked to the guy before I bought it on his ebay store and asked about the battery, which he checked before shipping.

cbc-computing
User ID cbc-computing (Feedback score 6445)
100% positive feedback
We specialize in laptops/desktops and most importantly great customer service. We've been in business on ebay for almost 10 years and our feedback speaks for itself. Thanks in advance for the opportunity to serve you.
https://www.ebay.com/usr/cbc-computing

I have noticed that prices were lower and supply was better before all of this Chinese virus stuff. When people started working from home the supply of laptops dried up but it should be coming back.

I buy HPs, Microsoft surface pros and Dells in that order.

I only buy from the business lines.

They last longer than I want to keep them.

The consumer lines are junk in comparison.

You should be able to find HPs and Dells off the company websites in your price range.

MS not so much in a value/price

https://store.hp.com/us/en/vwa...ness;brand=Essential

https://deals.dell.com/en-us/work/productdetail/4rw5

in my experience, personal and friends, i would get Surface, Thinkpad or panasonic. i’d consider dell commercial line but avoid hp.

definitely get SSD and at least 8GB memory, dual channel if possible, at least upgradeable.

does your wife need 17”? if you can accommodate, i’d go with a smaller system 13”/14” and connect a larger external monitor.

For a video conference application I would argue not to go the separate monitor route. You wind up looking somewhere else (at the separate monitor to see participants) and not the camera (on the laptop) so it looks odd to the other participants. A standalone webcam put near the monitor could solve that, but webcams are hard to find these days. And, you'd have to take away the money spent on the monitor and webcam from the budget for the PC.

There are a lot of options to add cost (faster processor, SSD drive etc.) and personally if it were for me I'd go for some/most of those. But if your wife is looking to economize, and is OK with good-not-great performance but really wants/needs a 17" Windows 10 Pro machine at $700, those are nice-to-haves rather than must-haves.

I second the idea of having a 17" laptop custom-made for you at Dell. I've bought made-to-order Dells before with good results. I checked some out and it looks like Win 10 Pro adds about $60 if you have them do it while they are making your PC. As an example, I got an "Inspiron 17 3000" system - 17.3" display, configured with Win 10 Pro, 1TB HDD, and 8GB RAM for $725 before tax.

Apologies in advance if the link below doesn't work for you. I tried it from here and it works for me but that may be because I've logged in and they have their 'cookies' set.

Here's a link to the build I wound up with, but I don't know if Dell's configurator works for inbound visitors

If the webmaster deities are cooperative, that link should wind up looking like this:

That Inspiron should be more than enough for many years to come. As others have said, the Business lines are more durable and future-proof but that comes at a cost. For the price that is a good option IMO.

If you're not far from Micro Center in Marietta it would be worth the drive. Great place, good prices, wide variety and good customer support. Have had good experience in the stores here in NVA.

I bought one like this (Lenovo 14s-IWL)in the last year from Newegg for mid $700's, free shipping and no tax. It came from Canada and took a week or two but it's the first computer I've ever had that lived up to being far superior to my last one. They have a SSD hard drive and go from button push to ready to use in 13 seconds. A smaller screen than you mentioned but exceptional in performance.
I shopped around and caught it on a sale and didn't pay the price advertised here. Their prices seem to bounce around often so you have to be patient to catch it when it's a deal.

https://www.cdw.com/product/Le...29!!!g!341828729960!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 220-9er,

Checkout Lenovo ThinkPad series....business grade components....they have an outlet for refurb/Scratch & dent too

Stick with the business models - Lenovo or Dell. I have had 3 Lenovo X1 Carbons. First one was a refurb. Those 3 computers have a lot of mileage on them and have been dropped a few times. No problems with any of them

I bought my wife a Dell Latitude refurb after her cheap Lenovo lasted just past the 1 yr warranty. Its going on 3 years with no issues. I got it from a local repair guy who stocked the refurb Latitudes. He is the one who told me only buy business grade stuff. Said the cheaper consumer ones all have problems with overheating and that is what does them in.

Lenovo is having a good sale on end of model year stuff. Anything in the "ThinkPad" line should be good. This one has Win10 Pro for $730. (Regular $1309.)

Lenovo Thinkpad

FYI Lenovo has a 50% off Groupon on some models.

For her needs, this one should work just fine as well.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/sho...3-laptop/nn3793dtrxh