I picked up a new contract for my part time small business and having a laptop is requisite. I have not had a desktop or laptop in about six years. Can anyone recommend one? I have not kept up with the latest trends.

I have an iPhone and an iPad but I'm not handcuffed to Apple by any means.

My work gave me a Lenova Yoga ( I think that's what it's called). It's a laptop and can also be a tablet if you want to flip it into it. I never use it like that but it can. It's compact which I thought I'd hate. It actually I love it. The battery lasts forever and when I'm ready to roll out I pick it up close it and it fits in my bag and takes up minimal space.

Toshiba has an excellent track record.

(08-13-2017 07:07 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Toshiba has an excellent track record.

Agreed, they're the gold standard.

Acer is good but too flimsy for some. I've got a $200 Lenovo. It's dog slow, but all I really use it for is remoting into cloud servers using VNC.

(08-13-2017 06:38 PM)mistabinks Wrote:  I picked up a new contract for my part time small business and having a laptop is requisite. I have not had a desktop or laptop in about six years. Can anyone recommend one? I have not kept up with the latest trends.

I have an iPhone and an iPad but I'm not handcuffed to Apple by any means.

Short answer. It really depends on what you want out of it and how much you are willing to shell out for the required features. I own 5 laptops and they all serve their purpose except for my wife's macbook pro retina which is pretty much an eye candy. I have a M4700(spent 200 on it and is the best 200 i've ever spent) which is beefed to the max for my data center visits and can take a beating from accidental drops in the caged area and is like a fat corvette interms of capacity and performance. I also own a Asus zenbook, sleek and moderately fast enough for the scripting i do, which i take to meetings etc. I also have a dell precision 3510 which is light and has a good performance. I would start with making a list of what you are looking for and what your budget is and that should atleast narrow down your choices.

Dell's notebook offering is strong as well, but yeah Toshiba makes a great product.

(08-13-2017 09:27 PM)12thmonarch Wrote:  Short answer. It really depends on what you want out of it and how much you are willing to shell out for the required features. I own 5 laptops and they all serve their purpose except for my wife's macbook pro retina which is pretty much an eye candy. I have a M4700(spent 200 on it and is the best 200 i've ever spent) which is beefed to the max for my data center visits and can take a beating from accidental drops in the caged area and is like a fat corvette interms of capacity and performance. I also own a Asus zenbook, sleek and moderately fast enough for the scripting i do, which i take to meetings etc. I also have a dell precision 3510 which is light and has a good performance. I would start with making a list of what you are looking for and what your budget is and that should atleast narrow down your choices.

This is some good advice. I've never touched a Toshiba but sounds like I should.

Most of my experience is with Dell which probably has the best support. Depending on the warranty you purchase they will come to you to fix any hardware issue and that's usually part of the price of their business line.

You may want to visit Best Buy where you can try out various laptops and you can see how you like the typing experience. Just stay away from the Geek Squad unless you are very, very, very desperate.

(08-13-2017 06:38 PM)mistabinks Wrote:  I picked up a new contract for my part time small business and having a laptop is requisite. I have not had a desktop or laptop in about six years. Can anyone recommend one? I have not kept up with the latest trends.

I have an iPhone and an iPad but I'm not handcuffed to Apple by any means.

If you are in engineering, architecture, construction, or artistic field, where you sketch alot or mark-up alot of documents, pen-enabled convertible laptop/tablet PCs such as the Microsoft Surface products can be a great choice.

I will tell you what not to get an HP Laptop...Battery went out on me after 5 months and takes forever to load any Microsoft updates....I had to restart entire computer and start over to get to it to run half way ok now...Only 3 years old, so not like was horribly old...Will never buy an HP again though, that's for sure...Have had Dell before and besides battery had good luck with Dell compared to HP...

I have used Dell and Acer in the past and currently have a Toshiba (using it at this very moment). I agree with the earlier comments on Toshiba. It's easily the best I have owned.

I have a Dell and the speakers are sh*t. Iphone speakers much louder.

I've had Dell and a couple others in the past, and currently have a MacBook Pro. I'll never go back to Windows systems. Apple rocks.

(08-13-2017 09:27 PM)BKTopper Wrote:  Dell's notebook offering is strong as well, but yeah Toshiba makes a great product.

The Dell XPS lightweight is a powerful micro with an infinity screen. Best laptop I've ever had.

Apple Mac Book Pro. There is no substitute.

(08-13-2017 09:52 PM)XYZ Wrote:  

(08-13-2017 06:38 PM)mistabinks Wrote:  I picked up a new contract for my part time small business and having a laptop is requisite. I have not had a desktop or laptop in about six years. Can anyone recommend one? I have not kept up with the latest trends.

I have an iPhone and an iPad but I'm not handcuffed to Apple by any means.

If you are in engineering, architecture, construction, or artistic field, where you sketch alot or mark-up alot of documents, pen-enabled convertible laptop/tablet PCs such as the Microsoft Surface products can be a great choice.

In my last job we were switching field guys from laptops to Surface tablets and they loved it. Using the Microsoft custom docking station they were rocking dual monitors as well. It was about $1,500 per person but worked very well. The Surface is definitely the most powerful tablet I've ever used.

Thanks guys. Good intel. The main thing is multi tasking. I will have to be able to play a presentation, be online, and also use a word processor during my presentation.

(08-14-2017 04:57 PM)mistabinks Wrote:  The main thing is multi tasking. I will have to be able to play a presentation, be online, and also use a word processor during my presentation.

Windows does that?

I was not overly impressed with my Toshiba from a few years ago. Honestly, I am not overly impressed with my Lenovo from a few years ago I am still using either. I doubt I give either brand another shot.

Working with IT for a major company we use Lenovo, BUT, they have high defect rate, when I got a new one last year it took 3 to get one that had no issues. I like my Dell for personal use, it was one of the cheaper ones when I went to the Microsoft store. HP has a better reputation so I personal would go with HP. The company I work for went with Lenovo cause they were low bidder on the contract.

(08-14-2017 10:08 AM)NorthTexan95 Wrote:  

(08-13-2017 09:52 PM)XYZ Wrote:  

(08-13-2017 06:38 PM)mistabinks Wrote:  I picked up a new contract for my part time small business and having a laptop is requisite. I have not had a desktop or laptop in about six years. Can anyone recommend one? I have not kept up with the latest trends.

I have an iPhone and an iPad but I'm not handcuffed to Apple by any means.

If you are in engineering, architecture, construction, or artistic field, where you sketch alot or mark-up alot of documents, pen-enabled convertible laptop/tablet PCs such as the Microsoft Surface products can be a great choice.

In my last job we were switching field guys from laptops to Surface tablets and they loved it. Using the Microsoft custom docking station they were rocking dual monitors as well. It was about $1,500 per person but worked very well. The Surface is definitely the most powerful tablet I've ever used.

I've heard short-term Surface is good, but after two years most people have major reliability issues.