Laptop options

[Fardringle]

My wife needs a new laptop to use when she works from home. Her old one is well past its "expiration" date, with zero battery life, badly overheating even after cleaning, display problems (bad pixels/rows), and just plain slow all the time.

I found this little beauty at Best Buy and I'm pleasantly surprised by the specs and the price, and the same system with the same specs is $850 at Dell.com, but I'm curious if there's anything better in the same price range or lower. (Don't want to go much higher).

The CPU is not very important, but the screen MUST be 1920x1080 and at least 15" (the standard 1366x768 crap on most budget laptops would be a nightmare for remote connection to her office PC and 13" is just too small for the same reason). Portability is less important than usability.

Don't really care about an SSD, but it would be a nice bonus if it fits the budget. She won't be playing any significant games, so the integrated Intel graphics are more than adequate.

 

[Fardringle]

Any suggestions or should I just go ahead and buy the Dell? I went to the local shop and played with one for a bit and it feels sturdy and well made, so I like it. I just want to make sure I'm not missing out something better (or less expensive). Thanks.

 

[Trombe]

There's those Asus refurbished Q501LA that go for $500 or less, chances are they're not actual refurbs but just overstock sold as such. If you went to Best Buy, hopefully you look a look at the Q550LA which more or less uses the same chassis design, keyboard, aside from the fact that the Q550LA has a 360 degree hinge for tablet mode while the Q501LA is restricted to typical laptop angles.

 

[Fardringle]

Thank you for the suggestion. However, neither Google or the Best Buy search tool can find a Q550LA. There is a Q550LF that is no longer available, though.

I did find quite a few results for a Q501LA, including a refurbished listing at Newegg.com, but all of the ones I looked at say unavailable or out of stock as well..

 

[scannall]

This one seems decent.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Acer-15-6-A...256?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f48d9f130

 

[Trombe]

Sorry had the wrong number its Q551LN at best buy. Last sale I saw for the Q501LA was for 440 with 6GB ram. Only seeing one for 535 at buydig.com now with 8gb ram but there's still some for sub 500 on ebay if you trust them.

 

[Aikouka]

Don't really care about an SSD, but it would be a nice bonus if it fits the budget. She won't be playing any significant games, so the integrated Intel graphics are more than adequate.

The hardest part about getting a SSD in a laptop is that manufacturers still tend to consider them to be more of a "premium" component. So, you don't tend to find them in cheaper devices... unless we're talking about a Chromebook, which tends to use slower eMMC anyway. The point is that you can always just put one in after the fact. SSDs are quite good at improving performance, and they're pretty darn cheap compared to what they used to be. It isn't hard to find sales at about $0.33/GB.

So, consider putting in a SSD yourself if you want the benefits without the cost.

 

[Fardringle]

I do know how to put one in. I was just trying to include what are usually the most important items in a machine, to say that I don't need or really want an SSD in this laptop. It doesn't need to be fast. It just needs to have a good screen with a decent battery and not cost a lot. The $650 for the Dell I posted originally is already pushing the limits of my desired budget, so I'm looking to see if there's anything reasonably similar for a better price. Adding an SSD on top of it simply isn't a priority. I'll only take an SSD if a computer with the necessary specs and an equal or lower price also happens to include an SSD.

The other notebooks that have been linked or mentioned here so far seem nice, but they all cost more than I want to spend except for the refurb Q551LN at Buydig.com, and for the same price the specs on the new Dell are all equal or better (other than the flip screen which is useless for my wife's needs)..