So, I’m planning on buying myself a (second-hand) laptop once I get the money. I’m nowhere near tech-savvy so it has to be easy to use, but also I want something that is built to last, as opposed to certain (looking at you, Apple) devices that are desinged to become unusable within a next couple of years.
Any recommendations?
What do you need it to do?
Enterprise grade models typically have a longer lifecycle. Dell latitude, Lenovo think pad for example.
I would stay away from Dell. I have 20 years of experience with these machines and both personal and enterprise laptops are complete shit.
Lenovo on the other hand are good, build tough, long lasting machines.
Except for when Lenovos are not and a whole model series fails within a year and they provide fucking no support. Like this example with the E15
I used to think ThinkPads were good because they make conservative decisions in product development and assure quality every step of the way.
Turns out that’s bullshit. I am on my second ThinkPad since 2019. The first one stopped receiving charges, and I got it fixed with a new motherboard. Now it kernel panicks every 15 minutes for no good reason, so it basically came back from repair effectively bricked. The second one one of two charging ports are not working reliably, and the physical mouse buttons and the nipple joystick don’t work at all. I’m just waiting for the day the remaining charging port breaks.
I’ve been careful with both, always carrying them in a solid sleeve and treating them well. My Fairphone goes through a lot worse and never has any problems.
I really would not recommend ThinkPad any more.
Isn’t the E series consumer, not a business line? (Not to excuse the shittiness, just that I’ve always found consumer lines of any brand to be the worst, so never spec them for anyone).
The only lines I’ve seen used in business are the T and X series. I’ve had great experiences with both of those, easy to repair (hell, the case screws are all captured now, finally!). I’m a big fan of the X, but the T series costs less and gets most of what the C has, other than cool stuff like compactness or Yoga stuff.
Read the thread, there are people rolling out >100 in their company and they fail at extreme rates. And after getting fixed under warranty, the issue is still exactly the same with the replacement motherboard and they fail again soon.
I’ve had decent luck with Dells. They’re not spectacular but not garbage either.
HP on the other hand…
Don’t even go there…
Hinge Problems?
Everything failing problems
Graphics chips melting is my main gripe
My old HP laptop cooked itself to death trying to run Minecraft.
Yeah, I currently have a Dell Xps13 and won’t be getting another Dell laptop after this one.
If looking for a Linux or Windows laptop, this is the right answer. Look for one of these used, and get the highest spec model in your budget. I’ve still got ThinkPads from 2012 kicking around running Linux that are perfectly capable light duty machines, not that I’d go that old if it was my primary laptop.
I suspect a 2012 ThinkPad is more likely to still be operative than a 2019 one, sadly. My experiences with recent models has not been good.
Basic laptop stuff ig. Writing, scrolling, playing, nothing special.
Playing what?
Do you need a numpad? Touchscreen? Does it need to be very portable?