My wife wants to buy a new laptop, and she really needs it. Her current laptop is running Windows Vista, and she understands that he should never connect to the internet with it.

It's going to be Windows 11 Professional and I'm going to get her using Bitlocker to store her data on separate magnetic drives, bitlocked.

I favor Dell computers and U have a Dell Inspiron 5770 I bought in 2018. One terabyte SSD, 32 GB RAM, 8th gen Core i7 processor and it's pretty damn fast.

I don't want to look through a thousand models and brands, and I like buying directly from the manufacturer when possible.

Think this link will show the configuration I've chosen for her:

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus

Intel Core Ultra 7 155H; 1TB SSD; 16GB, 2x8GB, LPDDR5X

Display is 16", 16:10 2.5K 2560x1600

$1050

Or:

Inspiron 15 Laptop

$830

She's willing to spend 1250.00 if necessary. The 1 TB SSD, at least 16 GB RAM and a backlit keyboard are a must. A numeric keypad would be useful for her, but not necessary. A 16:9 display would be nice, which is why I include the Inspiron 15 (which also has a numeric keypad, which she likes).

She may watch movies on it. She's not a gamer, not a power user but I want her to have something that doesn't become an antique in three or four years.

Again, there are a zillion options. These are just a couple of possible configurations. I go cross-eyed if I look at this stuff too long.

Any expert/semi-expert opinions would be most welcome. Manufacturers other than Dell will be considered but any computer manufacturer you can mention, someone always has a gripe about them, call them crap, etc. I know Dell and that's why it's the starting point. Thanks.

I'll throw my $0.02 in.

I favor Dell's Latitude series business class computers. I've seen them beat to crap at work and still run. The Inspirons are consumer grade.

Dell's code for Latitude series is pretty simple:

3000 - economy
5000 - mid-tier
7000 - upper-tier
9000 - premium

The second digit will be the diagonal screen size.

Last two digits will be the generation of Intel processor.

I recommend sticking with the 7000 series or 9000 series of Latitude.

I think the RAM is now all soldered in for the 7000 and 9000 series. Some of the 7000 series may still have user replaceable solid state drives.

I know Lenovo has equivalent business class computers. But I don't know anything more about Lenovo other than that.

Dell is always a safe bet and either of the boxes you listed should serve her well for years to come. I've been using a Latitude for over 10 years now and it's still running great.

That said, there's a big kerfuffle going on right now around the latest Intel CPU's. Apparently the gen 13 and 14 chips are failing at a scary rate, and Intel is being very non-cooperative about helping people out. Intel claims the motherboard makers are overclocking the chips to bump up performance and that's causing them to overheat and quit working. The motherboard makers say that Intel asked them to overclock them so that they (Intel) could claim better performance numbers to impress the gamers. In any case, a lot of end-users trying to get RMAs from Intel to swap the chips, are being denied.

In light of all that, I'd recommend checking what generation the CPU(s) you're looking at are, and think seriously about backing off to something with a gen 12 CPU. It should provide all the horsepower she needs without being too bleeding-edge.

My choice would be the 16 plus and I would add the dedicated 8 gb graphics card!!

just buy a alpanumeric keybad hat plugs in via usb!!

I'm not an expert but not entirely unfamiliar either.

My last laptop purchased has firmly moved me away from Windows and into Macbook Pro. I don't have any regrets and I love the Time Machine capability. The Intel HW is good but I just couldn't take Windows anymore. And also, Macbook just made sense for me given iphone, ipad, apple pay, apple music/books.

This being said, if I were to continue with Windows, Dell would be my only choice. I avoid HP. I respect Thinkpad (the original line started by IBM) but won't buy Lenovo (chicom). I won't buy Taiwan or Korea either.

Of the Dell lineup, I'd be partial to their commercial models which seem a little more robustly built. Latitude (anything that starts with 7 or higher) in particular. XPS would also be okay. Inspiron would be a trailing 3rd - it's a cheaper line - still good but would be 3rd choice.

I would be open to Core Ultra 5 if one is not a power user and there is an appreciable price difference (should cost about $100-200 less?). I can't tell the difference between Ultra Core 5 vs 7. I would, however, buy an "H" processor instead of a "U" processor for any given gen.

I would also consider LP5 2x16 32GB. Or DDR5 with user upgradeable memory. DDR5 may result in less battery life though. Windows 11 still suffers from memory leaks and I found 16GB to be wanting. It's okay but if it's manageable, I'd opt for 32GB, especially for future proofing a bit (AI based video calling, Copilot, or other AI stuff like image generation).

Sounds like the laptop would be used standalone much of the time (always?). If not, I'd consider a 14" display and use a bluetooth keyboard, mouse and external monitor. 14" is noticeably more portable for me. If it will be used in standalone mode often, then 15" has been plenty big for me (but I don't have a numeric keypad - perhaps an external one would be sufficient?). 16" is too big for me to carry around.

I'd recommend a IPS display.

I would think that new models are coming out for the holiday sales season if you can wait. It may be worth picking up something then if another 2 months is tolerable.

Does you wife use and like an iPad (or tablet)? My wife does and I bought her a Lenovo Yoga She's almost moved away from the iPad and doesn't mind using the Yoga for her desktop replacement. It has decent graphics and a slightly smaller than laptop keyboard. If your wife is not a tablet user, this is a less than optimal choice.

I'll 2nd the Latitude suggestion. It's all we buy at work & have been through nearly a thousand in the 11 years I've been there.

The current crop are all pretty solid. We primarily buy the 35xx series, for the cost. 55xx for a user needing a but more power.
I have a 7340 & it's great, but small with the 13" screen.
My prior machine was a 7440 and I ran it for about 8 years.

IIRC, most should be user serviceable for the SSD, but above is correct on the RAM, at least for the smaller models. I'm stuck with 16gb, not knowing at the time of order that it wasn't upgradeable.

My coworkers have a Precision & XPS, but they were both 2500+ on cost. Helps when it's not your money you're spending

I have always been a Dell fan. I was a Dell Reseller in another life, years ago…early 2000’sup to about 2015.

I don’t have much in for on specific models, but model “Lines”…

Back then (could have changed) the Inspiron was their “economy” line and had a near complete plastic frame inside the case. Lots of flex. They also had a sub par cooling system compared to the Latitude line.
The latitude had an aluminum (or alloy) frame that made it much stiffer.

The Vostro line was also a good choice several years ago.
XPS (I presume) is still their high end gaming system line.

Most of what I worked on back then were Inspirons. But then, that was what every parent bought their teenager for college so the stats may be skewed.

If it’s any help, my Latitude was bought new in 2009 and is still making me money. And it has been banged around at on-site jobs and subjected to drastic temp changes from being left in the truck over sub freezing nights and 100+ degree days.
Yes, I have swapped to an SSD but that was for performance and space, not because the old one quit.

My main suggestions (and you probably already know this) get as much RAM as possible up front.

Again, I haven’t dug into the guts of a Dell laptop in years. All my info could be drastically out of date.

A comment on Bitlocker, and I'll preface it by saying I don't know a whole lot about it.

I use VeraCrypt to encrypt my external drives. It's open source and free. Your data (drives) can be portable to different PCs by having the host PC run the VeraCrypt software. It's considered really secure. It's also cross-platform (Linux, Mac), although I've never used it that way.

Bitlocker may have these features, but I don't know.

I bought a Dell laptop 4 years ago. I've been very happy with it and had no issues.

I recently upgraded to a similar dell. What I can say is that the 2560x1600 display does not work well for me. While videos etc. may be stunning the icons, menus and user interface etc. are way too small. Yes you can use the scaling, but why? I was much more satisfied with 1920x1080. So I suggest if possible to see one before you invest in higher resolution.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
My wife wants to buy a new laptop,

I have used IBM Thinkpads for "many" years..
Of course, now they use the Lenovo brand but still the finest in my opinion.

Lenovo has sales about twice per year where you can save 80%.

quote:

Lenovo has sales about twice per year where you can save 80%.

80% or 20%?

I have a very old (M4500, guessing 2004 or 2006 vintage) laptop that was a refurb, and works great, still have windows 7 on it,
and a more modern , maybe 10 yr old, dell that is also good,

and, a HP Elitebook that is maybe 5 yrs old, taht broke a key on the keypad, easy replacement (took it to a shop and let them do it) that I ike better than both dells,

Is weight a concern?

Both look good to me. The 16 plus has a much better screen. Price is a little high IMO but not outrageous. I am willing to bet you can get a great deal on either of those if you wait until Nov/Dec.

Here are some links, filtered for Dell, to check for laptop deals, ymmv.

https://www.dealnews.com/c49/C...rs/Laptops/b14/Dell/

https://slickdeals.net/laptop-...rand%5D%5B%5D=525818

I had trouble posting a clean link with this Filter, just check Dell from the brand drop down.
https://old.reddit.com/r/LaptopDeals/#ld

Good luck!

May want to check Ebay. I just bought Lenovo ThinkPad T490 Intel i7-8565U, 1.90GHz 16GB RAM 1TB SSD 2K Windows 11 Pro last week for under $200. It is super fast and works great. I put it on my watch list and then got an offer for $50 off (Order total: US $184.68).

I have had really good luck with ThinkPads.






https://www.ebay.com/str/ifixi...429486.m3561.l161211

The 16 plus (7620) is what I bought in Nov 2022 for $1700. So I think that's a pretty good price even after inflation.

I don't watch videos or do games on my laptop but I opted for a separate video card rather than the onboard graphics which I think uses the main CPU resources.

Also, what I use is a blue tooth keyboard and mouse for the numeric pad. Also, I use a laptop stand on my desk as it minimizes the strain on my neck looking down. This way I can look relatively straight ahead and switch between the computer screen and the TV.

quote:

Originally posted by Veeper:
Is weight a concern?

No.

Also, she's not getting anything that's used or refurbished.

I would check Costco. They run some great deals.

I miss the member who sold the Think Pads on here. I should of bought one.

I have a couple old hp's and they have been rock solid.