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Official Black Friday LAPTOPS Discussion Thread

Brad

By Brad
in 2016

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50sjayne

50sjayne

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Posted (edited)

Hey. I just want a smooth running laptop. The one I have now is a nightmare--slow--I've done everything I can to speed it up. No gaming, just internet browsing. I am a facebook junkie. I do not want any fancy touch screen or flippy floppy thing with cool colors, I'd rather have decent specs. The one I'm looking at now is the $269 Home depot hp--8 gb, memory and an intel I3. I can't spend more than $300 since I spent $200 just 2 years ago on the piece of **** that is still functional albeit maddening. ( I got this stupid laptop as an emergency purchase for my daughter which I ended up keeping after my beloved toshiba became terminally ill with a hinge issue.) Anything else compare? The only thing I'm a little worried about is the I3 processor. Oh yeah--am a recovering walmart shopper, only shopped there 2-3 times the last 20 years.Had a shameful Harry potter/fitbit relapse a few different black fridays and one emergency after midnight liquid bandaid. 

Edited by 50sjayne
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len_mullen

len_mullen

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Office Depot?  I'd find the $30 to get the i5 with the bigger disk on the same page which will be about 20% faster, but the i3 is no slouch...

 

http://officedepot.shoplocal.com/officedepotsd/weeklyad?promotioncode=OfficeDepot-161124BF&cm_sp=marketing-_-dynamicad-sneak_peek-_-Home-TriplePromoZone1-Ad2-Home&storeid=2670614#!/promotion?storeid=2670614&languageid=1&promotioncode=OfficeDepot-161124BF&pagenumber=1&mode=bbpsingle

 

http://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-intel_core_i5_7200u-653-vs-intel_core_i3_7100u-654

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len_mullen

len_mullen

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$60 over the i3, but $30 over your budget.  I have been looking at CPUs a lot lately.  I have a couple desktops to upgrade and want a 17" laptop for myself.  Most of the 17" laptops are i3s.  At this point in time, I am not sure CPU is the top differentiator, but I feel it when I sit at a computer.  I was going to recommend the walmart acer...

 

http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/black-friday-4049-Acer156Corei5Laptopw6GB1TBOnlineOnly.html

 

but I was concerned the 2g less memory would be a bigger hit on performance than the i3.  Most of the laptops only specify the size of the disk.  I'd like to know the manufacturer and speed.  7200rpm is going to make a big difference.  WD/Toshiba are more reliable than Seagate/Samsung,

 

Have fun!

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deelite

deelite

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Hey. I just want a smooth running laptop. The one I have now is a nightmare--slow--I've done everything I can to speed it up. No gaming, just internet browsing. I am a facebook junkie. I do not want any fancy touch screen or flippy floppy thing with cool colors, I'd rather have decent specs. The one I'm looking at now is the $269 Home depot hp--8 gb, memory and an intel I3. I can't spend more than $300 since I spent $200 just 2 years ago on the piece of **** that is still functional albeit maddening. ( I got this stupid laptop as an emergency purchase for my daughter which I ended up keeping after my beloved toshiba became terminally ill with a hinge issue.) Anything else compare? The only thing I'm a little worried about is the I3 processor. Oh yeah--am a recovering walmart shopper, only shopped there 2-3 times the last 20 years.Had a shameful Harry potter/fitbit relapse a few different black fridays and one emergency after midnight liquid bandaid. 

Mine has suffered the same hinge issue. It is a Toshiba Satellite and cracks everytime I open or close it. I am looking for one also to replace the Toshiba one as well as a good work one. But I cant spend over $400 which really limits my options. Hoping that I will be able to find a good laptop for a great deal.

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riven3d

riven3d

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Mine has suffered the same hinge issue. It is a Toshiba Satellite and cracks everytime I open or close it. I am looking for one also to replace the Toshiba one as well as a good work one. But I cant spend over $400 which really limits my options. Hoping that I will be able to find a good laptop for a great deal.

here is one in your price range it will be $349 when it goes on sale for BF

 

http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/Item/4259

 

8GB ram 1TB HD, its touch screen, i have a love/hate relationship with mine, i will open a window and my daughter will come over to view it and touch my screen she isnt used to it and closes the window. its very touch sensitive.

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50sjayne

50sjayne

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Mine has suffered the same hinge issue. It is a Toshiba Satellite and cracks everytime I open or close it. I am looking for one also to replace the Toshiba one as well as a good work one. But I cant spend over $400 which really limits my options. Hoping that I will be able to find a good laptop for a great deal.

Dude--put all the specs I wanted into Amazon earlier today and some amazing laptops came up around $400 or a little more.

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Pnambic

Pnambic

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Hey. I just want a smooth running laptop. The one I have now is a nightmare--slow--I've done everything I can to speed it up. No gaming, just internet browsing. I am a facebook junkie. I do not want any fancy touch screen or flippy floppy thing with cool colors, I'd rather have decent specs. The one I'm looking at now is the $269 Home depot hp--8 gb, memory and an intel I3. I can't spend more than $300 since I spent $200 just 2 years ago on the piece of **** that is still functional albeit maddening. ( I got this stupid laptop as an emergency purchase for my daughter which I ended up keeping after my beloved toshiba became terminally ill with a hinge issue.) Anything else compare? The only thing I'm a little worried about is the I3 processor. Oh yeah--am a recovering walmart shopper, only shopped there 2-3 times the last 20 years.Had a shameful Harry potter/fitbit relapse a few different black fridays and one emergency after midnight liquid bandaid.

 

Start here: http://forums.gottadeal.com/topic/266563-official-black-friday-laptops-discussion-thread/?do=findComment&comment=1334501

 

Facebook has a LOT of crap on it. if you spend any time at all on it, you need to be regularly cleaning your machine. Tell us about your current laptop - what processor, how much RAM, Make/Model, screen size?
If all you're doing is facebook and Internet browsing, then I imagine any laptop in just about any one of the ads would be sufficient. In fact, your current laptop would likely be perfectly sufficient as well if it were cleaned up a bit.

 

However, if you're set on a new laptop, I would chase the Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-52RJ at NewEgg. It has an i5, 8GB (DDR4), 2GB of GDDR5 on a discrete NVIDIA video card and a 1920 x 1080 screen. All at $420.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315422

 

Honestly, if you go with less, you're likely to be in the same spot you're at now in a year or two. Unless you learn to clean your laptop.

 

 

My teen daughter wants a laptop that she can record quality YouTube videos on and edit them. Any suggestions of the laptops you've seen so far on sale on BF or other suggestions? TIA!

 

We need to start with the minimum requirements for the software your daughter wants to use to record and edit the videos.
Report back and we'll help to steer you in the right direction.

 

Generally speaking though, video crunching is really resource intensive, so laptops that do it well aren't cheap. There are LOADS of good laptops this year that can do this, but none of them are the $199 door busters.

 

 

Mine has suffered the same hinge issue. It is a Toshiba Satellite and cracks everytime I open or close it. I am looking for one also to replace the Toshiba one as well as a good work one. But I cant spend over $400 which really limits my options. Hoping that I will be able to find a good laptop for a great deal.

 

This looks like the best bang for the buck around your $400 budget.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315422 ($420)

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deelite

deelite

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Thank you for all the help!

 

I am thinking I want this one because of the requirement for work and it has the biggest screen and best processor speed for $369:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-17-3-laptop-intel-core-i5-4gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-textured-linear-gradient-grooves-in-black/5623243.p?skuId=5623243

 

I know that the memory is lower but the processor speed is what I am really looking at I have to have over 2.4 ghz. Still looking and I really do appreciate all the help. :)

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deelite

deelite

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Call the geek squad and ask how much to upgrade memory to 8g/12g/16g and figure that into your cost.  In the QnA, someone said memory could not be upgraded.  I really do not think 4g is enough.  That said, Windows 10 requires 1g for 32 bit and 2g for 64 bit.

Yeah that 4 gb bothers me also. That is why I am still on the fence. Still looking and hoping I can actually GET some of the other ones I was looking at but if not it may be the 4gb one. Walmart has an option for me but its been OOS since last week. Hoping they will be available online for bf.

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/53853529

 

If I had paid attention to the processor speed in the beginning I probably would have not missed out on the Walmart one. I was set on getting the Dell from Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/5579395.p?skuId=5579395) but then I realized the processor speed was worse than I have now at 2.2 and my laptop is 2.3 over 5 years old!

Edited by deelite
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Pnambic

Pnambic

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Yea, but don't get caught up on MHz or GHz of processors so much.  It's not as straight forward as it used to be back in the Pentium days.

Today, we're talking about multiple cores, and each core has multiple threads, extended instruction sets and "turbo" speeds.

 

Why do you think you need 2.4 GHz?  By all reports, the i5 6200U is a fine processor that should be able to handle just about anything 99% of computer users can throw at it.

 

BTW, the BestBuy laptop is a fine laptop, but it has far too little RAM in my opinion.  As Len mentioned, half your RAM (at least) will be tied up by your Windows operating system right off the top leaving you with just 2GB left to share for everything else, including putting all the pixels on your screen.  The one I linked to has a dedicated video card with 2GB that ONLY used for video and 8GB for everything else (2GB for Windows and 6 for everything else).  I would be absolutely shocked if the HP laptop at BestBuy was faster than the ACER from Newegg in pretty much any situation.  The Newegg one also has faster wireless networking capability (AC) and Bluetooth 4.1 where the HP doesn't.

 

I see mixed reports on whether the HP's RAM can be upgraded (BestBuy's Q&A says no, but a different site says yes) and HP's website doesn't list the device, so it's hard to be sure.  But that also is a red flag for me - if I can't find the device on the manufacturer's own website, I find a different option.

 

Edit:  

Also, the larger screen of the HP actually has a lot less pixels.  The ACER has full HD 1920 x 1080 while the HP has 1600 x 900.  That means the ACER has almost one and a half times as many pixels.

And the battery is reported to be up to 8 hours on the ACER vs. 6 hours on the HP.

And lastly, the ACER has the capability to incorporate an SSD in addition to the HDD, which could significantly speed things up if you wanted.

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deelite

deelite

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Yea, but don't get caught up on MHz or GHz of processors so much.  It's not as straight forward as it used to be back in the Pentium days.

Today, we're talking about multiple cores, and each core has multiple threads, extended instruction sets and "turbo" speeds.

 

Why do you think you need 2.4 GHz?  By all reports, the i5 6200U is a fine processor that should be able to handle just about anything 99% of computer users can throw at it.

 

BTW, the BestBuy laptop is a fine laptop, but it has far too little RAM in my opinion.  As Len mentioned, half your RAM (at least) will be tied up by your Windows operating system right off the top leaving you with just 2GB left to share for everything else, including putting all the pixels on your screen.  The one I linked to has a dedicated video card with 2GB that ONLY used for video and 8GB for everything else (2GB for Windows and 6 for everything else).  I would be absolutely shocked if the HP laptop at BestBuy was faster than the ACER from Newegg in pretty much any situation.  The Newegg one also has faster wireless networking capability (AC) and Bluetooth 4.1 where the HP doesn't.

 

I see mixed reports on whether the HP's RAM can be upgraded (BestBuy's Q&A says no, but a different site says yes) and HP's website doesn't list the device, so it's hard to be sure.  But that also is a red flag for me - if I can't find the device on the manufacturer's own website, I find a different option.

 

Edit:  

Also, the larger screen of the HP actually has a lot less pixels.  The ACER has full HD 1920 x 1080 while the HP has 1600 x 900.  That means the ACER has almost one and a half times as many pixels.

And the battery is reported to be up to 8 hours on the ACER vs. 6 hours on the HP.

And lastly, the ACER has the capability to incorporate an SSD in addition to the HDD, which could significantly speed things up if you wanted.

Well, its a job requirement to have a processor with at least 2.4 ghz. Otherwise I would have gotten the Dell. They actually do random tests on your pc to make sure you meet the min requirements. If not, you can be terminated for not being pc compliant. That's the only reason this is so important. 

 

Oh and I actually dont even want an HP BUT it seems like that is all that is being offered that I can afford with all specs I need. I cant even think about the Newegg one because I an using gift cards/ rewards from  Best Buy and Walmart that allow me to be able to afford one under $400. I would like a Dell or an Acers but all the right things have to line up for me to get one. So far...it looks like HP. :/

Edited by deelite
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Pnambic

Pnambic

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Wow...yet another example where simple-minded corporate bureaucracy gets in the way of real performance.

 

Sorry Dee.  :(

 

In all real world examples, the ACER linked to above should be noticeably faster than the HP.  But that doesn't matter if it costs you your job, does it?

By the way, in looking it up, I found that while the base speed of the i5-6200U (in the ACER) is 2.3 GHz, it has a turbo speed of up to 2.8GHz.  Which means when the system senses it needs more oomph, and the system temperature is within tolerance, it will bump up the performance to 2.8 GHz as necessary.

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bribri25

bribri25

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Posted

Is  chromebook good for netflix and youtube? 

 

I think it could handle that.

 

My take is that a Chromebook is like a tablet with an attached keyboard, and sometimes with USB ports.  A tablet would be fine for both of those uses, so that makes me believe you're all good with a Chromebook for it.

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sdn40

sdn40

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Is  chromebook good for netflix and youtube? 

 

Yes.

I bought a chromebook for my daughter last year and after checking it out, bought one for myself.

IMO, if used for the intended purpose, I prefer it over a windows machine. By far actually

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enoreeman

enoreeman

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No problem going back and forth via Google Docs.  My youngest does it all the time.

 

I am going to suggest you look into the $99 RCA tablet at Walmart...

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/52619638?u1=&oid=223073.1&wmlspartner=RjWYtCqO0*M&sourceid=27364068732705465174&affillinktype=10&veh=aff

 

A couple years ago, I was shopping for a full license for Office.  I got an Asus Transformer with similar specs for $15 more than the Office license would have cost.  I LOVE it!  Good battery life (this one has six hours), lightweight, easy to type on (vs touch screen), and real Windows so I can run anything.  Sync Chrome across the two computers and share files with a micro usb thumb drive.  Something to think about.  Worth a visit to the store for a little hands on. 

The RCA is a piece of junk, it is NOT an RCA product, but a cheap piece of garbage made by a Chinese company that bought the rights to use the name, RCA is a dead brand. I repair computers and I have seen many of these that people have brought in to see if it could be fixed and I KNOW that they are junk, do not waste any money on these.

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len_mullen

len_mullen

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The RCA is a piece of junk, it is NOT an RCA product, but a cheap piece of garbage made by a Chinese company that bought the rights to use the name, RCA is a dead brand. I repair computers and I have seen many of these that people have brought in to see if it could be fixed and I KNOW that they are junk, do not waste any money on these.

 

Alco Electronics makes RCA branded computer products these days.  It is a Hong Kong company.  Haven't had a bad experience with the products.  Apple, btw, is made by a chinese company.

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Pnambic

Pnambic

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The RCA is a piece of junk, it is NOT an RCA product, but a cheap piece of garbage made by a Chinese company that bought the rights to use the name, RCA is a dead brand. I repair computers and I have seen many of these that people have brought in to see if it could be fixed and I KNOW that they are junk, do not waste any money on these.

 

 

Alco Electronics makes RCA branded computer products these days.  It is a Hong Kong company.  Haven't had a bad experience with the products.  Apple, btw, is made by a chinese company.

 

Wow, enoreeman, why don't you tell us what you really think!  You're sounding almost as jaded as I am with 4K...HAHAHA

And Len, Apple products are generally also a pain in the you-know-what to work on... ;)

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