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Laptop Buying Guide
Contents
Considerations
IMPORTANT!!! Do not buy the following laptop brands:
- HP Pavilion
- HP Envy
- Lenovo G series
- Dell Studio XPS (Regular XPS [13, 15, etc] are fine)
They are known to be badly designed and have overheating and performance problems. Other models (mostly business notebooks) from these companies are fine.
When buying a notebook, pick only two
- Low Price
- Performance
- Build quality
It's important to consider the build quality of the product purchased. If the notebook is going to be used for many years, paying extra for build quality is a plus. Hardware manufacturers DO sometimes design and create the hardware so that it doesn't last; see this page for more info.
New Laptops
US New Laptops
- Go on Newegg.com, select budget price range and sort by Price.
- Select desired laptop
- Avoid laptops with A4, A6, E series by AMD, and Celeron, Atom, or Pentium from Intel. Those processors are budget processors.
- Installing a fresh copy of the OS on a new laptop is generally a good idea, to remove manufacturer provided bloatware.
AUS New Laptops
Go to MSY or PCCaseGear for cheap laptops. Buying from most Retail stores (Harvey Norman, Myer, Dick Smith) aren't recommended because they're expensive as fuck, but they do offer you an opportunity to try out a laptop.
Gaming Laptops
If possible, think about building a gaming desktop instead, you will get much better performance (around twice as much) from a $900 gaming computer than you will from a $900 gaming notebook.
Do not get fooled by the mobile chip naming schemes (CPU & GPU): for example a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580m is an underclocked 560ti performing at below the level of a 560.
If you still need a mobile gaming machine, please continue.
Recommended Gaming Laptops
- Lenovo Y510p
- Great performance per dollar
- Poor build quality
- Gigabyte Aorus X7
- Great specs
- Great build quality
- Thin
- Expensive
- Various Clevos and Sagers
- Great to amazing specs
- Average build quality
- Average to decent price
- Fairly nice 95% gamut displays
- Bad support
- Can be found under multiple brands (Pioneer Computers in AUS, System76)
- highly upgradeable
- Asus G serie (currently G750JX or G750JH)
- Great specs (i7-4700HQ, up to GTX 780M)
- Good build quality
- Good support
- Pretty expensive
- Best cooling system available for the moment
- Big and heavy
- Not really serviceable
- MSI GT serie (currently GT60 or GT70)
- Great specs (up to i7-4930MX, up to GTX 780M)
- Poor build quality
- Less expensive than other prebuilt like Asus or Gigabyte
- Best laptop audio (Dynaudio)
- Can sport a 3K screen or SSD raid sometimes
- Bad cooling system (only one fan)
- Big and heavy
- Highly upgradeable
Other Gaming Laptops
- Razer Blade (and Pro)
- Super expensive
- Super thin
- Lacks many ports a normal gaming PC would have
- Razer ( good or bad )
Thinkpads
See Thinkpad#New
Chromebooks
Chromebooks are (mostly) cheap notebooks designed to run ChromeOS. ChromeOS is actually a modification of a GNU/Linux distribution, Gentoo. ChromeOS is an operating system that employs a Chrome web browser and links to various Google web applications in place of programs. Google does provide compatible applications for these, but most only work when connected to a Wi-Fi network. You can't run regular applications like Microsoft Office and you are limited to using Google Drive and a measly 16 gigabytes for file storage.
If you consider one, steer clear of the ARM ones. They won't be able to use most applications provided you decide to use a linux distro on a Chromebook, and don't have the power or battery life of the regular Haswell.
If you are a power user, many of these notebooks can be unlocked, and a custom operating system loaded onto them. Doing this isn't intended by Google, and isn't for the average user. Your best bet is a Acer C720 with 4 gigabytes of ram, as well as a custom Linux install.
Open Hardware (sorta)
Many Chromebook models are based on Coreboot, opening them up as a potential base for an ideal computing system for users who desire fully open source or free software-compatible systems. Other components may need to be replaced however, and thus research for individualized models is needed.
Recommended Model
Apple Notebooks
Apple makes multiple high end notebooks for consumers, the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
- MacBooks are easy for beginner users, while having a powerful command line for power users.
- OSX contains most of the customizability and power of GNU/Linux while having the ability to natively run applications like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, etc.
- Drawbacks of Apple notebooks are self-upgradability, and self-repair.
- The GUI is not open source, however the kernel is. For power users this may make or break the purchasing decision.
- MacBooks are best when purchased new/Apple refurbished, for they have the highest resale value of any other PC manufacturer on the market.
- MacBook Pro (latest model)
- Great battery life (13" up to 9 hours, 15" 8 hours)
- Great build quality
- Great screen (although glossy/reflective)
- Good performance
- Expensive
- Li-Po Battery is glued down, which may cause problems at the end of the notebook's life.
- MacBook Air (latest model)
- Great battery life (13" up to 12 hours, 11" 9 hours)
- Great build quality
- Screen isn't as good as some higher end notebooks, but better than average
- Enough performance for the average user
- Cheap when compared to other comparable ultrabooks (Vaio Pro 13, Zenbook UX301, Acer Aspire S7)
- Slightly Better repairability than MacBook Pro (removable battery)
Used Laptops
Used Business Laptops
Get a computer that’s built to last, is fast enough for basic tasks like internet browsing and word processing for as little as $100. HP EliteBooks, Dell Latitude/Precisions and ThinkPads are the recommended Business laptops when buying used. It's important to note that these notebooks are not built for gaming. It's also recommended to install a GNU/Linux distro on older used machines. ThinkPads have good support for most distros. Note that older hardware is generally better supported by GANOO/Linux us drivers are maintained far longer than on Windows and other operating systems.
Used Other Laptops
It's generally not recommended to buy consumer laptops second-hand. Business laptops are purchased by companies and government, usually have low wear and tear, and are sold second-hand only after a short period of time for a low price. Businesses aren't concerned with making money on sold laptops, consumers are.
