Dlers: What Laptop(s) are you using now?

MacBook Pro 2017. The keyboard sucks ass.

New MacBook Pro has fixed the keyboard issues of the older models.

I just ordered a Chromebook after getting tired of my sluggish Windows laptop.

I mainly use Google's suite of apps for office work and am comfortable storing things in the cloud, which I can then access on my phone when I'm in the field.

I don't do video-editing or online gaming or whatever it is people do that makes them need an OS to support those apps.

I like that Chromebooks are a cheaper, faster option for users like me.

Thank god, R2, but this one still has a few good years in it. I'll wait it out.

2019 Macbook Pro

Love it, but it gets way too hot.

Microsoft Surface. It's okay, but after about 15 years as a Mac user, I've been quickly reminded why I hate Windows. Apple was getting too expensive, so thought I'd try the Surface.

Like OP, I'm also curious - I just need something to do minor office work like typing, watch some videos. Chromebook sounds like an option. Any others?

R7 just don't buy a super low-end Chromebook. They're great computers, but limited, so don't limit yourself even more.

Dell has some good deals if you browse their site.

I don’t deal with laptops anymore. I just use an iPad.

I have an HP. I work from home and it is powerful enough to handle my activities.

I only use lap DANCERS.

Dell XPS 13 and ASUS ROG. End of.

Do not buy a chromebook. I loathe mine.

I'm a lapbottom looking for a laptop

Acer. Had it for 4 years. Works just fine. Everything apple is too expensive for me.

I just upgraded to this. It's pretty good.

I also have Dell XPS 13 and am very happy with it. I of course connect it to a larger external monitor and bluetooth keyboard and mouse, but I've had it for 6 months. Super fast startup and 0 issues thus far.

HP Pavilion something-or-other. Don't know the model but it's a touchscreen laptop, got it new 18 months ago for $500 and I love it. I plan never to get an Apple device, ever.

Lenovo. Works just fine but I just found out it's a Chinese brand. Now I'm worried they might be stealing my information

A MacBook Air [early 2014 edition/model, reconditioned]. When/if if it ever gives out I'll likely buy another one - it's been a really good laptop!

I just bought a Dell Inspiron 5593. I had been using a desktop from 2012 with Windows 7, and I can't tell if it's the laptop I hate or Windows 10. I had to disable the touchpad because I was making the cursor skip and delete every time I typed.

I use an external mouse, and may try hooking up an external keyboard. I'd been told that wasn't possible. I wanted a laptop so I could pick it up in my LR and take it into my BR, but I've pretty much relegated it to the bedroom, where I only use it when I zoom (my old desktop didn't have a camera, and I was getting all that nagging shit about Windows 7).

I saw this little jewel on HSN. I'm tired of being tied to a desktop computer, so I had wifi installed last week. I just want to lay on my bed and surf with one hand.

R2, how is the new keyboard better (Mac Pro)?

TIA.

11.6" Mac book air, only have had it for a couple of years. So far the best laptop I've owned.

17" Acer, which I've beaten the hell out of for 5 years. It's held up very well, but it's finally developed some hard drive issues. I have a new 17" Dell on order; I should be getting it in another week. Hopefully, it holds up as well as this one did.

Microsoft Surface Book 2, it's pretty good.

R23-- the old "butterfly" keyboard had many issues with it--keys would stick, pop off and otherwise break.

They introduced a completely revamped keyboard that, thus far, has none of those issues as it is a completely different design.

MacAir and it's the third one I've owned. It's the only one that I find light enough as I carry it a lot. It's terrific.

Another XPS user here, specifically XPS15 9550 from 2016, which I'll probably replace later this yr for newer model - probably has been my most reliable home laptop

MBAir. I've got two, one with the previous keyboard that everyone likes to hate, and the new one. Personally I'm fine with both keyboards. And it's a fantastic laptop, both of them.

MacBook Pro 13" 2014, its been a great laptop.

2012 Mac Air, it’s still going strong except for the battery. In December I bought a Amazon Warehouse 2017 Mac Air and it looks brand new and came in its original box.

Everything works great on it except for the battery. The battery drains in sleep mode but I think it’s a setting with my Dropbox.

I haven’t really messed with the new laptop because my 2012 Air is still running great, except for the battery.

Yeah r32 never use dropbox. You can't get rid of it.

R33 what’s a good Dropbox alternative?

Google Drive R34

Few people under 40 use anything but

[quote] I don't do video-editing or online gaming or whatever it is people do that makes them need an OS to support those apps.

Chrome books don’t have operating systems? I don’t understand.

2015 Macbook Pro. I'll probably have to get a new one soon. I hate that the newer ones don't have the USB ports on the side anymore.

Hey Barbara Thornedyke @ R8, are you still able to type the great American novel on it?

When is the best time to replace my laptop? Black Friday or back to school sale?

MacBook Pro (paid for by the Company for home work use) and a cheap Acer Chromebook (paid for by me because I’m poor)

Had a Lenovo laptop on Windows 8 for 6 years no problems. Got a HP laptop running Windows 10. Piece of shit.

Apple is way too expensive.

R25: which Dell did you buy? I am looking for a low cost laptop w/DVD drive and, like OP, need help in selecting.

I don't want Chromebook because I do not trust the Cloud.

Any and all help is appreciated.

Lenovo Thinkpad. P53. Runs circles around my Macbook pros running Adobe CC. Before you MacQueers lay in, I have to admit that I have never had the budget to get a maxed out Macbook Pro. In fact, I ordered the Thinkpad at the request of one of the Execs. A month later it was too big for him and he loves the Yoga he has now. So this thing landed back in the shop and I scooped it up. I abandoned the IBMs when they moved to China, The quality definitely suffered at first. But I have found this one top notch and I actually like the pointing nipple they have on the keyboard.

[quote]MacBook Pro 2017. The keyboard sucks ass.

I'd pay extra for that feature.

LOL R45!

I have so many ... a 17" HP that's about 10 years old and has great specs and works well but gets hot. A 15" HP touchscreen. Two Chuwi (Chinese knockoff company) laptops -- one that's sort of their version of a Macbook (Aerobook) and one that's sort of their version of a Surface (UBook Pro). Three Chromebooks. Three 10" tablets (two Fire, one Lenovo). A 12" Chuwi tablet that runs both Windows and Android. Several smaller tablets. Oh, and I rarely use any of them. 90% of the time I'm on one of my two desktops. (Dell and HP.)

Yes, I have a problem.

15" MacBook Pro 2017 I bought it as a refurb on the Apple site, saved a few hundred bucks. Works like a new machine, no problems with the keyboard.

R43, my order says it's a Inspiron 17 3000 Series - 3793.

It has basically the same specs as the Acer I have now. With tax the Dell was $588.

My problem was finding a 17" that wasn't outrageously expensive because it was loaded with "gamer" features. I only want the big screen because I'm old and decrepit and I have a part-time job reading student essays online.

My late-2014 factory refurb 11” MacBook Air just died in mid-May due to a feline-initiated coffee spill tsunami. I’m replacing it via Costco with the current 13” version

It’s the perfect day-to-day computer. Insane build quality. Extremely fast. Solid state. Recyclable. Yes, it’s $1250 with AppleCare+ and sales tax, but it’s worth it. The hard drive never fragments nor slows and the customer service is first rate.

Microsoft Surface Pro. Very happy it.

* with it

R50 Those SSDs are nice, aren’t they? I finally have a response for people who ask about how to speed up their old laptop. Don’t count on them for permanent storage. When they die, that data is lost forever.

I bought a Dell laptop this month. They told me I'd be able to play music on it from an external hard drive, and listen to it over headphones, but I cannot. It only plays music on the laptop speakers, which are pure shit. I've called their tech support twice. They make it work, but just for that moment. When I turn the computer on again, I can't hear the music that's on my EHD.

I can't put music on the HD because it's a small SSD.

Any suggestions?

Brand new Microsoft Surface 3 laptop. Has everything you need, love it.

r44 I use a ThinkPad too (an older model) and I LOVE it.

Another vote for Dell XPS - I'm just too cheap to by a Mac - but R54 is right, the internal speakers are shit

r54 That doesn't make sense. How are you connecting the headphones?

[quote]Don’t count on them for permanent storage. When they die, that data is lost forever.

I'm curious about this. I just bought a 2TB SSD that I was planning to use to replace the 2TB hard drive in my desktop. (I did this with another desktop and it improved the performance markedly.) Do SSDs fail more often than hard drives? I assumed that since they had no moving parts, they'd be more reliable.

my HP pavilion is 5 yrs old and works fab !!!

[quote]my HP pavilion is 5 yrs old and works fab !!!

Same can be said for the workers in the factory where it was made!

Lenovo Ideapad with a touch screen. My previous one lasted almost 6 years until I crushed the screen--until then it was good enough.

r21, I have this keyboard (a couple of them actually) and have had no issues connecting tyem to anything that has Bluetooth available. I adore this keyboard

The SSD should actually be more reliable. As your data is run through the drive, the memory cells degrade. To combat this, you actually have more memory on the drive than advertised. The cells all take the impact equally, so the addition of the extra cells extends the area over which the data is deposited and retrieved.

Long term? It sounds like an issue to me. But they put enough extra memory out there to be degraded to beat the mean time failure rate of regular drives. To me, that says that you are guaranteed at some point to have a failure, but it might be 10 or 20 years out.

So it is always good to keep your data in a cloud account, regardless of which drive you have. I hate it when people cite what those under 40 something do as being relevant to the best solution. Many of them don't have a clue. But in this case, they are doing the right thing. Google offers 25 free gig which handles a lot of documents for free.

The new Dell XPS 15 and 17 are supposed to be gorgeous machines, both looks and technical.

Also, several machines are using the new Ryzen chip from AMD instead of Intel. These are both cheaper and reputed to be higher performing. Asus is making a new gaming machine with them.

Yeah, the Ryzens are a deal. I don't remember which processor outshines the other on specific tasks. Has something to do with the multi threading boost that AMD gets in certain applications. If I was building something right now, I would definitely go with the Ryzen, just so I could play with it. Not to mention the cooling unit comes with it.

I'm trying to decide when I upgrade from HD to SSD whether I should clone my existing drive or do a clean install of Windows. I know the latter is preferable, but it's also a lot of extra work.

Clean install.

Most people do not frequently upgrade their HD, so take this opportunity to do it. Just backup your data, do a clean install, then recover your data (okay, a bit more complicated, but you get the point that it's just not that tough and can run overnight).

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro. It’s been super reliable. I had a friend of mine upgrade the RAM and switch out the HDD to SSD. Made such a difference it was incredible. I would never buy anything without an SSD now. Only issue is battery which isn’t great these days and it overheats. Might ask my friend to replace the thermal paste which should solve the overheating and install a new battery.

I’m super reluctant to replace it because of the lack of ports and CD drive in the new models.

I’d never not buy an Apple laptop.

r68 It's not the data I'm worried about -- it's all the apps and programs.

Still, not R68. If you have windows 10, it is a breeze. You just need the boot USB and if your good with your license, Windows will rebuild your OS. So you get 2 speed benefits. Just throw your old one into a $10 extenal USB drive. Go ahead and load the easy stuff like office, etc.. Then load the other stuff as needed. You might have one or two apps that might be a hassle. But it is so worth the speed. Not just from the SSD, but from cleaning all that crap off. If you don't like it when finished, just pop the old one back in. Nobody ever needs to pop the old one back in.

r68 here.

I'm with r71. Load the main stuff like Office or whatever and load the rest as you need it. Also, you can go to sites like Ninite and download most free software quickly and easily from a trusted source.

Frankly, if you do have a lot of apps and programs, it probably would be more useful to do a clean install of them all. Years of downloading, updating, upgrading, and deleting have probably left mountains of garbage all over your computer and registry.

Maingear Element - laptop developed my Intel - loaded i7 6 core CPU, 32gb of ram, RTX 2070, and 144mhz screen. Uses dual GPU so not gaming it lasts nine hours on battery - and can run all the AAA game titles with zero problems. Titanium shell so super thin and super durable. I love it. Got it on open box for 1100 - about 700 cheaper than a comparable new one of the same specs.

[quote]RTX 2070...Uses dual GPU

If you have two Nvidia GPUs linked SLI, what is the second one?

r74 no I meant the IGX/GPU switching - runs off the intel IGX on battery so the 2070 does not eat battery just servince up screen.

r58 Thanks for responding. I've discovered since this thread disappeared that the headphones now work when I plug them into the laptop. I can't imagine what the problem might have been.

Now I just have to get used to Windows 10, which so far, I find loathsome.

What laptop should I get and where should I buy? I was thinking Cost Co.

MacBook Pro 2017 and yes the keyboard is shit but my company gave it to me. Otherwise it's a good machine. If they have fixed the keyboard I will get another. I've been using them for 20 years. I'm lazy that way.

never had one. desk top all the way

Be careful of Leveno or whatever that Chinese brand is. I remember reading that and another brand of laptops had Malware installed from the factory so it could steal all your info.

I had a HP envy touchscreen, no problems. it doesn't have a dvd drive which I thought was gonna be a problem but it's ok. just buy an external one for 30bucks cheap!

I like surface but it's kinda expensive for what they offer.

So Dell is good now? It was shit for years and many returns at Best Buy, I asked the Geek Squad...

I wish more laptops had more ports.

My laptop is on it's last legs. I really need one asap. With all the stores closings and lack of good information from peeps, i do not know what to buy or where to buy it at? What are use all using? What would you get? Where would you buy from?

I want a high quality laptop. Something I can have for awhile. Fast operational memory, 16ram. I like larger screens, need to be light. I think I want SSD, unless someone can explain to me why not. This seems to be recommended. Need large storage memory too.

I had an asus zenbook flip. loved it. it caught on fire internally. I bought a dell inspirion, 15 inch. both 500 ssd. it's good, i preferred the zenbook when it wasn't smoking but it was mostly because of aesthetics. when they send me the new zenbook I will be happy.

I will say, Dell got me the laptop 2 days after the zenbook smoked. no one else currently has that fast of in stock shipping service. if you need it asap, get a dell.

I've always purchased my laptops from bestbuy, I buy their product "insurance" for at least 1 year. If anything happens to it, they will fix it. I was very rough with my laptops in college and dropped them, cracked the screens and best buy fixed all the problems.

I am not a member of costco or other big box stores. Heard there can be good deals at costco....

good luck R81.

I would focus on the chip. buy the best chip you can afford. For me, that's intel.

I have a 2012 Macbook pro, but it's had more plastic surgery than the Kardashians. I don't think a single part is more than 3 years old. I dislike some of the newer models (the lack of ports is bullshit) and I run Time Machine every night before I close down. I also sync my most important folders to Google Drive.

Apple Product Buyers Guide

Macbook (personal) and Macbook Air (work).

Surface Pro 6, which doubles as a laptop and a tablet. I like it a lot.

I got a quote to replace the battery and thermal paste in my 2011 MacBook Pro but I’m thinking it will be better to put the money towards a new one. The lack of ports and cd drive in the new ones annoy me though.

Macbook Pro. Love it

R87 I use my CD drive MAYBE once a year but I like the option! My ports are every day.

R89 the removal of the MagSafe connector is also disappointing

I'm clinging to my 2013 MacBook Pro for dear life. It's in the shop, waiting for everything to open up again. It's got a 500gb SSD HD, Intel Core i7, 8gb DDR3 & a low battery cycle #. I finally found an honest, decent tech guy who told me to hang on to it & get it fixed if I could, as it's rare to have those specs on the new ones.

I have another 2013 Macbook Pro with an i5, & 128gb SSD HD I got refurbed. I'm using it until the other one is fixed.

I had an iPad, but it's a useless piece of fucking evil shit to me & hope everyone at Apple burns in hell. They're trying to push all their fucking iCloud, iEverything bullshit, so you can't even get the internet radio anymore without an Apple account & ID. Nothing is compatible, & you can't access basic apps like pages unless you get an account & Sign in. Oh, & TimeMachine doesn't work between computers.

They need to be bitch-slapped for not innovating to develop another cash cow that can bring in enough revenue to stop them from completely fucking up their laptops. That or tiering their products, like they were finally forced to do with the iPhone.

R81, I’m with you. I have an ASUS now, a 17 Inch with 12GB ram and 1T storage. It’s working ok, but it’s 4 years old, and I don’t know if it’s just going to die at some point soon.

I use it A LOT, so I don’t know how long these things last. It’s a gamer, even though I don’t play video games. I guess I thought it’d be better for watching videos . I honestly don’t know if I should pay more for the gamer laptop again or not. I think I paid about $1500. for it 4 years ago.

I’d be tempted to stick with ASUS because it’s been problem free.

Any advice, anyone?

Alienware Area-51m

[quote]I’d be tempted to stick with ASUS because it’s been problem free.

If you're not a hardcore gamer, but like to play games, two machines are getting solid buzz and may be worth considering:

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Dell G5 SE with the AMD Ryzen CPU + RX 5600M.

Both are using the new AMD Ryzen which is apparently a better choice right now.

Intel is better than AMD

[quote]Intel is better than AMD

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about.

The AMD Ryzen CPUs are top of the heap right now.

I just received my new Surface Pro 7. This is the 5th Surface I've had since they came out. I've loved every one of them and this one is no different. I'm a committed Windows guy and this piece of equipment is just a joy.

r96 correct! Intel is playing catch up - although still the winner in single threaded performance but not by much - at least not to warrant the price difference. You can get a 3900x 12 core ryzen cpu for under 400 dollars. Intel cannot match that. The new Ryzen cpus in the laptops have built in radeon graphics and do decent gaming at 1080P

[quote]Lenovo Thinkpad. P53. Runs circles around my Macbook

Enjoy the spyware courtesy of the Chinese government.

[quote]I just received my new Surface Pro 7. This is the 5th Surface I've had since they came out. I've loved every one of them and this one is no different. I'm a committed Windows guy and this piece of equipment is just a joy.

Surfaces have only been out for about 7 years. So you're saying they don't even last two years before you have to replace them? I have an HP laptop that's >10 years old with great specs (i7, 12MB RAM) and I've felt no need to replace it.

What r100 said. I've had one Dell computer in all that time. Since a year earlier, actually.

[quote] Surfaces have only been out for about 7 years. So you're saying they don't even last two years before you have to replace them?

No that's not what I'm saying. I stay current with the new models as they come out. My old units are donated to the library system when I move to a newer model.

[quote] I'm a committed Windows guy

What the hell is a "committed Windows guy?" Are you also a "committed flourescent lightbulb guy?" A "committed Fruit of the Loom guy?"

I'm also a windows customer, I will never buy apple computer. I've used it, it's OK. I prefer windows.

so have you made up your mind OP? What are you getting? July 4 is coming up, lots of sales.

[quote]committed flourescent lightbulb guy

Oh, dear.

What I dislike about Apple products is that THEY decide how we're supposed to use THEIR products.

I don't customize a lot and don't do a bunch of crazy workarounds. But, I dislike how Apple decides to randomly change features because they've determined that it's better. I'm not talking about hardware changes, like removing physical "home" buttons or even headphone jacks. But, the way they've decided what gets backed up, where and how, when you do do a backup from your iphone or what setting you "should" have on your phone (stuff gets randomly turned on and off when you do ios updates).

Windows almost always has a long landing strip when it makes changes and usually provides a "classic" version of various changes if people prefer.

Apple's great for some things, like cross platform compatibility (iphones, ipads, macbooks) - if you use multiple devices, they work very hard to integrate them into a simple and standard user experience. So, there's that.

But, the arrogance of them to think they know what's best for users and how we should be using their devices bugs me.

2010 MacBook Pro - A battery problem, evidently, as it can be used only when plugged in, but otherwise utterly faultless for 10 years, and I use the fuck out of it.

2019 Google Pixelbook Chromebook - I love it for travel and go use in other rooms of the house. Also faultless.

[R105] I am still trying to compile a top three list. Thanks for letting me know about the sales, in July. I

well, did you buy anything?

I'm looking for tablets suggestions.

Maxed out 2017 MacBook Air I bought in October 2019 to replace my 2012 MacBook Air which is still running fine. It runs Catalina, but I needed more hard drive space. So I upgraded to a 2017.

Maingear Element - thin as a MBP but titanium alloy shell, 144 hz screen rtx2070 and 64 gb of ram 2tb ssd. i7 9750h - thing is a beast got it as an open box at microcenter for 1200 dollars. a Steal.

Desktop question: Here are the specs on my Dell:

Intel Core i7-6700 CPU @3.40GHz

16 GB RAM

I find that even with 16GB of RAM, sometimes my memory use is over 90% and it really slows everything down. I'm planning to replace the 2TB hard drive with a 2TB SSD and do a reinstall of everything. Do you think it's worth it or should I do something else (or in addition) to improve performance? (I'm not sure if I have space for more RAM.)

I'm in the market for a new laptop this yaer and I am determined to buy one with a metal case. Any recs?

I've had HP, they are decent. Just go and ask the geek squad at best buy to see what brands get returned the most. They told me it was dell but this was a couple of years ago.

I use my desktop more than I use my laptop, so the Macbook Air is good enough for what I need. When it's time to get a new laptop, I'll probably go Chromebook. Apple products are no longer worth the money, although they were at one time. Windows 10 is Satan's spawn.

R1 is that the one that has the keys that stick? If I replace the keyboard will it fix it?

Thinkpad X1 Carbon. I would never use anything but a Thinkpad. Only Poughkeepsie's best. And don't even start on how it's not from Poughkeepsie.

If you are not running AutoCAD or any Adobe Creative Suite programs, pretty much any computer will fill your needs.

If you want inexpensive and reliable, I would go with a Surface. They really are the standard now for a good computer.

I am using 2 laptops: 1) Alienware M17xR3 (Windows 7) 17 inch: This is the house computer, and 2) Alienware M14XR2 (Windows 7) 14 inch: This is the travel computer and backup computer. Furthermore) I have a Dell XPS-M1730 (Windows XP) 17 inch: This one does not get used anymore.

I would not go to another laptop right now, especially Windows 10. I would never use an Apple laptop either. When the time comes I have the option of running any of the 3 laptops I mentioned above as a Linux with Windows 7 as a 2nd operating system.

I will have to say that the Alienware M17XR3. mentioned above has been going 10 to 12 hours every day for 9 years. I never had any laptop last that long. If I have to I would buy another Alienware and format it to remove Windows 10, and then install Linux and Windows 7 on it.

Surface Pro 7.

MacBook Pro and an old Acer running Linux. Nothing with Windows.

I will never buy Lenovo. They had malware installed in the laptops from the fucking factory...they steal all your info. Fuck that!

2019 MacBook Pro and it's awesome. And I love being able to sync everything across three platforms (MB, iPad, iPhone). Paid a lot for it but it was worth it.

And I love R91. LMFAO.

yeah, I am not a fan of apple products. i had ipods and they were expensive and break after a couple of years. and then they got rid of it so I got ipod touch for music and same thing...spend hundreds and the fucking thing breaks after a few years, songs disappear etc.

DL have more smarts that to answer data mining questions like this.

You couldn't pay me to waste my money on a Mac.

R120. I agree about how laptops suck these days. I have a 10-year old Sony Vaio (custom built) that's way better than anything out there. It even has HD and a blu-ray player/recorder. Laptops today do not come with any optical player- including Alienware.

R128, I loved my Sony Vaio too! Too bad they stopped making them. I now buy HP.

Also new laptops have very few ports.

I'm thinking of getting a tablet with the upcoming black friday/cyber monday sales.

Macbook Pro. Mine is 9 years old and has performed faultlessly. Never a single problem - and I use the hell out of it every day.

I really want to get a new laptop but was thinking I should wait til they come out with a new Windows, as 10 has been out for quite awhile. But apparently there will be no Windows 11. If what I read is true, they will continue support til 2025. In the meantime, they are developing Windows 365. Windows 10 users will get a free trial of a year, then after that, it will be by subscription only, at US$49 a year. So maybe I should just get one now.

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro and love it. I had 3 laptops (HP, Toshibas) and they each lasted 2 years. My laptop is 5 years old and running strong.

If I were to get a new laptop, definitely a MacBook Pro, worth the price.

I bought an HP Spectre x360 back in May thinking it would come in handy now that I work from home some days, go into the office on other days, and look after my sick dad when needed. So far so good, but I ended up not using it too often. My 10-year old iMac 27" desktop still works pretty good, and it comes in handy when working on spreadsheets for work and Photoshop and iMovie for pleasure. My middle-age eyes aren't as good as they used to be, so the larger screen works best for me.

I had thought about getting a MacBook Air or even a Pro instead of the HP, but since Apple was moving away from Intel processors and shifting to ARM-based processors, I didn't think it would be a good time to invest in one, nor did I want to spend that kind of money.