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.

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.

I would agree with nhracecraft 100%. Lenovo doesn't come with anti malware but I have had really good luck with Windows Defender. I haven't checked lately but it was highly rated when I bought my Lenovo E-16. The laptop is solid but maybe a bit heavy if you travel a lot with it.

Dell Latitude would be my suggestion, but that's all we order at work, so it's what I know.

A Latitude 35_0 will have a 15in screen & is their entry level
Latitude 55_0 is a step up, nicer materials & usually a bit better spec
I have a Latitude 7340 for my work computer

For the Latitude line, the first digit is the level, 3 5 7
2nd number is screen size. 3 lile mine is a 13in, the 5s above are 15in
3rd & 4th are incremental series numbers.

I think the current on the 3 series is a 3540 for a 15in. Might be 3550 by now.

All of ours came with SSD & 8gb RSM. We usually order a 2nd stick of RAM & install in house. Cheaper & faster than getting them spec that way.

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 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.

I would second the Lenovo Thinkpads.

I use them at work, gets docked/undocked multiple times a day, brought home nightly, and used on the weekends as well.

Super durable, never an issue with them (2 in the last 8 years, only upgraded for more power).



.

Just read that Dell discontinued the Latitude line this year. Would this be a concern?

If you want the taste of freedom outside the Microsoft, Apple or Google umbrella checkout System76 as they are fully open architecture and end consumer repairable.

quote:

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

I think it's more of a rebranding than a retirement.
I forget the new naming scheme, but I believe they're effectively that same internals with a new name.

I'd have no problem buying a remaining Latitude. Precision or XPS if you need more performance. But the Latitude is more than sufficient for daily tasks.

♫ Flintstones! Meet the Flintstones!...♫

If you decide on Dell, you can buy, at a higher price, directly from Dell. As for used or refurbished Dell business class, I highly recommend Ebay for excellent refurbished Dell but, much prefer their Precision line of either the M7710 or M7750. The latter is a machine costing over 5K new so you get a lot of Dell at Ebay for just a few hundred bucks. Mind you Q, these are a 17.3 inch, not heavy to take with you but, most all come with a sizable SSD and pleanty of memory. They can be upgraded to the next millennium. Great machines for the $. Good luck.

I'm using a Thinkpad running Linux. Here is my absolutely honest opinion.

Get a 15" macbook air

Highly recommend Apple; MacBook Air

They have a refurb site, better than new and 15-25% off. Are you a Veteran? with IDme, you get another 10% off that

Mac is as solid state as it gets, fast, intuitive, needs no anti-virus and last years longer than any big-box-store PC (My last one ran a good 11 years to include plenty of travel, field time plus a year in Africa with the Army)

https://www.apple.com/shop/ref...shed/mac/macbook-air

I would heavily second a Macbook. For the usages above, I would even say an iPad has suited me just fine for that stuff. I attach one of those magnetic smart keyboards when needed, and connect a BT trackball or mouse when needed as well.

But for all of the above listed usages, an iPad has been fine for me as long as the display size is sufficient.

God willing, I will never buy another Windows based device in my lifetime again. But if I did, it would be a Dell Latitude or similar model. Never HP. Never Lenovo. I don't even think about Asus or Acer.

I have had 3 Lenovo X1 Carbon Thinkpads in the last 10-12 yrs. I always bought the 3 yr on site warranty. I have only had 1 problem in all those years. I forget what it was, bad screen maybe. Anyway, they were at my office the next day and had it fixed. They are light weight, with 14" screen.

I got my wife a refurb Dell Latitude 5-6 yrs ago and it has never had a problem either. Both are top notch computers

I'm forced to use Windows 11 at work and absolutely despise it.

I had used Macs off and on since I was a kid, but because of work and school always had PC's at home. Once Windows 10 came out I started playing with Linux on Thinkpads, but eventually capitulated and went all Apple. Best decision ever.

Buy a MacBook Air especially if you use and iPhone.

The Apple ecosystem is just too good.

quote:

I'm forced to use Windows 11 at work and absolutely despise it.

Win11 makes me long for Vista.

They all come with anti virus but it’s the trial subscription kind. I’ve heard Windows Defender is good enough. I don’t use it because the back up program that I use, Acronis, comes with its own malware protection.

I still see laptops offering non-SSD hard drives.

I always like a separate graphics card because I believe a separate graphics card makes Excel number crunching faster than just more memory and I also have 4 monitors including the laptop screen. So my latest I bought early this year was a gaming laptop.

I stick with Dell. I tried HP and I forget the reason I didn’t like it. I also had a Gateway once or twice.

If cost isn't too much of an issue, and assuming Windows platform is preferred, I like Microsoft Surface laptops. We use them as our laptop platform at work. 100% solid state drives, touchscreen for zooming is sometimes handy. I agree Windows Defender is as good as any other signature based AV. There are better more sophisticated security tools out there, but they would better be referred to as Endpoint Protection vs AV.

The good news is, you'll be in a far better security posture with any new laptop sold that has a modern (patchable) version of Windows than you were with Windows 8 and any AV under the sun. Once the OS is no longer supported, it doesn't get security patched anymore. The next update that comes out for the remaining, currently-supported OS's will reveal to attackers which vulnerability they fixed. Often, that same vuln existed in the old version that isn't supported/patched anymore, and they go after it. So it's sketchy to use unsupported OSs.

I use Mac at home because I like the interoperability with my iPhone (Messages, Photos mostly).

I bought a basic 15" Acer from Costco for $350 on sale for my basement to use in my gunroom. Works great and I used a Logitech keyboard/mouse and spare 26" monitor with a leftover docking station. I have taken the laptop with me on a trip and it's a good size for utility and still being light/portable.

My 17" gaming laptop that's my daily user outside of my Macbook issued from my job is only 7lbs but no need to take it along.

I second the reco for a Macbook; at $999 it's hard to beat for all around use but the Acer I got is a great "browsing/MSOffice use" alternative for 2/3's less. Doesn't need to be an Acer mind you; all major brands offer good options under $500 these days which is more than I spent building a tower as my first PC back in the 90's.

I've had a few Dell Latitude laptops as well as a couple of Macbook Pros and always had good luck with all of them. My most recent laptop is a higher end Lenovo Thinkpad with 32 Gigs of RAM. It has been my favorite by far. The extra RAM is worth ever penny.