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Official Black Friday LAPTOPS Discussion Thread

Brad

By Brad
in 2016

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bribri25

bribri25

Posted
Posted

What do you all think of this one.  Its for my Daughter.  She has a regular laptop, but we are looking for something small to take to school. For notes, surfing for research  if needed in class.  At home possibly use for Netflix, but then she has her regular laptop.

 

Price is good. Its just to to take to school.  Her goes is heavy along with her books.  She has 6 classes and goes 3 days a week.

 

Thanks

 

Did you forget a link to it?

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Doresia

Doresia

Posted
Posted

I need a laptop for my daughter for school (home school).  Not something really fancy or expensive.  Saw one in an ad for $99.99.  I was pretty excited about that, but I didn't even think about the fact that it probably doesn't have a CD/DVD drive.  She doesn't really need the CD/DVD drive, but I may be looking elsewhere just the same just in case the need ever comes up

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Pnambic

Pnambic

Posted
Posted

I need a laptop for my daughter for school (home school).  Not something really fancy or expensive.  Saw one in an ad for $99.99.  I was pretty excited about that, but I didn't even think about the fact that it probably doesn't have a CD/DVD drive.  She doesn't really need the CD/DVD drive, but I may be looking elsewhere just the same just in case the need ever comes up

 

Does your daughter really need the laptop for its mobility?  You pay a premium for that that may not be necessary if you're talking about just doing school work at home.  Do you think she would be more successful working at a desk with a nice 22 inch screen and a full size keyboard and mouse or squinting down at her lap, while sitting on the couch in front of the TV, at a 15 inch screen using a cramped little keyboard and touch pad?  Plus, you get more computer for your money when you buy a desktop over a laptop.  More memory, faster processor, better graphics, and more importantly an upgradeable platform so you can just upgrade parts later down the road instead of buying a whole new system.

 

Just sayin'.

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bribri25

bribri25

Posted
Posted

 

Pros:

Size & Weight

Compact

Versatile (Touchscreen Laptop & Tablet in One)

Price

 

Cons:

4GB RAM is probably the absolute minimum (ideally, 8GB) you'll want for Win10; it might seem a little sluggish at time - perfectly acceptable for taking notes. Doesn't look like this is expandable past 4 GB

Screen Size - just make sure you know what you're getting in an 11" screen. It's pretty small; but I know small was on the wish list, so just be aware.

Battery - since it's light, so is the battery. It says it's rated for 6 hours, so plan on just 4. If she'll have access to outlets, no problem. Make sure to set it up that it goes to sleep after X minutes as to not waste battery in her backpack.

No DVD Drive - not a deal breaker these days; hardly ever used, and can buy an external one if absolutely necessary.

 

I can't give you much reason not to get this one; I think the 4GB RAM is the only hesitation and just be aware of the limitations of the screen size and battery life.

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racerfan

racerfan

Posted
Posted

Pros:

Size & Weight

Compact

Versatile (Touchscreen Laptop & Tablet in One)

Price

 

Cons:

4GB RAM is probably the absolute minimum (ideally, 8GB) you'll want for Win10; it might seem a little sluggish at time - perfectly acceptable for taking notes. Doesn't look like this is expandable past 4 GB

Screen Size - just make sure you know what you're getting in an 11" screen. It's pretty small; but I know small was on the wish list, so just be aware.

Battery - since it's light, so is the battery. It says it's rated for 6 hours, so plan on just 4. If she'll have access to outlets, no problem. Make sure to set it up that it goes to sleep after X minutes as to not waste battery in her backpack.

No DVD Drive - not a deal breaker these days; hardly ever used, and can buy an external one if absolutely necessary.

 

I can't give you much reason not to get this one; I think the 4GB RAM is the only hesitation and just be aware of the limitations of the screen size and battery life.

Thanks  Yes the the size is the main thing,  She already has a good laptop at home  Thanks

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Kanyon71

Kanyon71

Posted
Posted

Ya my biggest things would be the memory and HDD in the machine. 4GB Ram just isn't enough anymore and that 500GB Drive is pretty small and with that price point you can bet it's a slower drive. Now the bright side is those are both pretty cheap to upgrade. The HDD you can get away with for a while, the memory though I would upgrade it to 8GB right away, like I said it's pretty cheap and very simple to do.

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bribri25

bribri25

Posted
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Ya my biggest things would be the memory and HDD in the machine. 4GB Ram just isn't enough anymore and that 500GB Drive is pretty small and with that price point you can bet it's a slower drive. Now the bright side is those are both pretty cheap to upgrade. The HDD you can get away with for a while, the memory though I would upgrade it to 8GB right away, like I said it's pretty cheap and very simple to do.

 

I don't know if you can upgrade the RAM on that one. The spec said the maximum was 4GB; granted, that could be entirely incorrect and I don't know any better than what the specs tell me on that machine.

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mamat2011

mamat2011

Posted
Posted

I'm really waiting to see what ones Walmart put up.  They usually do a really cheap (which I've bought several times and have used for years), then a little more expensive with more bells and whistles.  I just hope to score one for $150.00 plus a printer for 20.00.

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sleepster69

sleepster69

Posted
Posted

I'm looking for a home office laptop...possibly docking to simplify things but never have done it.

I see Dell's office ad but what other options are recommended?

I want to balance performance with cost.  Not a gamer anymore so don't need super high performance or graphics.

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Pnambic

Pnambic

Posted
Posted

I'm looking for a home office laptop...possibly docking to simplify things but never have done it.

I see Dell's office ad but what other options are recommended?

I want to balance performance with cost.  Not a gamer anymore so don't need super high performance or graphics.

 

Budget?

Going to power bigger monitors with it?  How many?

Still tons of deals from the likes of Best Buy and OfficeMax/Depot, Staples, Newegg, Walmart, and quite a few others to look for in the coming weeks.

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Pnambic

Pnambic

Posted
Posted

 

 

Pros:

Size & Weight

Compact

Versatile (Touchscreen Laptop & Tablet in One)

Price

 

Cons:

4GB RAM is probably the absolute minimum (ideally, 8GB) you'll want for Win10; it might seem a little sluggish at time - perfectly acceptable for taking notes. Doesn't look like this is expandable past 4 GB

Screen Size - just make sure you know what you're getting in an 11" screen. It's pretty small; but I know small was on the wish list, so just be aware.

Battery - since it's light, so is the battery. It says it's rated for 6 hours, so plan on just 4. If she'll have access to outlets, no problem. Make sure to set it up that it goes to sleep after X minutes as to not waste battery in her backpack.

No DVD Drive - not a deal breaker these days; hardly ever used, and can buy an external one if absolutely necessary.

 

I can't give you much reason not to get this one; I think the 4GB RAM is the only hesitation and just be aware of the limitations of the screen size and battery life.

 

Yea, what Bribri said.

All signs indicate that 4GB is the max on this baby and it's not even very fast RAM.  

Also, the battery appears to be integrated.  I suspect the 40WHr battery will be pretty darn good....for a year or two....but I don't know if you can buy a replacement for it when the battery starts holding less and less charge.  

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bribri25

bribri25

Posted
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I plan on using a dock and connecting at least one monitor.

 

Wanted to keep it under 500.

 

Need to have all the normal such as DVD / CD.  Want 8 gb memory min.

also would like Intel i5 min

 

You'll probably want to wait to see what else comes out and compare them. You sound like you have an idea of what you need/want; now it's a matter of finding the best deal on the best match to your specs.

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Pnambic

Pnambic

Posted
Posted

I plan on using a dock and connecting at least one monitor.

 

Wanted to keep it under 500.

 

Need to have all the normal such as DVD / CD.  Want 8 gb memory min.

also would like Intel i5 min

 

 

You'll probably want to wait to see what else comes out and compare them. You sound like you have an idea of what you need/want; now it's a matter of finding the best deal on the best match to your specs.

 

Also, does your monitor have an HDMI port?  If not, you'll probably need a VGA port on the laptop or a docking station.  These days, it seems not many laptops include the VGA port anymore.

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bluebear

bluebear

Posted
Posted
I know the guys have weighed in already, on memory and such. But I wanted to talk about the base machine.

Lenovo makes pretty good laptops. Most of my experience is with the business version though, but the home version is good too, just built with some different specs as far as the sturdibility of the cases. We have many of the larger yogas in our school system, and they are well liked and do well. I have one that I use when I need a laptop, and I'm really happy with it. We also have given a different version of the yoga (11e yoga) to an entire student body in one of our high schools. They are doing great for their use. The same features you are wanting: Small size, tablet mode, etc.

My mom happens to have an earlier version of the yoga you posted, she's had it probably 3 years now, and it's still doing great. It's a nice size for just basic casual stuff. So I think it would be great for your daughter as a secondary device. Especially if it comes back at that $299 price from when you first posted. Or maybe you can find one better, with more memory and just a little more cost.

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Pnambic

Pnambic

Posted
Posted

I know the guys have weighed in already, on memory and such. But I wanted to talk about the base machine.

Lenovo makes pretty good laptops. Most of my experience is with the business version though, but the home version is good too, just built with some different specs as far as the sturdibility of the cases. We have many of the larger yogas in our school system, and they are well liked and do well. I have one that I use when I need a laptop, and I'm really happy with it. We also have given a different version of the yoga (11e yoga) to an entire student body in one of our high schools. They are doing great for their use. The same features you are wanting: Small size, tablet mode, etc.

My mom happens to have an earlier version of the yoga you posted, she's had it probably 3 years now, and it's still doing great. It's a nice size for just basic casual stuff. So I think it would be great for your daughter as a secondary device. Especially if it comes back at that $299 price from when you first posted. Or maybe you can find one better, with more memory and just a little more cost.

 

Nothing better than hands-on, real-world experience.  :)

I too have had good experience with Lenovo, but nothing smaller than a 14" thinkpad.

I would be skeptical that it would be very smooth or quick with large Excel files or larger Access databases though.  But if her classes don't require ExcelAccess, then it may suit her wants just fine.

 

 

So I wonder why it would be limited to 4GB. I know many say things but still take more. Hope it's not Surface mount memory instead of DIMM's.

 

For special form factors, they are often built with everything integrated.

This is a rather extreme exercise in small size, light weight and low price point, so I wouldn't be surprised if they made it surface mount, or at the very least didn't design it so that there was easy access to get to it and change it...

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Kanyon71

Kanyon71

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Posted

Nothing better than hands-on, real-world experience.   :)

I too have had good experience with Lenovo, but nothing smaller than a 14" thinkpad.

I would be skeptical that it would be very smooth or quick with large Excel files or larger Access databases though.  But if her classes don't require ExcelAccess, then it may suit her wants just fine.

 

 

 

For special form factors, they are often built with everything integrated.

This is a rather extreme exercise in small size, light weight and low price point, so I wouldn't be surprised if they made it surface mount, or at the very least didn't design it so that there was easy access to get to it and change it...

Oh ya I can see the hard to replace :)

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bribri25

bribri25

Posted
Posted

Nothing better than hands-on, real-world experience.   :)

I too have had good experience with Lenovo, but nothing smaller than a 14" thinkpad.

I would be skeptical that it would be very smooth or quick with large Excel files or larger Access databases though.  But if her classes don't require ExcelAccess, then it may suit her wants just fine.

 

 

 

For special form factors, they are often built with everything integrated.

This is a rather extreme exercise in small size, light weight and low price point, so I wouldn't be surprised if they made it surface mount, or at the very least didn't design it so that there was easy access to get to it and change it...

 

I agree. In many ways, it's like a Tablet. You can't really go upgrade the RAM on a tablet...

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bribri25

bribri25

Posted
Posted

As long as it's not locked in Bios I can fix the soldered part lol. I have done plenty of surface mount repair.

 

 

Yup, same here. And it is 64 bit OS, so that limitation isn't there.

 

 

LOL. okay, but that's not a reasonable option for your common laptop consumer, so let's call it stuck at 4GB...

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Kanyon71

Kanyon71

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LOL. okay, but that's not a reasonable option for your common laptop consumer, so let's call it stuck at 4GB...

You don't have a soldering station at home and the ability to reflow SMT's? I thought everyone could do that lol.

 

Seems like a shortsightedness to me on their part to make a machine with only 4GB of ram. Windows in general is a memory hog.

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len_mullen

len_mullen

Posted
Posted

Does your daughter really need the laptop for its mobility?  You pay a premium for that that may not be necessary if you're talking about just doing school work at home.  Do you think she would be more successful working at a desk with a nice 22 inch screen and a full size keyboard and mouse or squinting down at her lap, while sitting on the couch in front of the TV, at a 15 inch screen using a cramped little keyboard and touch pad?  Plus, you get more computer for your money when you buy a desktop over a laptop.  More memory, faster processor, better graphics, and more importantly an upgradeable platform so you can just upgrade parts later down the road instead of buying a whole new system.

 

Just sayin'.

 

You KNOW I love you, Pnambic, but a laptop is the best choice for academics.  Today, the premium is not great.  The student can move the machine from the kitchen table to their bedroom to a meeting place.

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tracy0504

tracy0504

Posted
Posted

He said $400 to $500 (He's a college kid buying this with his hard earned money, so the lower the better so long as its still a decent laptop)

He needs/wants it to take an online college course to finish up his degree. I think a web browser is all it would need (but I will suggest he double checks). I think having basic office products would be best (MS Word/Excel) but not necessarily required.

It won't get a ton of usage, as he is a very busy young man with going to college and working full-time. I would assume he'd use the web browser the most for the online course, social media, normal web surfing. He may need to type up some documents for some classes (though most are welding/mechanical classes) - but he can also come home and use the desktop if he had to.

I don't see him playing games on the computer at this time.

I would say an average size screen. As for battery I think whether he needs to have it plugged in or not is not too relevant for him, as I am sure he may only use it at his apartment. He *might* occasionally take it to school w/ him, but again he should have access to plug ins.

 

I do think something not flimsy would be good - sorry but he is a male. :) He is not dainty with things.

 

Please let me know if you have any other questions or there are other things we need to be looking at. Oh, memory. Ideally it'd have enough that he doesn't have to add to it. Most things for school would probably be saved to his flash drive. So idk - 4 GB at least, I am truly at loss here as for size.

HSN.com has some good deals right now in that price range and 4-6 months flex payments make them even more affordable...

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using GottaDeal mobile app

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