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What's a decent new laptop these days?

Gauntlet

Gauntlet

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My nearly 10 year old Toshiba Satellite is getting to the end of it's usefulness, and am weighing options on a replacement.

I'm not a "computer person', I do searches, forums, pictures, print a few things now and then (after a new ink cartridge dries-out :mad:). Point is I don't need lots of bells and whistles. Media slot would be nice.

I would like something that would last a while, and cost is a factor. Anything decent under $300?

Thanks!
 
You don't have to buy it from Amazon, but Amazon is where I like to research customer reviews on products to find a product model that has very good reviews even if I find a better price elsewhere and decide to buy it elsewhere, though I do buy stuff from Amazon from time to time and have been satisfied with their customer service.

Go to https://www.amazon.com/ and type laptop in the search box and click the search button, THEN to narrow the results, on the left side put 300.00 as the Max price, and I would also select "4 stars and up" to narrow it down to the higher rated products.

Then out of those results read the reviews on any of the models that has the features that fit your needs.
 
I've bought my last few at Wally World, they're under 400 and fast as space ships compared to the ones I used to special order from Gateway and Dell. The one I have now is a Dell that I got there, $328 if I recall correctly and it's about 3 years old, no problems. Does everything I need it to do but I'm not into games that use a lot of processor or anything special. Be prepared though, they don't come with backup software any longer and the new windows take a little getting accustomed to. I do like the touch screen on mine, it's kinda neat.
 
GKL- You know, I used to do that with everything, and tell my friends the same (check Amazon reviews), and didn't even have the thought about researching a laptop there. Guess that's age creepin' up on me :roll::D Thanks for the reminder.

I'll probably buy local, makes resolving any issues easier, and I used to buy a fair bit from Amazon, but much of the time they aren't a whole lot cheaper than the big box stores.

BBsGal- As much as I hate them (WW), that's probably where I'll have to buy from locally. Would you happen to know the model of yours? My current one has a 15" screen, which I like, and an SD card slot for my camera. Not a game player either, maybe Free Cell that came loaded in mine.

Thanks!
 
i can't really tell you which is good and which one isn't, same as with detectors.
but one thing i will mention: this is a great time of the year to be shopping for a new computer thanks to the back to school specials! :yes:
i bought this one a couple of years ago at Wal-Mart and got it for a great sale price! but again, i can't even give you any kind of price comparisons thanks to the Canadian and US dollar differences.

Pete
 
You could check for a few computer stores in the area. I bought an IBM Lenovo computer a while back, refurbished for $ 125 + tax. This was about 4 years ago and it's still doing fine. And it has the old Windows. Touch screens are fine, as long as your sitting around eating potato chips and stuff, then you'll be cleaning the screen all the time. But on a computer , I don't like reaching across a keyboard to swipe the screen , that's just me tho. Good luck.
 
Gauntlet said:
BBsGal- As much as I hate them (WW), that's probably where I'll have to buy from locally. Would you happen to know the model of yours? My current one has a 15" screen, which I like, and an SD card slot for my camera. Not a game player either, maybe Free Cell that came loaded in mine.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Mine is a Dell Inspiron 15R. It has the touch screen, usb ports, media card slot and DVD player. It's also 15" screen which I love, and a full size keyboard. I run mine with a wireless mouse because I don't love the touchpad mouse control.
 
Gauntlet said:
GKL- You know, I used to do that with everything, and tell my friends the same (check Amazon reviews), and didn't even have the thought about researching a laptop there. Guess that's age creepin' up on me :roll::D Thanks for the reminder.

I'll probably buy local, makes resolving any issues easier, and I used to buy a fair bit from Amazon, but much of the time they aren't a whole lot cheaper than the big box stores.

BBsGal- As much as I hate them (WW), that's probably where I'll have to buy from locally. Would you happen to know the model of yours? My current one has a 15" screen, which I like, and an SD card slot for my camera. Not a game player either, maybe Free Cell that came loaded in mine.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

That's what I do, research Amazon to see the reviews, and buy elsewhere if there's a really better price elsewhere, but I have bought quite a bit from Amazon over the years, especially since we now have Amazon Prime with free 2 day shipping, so if it's a small difference in price the free shipping makes up for it. It has been extremely rare for me to have any problem with a purchase since I try to buy only products with highly rated reviews, but once when I had to return a product, they sent a replacement even before they got the one I shipped back, they had a prepaid label to ship it back at no cost to me. So their customer service has been very good resolving any problems.
 
I'm running a HP Pavilion lap top now, and love it. I've had it about 6 years and very user friendly. (It's running on Windows 7, which I doubt you can get anymore) I see them online for in the $400.00 range. It runs circles around the Dell's and Toshiba's I've owned.....(My wife bought an ASUS.. I would not recommend that brand to anyone....:D)
 
Sounds like you just need the bare minimum for a laptop. In that case I would highly suggest a chromebook. You would need a cloud-ready printer but other than that it does the basic jobs, is super light, has a solid-state hard drive and a battery life that no standard laptop can compare with. You just need to understand that they only come with maybe a 16gb solid-state hard drive and the rest can be saved on cloud storage. My last three computers have been chromebooks and I highly suggest at least looking into them.
 
Thanks all for the advice, it'll give me some things to look into.

My internet access is via Verizon air card, and I think that's part of the problem. It's usually at least as good as DLS, but for the past couple months, it's been slow! I still know i have issues with the laptop though.
 
I have several laptops but I rarely use them since I have retired. My desk model is running Windows seven. I can't update it to a later version because of the monitor. One of my laptops has both windows 7 and 8 on it. You can choose whichever one you want to use. I used a smaller Toshiba while at work. I used it to write my book that I am writing during slow periods. I also have a couple of portable hard drives that run off of a USB port yo store more information and use as a backup device. I need to go through my desktop and clear a lot of things that I don't use anymore and move my photos to one of my portable hard drives. It isn't running as fast as it used to. While most computers are good, buying on Amazon can have a lot to do with the dealer selling them. Check the reviews for those with problems.
 
When windows went to XP, I honestly never noticed a difference, ditto when it went to Windows 7. I guess I don't use enough of the "stuff" on a computer to notice the difference. That's why I figure I could shave some off the cost since most of it I don't use anyway. Thanks again for all the advice!
 
My last purchase was a $300 Dell laptop......soon enough got a call on my cell from some lady at dell wanting to sell me extended warranty BS....blah, blah, blah. I could hear her laughing more then once at some of my comments/replies to her spiel.

She is damn lucky that I did not make a call to her superiors.

I may try an HP next time purchasing.
 
Try your local craigslist, alot of folks think that they need the latest and greatest and sell whatever they have at the time at a good price.
 
SkiWhiz said:
Try your local craigslist, alot of folks think that they need the latest and greatest and sell whatever they have at the time at a good price.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying Craigslist isn't a possibility, and I'm not saying that getting a good deal on a good item isn't possible, but be aware that likely you are buying "as is" without any recourse if it goes bad in a month.
(personally, with electronics, I prefer having at least a one year warranty)

Also you need to be careful if you do use Craigslist, here is a list of guidelines I found online.

A Police Department offered these 10 tips for Craigslist shopping.

Trust your instincts.
Don't go alone.
Insist to meet at a public place such as a police precinct.
Do not meet in a secluded area.
Do not invite strangers into your home, and do not go to theirs.
Be cautious when buying/selling high value items.
Perform the transaction during daylight hours.
If it sounds too good to be true, it normally is.
Tell a friend or family member about your intentions.
Take your cell phone with you.
 
I don't think a computer is something I'd buy used. I'd imagine it'd be easy for someone with the ability to add spyware to it and swipe your info. LOL, it's bad enough buying new with tons of stuff loaded on it to invade your privacy.

I'm going to do some looking around locally over the next couple weeks and see what I can find.
 
I got an email today from HP (on the mailing list due to buying an all in one from them). They have a back to school lap top sale now, and prices are as low as $180 for a lappy! Yeah, it is stripped down, but that sounds kind of like what you want. Check it out, it won't hurt to look. GL
 
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