Who makes a good laptop?

[SlowlyMan]

I'm not going to move my desktop when I move to Patts, so I need to find a decent desktop replacement laptop. I've been building my own PC's for a long time, so I'm out of touch with what manufacturers are doing. Twenty years ago when I was a road warrior Toshiba was my most reliable brand. 

[alphageek]

Hard to beat macbooks these days in my opinion. I am an hardcore windows guy too but made the switch few years back.

[Farangkie]

I did quite a bit of research on this before I moved here, the most important thing for me was to buy a brand that had a global warranty.

The biggest brands like HP Dell, Asus and Apple do have global warranties. But there's a catch, the warranty only applies if that exact model is also being sold in the country your making a claim in. For example if you bought an HP Envy X360 in the USA, if the X360 was never available in Thailand, then you cant claim a repair under warranty.

That's the reason I bought a MacBook Air, they don't release different versions in different countries. Also I've had previous experience of Apple repairing two previous laptops of mine for no charge when they were well past the warranty expiry date, and they have the best re sale value when you want to sell them.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Farangkie

[KravinOff3]

Can of worms you are about open but in my personal opinion. You will need context to make a good purchasing decision. Long story cut short, Intel laptops are struggling, Apple is King and Nvidia are teaming up with Intel to stop AMD gaining ground in the laptop market. Also depends on what features are important to you. I wouldn't buy a new laptop with less than 6 Cores and 12 Threads.  

Best value performance wise Apple M1 laptops can't be beat. Non-Apple, AMD laptops are typically better performing than Intel but are deliberately sabotaged my manufacturers to encourage people to buy Intel laptops. You notice it because a lot of AMD laptops won't have all the good stuff that Intel Laptops have (Screen quality, Graphics card etc) 

Features: Form Factor ie (Ultrabook, Regular, Desktop replacement), Size (13", 15", 17"), HDD's, Webcam, USB ports etc. Decide what is important to you and begin searching. Avoid laptops with soldered on RAM, pain in the ass if and when things go wrong.   

I would choose from the following. 

Premium Brands: Apple, Asus, MSI, Razer, Gigabyte

Mid Tier: Lenovo, HP, 

Value: Acer 

Microsoft, Google, Samsung get honourable mentions but each have their own problems. 

Avoid Dell, Alienware unless you get a good sale price. Dell aren't good value, poor quality control, overpriced and customer service is terrible. Purely operating on past good reputation.    

There is a sweet spot in terms of price/performance maybe $1000 USD - $2000 USD where there is lots of competition and choice.  

 

[KravinOff3]

18 minutes ago, alphageek said:

Hard to beat macbooks these days in my opinion. I am an hardcore windows guy too but made the switch few years back.

I know the feeling but I cannot bring myself to do it. Every time I get close to making the decision I stop. The only good thing I can hope is that it causes more competition and better products. 

If you look at the performance numbers and quality of the product, it's Apple all day everyday. Which is so sad. 

[LASportsNut]

2 hours ago, KravinOff3 said:

I know the feeling but I cannot bring myself to do it. Every time I get close to making the decision I stop. The only good thing I can hope is that it causes more competition and better products. 

If you look at the performance numbers and quality of the product, it's Apple all day everyday. Which is so sad. 

So let me get this straight....

You will not buy Apple because they are a better product?

555

[KravinOff3]

3 minutes ago, LASportsNut said:

So let me get this straight....

You will not buy Apple because they are a better product?

555

: Yes, significantly better product across all metrics but also lately just a purely evil corporation. Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. But that's just my personal opinion.

I begrudgingly recommend Apple M1/M2 devices because they are better products and somehow are reasonably priced. Do as I say not as I do. There are PC gamers who will never buy a console, I will never buy a Mac.  

I think if Apple stayed true to their original philosophy of 3 tier products Good/Better/Best and were less evil, I would probably buy more of their laptops. The products are designed and built so well, that Apple spends more time re-engineering ways to deliberately get them to fail. It's infuriating.   

[LASportsNut]

4 hours ago, KravinOff3 said:

: Yes, significantly better product across all metrics but also lately just a purely evil corporation. Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. But that's just my personal opinion.

I begrudgingly recommend Apple M1/M2 devices because they are better products and somehow are reasonably priced. Do as I say not as I do. There are PC gamers who will never buy a console, I will never buy a Mac.  

I think if Apple stayed true to their original philosophy of 3 tier products Good/Better/Best and were less evil, I would probably buy more of their laptops. The products are designed and built so well, that Apple spends more time re-engineering ways to deliberately get them to fail. It's infuriating.   

My experience is the opposite.

I was always fighting viruses on my non-Apple computers.

All my Apple products last forever. 

The only reason I upgrade is personal choice.

Plus  was able to deduct the newer versions on my income taxes (own a business).

The iPhone was battery improvements over time.

The MacBook Pro due to me handing down my older versions to my kids.

 

[rog555]

8 hours ago, alphageek said:

Hard to beat macbooks these days in my opinion. I am an hardcore windows guy too but made the switch few years back.

I am the same.  For much of my professional life as software guy I used Windows.  And made money from Windows bugs, failings. 555.

A few years after retiring I switched to an imac.   I no longer had need of Windows.

I have had some issues, yes.  But overall the imac just works.  Little hassle.  Am unaware of the OS most of the time.  I can do the tasks I want to do in Lightroom, safari, finder etc.   

Windows was always intervening with error messages, unexpected errors, windows updates several times a week.   

Glad I switched to Apple.

Edited November 13, 2022 by rog555

[Farangkie]

5 hours ago, KravinOff3 said:

: Yes, significantly better product across all metrics but also lately just a purely evil corporation. Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. But that's just my personal opinion.

I begrudgingly recommend Apple M1/M2 devices because they are better products and somehow are reasonably priced. Do as I say not as I do. There are PC gamers who will never buy a console, I will never buy a Mac.  

I think if Apple stayed true to their original philosophy of 3 tier products Good/Better/Best and were less evil, I would probably buy more of their laptops. The products are designed and built so well, that Apple spends more time re-engineering ways to deliberately get them to fail. It's infuriating.   

With your stance on evil corporations, you can't be using Facebook or Google, buy anything from Amazon, Microsoft, Nestle, Exxon Mobile or BP....the list goes on.

And also you mustn't be buying anything that's made in China.

.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Farangkie

[madmike]

Another vote for Apple.  I recently bought a Macbook Pro 14".  My older Macbook Air was only 6 years old but battery life if I was using it to surf the net and view videos was maybe 4 hours.  This new one has the Apple M1 chip and whatever else and the battery lasts forever in comparison.   I have no doubt my next trip to Thailand that I will be able to watch 3-4 movies on this thing without having to recharge.

And it is fast as can be.  I am very pleased with this new laptop.  Note it is 3.5 pounds and expensive.

 

[SlowlyMan]

Is it better to buy the apple in the US or buy it in Thailand?

[Farangkie]

23 minutes ago, SlowlyMan said:

Is it better to buy the apple in the US or buy it in Thailand?

Here's the price of the MacBook Air with the M1 chip, it's probably the best value for money in the range IMHO.

You can compare the pricing with what it would be at home, but you'll find that Apple products are priced almost the same world wide.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Farangkie

[Touchagrey]

41 minutes ago, SlowlyMan said:

Is it better to buy the apple in the US or buy it in Thailand?

Likely to be less expensive in US if you watch the sales. I bought my M1 MacBook Air at a Costco sale for $729. Currently on sale at Amazon for $799. Also keep an eye on MicroCenter and Best Buy. Black Friday is almost upon us.

[wadman]

50 minutes ago, SlowlyMan said:

Is it better to buy the apple in the US or buy it in Thailand?

One thing to keep in mind is that laptop bought in Thailand comes with a dual English/Thai keyboard.  Which is a lot of annoying extra squiggly things imo.  I dropped by the Studio7 shop in Central Festival mall a few days ago, and got this pricing:

MacBook Air M1

base price 32,900

16 GB=> add 7000 baht

512 GB => add 7000 baht

And they can provide one with an English only keyboard, but need 3 weeks to order it from Apple.

[J0n]

If your not a major gamer than MacBook Pro M2 16GB which is rumored to come out Q1 2023. Other than that it depends on your budget and what your trying to do with it. You'll be spending around the same amount for either a Windows or Macbook which is $2,500 to start if its going to be a desktop replacement/workstation. I'm due for a new laptop also but I may be patient enough to wait next year around mid March 2023 when they have GTX 4000 series graphics cards with the newest intel CPU's as I feel they'll give you almost 3x the value-cost/performance compared to the 3000 series laptops out now.

Laptops have come a good way in improvement over the past 5 years. Now tech has upgraded to the point where gaming laptops can be used as a decent workstation. If you are a gamer or prefer Windows, some of the top companies are Razer, Acer, MSI, ASUS (ROG), Lenovo or Dell (Alienware). What you mostly have to pay attention to is the "specialized" use cases that specific laptop is better at than then the rest such as: 

- 144+ hertz screen for gaming.
- 4K Webcam, great speakers and microphone.
- IPS screen with high color accuracy best used for video and photo editing.
- Current tech ports such as USB 3.1, USB-C 3.2\4.0, HDMI 2, etc.
- High quality Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

As with most tech things, the more you spend the more areas it can cover relatively well. 

[snowbird]

16 hours ago, SlowlyMan said:

I'm not going to move my desktop when I move to Patts, so I need to find a decent desktop replacement laptop. I've been building my own PC's for a long time, so I'm out of touch with what manufacturers are doing. Twenty years ago when I was a road warrior Toshiba was my most reliable brand. 

I don't know your needs. Good chromebooks are on sale half price every few months at Best Buy.

An IPS screen with a celeron processor from the last couple years (can google it and see on intel webside date of release) is a good basic choice. It is what I travel with. Hundreds read the forum, if the idea doesn't help you it will likely appeal to someone.

Pros

Cheap almost disposable priced for under a couple hundred bucks on sale, not so much worry about theft or damage

Reliable

Fast at basic tasks and web surfing

cloud software and saving files, no monthly paid apps subscriptions to microsoft or antivirus etc

virus resistant

free software updates in the background

Reasonable battery life and they don't heat up as much because it doesn't take the processing power windows does. Likewise it doesn't need and i5 processor or better for it's efficient basic Operating System

 

Cons

limited software options, cloud, can't download apps like other computers

learning a new set of icons and methods

 

[stiflers_dad]

get a dell xps or a high end lenovo thinkpad.

[snowbird]

The lenovo desktops I got were a good value. All 3 lenovo laptops had wifi problems. I vowed to not be tempted into them again. Obviously not everyone has wifi problems with them but for me 3 strikes..

As a chromebook example a couple months ago I got some Acer 17" IPS chromebooks for under $150 on sale. They are usuable as a desktop replacement with that big screen. A touch screen can be handy for a chromebook but the price will go up for a good 1080 resolution IPS touchscreen laptop.

I don't disagree an Apple laptop is premium and the displays are great, so is the price and this being a forum for what it is, travel and visitors can present problems with a $2000 laptop.

Op has been out of computers for a while I think he said. The solid state memory replacing a hard disk is worthwhile. It won't be sensitive to bumps the laptop gets. It is also much faster. It's cost goes up quickly if you get huge storeage but you can use external hard disk or cloud if you need that much terrabytes of space.

Edited November 14, 2022 by snowbird

[Greg_B]

20 hours ago, SlowlyMan said:

I'm not going to move my desktop when I move to Patts, so I need to find a decent desktop replacement laptop. I've been building my own PC's for a long time, so I'm out of touch with what manufacturers are doing. Twenty years ago when I was a road warrior Toshiba was my most reliable brand. 

Since you are adept at building them, why not find a used DELL and put a solid state HD in it with max RAM..?

I bought a used DELL for $200 and did this myself. It was all I needed for Pattaya

I also used the old HD as an external to keep movies on

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by Greg_B

[Sloracer]

I bought a Lenovo Yoga- slim 7i (i7 CPU) Carbon. Mainly because it's small and light, under 1kg. Around au$1400

My needs are fairly basic. But So far I have been very happy with it. The action on the keyboard feels quite good for a laptop of it's size.

In Australia I bought an extended warranty which can be used anywhere in the world as the cost of repairs is underwritten by an insurer.

 

[Luv2Phuket]

I'm fairly illiterate when it comes to computer hardware, but I started a new project a few months ago and the company shipped me a new-in-box LG Gram.

My "old" laptop was a 15.6"; this one is 17" screen, but they same exterior size (although the Gram is a lot slimmer). The HUGE perk of the Gram is how light it is -- seriously, it is a 17" laptop that weighs about the same as my iPad!

I haven't had to use it for days at a time (yet), but have been pretty happy with it so far.  I'm hoping like Hell I get to keep it after this project ends, because I can't beat the price! 555

[simon6666]

This thread sounds like an area of expertise for me.

Let me just have a quick look through the comments ...

[Kandinski]

As long as use is not specified its impossible to make a Recommendation. For my use any +200USD product will be a good product.

[SlowlyMan]

The use will be a desktop replacement. 

I'm more interested in manufacturers who build a solid reliable product. I can choose the specs I need from there.

Edited November 14, 2022 by SlowlyMan