Need advice on buying a new notebook

[ReSe2k]

My old computer died a few days ago and i thought instead of buying a new tower i just could get notebook instead. I used my pc only for browsing, photoshop and mame anyways.

I have a ps4 and switch for gaming, so the only games i would like to play on it are 'Cuphead' and 'Ori and the Blind Forrest'.

Can you guys recommend something between 4-500€. I'm not really sure what to look out for, never ha a laptop before.

[ZacharyB]

How good are your eyes? One of the biggest differences between laptop computers and desktop computers, is that with desktop computers, the monitor and the keyboard can be separate. This allows you to position the keyboard anywhere, while also positioning the monitor anywhere, giving the best comfort. A laptop has only slightly better ergonomics than a modern smartphone/tablet, where your hands always have to be where your eyes are.

[ReSe2k]

My eyes are fine. I need glasses for driving but on a pc or smartphone they don't do anything.

[Despatche]

Honestly, laptops are a mistake. I'm having to use one right now, and it's just a miserable experience. You pay way more for less, and you basically have to use it as a desktop anyway to get any real mileage out of it. Ironically, using a laptop as a laptop is a bad idea.

[Vexorg]

If I was looking at a laptop for general non-gaming use right now it would probably be something like a Surface Laptop 2, but that's out of the price range. My wife recently bought a Samsung Notebook 9 Pro and likes that reasonably well, but that's also a bit high. For €500 you'd probably get more bang for your buck by going with a refurbished previous generation model or possibly something used, although I'd probably be hesitant to buy a used laptop myself without being certain about its condition and trying it out first.

That said, my recommendation would be to find an electronics shop and try things out to find something that feels decent. For the most part you're not going to find much difference in specs at that price point, so it mostly comes down to features (in particular you'd probably want something with pen support if you're using Photoshop on it.)

[Xyga]

If you're looking for advice, notebookcheck.net pay attention to the display's quality in their reviews, which is damn rare.

If high performance/gaming is not your focus, you're basically looking for three things: decent display, keyboard, and touchpad.

Personally I would avoid sizes smaller than 15", avoid display resolution lower than 1600x900, and avoid anything from HP brand.

[Mischief Maker]

If you're getting a notebook, make sure you get a good warranty on it.

I ended up getting my Dell replaced twice while the warranty lasted. Then I switched back to a tower and never looked back.

Unless you seriously need a PC on the go, laptops are not worth it. Toward the end I was placing my laptop on a cooling mount to keep the thing from melting down, which made it effectively an overpriced underpowered desktop. I even had a Dell support guy yell at me for carrying my laptop to class (no, don't carry it around!).

Also make certain your HD is an SSD. That's the first place they'll die, after that it'll be from the GPU melting down.

[ZellSF]

Don't get a laptop with a GPU in the first place. Laptops aren't for gaming. Especially not in the 4-500€ range.

I would prioritize keyboard and touchpad quality over almost everything else.

[Xyga]

In any case whatever the configuration, at 400~500€ if he really hopes to find a decent one, he'd better arm himself with patience and persistence.

Since websites don't review much if any models in that price range (really budget basic desktop replacements) I'd advise something controversial; for once I'd pay close attention to amazon/newegg's and such customer comments, NOT their opinion and stars rating, but rather the remarks they make about potential recurrent issues, like if the touchpad is imprecise or fragile, if the keyboard sucks, or the screen's coating either too grainy or too reflective (anti-glare vs. glossy), too dark or yellow-tinted, etc. whatever issue mentioned more than 2~3 times should raise a flag.

Regarding the SSD, I'd say it's necessary these days only if you use your laptop enough often, like as a main machine several hours a day, but since large ones raise the price significantly, either you don't really care about good response from your computer and then pass only going for a classic HDD, or you do and then go for a combo SSD+HDD, but the SSD must be at the very least 128GB (warning: NOT the eMMC type, you want SSD), which is small and I'd consider a bare 'survival' minimum size for your OS and programs. Goes without saying a 256GB is already much more comfortable.

Lastly I would advise using http://www.cpubenchmark.net to compare the CPU's performance, because at similar price laptops can be equipped with significantly better or worse ones.



Ugh, I went and looked around a bit, these days all you get in 17" within 400~500€ is a 1600x900 display, 128GB or 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM (expandable, thankfully), a puny Pentium 'N' series, or better i3 'U' series, and W10 Family edition.
The 15" ones are more interesting, you'll find similar configurations but with a 1920x1080 display.
Up to you to decide if you want a larger screen or more pixel real estate.
Too bad there's nothing Ryzen-based under 600~700.

[Vexorg]

Regarding the SSD, I'd say it's necessary these days only if you use your laptop enough often, like as a main machine several hours a day, but since large ones raise the price significantly, either you don't really care about good response from your computer and then pass only going for a classic HDD, or you do and then go for a combo SSD+HDD, but the SSD must be at the very least 128GB (warning: NOT the eMMC type, you want SSD), which is small and I'd consider a bare 'survival' minimum size for your OS and programs. Goes without saying a 256GB is already much more comfortable.

I'd agree, but the prices of SSDs have come down a lot lately from where they used to be (not sure what the prices look like in Europe but Newegg has a number of 500GB SSDs for under $70), and the performance increase is large enough to be significant. That said, in most cases an SSD is something you can upgrade to later.

[Xyga]

Sure, I said that with what the market currently offers with a limited budget in mind. At the moment it seems 128/256GB SSD + 1TB configurations are popular in the 400~500 range.

Laptop 'packages' would be more intersting if only they let you choose your storage and RAM on purchase instead of letting you upgrade later.
Brands like ACER and ASUS release several variants of the same base model using many different product numbers, which is really stupid IMHO (but of course more convenient to them)

[orange808]

Some people can get away with just using a recent model iPad. Zero maintenance worries with that.

Maybe build a MISTer or RaspPi for emulation.

Managing a PC can be a pain.

[drauch]

Seems like we have these every once and a while and everyone goes crazy suggesting all kinds of bonkers specs and old wive's tales about X brand exploding. Just get a recent desktop from any major brand and delete the bloatware that comes pre-installed. If you're just using the few things you talked about you'll be fine.

[ReSe2k]

Yeah, I've realized there's nothing worth buying for 500€. So i've started looking at some laptop's between 600-700.
A SSD is a must for me, since the HDD was super slow and grinding really load in my old system.

This is one i got recommended:
https://geizhals.at/lenovo-thinkpad-e58 ... cription=1
Additional ram can be installed, which is nice. Not sure if 15'' is large enough for me. If it isn't i probably just get a regular PC again. *Sigh*

[Xyga]

Seems like we have these every once and a while and everyone goes crazy suggesting all kinds of bonkers specs and old wive's tales about X brand exploding. Just get a recent desktop from any major brand and delete the bloatware that comes pre-installed. If you're just using the few things you talked about you'll be fine.

come on what's that grumpy old man post? you didn't read, we've minded his budget and pretty much told him there's hardly anything worth the money.
and if you had some experience with common laptop issues and maintenance you'd know some brands are worse for reason.

@ReSe2k; yeah that thinkpad looks good, 8GB RAM is already pretty decent, no HDD for storage included though it seems.

Frankly if your motivation for a laptop was maybe to have minimal mobility inside the house, maybe you should consider orange808's suggestion and buy both instead; a new desktop, and later a basic laptop or tablet you can take to the garden or bathroom if you feel like to.
All the really good notebooks cost between 1000~2000€ anyway.

[spmbx]

If you plan to actually drag it along with you a lot i suggest looking at the business lines of hp,lenovo,dell. The consumer lines don’t handle using a laptop as an actual laptop very well. Or at least not for an extended period of time; they are just not sturdy enough. And for the love of god pick something with an ips panel. Problem is that will almost certainly be outside of your pricerange. Something secondhand or refurbushed could be ok if it has a new battery.

[Xyga]

refurbushed could be ok if it has a new battery.

+1 good advice
the two laptops I use were manufacturer refurbished units, like returned for a little scratch or whatever otherwise they were like new.
saved 100 on one and 50 ot the other. ^^

[Vexorg]

This could answer your questions about playing Cuphead and Ori:. There are rumors going around of a number of Xbox first party games being released for Switch, including the two you cited:

https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/02/24 ... r-cuphead/

[drauch]

*Edited. Lol. Decided I want no part in this silliness.

OP, if you're concerned that the screen won't be large enough, why not stick with the desktop? I can't imagine working on photoshop on a laptop myself. Unless you're planning to travel, what's the motive?

[Obiwanshinobi]

I don't know what they are conventionally called, but in my latest workplace, desktop PCs were some compact, Wii-sized model that nonetheless required attached keyboard, mouse and monitor (still hooked up monitors' VGA sockets, so I assume they had DVI-I for video output). If you already have the aforementioned peripherals handy, one of those could be just what you need. Should be at least long-lasting, considering 24/7 duty they had to endure in that place. Then again, I don't know whether they are even sold to individual users new, or huge buyers like that former employer of mine must order large quantities. No idea about room for upgrade and repairs, either (looked like supposed to get simply raplaced should any hardware malfunction occur).

(Myself, I haven't upgraded for ages, it's just that I remember times when office PCs looked like, well, PCs to me, whereas office PCs these days look like described above.)

[Vexorg]

I guess it depends on the application. At most places I've worked in the past ten years the employees just have laptops and some means to plug in monitors and peripherals, but for places that do still use desktops the all-in-ones (such as iMacs) seem to be the most common way to go. Then again, where I work currently I have a rather beefy gaming desktop on my desk, but that's because there an actual need for one.

[drauch]

I don't know what they are conventionally called, but in my latest workplace, desktop PCs were some compact, Wii-sized model that nonetheless required attached keyboard, mouse and monitor (still hooked up monitors' VGA sockets, so I assume they had DVI-I for video output). If you already have the aforementioned peripherals handy, one of those could be just what you need. Should be at least long-lasting, considering 24/7 duty they had to endure in that place. Then again, I don't know whether they are even sold to individual users new, or huge buyers like that former employer of mine must order large quantities. No idea about room for upgrade and repairs, either (looked like supposed to get simply raplaced should any hardware malfunction occur).

(Myself, I haven't upgraded for ages, it's just that I remember times when office PCs looked like, well, PCs to me, whereas office PCs these days look like described above.)

Yeah, I know Lenovo and Dell has models like that, the Tiny and OptiPlex Micro. We used to use them at my last job. I've got a few in my house, one that I use as a dedicated torrent machine, and the others for LANning old games since I snagged a few that we didn't need. Super low power consumption, and now that they're quadcores they were nice as simple machines. Not really upgradeable; they just have integrated graphics and they're very simply made to fit their small cases.

[ReSe2k]

@Vexorg Thanks for the heads up! Would be awesome to play these games on the Switch.

*Edited. Lol. Decided I want no part in this silliness.

OP, if you're concerned that the screen won't be large enough, why not stick with the desktop? I can't imagine working on photoshop on a laptop myself. Unless you're planning to travel, what's the motive?

More space and less power consumption. It always feels like a huge waste of energy to use my pc just for browsing and the occasional use of photoshop or mame. I haven't played a pc game in years.

[drauch]

Aye, gotcha. You could always go that small form factor route then so you don't have to sacrifice screen size that Obi mentioned above. The ones I use use 65W, and even use the same laptop AC adapter for various models.