Best Laptop for Under $1K?

[5hift]

Best Laptop for Under $1K?

Work is giving me $1000 to get a new laptop. However I already have a work computer so this is strictly going to be a personal/home computer.

As you may have seen from some of my previous posts, I know f all about computers. From my research, the minimum I should settle for is an i5 processor/8 GB of RAM/256 GB (SSD) of storage (feel free to correct me). This computer will used strictly for web surfing, Microsoft office, streaming, etc. I do not game or similar.

Are any of the computers, below decent? The first one from amazon is actually rated quite highly from a few review sites

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B075N1YHVK?...g=thewire0f-20
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/be...lege-students/ (review from wirecutter)


https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...11558814.aspx?

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...11558151.aspx?

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...10674161.aspx?
(why are surface laptops so much more - worth the premium?)


Any insight would be greatly appropriated as I don't know what I am doing and only have a week to decide.

Thanks!

[Mitsu3000gt]

Those are all pretty typical of $1000 laptops. 8th gen i5, 25gGB SSD (PCI-E preferred), and minimum 8GB RAM is pretty much the minimum spec you will want, so for your usage that should be plenty.

I'd go with one of the Zenbooks from the ones you posted, the one from BestBuy is the 14" version of the one on Amazon for less money. Very solid laptops.

The HP and the Microsoft are using old hardware and the 128GB SSD / 4GB ram on the MS Surface is very weak. Personally I wouldn't consider either of them at those prices.

This is the other one I would look at, especially if you can find a Lenovo discount code:

https://www3.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptop.../p/88IP70S0833

One big difference is you get a dedicated GPU with these, but it may not matter to you. The i7 / 256GB / 8GB / MX150 version is also on sale for $1169 right now which is a good deal IMO. Slightly above budget though.

[mzdspd]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/le...%3aoverviewtab

This one seems like a decent deal from microsoft store..

My wife had a surface.. She had it for around 10 months and it had a lot of issues with the connection between the keyboard and tablet and it would freeze lots.. Somehow, she convinced the Microsoft Store to take it back for full refund (after 10 months) and then she bought a XPS 13.. Way better computer in every way.

I think it was this one. Over your budget but it is a really nice laptop and the battery life is amazing, probably 8 hours or more.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/de...%3aoverviewtab

[ExtraSlow]

Thread Jack: Thoughts between these similarly priced laptops? I've decided I won't buy a laptop without an SSD, and I think 8gb rams seems reasonable.

Acer Aspire 5 15.6" Laptop - Black (Intel Core i7-8550U/256GB SSD/12GB RAM/Windows 10) $899 From Bestbuy https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...11649069.aspx?

Toshiba Z50-A, Intel i7, 16GB RAM, 480 GB SSD, 15.6" IPS 1920 x 1080, 1GB GT730m, WIN 10, 1 Yr Warranty REFURBISHED - Online Only $899 from bestbuy - https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...12645881.aspx?

ASUS F542UA-DH71 w/ Core i7-7500U, 8GB, 256GB SSD, 15.6in Full HD, DVD+/-RW, Win 10 - $1049 from MemEx - https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX68682

Lenovo ThinkPad E580 w/ Core™ i5-8250U, 8GB, 256GB PCI-E SSD, 15.6in Full HD, Windows 10 Professional - $1049 from MemEx - https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX71601

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Thread Jack: Thoughts between these similarly priced laptops? I've decided I won't buy a laptop without an SSD, and I think 8gb rams seems reasonable.

Acer Aspire 5 15.6" Laptop - Black (Intel Core i7-8550U/256GB SSD/12GB RAM/Windows 10) $899 From Bestbuy https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...11649069.aspx?

Toshiba Z50-A, Intel i7, 16GB RAM, 480 GB SSD, 15.6" IPS 1920 x 1080, 1GB GT730m, WIN 10, 1 Yr Warranty REFURBISHED - Online Only $899 from bestbuy - https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...12645881.aspx?

ASUS F542UA-DH71 w/ Core i7-7500U, 8GB, 256GB SSD, 15.6in Full HD, DVD+/-RW, Win 10 - $1049 from MemEx - https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX68682

Lenovo ThinkPad E580 w/ Core™ i5-8250U, 8GB, 256GB PCI-E SSD, 15.6in Full HD, Windows 10 Professional - $1049 from MemEx - https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX71601

Acer --> Very standard ~$1000 laptop. Checks all the boxes for the basics. Acer is claiming battery life half of some of your other choices. Screen, battery, & build quality is probably where they are cheaping out on that one, but the key internals are decent.

Toshiba --> Old 2013 laptop, forget this one IMO. $300 off full MSRP for a 5 year old refurb is a joke.

ASUS --> Last year's hardware/processor, but still a really nice unit otherwise. The i7 8550u in the Acer is a significantly faster CPU (4cores 8 threads vs 2cores 4 threads). I'd probably pass if you can find an 8-series i5/i7 in a similar package.

Lenovo --> The i5 8250u is only a hair slower than the i7 8550u, no big deal there. Bonus points for the PCI-E SSD (most in this price range are SATAIII). I think this has a matte screen which is rare on a laptop. Lenovo makes a great product, good keyboards, trackpads, etc.

From your list I'd buy the Lenovo.

[Pipty]

Buy from Lenovo Epp site passcode FNDEPP if you can wait a few weeks for it to come

https://www3.lenovo.com/ca/en/ibmepp...39&options_11=

[msommers]

Holy shit, I might pick one of those up, that's a great looking piece of kit! Cheers!

[5hift]

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Buy from Lenovo Epp site passcode FNDEPP if you can wait a few weeks for it to come

https://www3.lenovo.com/ca/en/ibmepp...39&options_11=

Doesnt work for me, is it a one time passcode?

[dirtsniffer]

use caps

[Mitsu3000gt]

It's a pretty good deal, but note that you need to add $105 for 8GB of RAM - 4GB is not nearly enough. You also have to delete the first HDD to get an SSD, but it's only 128GB and no option to increase that (EDIT: My mistake - you can add bigger SSD's.)

Weirdly, switching from Windows 10 Home to Pro reduces the price by $26 lol.

You can get the i7 and descrete graphics for $920 which is still pretty good. If you don't need discrete graphics, that i5 is plenty and benchmarks almost the same as the i7.

Still haven't seen anything that comes close to Lenovo's Black Friday deals, but we're 6 months away from that still.

Only downside to me is that it's kind of big and weights 5lbs:



Pretended to buy one and the Lenovo site says it's experiencing problems haha.

[Pipty]

Ahh it might be issue with the link I provided, starting from the root of the site and looking for the thinkpad E series seems to work

http://lenovo.evyy.net/c/341376/2257...codeGatekeeper

There's also a 14" version.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Ahh it might be issue with the link I provided, starting from the root of the site and looking for the thinkpad E series seems to work

http://lenovo.evyy.net/c/341376/2257...codeGatekeeper

There's also a 14" version.

That works now - thanks.

The 14" version is unfortunately a little more expensive, and W10 Pro is a $36 charge on the 14", but a $26 savings on the 15" haha - so weird (not that it really matters for most people).

The base models are super cheap but once you get what I'd consider the minimum hardware (i5 8250u, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, back-lit keyboard, and the 1080p IPS screen) you are looking at $925 after tax. Still a solid deal for sure, but it's only around $0-$100 cheaper than comparables at that point.

The only other thing I noticed is the are putting shit SSD's in these things - they are PCIe NVMe but manufacturered by Lenovo themselves and are even slower than SATA3 SSDs at certain tasks.

[msommers]

Would it not be generally cheaper to buy more ram and better hard drives post-purchase and install yourself?

[ExtraSlow]

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Lenovo ThinkPad E580 w/ Core™ i5-8250U, 8GB, 256GB PCI-E SSD, 15.6in Full HD, Windows 10 Professional - $1049 from MemEx - https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX71601

I think this same configuration through that EPP site is $789.92. What a deal.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Mitsu3000gt]

^^ Looks like you can get the i7 8550u for only $30 more as well which is a no-brainer if that discount still translates though to the end after all the discount codes. There isn't much speed difference but with basically no price difference ($1026 total) you might as well.

For $1200 you can double the RAM and SSD to 16GB / 512GB which also seems like a pretty easy decision.

Is the screen matte?

[5hift]

Not sure how good of a deal it was compared to some of you, but with Mitsu's advice, the IBM Friends link and a random 5% e-coupon I found, I was able to get this 13" 720S Ideapad for $769.



Item:
Ideapad 720s 13" - Platinum
Part No: 81BR003RUS
Configuration Details
● Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 5 2500U Processor (2.00GHz 6MB)
● Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64
● Display Type: 13.3" FHD IPS AntiGlare (1920x1080) with integrated camera
● Memory: 8.0GB DDR4 2133MHz
● Hard Drive: 256GB PCIe SSD
● Warranty: One year
● AC Adapter: 45 watt AC
● Graphics: AMD Integrated Graphics
● Battery: 4 Cell 48 Watt Hour Li-Polymer
● Bluetooth: Bluetooth Version 4.1
● Fingerprint Reader: Fingerprint Reader
● Keyboard: Backlit English Keyboard
● Wireless: 802.11AC (1x1)

[Mitsu3000gt]

That's a pretty great deal for those specs, especially since that Vega 8 iGPU is about twice as good as intel's HD620 iGPU.

If it's not too late you can get that for $692.99 with code SUMMER2018. That's probably the best deal in this thread so far actually, all things considered.

[Xtrema]

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Would it not be generally cheaper to buy more ram and better hard drives post-purchase and install yourself?

Only if it's serviceable by user. A lot of thin models are not.

And with RAM prices being volatile, it's a gamble.

[revelations]

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Would it not be generally cheaper to buy more ram and better hard drives post-purchase and install yourself?

Most good/decent laptops (generally, not ACER) have panels that can quickly allow access to the bottom components. Definitely cheaper if you know how to download and install W10 (made easy by MS now).