What laptop to buy?
What laptop to buy?
I'm in the market for a new laptop. Preferably under $2000 and have good specs. 16 GB ram minimum and 500 GB SSD minimum. What recommendations does Lemmy have? If more details are needed please specify what and I'll answer
EDIT: thank you everyone for the answers 🙂 I do not need anymore suggestions
What are you going to use it for? You have to give us more details, a vague question will lead to generic answers that will probably not be the best choice for you.
Lenovo Thinkpad T14s AMD. Runs Linux perfectly, is fast, has a great keyboard, has a great trackpoint, and has good battery life.
If it doesn't run Linux, I don't buy the laptop.
There are computers that can't run Linux?
A lot of laptops have proprietary drivers that are Windows only. Wi-fi/touchpads not working is a common issue
Linux support for Apple Silicon is still early stages, for example.
My hp laptop has some bang & Olufsen speaker in it, and on Linux it sounds faint no matter what I try. Mic also very low volume.
None of the new removed laptops can run it really well at least. It's being reverse-engineered by a small team, so maybe everything works in a few years. You can buy a Dell or Lenovo with Linux pre-installed and all the hardware works. Not so with removed.
The Thinkpad E series AMD ones are also really good. I use one daily at work to run 2 monitors and its own (for 3 total). It doesn’t hiccup at all on an AMD 5000 chip with Ryzen mobile. Battery life is fabulous when running just its own screen. I routinely get 8 hours of web/office suite work done.
I’ve had good luck with Lenovo over the years. A job just got me an HP and I’m missing my last Lenovo.
Thank you for the recommendation I'll look into it
$2000 should get you something pretty nice. Do you have anything specific in mind that you're planning to do with it? Important stuff to keep in mind up front, in no particular order: do you play games? How big should the screen be? How long do you want to use it on battery? Any operating system preferences?
Hi thanks for the questions. I plan to just generally use for browsing the web, watching YouTube and of course Lemmy lol. I'd also like to use it for school work and coding. I was hoping to play some games on it yes. The screen should be around 13" as I'll be carrying it out a lot and need it to be portable. Above that its too big for me. I'd like a pretty good battery life around 7+ hour, enough to last an average day of use. No preferences on operating systems but I've only ever used windows and a tiny bit of Linux.
If your gaming is eSports, your battery life would benefit from an AMD iGPU rather than an NVIDIA GPU.
7840U for the CPU which is integrated graphics.
A thinkpad. You just can't go wrong imho
Do you have any specific one in mind?
I prefer thinkpads. My last one lasted 10 years before dying on me, they're just rugged and reliable, and usually you can buy them refurbished relatively cheap.
Have a Look at https://frame.work
I’m a Mac guy so my goto answer would always be something from Apple. If I was looking for non-apple hardware though I would look at Framework laptops because lack of upgradability is my biggest peeve about Apple gear.
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There’s no way to answer that question without knowing what you want to do with your laptop.
If you want anything but gaming, go for a Mac, especially if you are a musician (every Mac comes with GarageBand, is silent and has crazy battery life). You’ll also find the iWork suite installed for office work. No hidden cost.
For photo editing, built-in Photos app gives a good alternative to Lightroom.
For more advanced stuff you can also buy Affinity Photos or Pixelmator Pro, which are great alternatives to Photoshop, without the cost and the weight on the system
Little built-in apps like Reminders and Notes can be life-changer if you’re in GTD stuff.
The feature that impressed me the most back in the day was preview. Select any file and press the space bar. You’ll get instant preview (whatever the file is) without launching an app.
If you want to game, it depends on the games you play.
I would just be doing general use and for my studies. I was considering playing some games on it, like Escape from tarkov and games like that. Why do macs not work well for gaming? Also do you have a recommendation for what type of mac to get?
Macs are not good for gaming because it wasn’t delivered with a proper graphic card for years, so game developers left the platform.
Apple silicone Mac are pretty good for gaming now, if compared to similar form-factor PCs. Besides, Macs doesn’t lose any power when unplugged, contrary to PCs.
But the catalog is still lacking. There are good games (BG3, Metro Exodus, Resident Evil Village, Lies Of P, World Of Warcraft if it’s your jam) but nothing merely enough for a true gamer.
You could play Escape From Tarkov on a Mac using virtualizing software like Parallels Desktop, CrossOver or Game Porting Toolkit, but it won’t run natively, and I can’t make any promises on that subject.
You’ll have to do some research if you want to play some games on a Mac.
Otherwise it’s truly the best computer you can get. Not necessarily the most powerful (depends on what you’re doing) but definitely the best user experience.
It definitely doesn't have all the deals, but I've had luck using www.lappylist.com to compare some options. Good luck!
Look into a ThinkPad.
If you don't care about gaming, just get a macbook tbh.
the new M1 ones are insane.
if you want to game on it, I got a Lenovo Legion that I really like.
The Asus ROG Flow X13 is super portable and decent for gaming! I have the 2021 3050ti version but I'd recommend getting one with more than 4gb VRAM if you can swing it 😅 it really depends on what you want out of a laptop as to what people will suggest
Look into certified refurbished laptops on eBay, you could maybe snag a good deal on what you're already honing in on.
More details are needed.
What do you need specifically?
I had a similar issue recently and ended up going for a HP Pavilion. It's a versatile machine, you can do pretty much anything on it, it's in a metal case so sturdy to carry about, and you can get a bigger screen so you can multitask. I feel like you get quite a bit of laptop for your money.
I was also considering a macbook, I use them for work a lot so I'm used to them, but I felt like specs wise I was looking at lower specs and a lot more money.
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Not much to go on , but my next will be apple. All previous hp elite and thinkpads. This since you now can run Linux properly on them.
You could not go wrong with a older MacBook. This way you will get great support with updates and a well build device that can last a long time. :)
For example, this is a pretty good one!
I find it amusing that some Lemmings are so fanboyish about computers that they'll downvote a recommendation for MacBooks. It reminds me of people talking shit about Xbox 360 vs PlayStation 3 in 2007.
I don't use them myself (can't stand OSX and unfortunately need Windows for my job) but I know plenty of developers who do and love them. And, like the Xbox 360 controllers from 2007, they're so solid you could beat the shit out of somebody with them. You'd have a hard time doing that with a ThinkPad or a DualShock 3!
Thanks for the link, I'm looking at the macbooks right now. Do you own one yourself?
Yes I do! I got mine in 2014 and still use it every day! Last year I changed the battery and repasted the cpu and it still got plenty of life in it. Let people think whatever they want but if you want solid build quality and good support, you can’t beat a Mac. :)
Check woot.com. I just purchased a 14” M1 Pro 32GB/512GB for $1499 brand new. They are fantastic computers.
Found it https://computers.woot.com/offers/new-apple-14-macbook-pro-with-8-core-m1-pro-2021z