quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Just read that Dell discontinued the Latitude line this year. Would this be a concern?

The brand name and numbering system has been discontinued. Instead of have 3000, 5000, and 7000 series Latitudes, it will be Base, Plus, and Premium of the Dell Pro line.

Similarly, the Dell Precision line of laptops will now be the Dell Pro Max line.

What laptop you pick should depend on how you are going to use it. At the school I substitute teach at, I see a wide variety of laptops and how they are holding up year after year. I have yet to see anything that would change my mind that midgrade or higher business class laptop doesn't hold up significantly better than your run of the mill consumer grade laptop. In the Dell Latitude, that would be 5000 series or higher.

I bought three of those for my kids during COVID and they are still going strong. The Apple MacBooks hold up well as do the Microsoft Surface products. When my oldest transitioned to taking college classes in high school, I bought him a Surface Pro. He showed me the notes he takes using the pen and it's fantastic. He's on his 4th year with it and I told him if he needs a new one, his 529 plan has the money for it, but he said it's fine.

If your aren't going to use a laptop on the go frequently, then lower grade ones will suffice.

I cannot imagine the rational for wishing for Windows Vista over Windows 11. Vista was awful and crashed all the time for me. I've had zero issues with Windows 11. My kids have had zero issues with it and I haven't heard anyone at the school complain about it either.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Get a 'Business Class' Laptop. They are generally more durable, built w/ better hardware, and are often are designed with a longer lifecycle in mind to meet the demands of Corporate Business User/IT Departments, which means greater/longer availability of batteries, parts & accessories.

I prefer Lenovo Thinkpads. My second choice would be Dell Latitudes. Both have excellent support resources available on their websites and they also generally offer longer warranties for their Business Class Laptop lines as well.

1. Yes, generally all laptops come with a Solid State 'Hard Drive' now.

2. Yes, Windows 10 and Windows 11 both have Anti-virus/Malware protection built in to the Operating System, so you really do need to add anything for that anymore.

ETA - One more thing...Both Lenovo and Dell have an 'Outlet' webstore where they sell Certified Refurbished and discontinued models, often at significant discounts. These Laptops are usually pre-configured w/ certain options, but in the case of 'Business Class Laptops' you will often find brand new contract cancellations/over-runs of Laptops that were either ordered and never delivered, OR delivered and returned, never used. Definitely something to consider...Seriously IMO.

+1 ... I also prefer Lenovo Thinkpads.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Just read that Dell discontinued the Latitude line this year. Would this be a concern?

The brand name and numbering system has been discontinued. Instead of have 3000, 5000, and 7000 series Latitudes, it will be Base, Plus, and Premium of the Dell Pro line.

Similarly, the Dell Precision line of laptops will now be the Dell Pro Max line.

According to the Dell website, the new 'Pro' and 'Pro Max' Laptops are, "professional-grade AI PCs and devices that deliver enhanced productivity, industry-leading security and manageability, and advanced sustainability." On that statement alone, I'd be inclined to purchase the legacy/classic Latitude if I were considering a Dell Laptop. I have ZERO need for AI in my PC...I bring my own intelligence to the keyboard.

Minus the AI drivel, the Latitudes had all that as well as all business class laptops do. The only thing I care about is the better durability those machine offer.

AI is the new Cloud; everything from shoe polish to governments will tout being AI enhanced, enabled, employed, and embellished.

MacBook Air all the way. I’ll never buy another windows machine. My MacBook is 10 years old and going strong.

I've always had good luck with Dell Latitudes, in fact the one I'm on right now is like 20 years old and still going.

And yeah, Win 11 sucks. I used both Win 7 (home) and Win 10 (work) for years and liked both. I picked up a 2nd laptop last year for minor tasks and it came with Win 11 on it. I futzed around with that for a day or two, decided "fuck this", wiped the brand new drive and installed Linux on it. Much better.

MSI - Most have metal cases and no "bloatware" - except of course that damn Microsoft OneDrive that always comes activated.

Apple all the way. I have kept various Apple computers going for a long time. The current offerings are amazing. I now have a MacBook Pro M4Pro 48GB RAM and love it. Should last me at least five years if not a decade.

Not sure where you are vis a vis Google. If you are in that universe, a high end Chromebook is nice. Easy to renovate. Stays updated.

For the use description… just get a tablet.

The Dell outlet site is a great option. I like the XPS line, but I like small and light with good battery life. Your needs may vary.

If you've been living with Windows 8, you have nothing to worry about Windows 11. It works just fine.

Lenovo Think Pad or Yoga.

I have the Yoga and like the presentation and built in tablet functionality.

On sale, quite reasonable. Probably have a Memorial Day Sale right now.

As plenty of others have said, get a MacBook Air. We have gotten about 10ish years out of every MacBook we have owned. Easy to learn and use and integrates well into the Apple Ecosystem.

quote:

Originally posted by ruger357:
MacBook Air all the way. I’ll never buy another windows machine. My MacBook is 10 years old and going strong.

^^^^
This or an iPad Pro with an aftermarket keyboard like this: https://www.amazon.com/your-or...rch_conn_mob_b_pop_3

Apple also has a refurbished store with full warranty. Outside of an educational discount from Apple, Costco is usually your cheapest route. Don’t skimp on memory or RAM just to save a little bit.

@ Para LOL (Flintstones…).

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
HP TouchDumb Ultrabook with Windows 8.1. Kaput.

Time for a new laptop. Recommendations please. Used mainly for simple things, web browsing, watching videos, doing emails. Nothing fancy, no gaming…

A couple of questions.

1. Are all laptops solid state built now?

2. Do all come with anti- virus/malware/spyware already installed?

Thanks.

Yes. Yes.

But get a Windows machine.

Then after it dies in another five years, then just buy a new one. Keep your most sensitive and important stuff backed up to an encrypted, secured, pay-for cloud storage provider. The best ones cannot decrypt your stuff because of the encryption typologies and internal policies followed. Even for those located in five eyes etc. countries. Then when you get another computer, just download it all again.

If your new unit will contain sensitive stuff, use Veracrypt, and KeePass, to encrypt your stuff (for data and files, and credentials and passwords respectively), so if the unit is stolen, you won't have to worry about it. BTW those products are free, mostly open source, and you can trust it. We use one of them professionally in my IT dept for sensitive stuff (among more sophisticated pay-for security providers).

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
HP TouchDumb Ultrabook with Windows 8.1. Kaput.

Time for a new laptop. Recommendations please. Used mainly for simple things, web browsing, watching videos, doing emails. Nothing fancy, no gaming…

A couple of questions.

1. Are all laptops solid state built now?

2. Do all come with anti- virus/malware/spyware already installed?

Thanks.

HP has always been good to me as well. Windows 8.1, impressive that you were able to milk it along.

I've had pretty good luck with HP Pavilions. The one I'm on will be 6 years old next month. I'll probably upgrade it to Win 11 once support goes away for 10. The one before lasted over 10 years before the display went. I will probably get another if this one craps out. Always appreciated the speaker sound quality on these. Certainly not much love for HP around here though.

HP or Dell business lines only.

I have several HPs all working, all many years old.

The consumer lines are considered disposable.

Apple, if you are into their ecosystem.

You pay a premium for Apple, but it is worth it if you have their other stuff.

I either buy off eBay or refurbished directly from the OEM.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:

Apple also has a refurbished store with full warranty. Outside of an educational discount from Apple, Costco is usually your cheapest route.

My grandson, who was in college at Penn State, told me that the discount was 5%. If you're eligible for Military discount (active or veteran), it's 10%, which will stack with the Apple refurb discount, so around 25% total discount.

Disclaimer: You couldn't pay me to use an MS-Windows machine. Far, far too many bad/frustrating experiences dealing with them when I worked in I.T.

For the rare occasions I need a laptop I've an old Dell Latitude D530 my employer gifted me when I retired. It dual-boots Linux and MS-Win 7 Pro—the latter of which I only ever boot into to see if it still runs.

It's heavy, doesn't have a lot of runtime on battery, and the screen isn't awfully bright, but it works.

When it eventually bites the dust I'll replace it with either another, up-to-date-ish Dell equivalent, upon which I'll run Linux, or a MacBook.

In any event I would not have a Lenovo machine (1) or an HP (2).

The choice will mainly boil down to whether or not I'll be able to do everything I want with a MacBook.

For me a laptop is more a tech tool than anything else. It spends 99-44/100% of its time in its laptop bag, collecting dust. But when I need it, I need it. That's why I have one and why I'll replace it.


(1) Lenovo is a Chinese manufacturer.
(2) HP once-upon-a-time made terrific calculators and test equipment, great laser printers, and decent minicomputers, but I was never impressed with anything else they made.

While I agree with the business class suggestions if you want a cheaper option, I have bought a few refurbished laptops from WOOT for under $300 when I don’t want to risk an expensive one. My current laptop for out in the shop is used for reading shop manuals, web surfing, how-to videos, and such. It runs Office including Viszo and I use it to manage my home automation system. It cost about $250ish and for general light use it has been fine for the last few years.

The problem with Apple is the OS is different enough, that you need to learn it. It isn’t that hard to learn, but it can be a PITA, especially if you still need to use windows for work. My mac airbook rarely gets opened since I left our company's mobility program where I used it for managing the iPads we issued. It seems like every time I used it, I had to google how to do something.