Need advice (Not the counseling type!)

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

My little Sony Vaio is about to bite the dust, and I am currently in the market for a new laptop. I've already decided I'm not going to get another Sony, but I'm not entirely sure what I want to get. I've been trying to look at reviews, but all the fucking Apple fanboys out there are annoying the piss out of me. I don't want a freaking Apple anything!

So, basically I'm trying to get a general idea of which brands are the best as far as longevity, support, and most importantly price! There's a nice little store where I live that has laptops fairly reasonable, and I've narrowed my list down to three brands; Asus, Lenova, and Toshiba.

My husband is biased. He currently has an Asus, which he's had for the past 4 years, that has not had any major problems. He's never had to replace the hard drive (I've replaced the HD on my Vaio twice in the past year. =/) Only the battery needs replaced.

I've heard some pretty good things about Lenova, but I'm kind of biased too, since the one that I'm eyeing up has a pretty, rainbow colored backlit keyboard (Yes, it's absolutely pointless, but apparently I can't take my eyes off shiny things!).

Lastly is Toshiba. We had one in the past that was pretty decent. The hard drive was faulty when we first bought it, and they replaced it without any issues. After that, there was no problems at all. It was durable, and from what I remember of it, didn't really cost us an arm and a leg. (It was stolen, so I have no idea how long it would have lasted before it needed worked on. =/)

Mind you, I'm not a big huge gaming freak. I play games, but I don't exactly care what they look like. As long as I can play them, and they're not super laggy, I'm good. Most of my time on my computer is spent watching videos (Currently on a Stephen King Movie marathon, working my way through them in alphabetical order. I'm on Bag of Bones right now. =D Next is my Monty Python marathon!)


So, if anyone could help me out and offer a suggestion, or tell me that the ones I have in mind are complete rubbish and I should look somewhere else, I'm all ears! Because doing a search for information in this case leads to knowing but a lot of Apple ass kissers, and I absolute HATE Apple!

 

[Minibit]

Go into the store and explain what you want to use the computer for. Don't settle for less than 8GB of RAM if you plan on playing literally any games.

 

[Dervish]

I'm not an expert on anything PC or laptop related by any means, but I have heard Asus is a pretty reliable brand. The only thing about laptops is you'll be paying a lot more than for a desktop for similar performance, and depending on how serious you are about gaming, you might have to shell out more than you might want to. On the plus side, a lot of places offer financing options, and it's never a bad rule of thumb that for a computer, it's an investment, so ponying up a bit extra to get what you need and want is a lot better than selling yourself short and ending up with a machine that is unsatisfactory. Case in point, I bought a fairly inexpensive laptop early last year for travel purposes so I could do basic stuff like browsing the internet, chatting on Skype, and going on Steam to play older games. Lo and behold, damn thing crashes if I try to run YouTube and iTunes more or less taxes its memory, and it has 4 gigs of ram. Yet, for some reason, it can run Black Mesa on high quality with no lag but longer load times.

Long story short, thing's barely worthy of being called a computer, but am I ever glad I didn't go for the 150 dollar option.

 

[Diana]

I am currently using an Asus and it's been the best laptop I've had so far. O_O Before that I was using Acer, which was okay for cheaper stuff but they didn't really hold up in the long term. But that also could be because I didn't invest in enough PARTS (ram, processor whatever) so it would be able to keep up with yearly progress. D:

 

[Soulless]

Asus and Lenovo (I assume that's what you're saying?) are good brands. As with either one, find a model you like and then Google "[model name] problems" or "[model name] review".

In regards to Asus: Asus keyboards and mousepads can be notoriously shitty, depending on the model. As long as you don't intend to abuse the thing outright you should be fine with most Asus models.

In regards to Lenovo: There have been security issues in the past with Lenovo 3rd party software. As far as I understand this was a solid year back. I currently own a Lenovo Z50 and it's fine.

What you should really look for are a few of the following AFAIK.

1. RAM, graphics, etc. 8GB RAM should be your minimum. To play most games you'll need at least a graphics card that is reasonably up to date.

2. Battery. I'd usually cut it by a solid 30% off the advertised. Moreso if you plan to do any heavy work (streaming video, any gaming).

3. 3rd Party Software that'll be installed with your laptop. It'll eat up your battery and stuff, so be aware of what's installed and what you can remove. (these are called bloatware because they're just bloat).

4. (If you care about this) Weight. A lot of decent frames have metal in them or so, but that adds onto the weight. If you care about how heavy the laptop is, make sure to look for weight in the specs.

 

[SacredWarrior]

My laptop is a Dell Vostro 3560 which I've had for almost 3 years and so far it's been pretty reliable. Sadly I don't know much in terms of specs :(

 

[Astaroth]

I recommend Toshiba. Really good customer service when I have had issues, but those issues were few and far between. My current Toshiba laptop is five years old and the only reason I can't use it right now is that the DC jack got fucked up (within the last couple of months) so I can't charge the damn thing. Considering the age of the laptop, I think that's a pretty good record of health. The original battery lasted me about four years, which is incredibly good for battery life too.

Everything else I could contribute has been covered pretty nicely already, I think.

 

[Windsong]

Bought an Asus for a media player to TV set up. Works beautifully and was cheap. Now she uses it for school and some gentle gaming on the side. Did I mention it was like 250 bucks off amazon? It's survived a few drops and dog mishaps too with barely more than a scratch on the plastic.

If you want to play games, just get a desktop. It's cheaper, more powerful, and modular. Only downside is how important portability is to you. But since you make no mention of it I'll guess you don't want a desktop for whatever reason.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

I got an Asus. Literally just got. 1 TB, I-7, 16 GB RAM....and other techie stuff that I have no clue about. XD

Got $200 knocked off because it was a display. They had an Lenovo that I was tempted to get (If that's how it's spelled. My brain is dead right now....) but it only had a 256 SSD, and I just couldn't give up my TB hard drive, even though my hubby offered to buy me an external one for all my movies and junk. I haven't been able to play anything yet, but so far all the videos I've watched have been pretty. =D

 

[Alan]

You got an ASUS? Good. You made the best choice. 1TB is a fairly good hard drive size for a laptop, an i7 chip is great for practically anything, and 16 gigs of RAM is very good stuff.

I was going to make suggestions, but since you already got your new toy... *salutes*
*takes his tech hat off and goes back to bed*

 

[Boba Fit]

Reads first post. Sees hate for Apple. Turns around and leaves.


I mean, if you want to deal with a shitty OS. Be my guest. lol