Are all decent laptops > $1000????

[boeckelr]

Hi -

I'm in the market for a new laptop, but am becoming rapidly frustrated concerning the prices.

I don't need a desktop replacement, although I would like something with a little muscle. I'm undecided on a strictly Win laptop vs a MacBook Air or Pro.

Use wise, I'd like something with good battery life and it needs to be kind of portable. I'd like it to run cooler than my 5 year old Dell, which has almost burned my legs on occasion.

I've looked at the MacBook Airs, 13 inch MacBook Pro retina, Asus Zenbook U305 ( the low clocked Core-M model), the Dell XPS 13 and some of the Lenovo Yogas.

The one that would fit me best is the MacBook Pro as it can be configured with 16gb ram, but of course it has to be at purchase as the ram is soldered and it's hard for me to stomach a $2000 13" laptop.

Pretty much the rest of the models that I mentioned max out at 8gb ram...which is ok but from my long experience with computers, if you want something to last max out the ram.

And the only aforementioned model that is priced somewhat reasonably is the Zenbook....but it's fanless and will get hot (presumably).

What do you guys do? Do you bite the bullet and shell out $1300+ on a 13" laptop with 8gb ram???

Are there any decent models I've failed to mention? I just don't want the Dell Dimension 15" or whatever that may have ok power but it's heavy and has w crappy screen and terrible battery life.

I guess you get what you pay for.

One more question. When did Apple stop allowing users to update ram on their own? Bc I noticed Apple had some refurb models - and while I'm not sure I want 16gb now I would like that option open in her future and was hoping to find a refurb with non soldered ram.

Thanks for your help and any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Mike

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If you're looking for something the size, weight, battery life, screen quality, etc., of an rMBP... yeah. That's premium Ultrabook ($1000+) territory.

The Retina Macbook Pros have had soldered-on RAM since their introduction. Most of their competitors don't. Many of them even have 2.5" HDD/SSD bays that make upgrading that a lot easier too.

Just shop sales/refurbs, you should be able to find a Windows portable with specs similar to an rMBP for <$1k. Wouldn't be a performance difference you'd notice.

 

[jaydee]

You really haven't layed out any parameters for what you're looking for in a laptop, other then up-gradable RAM, "little bit of muscle", "good battery life" and "runs cooler than 5 year old Dell".

What kind of CPU, what kind of graphics, what kind of screen (size, type and resolution), what kind of weight/thickness, what kind of battery life? Be specific.

 

[yadda]

I have the Zenbook and it runs great with little of no heat. I am totally impressed so far.

 

[corkyg]

I have had 6 laptops since 1996, and all have been custom ordered, and none were less than $1K. Today, you do get more for your dinero.

 

[boeckelr]

Hi again

Thanks for all of the replies.

Sorry about not giving more indication about what I was looking for. First a 1080p screen is fine, although I know that some are coming with much higher resolution screens now. I wouldn't be averse to one but 1080p is adequate.

For CPU I'm a little conflicted. While a Core-M should be sufficient, I would like this laptop,to be viable for some time, especially as it looks like I'll be paying well over $1000. So a Broadwell-U Core i5 or Core i7 is what i will probably end up buying. I know that I will be getting a heavier less portable laptop that generates more heat....but correct me if I'm wrong, for longevity a Broadwell-U makes more sense.

But given all that the Zenbook U305 is still intriguing, and I'm not saying that based on price.

The only game I might play is Command - a naval simulation - and that wholey depends on how large of a screen I end up with. I don't want a 17"....15 or 13 is fine. And since games aren't important, I don't need a third party GPU. Integrated graphics are fine.

Uses: Complex Excel spreadsheets using the Solver; light Python development; running a VM or two; and if I get a Mac, probably some Windows use, whether in a VM or boot camp. I'll obviously also do web browsing, but if that's all i wanted I'd stick with my iPad.

I think that's it. If money were no object I'd seriously consider buying a 16gb MacBook Pro...However, Im a little hesitant with buying an Apple laptop (or desktop) right now. I'm not happy with where the company went with the new Macbook ie no ports etc. I don't want to jump,into the Apple world and eventually want something else, only to find they have cheapened everything with a lack of ports. How do you even use a USB drive with that tiny USB-C port? I don't want to use an $80 adapter that won't even work while the laptop is plugged in.

So I'm conflicted. But you guys have answered my main question - that to get a decent laptop you've got to spend money.

Thanks!

 

[holden j caufield]

I've ordered for my parent's company and I've bought hundreds if not more of outlet PC direct from either lenovo or dell. 99.999999% of them looked brand new and I could not tell they were "outlet". I probably saved closed to 30% or more when the right machine went online at the outlet.

 

[boeckelr]

I've ordered for my parent's company and I've bought hundreds if not more of outlet PC direct from either lenovo or dell. 99.999999% of them looked brand new and I could not tell they were "outlet". I probably saved closed to 30% or more when the right machine went online at the outlet.

Very good idea! Thanks!

 

[jaydee]

Spectre x360 13-4002dx
Core i5-5200U
8GB RAM (user accessible)
256GB SSD
1080p screen
$1,000

http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/us/en/mdp/Laptops/spectre-x360-211501--1#compareTable

 

[Capt Caveman]

I got a Dell Latitude E7440 Ultrabook from the outlet for around $800 during one of their big sales

14" 1080p ips
16gb ram(user accessible)
128gb SSD
i5
Battery replaceable(not the greatest battery life)
3 year onsite warranty

 

[Commodus]

I think that's it. If money were no object I'd seriously consider buying a 16gb MacBook Pro...However, Im a little hesitant with buying an Apple laptop (or desktop) right now. I'm not happy with where the company went with the new Macbook ie no ports etc. I don't want to jump,into the Apple world and eventually want something else, only to find they have cheapened everything with a lack of ports. How do you even use a USB drive with that tiny USB-C port? I don't want to use an $80 adapter that won't even work while the laptop is plugged in.

A quick note on the 12-inch MacBook: the fabled $80 adapter will work while you're plugged in! It has a USB-C passthrough for power as well as HDMI and a regular USB port. Still, you wouldn't want it for the tasks you're asking it to do. It's really a laptop for the kind of person who'd otherwise buy an iPad (and has $1,299-plus to spend on it).

Why not get the 13-inch MacBook Pro now? You'll have plenty of ports, and it's using powerful modern hardware. You could alternately get the 15-inch model once it goes to 5th-gen Core processors.

 

[Puffnstuff]

You could go the asus route http://www.amazon.com/G750JW-17-Inc...ie=UTF8&qid=1430645211&sr=1-8&keywords=laptop. These weren't available when I bought my alienware and if they had been I'd probably have gotten one of them instead. You get a lot of hardware for your money with asus versus dell. I could've had two of these and then some for what my M17xR3 cost.

 

[Valantar]

You say you've looked at the XPS 13, how come it's not a bigger contender? It's more powerful than the MBA 13", smaller, has a (much!) better display, amazing battery life (seriously, 15 hours?!), and has gotten rave reviews across the board. With 8GB RAM and a Broadwell i5, it's $999 (or $1099 if you go for a 256GB SSD).

Also, from my experience using a Yoga 2 Pro with a 13" QHD+ display, FHD is more than sufficient on a 13" display. You really don't need the added pixel density. FHD on a 13.3" display is still 165 DPI - low if compared to todays smartphones, but way above the "standard" ~100DPI of computer displays. Also, a laptop screen is typically viewed from about 2x the distance compared to a smartphone, so 1/2 the DPI will look more or less the same.

From the reviews I've seen of the UX305, it performs very well for a Core M (better than many others, like the seemingly better specified Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro), and doesn't run hot at all (an aluminium chassis and a 4.5W CPU would make "hot" hard to achieve). Still, you'd get significantly better performance under sustained loads from the XPS 13, along with better battery life, and for not much more money.

 

[XavierMace]

You say you've looked at the XPS 13, how come it's not a bigger contender? It's more powerful than the MBA 13", smaller, has a (much!) better display, amazing battery life (seriously, 15 hours?!), and has gotten rave reviews across the board. With 8GB RAM and a Broadwell i5, it's $999 (or $1099 if you go for a 256GB SSD).

Better screen than the Air? Yes. Better screen than the Macbook? No. It's also larger and heavier than the Macbook (admitted by very little). It's got a bit more processing grunt, but the Macbook has a PCIe SSD which I would put money on being faster than the XPS. With 256Gb SSD's, the Macbook is only $200 more. Don't get me wrong, it IS a nice laptop. I'm just not sure I'd call it a clear winner depending on usage.

That said, neither of those meet his 16Gb of RAM requirement (or at least desire).

 

[Valantar]

Better screen than the Air? Yes. Better screen than the Macbook? No. It's also larger and heavier than the Macbook (admitted by very little). It's got a bit more processing grunt, but the Macbook has a PCIe SSD which I would put money on being faster than the XPS. With 256Gb SSD's, the Macbook is only $200 more. Don't get me wrong, it IS a nice laptop. I'm just not sure I'd call it a clear winner depending on usage.

That said, neither of those meet his 16Gb of RAM requirement (or at least desire).

You're right about the RAM - what he's asking for is essentially a 16GB 13" Ultrabook, which is somewhere in between rare and nonexistent.

As for the MB v. XPS13 comparison? I don't fully agree with you. Sure, core M is great for bursty workloads, but it really can't compete with a Core i5 or i7 (or even i3) when the load lasts longer than a few seconds. Also, the PCIe SSD is great, but it's something you'll notice in a very, very limited number of scenarios, especially on something that handles sustained loads that poorly. Video or photo editing? The XPS would win, hands down. Running a VM? Might be more of a draw, but entirely dependent on the CPU load. Multitasking? More dependent on CPU and RAM than the SSD. Also, most disk heavy workloads do require a decent amount of CPU power as well, in which case you'll probably run into the Core Ms power draw limitations. Sure, it's larger and heavier (both by rather small margins, but still), but it also trounces the MB when it comes to battery life.

And OP: you're absolutely right, you get what you pay for. As processing power has reached a level where most users are happy with relatively low end gear, the focus has shifted to other premium features, mainly high dpi displays and thin and light builds. You can still get powerful laptops way below $1000, but they'll still be big, heavy and clunky and have TN displays. If you want it all, you have to pay.

 

[jchu14]

What about the Dell Latitude e7240 (haswell) or e7250 (broadwell)?

12.5" display with 1080p touch screen optional. There are 2 user accessible sodimm slots and 2 msata slots. I have a e7240 and I upgraded it with 16gb ram and 500gb Crucial Mx200 SSD. It's not as sleek as a mba or xps13, but it's well built and extremely upgradeable.

The main drawback is its battery life, with wifi browsing and low brightness, it's only about 6 hours long. But if you really need extra battery life, you can easily bring an extra battery. The battery is removable unlike most other ultrabooks.

If you pay close attention to dell outlet, you can pick up a 1080p e7240 with 256gb ssd, 8gb ram with 3 year warranty for about $750. It's more right now since there aren't any current deals.

 

[slag]

I think I might pick this one up:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-in...lver/2606028.p?id=1219550858261&skuId=2606028

You can add more memory as it has two dimm slots and swap out the hdd for an SSD if you so desire. 1080p IPS touch screen, slim design.. decent specs and a good price.

 

[Puffnstuff]

It doesn't even have an optical drive so choose wisely.

 

[slag]

It doesn't even have an optical drive so choose wisely.

Yeah, but I rarely use the optical drive in my current laptop.. In fact, I don't know if I have in the past year. I have a desktop that I burn dvds and cds on. Anything I'd need on the laptop, I can use USB. IT also doesn't have a wired Ethernet port but I have never hooked my current laptop up to Ethernet either, so again, not an issue.

 

[slag]

I picked it up today. Open box model. I haggled a bit and got it for $580.46 out the door. Normal retail price is $779.99

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Except for the optical drive thing (my laptop doesn't have one either) and the slow HDD, that looks like a pretty good deal!

Of course, it's about 4 ounces heavier than my laptop, and man, at the end of a long day of sitting in a cubicle, that extra 4 ounces makes ALL the difference!

But seriously. Nice find. *approving nods*

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well as long as it works for you and you're happy that is all that matters.

 

[slag]

Seems to work great so far. Its a huge step up from my old dell with the i3.

 

[jaydee]

I picked it up today. Open box model. I haggled a bit and got it for $580.46 out the door. Normal retail price is $779.99

How did you settle on that price by haggling?

Also, where did you see this is an IPS screen?

 

[slag]

How did you settle on that price by haggling?

Also, where did you see this is an IPS screen?

I asked for a discount.. I used the cancer card as well because that's why I got it--for when I'm taking chemo. The guy asked me what I wanted to pay, I told him I would feel comfortable at $600.00 OTD.. He got it down to what I paid.

http://laptopmedia.com/review/dell-...k-with-uhd-touch-screen-great-for-multimedia/

I don't know if this is true, but I got this from the link above:

Dell Inspiron 7548 uses an UHD IPS LCD touch capacitive panel with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels

I have an inspiron 15, 7548, late 2014 model. I see the lcd is a H1G7K though which doesn't look like an IPS screen.. shrug.. I like it though.