Discuss a Laptop

N

Nirf

[10] Knight
Getting a new laptop. Currently leaning towards this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131157

Samsung Series 9, 13 inch, B01 revision. This laptop is slightly superior to the MBA in most reviews, however most reviews complained about the price because initially it was 1700. Now its 1300. In fact I can get it from the Microsoft store for 1300 with a free Xbox (as a student). I think this laptop is pretty sex, just hope mine isn't a wifi lemon and that it runs Linux decently.

What do you guys think are some of the best picks in the laptop world today?
 
Nope not really. I came to the conclusion long ago that games on laptops is a fundamentally losing battle, yeah you might be ok for a little while but newer games with tougher specs are always coming out. Laptops have gimped performance vs desktops in the first place, and the inability to replace things on a component by component basis is the nail in the coffin.

You buy a desktop for $1000 and it will run every single game at max settings for several years. My desktop is 3 years old, I can run every game I've ever tried at max settings and high frame rate. Even when this is no longer the case, which might take another couple of years from the looks of things, I can spend $300 on a video card and it's good to go again.

Plus I'm getting the free 360 :-). I've gotten a bit tired of PC games anyhow, I'm always in Linux so I have to boot into windows each time. Plus, most of the games (not all) that I prefer to play on the PC I don't enjoy as much any more. I quit Dragon Age in the middle because it started to feel more like homework than a game.

Although I will say there is ridiculous deal for the 11 inch alienware gaming laptop for just 600 floating around.
 
Haha, yeah I agree. I'd personally never use a laptop for games but I know quite a few people (Static being one of them, I think!) who use laptops for everything. When I looked at the specs of this one and saw the GPU... it became clear that this isn't the best deal for games :P but since you aren't going to use it for games then it seems ok.
 
Haven't really shopped for a laptop in a while, but the main considerations for me would be battery life and weight. If you aren't using it for games or heavy computing, a netbook would be a good option. If you want something in the middle that can work as a desktop, I'd look at getting one with a dedicated video card, even if you aren't serious about games.
 
i get a new laptop every 6 months or so. my theory on them is that they evolve too fast to invest heavily. i never spend over $600 on a new one because in 6 months it will be garbage anyway. also i tend to drop/spill/step on shit.

don't be fooled by a free 360. $1300 is WAY too much to drop on a machine that you can't upgrade, can't play new games on, and may quite possibly break/get stolen. the HP i'm currently on cost me like $540. it lets me chat, browse the web, stream, watch porn, HDMI to my TV, word process and download whatever i want just fine. i can't imagine trying to do anything more on a laptop. unless you need some sort of mobile graphics processing, it just screams waste of money to me. buy a desktop AND a laptop for $1300 instead and cover all your bases.
 
lobo said:
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I already have a desktop. The thing is once you dip into $500 range, the laptops are either 15 inch monsters or netbooks. The big laptops are out of the question because they are just a huge pain to carry around. I have owned 15 inch, 6+ pound laptops in the past, and never again. The netbooks are out of the question because the keyboard and screen are too small to facilitate serious work (for me). In addition to that, one of my most heavily used programs is Matlab. So this is a bit of a niche I admit, but I need a decent processor/RAM, but only mediocre graphics.

The cost is high I agree, but it's not the difference from 1300 to 500. More like 800 to get a decent laptop that at least somewhat meets my requirements. The extra 500, well it's a combination of: 1) I'm tired of laptops having small things wrong with them that annoy me. I.e. there are $800 laptops that are good like the Portege, but has a poor screen which will piss me off when I work outdoors. 2) It's a gift so I was like meh whatever.

Besides, the free 360 basically takes 150 off the prices, so it's like 1150. Now 800 to 1150 is not such a huge gap, considering this has an SSD among other things.
 
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