upgrade laptop or get new one

[bowlofturtle]

With black friday being around the corner i cant help but to start day-dreaming about a new laptop.

My current laptop is CLICK HERE

quick specs are
I3 2357M
11.6 screen 1366 x 768
4gb ram
320gb HDD
under 3lbs
2-2.5hours of battery life

I'm using it as a typical student. Lots of web surfing, MS office, lots of video downloading/watching/streaming (HTPC). There is nothing wrong with the laptop. Two things annoy me tho and they are battery life and screen resolution. Working with excel and reading PDFs, it would be nice to have 1920x1080. It would also be nice not to need to charge my laptop mid day. Aside from that i love it. Its a GREAT size and weight because i dont feel it in my bag at all. Speed is decent for me. Its been a solid workhorse for me the last 3-4 years. I got so used the size, when i use other people's larger 15.6 laptops i hate moving it around. Its like a boat anchor.

My thoughts currently is to spend about $125. $35 for a ebay, hong kong battery. (stock battery is 4000mah and ebay one is 7800mah) so even it isn't the claimed 7800, i figure it should be least a 5000mah. So i can then hotswap batteries. The other $90, i was going to put aside for a 250gb samsung SSD (which seems to be dropping to $65-75) lately. So maybe my total upgrade would be $100.

Or i can spend $500 or so on a new laptop that is faster, 1920x1080, ultraportable, 5 hour life and real HDMI port.

I got the $500 to spend or save. So cost isn't too big of a factor. I've dealt with the screen resolution for all these years, my dekstop is dual screen 23inch screens. More battery life and SSD should make my laptop more enjoyable.

 

[rshaw125]

I bought a new battery for my Toshiba from Amazon. Less than $15. Still giving me 5 plus hours of use after a year.

 

[Greasymechtech]

I've purchased 20+ ebay batteries over the years and NONE have come close to 'rated capacity'. All died within a year, usually a single dead cell. Buy an OE battery, or a reseller in business a long time that provides a hassle free warranty.

Find a battery rebuilder that uses quality Samsung/LG/Panasonic/Sony cells.

I've rebuilt dozens of laptops(usually owners refuse to recycle ol' obsolete overpriced junk bought years ago). Even though there was profit for me, it really wasn't worth it for the owner.

Buy yourself a new laptop and sell the wiped old one on ebay, or donate it to a charitable organization, or poor kid down the street.

Keep an eye on fatwallet, slickdeals, ebay deals, and the blackfriday websites and find yourself what you need, hopefully heavily discounted/rebated....

 

[xfactor9]

I'd buy a new one and sell that one... You can probably get $125-150 for it. So for net cost of $350-400, you'd be getting something new and far superior

 

[skyactiv]

Resolution Resolution Resolution.

Using a laptop with high resolution makes it much more enjoyable to use.

1366 x 768 sucks.

 

[cat843]

I would go with a new laptop.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

I bought two oversized batteries to use with a laptop on business trips and they were both fine for about two months. One died at about a year and the other lasted a few months more, and I could tell they were going downhill well before that. The original small battery lasted for years.
I'd go with the new laptop, myself.

 

[daves87rs]

I am doing both...

Just got a new laptop-love the fact this one is easy to upgrade...(still learning windows 10 though)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-15-6-...p;skuId=9679149

Both my other laptops are getting new batteries and memory upgrades....

 

[Kawiguy454]

Keep in mind if you go higher in resolution on a small screen everything appears smaller and text gets harder to read. So unless you go to a 17" monitor the text @1080P may be super tiny.

A value based SSD will immediately make that old machine noticeably faster. Samsungs are awesome.

A new computer without an SSD is a waste as the biggest bottleneck for most people is the spinning disk.

 

[bowlofturtle]

Originally Posted By: Greasymechtech
I've purchased 20+ ebay batteries over the years and NONE have come close to 'rated capacity'. All died within a year, usually a single dead cell. Buy an OE battery, or a reseller in business a long time that provides a hassle free warranty.

Find a battery rebuilder that uses quality Samsung/LG/Panasonic/Sony cells.

I've rebuilt dozens of laptops(usually owners refuse to recycle ol' obsolete overpriced junk bought years ago). Even though there was profit for me, it really wasn't worth it for the owner.


I'm assume those 20 batteries are for customers. Otherwise i would be asking why keep trying. My laptop isn't very popular, but a few users have posted they gotten 5 hours on them but this was early in the game. They normally dont hang around the forums to post back 1 year later.

Buying an OE battery from local places like battery plus (not sure on easy returns) would be $100 for standard battery. Not worth it.