Acer or Dell laptop?

[Oregoonian]

Originally Posted By: JustinH
Buy a refurb dell from dell outlet.

Their refurbished laptops are excellent quality and have good warranty. I am typing on one that I bought for $149 last year.

+1.....excellent idea, and for $250, you can purchase an upgraded computer that might normally sell for $350 or more.

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Lenovo is now assembling laptops in the USA. I don't know how you tell which ones are built in the USA or not.


Parts are all from China anyways, wont make much difference.

OP, I would second the idea of a used/refurb business grade laptop. So far I would vote on a Dell Latitude. Im using one with 4gb of ram and it performs well. Id say its slow for my use running multiple applications at once etc..but for home use browsing etc it would be plenty fine. I dont believe you need 8gb minimum to have a decent experience..it all depends what you are doing. Down the road, you can swap the drive for ssd..worthy upgrade.

 

[Fsharp]

Originally Posted By: BikeWhisperer
This should make the decision very easy

http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/laptop-brand-ratings


Notice how Apple has been on top the entire time?
That's what I'd recommend. A used unibody MacBook on eBay can be had for $250 or less. Or even better, get a new one and keep it the next 5-10 years. I've had very good luck with mine. I bought it in 2009 and it's still going strong except for the battery which needs replaced. My wife went through both a Toshiba and HP laptop and a Dell desktop during that time before finally getting a MacBook Pro a couple years ago. Cheap laptops and PCs in general are poorly built and loaded with bloatware.

 

[Gasbuggy]

Lenovo G50, spend the extra $50

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
I would buy Dell, because of the owner "saving" the company from greedy investors!

..and I would buy HP Oscilloscopes, not laptops.


Aren't they Agilent now?

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Fsharp
Cheap laptops and PCs in general are poorly built and loaded with bloatware.


That's the point here. High end PCs are great, but they are usually business line instead of consumer lines.

I had great luck with Dell in the past as well as bad luck with Dell in the past, guess which model line I had great and bad luck in? I can say the same for other brand too. The key is to buy a business line laptop and call it a day.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: Fsharp
A used unibody MacBook on eBay can be had for $250 or less. Or even better, get a new one and keep it the next 5-10 years. I've had very good luck with mine. I bought it in 2009 and it's still going strong except for the battery which needs replaced.


I have a (32 bit) MacBook Pro from 2006 that is running perfectly. It has had the battery replaced a few times but other than that it has withstood some years of heavy use in audio and video production; much of which was in the field. Now it is my wife's, performing classroom management. Easily the best portable computer I have ever owned.

 

[Fsharp]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more

I have a (32 bit) MacBook Pro from 2006 that is running perfectly. It has had the battery replaced a few times but other than that it has withstood some years of heavy use in audio and video production; much of which was in the field. Now it is my wife's, performing classroom management. Easily the best portable computer I have ever owned.


Mac's are quality. My first computer was a G3 iMac and I've had two MacBooks since then. I usually upgrade when the old one can no longer run the latest version version of the OS. I sell the old ones on eBay for a few hundred dollars to someone who needs a basic machine. The purchase price may be high, but hassle and overall cost of ownership is low. Apple offers 0% interest if you want to do that, too.

 

[daman]

I see ASUS is down on the list but I still like them, I have two one for the daughter in collage and mine they both have a ton of hours on them especially my daughters(wearing through the buttons) and haven't had a problem since new.

 

[Rand]

I'd get a refurb thinkpad t410 or t420.

They are business grade and feel quality.

The t410 is 169$ from
http://us.refurb.io/collections/deals/pr...sbHZwIht000hozQ

It is an older model, but these hold up well.

they also have a t420 for about 209$ or 229$
http://us.refurb.io/collections/lenovo/products/lenovo-thinkpad-t420-laptop-4gb-320gb-i5-2-5ghz
http://us.refurb.io/collections/lenovo/products/lenovo-thinkpad-t420-laptop-8gb-320gb-i5-2-5ghz

They went for 600-800$ new.

I had a t400 that I loved. Upgraded to a t520 a few years ago for 800$ (with fhd screen).
The T-series is the real thinkpad.. not consumer grade trash.
They keyboards are great and stiff.. ie has a metal stiffener under it. The frames are also nice and reinforced so they feel premium.

I would recommend the t530 but they are out of stock currently
LENOVO THINKPAD T530 LAPTOP, 8GB, 160 SSD, INTEL CORE i5-3320M 2.6GHz
http://us.refurb.io/products/lenovo-thinkpad-t530-laptop-8gb-160-ssd-intel-core-i5-3320m-2-6ghz

 

[Picky1]

Staples is having a sale right now on refurb business computers, some decent low budget laptops from $150 - $250.

 

[JustinH]

Originally Posted By: Oregoonian
Originally Posted By: JustinH
Buy a refurb dell from dell outlet.

Their refurbished laptops are excellent quality and have good warranty. I am typing on one that I bought for $149 last year.

+1.....excellent idea, and for $250, you can purchase an upgraded computer that might normally sell for $350 or more.


I would get a business line laptop if you can, and put a 3 year warranty on it. You can get a pretty good deal on that.

Also it supports people in Round Rock, Texas. Dell's headquarters are here and they support the local community, and tons of folks work there.