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Please, when posting a link to a laptop listing, make sure to include the price at time of posting. It helps.
Requesting help with a purchase? Please post here: https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=135662.msg2794782#msg2794782

Dell:
Precision - Very powerful desktop replacements - great warranty, ridiculously expensive - Usually overpriced or overkill

Latitude - Good Laptops - Great warranty! Highly recommended for any Business environment - Sometimes expensive.

Vostro  - Lower end Business Machines - Better Priced - still durable - Usually 1 Year warranty.

XPS - The nicer looking dell machines, Some are better than others...

Inspiron - YMMV Every model is different

(Plain) Insprion Series - Dells lowest end laptop
(R) Insprion Series - Perfect Home use, dependable, decent build quality, recommended
(Z) Insprion Series - A little slimmer than the R series, Some are Ultrabooks (Very often don't include Optical Drives)

HP:

Spectre - Top of the line personal (dragonfly is the top of the line for business) - lightest laptops, and beautiful!

Pavilion - YMMV (Some better than others)

Probook - Stable durable business systems - Usually a little on the heavy side.

Elitebook - Business Higher end systems, usually pretty expensive

ENVY - Used to be the HP sleek and nicer systems, they pretty much replaced most of the standard pavilions now and call them either ENVY or sleekbooks

Sleekbook - like it sounds slimmer line of laptops

Lenovo:

Thinkpad Series - Very Dependable Business Machine, Expensive (Not Pretty but Durable)

IdeaPad Series -

S Series
U Series - Usually the slimmer line Ultrabooks, Doesn't always include DVD Drive
Y Series - Nice machines with good specs and features (Cool Backlit Keyboards)
Z Series - Step up from the G Series, all around decent build, priced nicely, great home use laptop
G Series - Lower end

Samsung:

Series 3
Series 5
Series 7
Series 9 - The nicest, sleekest looking laptops I've seen in a long time - Can pass for a Macbook!!


HT: Dh Data Recovery & Name Changed


A great post by caliheat:
I believe that there are many factors when deciding what laptop to purchase.
1) What is your intended use and necessary features. e.g. light use vs. heavy use & optical drive, computer speed etc.
2) As mentioned several times in this thread, RAM itself is very easy to upgrade after you purchase.
3) Brand - IMHO this is pretty important as well - which do your prefer vs. which brand do people recommend.
4) Price - you should decide a price range that best suits your needs.
5) Operating System - Many people like myself prefer Windows 7 vs. 8.1, so this would be another consideration.
6) Warranty - does it include 1 year or more, cost for extending warranty.
7) Detailed Specs:
  Processor  - model and speed i3, i5, & i7 2.0 Ghz, 3.0 Ghz etc.
  RAM - This IMHO should be minimum 8GB, especially if running 8.1, however can be added easily.
  Hard Drive - SATA vs. SSD, the latter being much faster. SATA itself offers 5400 RPM vs. 7200 RPM again, the latter being faster.
  Screen Size - this is a personal preference as you can always attach a larger screen in an office setting.
  Battery & Weight - overall laptop weight preference & battery life.
  Graphics - Integrated graphics vs. dedicated graphics, e.g. Intel 4400 vs. Nvidia GTX etc.

In summary, you have to decide what are you priorities, what can be upgraded and what you are flexible on.



Excellent article about the differences between the Intel processor suffixes.

Excellent "Laptop Buying Guide" by @dailykasha, written for Black Friday 2021, updated for holidays 2023

Author Topic: Laptop Deals Master Thread  (Read 3206879 times)

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10800 on: April 05, 2017, 01:43:22 PM »
That's putting it mildly  ;)
Not really so, because it really depends on each model (for any manufacturer), and in the ultra-portable line Acer is from the top, when the simple Inspiron line isn't the best from Dell.

Offline shulem92

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10801 on: April 05, 2017, 01:49:35 PM »
How much RAM is recommended for running a couple of audio conversions at once? Already have a 256 gb SSD from previous computer

Offline alex89

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10802 on: April 05, 2017, 02:05:09 PM »
I went to purchase the dell and with tax it's up to $750 which really is above budget for me.

Yisroel had posted this a couple weeks ago when it was $550:
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/451362/Dell-Inspiron-13-5000-Series-2

I'm a little remorse I didn't pick it up then, but I think now I'm more sure that I'd be happy with it. 

Here's one from costco that looks similar:
https://www.costco.com/ASUS-UX360CA-ZenBook-2-in-1-Touchscreen-Laptop---Intel-Core-i5---Quad-HD%2b-.product.100307829.html

How is Asus?
« Last Edit: April 05, 2017, 02:14:46 PM by alex89 »

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10803 on: April 05, 2017, 02:47:31 PM »
I went to purchase the dell and with tax it's up to $750 which really is above budget for me.

Yisroel had posted this a couple weeks ago when it was $550:
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/451362/Dell-Inspiron-13-5000-Series-2

I'm a little remorse I didn't pick it up then, but I think now I'm more sure that I'd be happy with it. 

Here's one from Costco that looks similar:
https://www.costco.com/ASUS-UX360CA-ZenBook-2-in-1-Touchscreen-Laptop---Intel-Core-i5---Quad-HD%2b-.product.100307829.html

How is Asus?
Asus itself isn't bad for this kind of devices, but the specs are much lower. It is an i5 and the low-powered kind.

If you are willing to look out of Costco (you have a little remorse for not buying from Office Depot...) I'd recommend you taking the Dell (same as the one from Costco) from Amazon, where there are some sellers on this product that don't charge tax https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i5378-7171GRY-Generation-Window/dp/B01L8PDMOG/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

(Maybe - Don't know about Halacha or Store Policy... - you can buy from Costco, and if it's good, return to them and buy from Costco...)

Offline ae123

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10804 on: April 08, 2017, 09:06:45 PM »
Can a non-professional change the 1) battery and 2) hard drive of these newer laptops? (In case one needs to replace them.)
With older laptops it was no big deal, and relatively cheap.

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10805 on: April 08, 2017, 09:15:46 PM »
Can a non-professional change the 1) battery and 2) hard drive of these newer laptops? (In case one needs to replace them.)
With older laptops it was no big deal, and relatively cheap.
Most of them (especially the small ones) are not as easy as the old laptops used to be. You'd at the very least need to open the whole back cover to access these stuff.

Offline ae123

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10806 on: April 08, 2017, 10:40:54 PM »
But can a regular user do it?
Why would they make it harder? Batteries need to be changed every so often.

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10807 on: April 08, 2017, 11:28:16 PM »
But can a regular user do it?
Why would they make it harder? Batteries need to be changed every so often.
Define "regular"...it really depends in each person's abilities.

Offline ae123

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10808 on: April 09, 2017, 12:27:16 AM »
Basic knowledge with basic tools. Can Google to research.
No professional training or tools.

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10809 on: April 09, 2017, 01:08:55 AM »
Basic knowledge with basic tools. Can Google to research.
No professional training or tools.
After watching a YouTube clip of someone doing it, or a complete step by step guide, you should be able to do it.

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10810 on: April 16, 2017, 02:25:19 AM »

Offline alex89

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10811 on: April 16, 2017, 07:10:52 AM »
Yisroel, is that a 6th gen i7? 6500u. How does it compare to the i5 7th gen?

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10812 on: April 16, 2017, 11:36:41 AM »
Yisroel, is that a 6th gen i7? 6500u. How does it compare to the i5 7th gen?
It is 6th gen.

I think that the 6th gen i7 is somewhat (though not that much) better.

Offline ae123

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10813 on: April 16, 2017, 05:49:32 PM »
What do knowledgeable people think about getting Dell refurbished laptops sold on Ebay claiming to be straight from Dell?
They are generally about $200 less than new.
Is it worth the risk?
What if buying a 2 year warranty from Square?

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10814 on: April 16, 2017, 05:57:46 PM »
What do knowledgeable people think about getting Dell refurbished laptops sold on Ebay claiming to be straight from Dell?
They are generally about $200 less than new.
Is it worth the risk?
What if buying a 2 year warranty from Square?
If they are recent models, and high rated sellers I would say it's worth if the discount is $200 (by worth I mean, rather than buying a new one that costs the same price. If you are willing to spend more, obviously new is better.)

Offline Eff_Doubleau

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Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10815 on: April 20, 2017, 07:32:16 PM »
I'm looking for a laptop for work. Logging into a remote system. Occasionally use it for graphics, and streaming videos. Any suggestions?

Online B.D.Da'ehu

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10816 on: April 20, 2017, 08:19:03 PM »
Any recommendations for a laptop from that can run sabre and have 15+ tabs open seamlessly? ($250-$450 range)


And can last a few years..
« Last Edit: April 20, 2017, 08:28:59 PM by B.D.Da'ehu »

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10817 on: April 20, 2017, 08:26:43 PM »
Any recommendations for a laptop that can run sabre and have 15+ tabs open seamlessly? ($250-$450 range)
$450 isn't really a lot of money... for the price, I'll go with this one http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/834767/Lenovo-Ideapad-310-Laptop-156-Screen/?&cm_mmc=Affiliates-_-CJ-_-598022-_-11272891

It is not the best piece of hardware, but specs are good and I think it's worthwhile.

Online B.D.Da'ehu

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10818 on: April 20, 2017, 08:28:50 PM »
$450 isn't really a lot of money... for the price, I'll go with this one http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/834767/Lenovo-Ideapad-310-Laptop-156-Screen/?&cm_mmc=Affiliates-_-CJ-_-598022-_-11272891

It is not the best piece of hardware, but specs are good and I think it's worthwhile.
Any on sale from Amazon? I forgot to mention i'm looking to buy from amazon.

Online B.D.Da'ehu

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