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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 3152420 times)

Offline thaber

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Offline mushkovits

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13621 on: November 07, 2022, 01:07:59 PM »
Looking for a basic cheap laptop. Something for the kids to watch dvd’s, transfer pics and music, word/excel.
Haven’t bought a new laptop in over a decade! Any recommendations?
Will something like the below work? Can it operate without internet?

HP 11.6" Chromebook, AMD A4, 4GB RAM, 32GB Storage, Black, Chrome OS, 16W64UT#ABA
https://www.walmart.com/ip/592161882

Offline sguitarist18

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13622 on: November 07, 2022, 01:09:34 PM »
A chromebook cannot run MS office, but you can use the Google Docs/sheets equivalent.

Unlikely it'll have a DVD drive, not sure whether an external DVD drive would work.

Offline mushkovits

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13623 on: November 07, 2022, 01:10:58 PM »
A chromebook cannot run MS office, but you can use the Google Docs/sheets equivalent.

Unlikely it'll have a DVD drive, not sure whether an external DVD drive would work.
Thank you!
Do any laptops come with word or is it all online nowadays?

Offline Moshe Green

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13624 on: November 07, 2022, 03:54:39 PM »
Looking for a basic cheap laptop. Something for the kids to watch dvd’s, transfer pics and music, word/excel.
Haven’t bought a new laptop in over a decade! Any recommendations?
Will something like the below work? Can it operate without internet?

HP 11.6" Chromebook, AMD A4, 4GB RAM, 32GB Storage, Black, Chrome OS, 16W64UT#ABA
https://www.walmart.com/ip/592161882
this is not a computer, its a piece of trash. don't buy it.

Offline sguitarist18

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13625 on: November 07, 2022, 04:36:55 PM »
Thank you!
Do any laptops come with word or is it all online nowadays?

You can install Word (MS Office) on a laptop, though you'll need to pay for it. For many needs, using Google Docs will be more than enough.

Offline Kabrams1618

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13626 on: November 07, 2022, 07:57:59 PM »
Has anyone reviewed or bought an sgin laptop?  Any thoughts or reviews on their computers?

Offline Chuchum Ainer

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13627 on: November 07, 2022, 10:03:58 PM »
Thank you!
Do any laptops come with word or is it all online nowadays?

A bit more detail
Windows laptops can have word installed, costs money but you may have a nonprofit or school or something that can get you a license for cheap or free.
Chromebooks are laptops that run basically only when connected to the internet, and use Google docs.

For your use case you probably want a windows laptop.

No laptops come with DVD drives anymore. You can get an external one for not too expensive.
You may also want to download some software to copy the videos off the DVDs and store them on the computer.

There are some decent deals now, but black friday is soon. I'd wait till then.

Sounds like your budget should be around $380. You could get away with a lot less, but if you can afford it and want it to last for some time, there's kinda a minimum level
« Last Edit: November 07, 2022, 10:08:47 PM by Chuchum Ainer »

Offline csm

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13628 on: November 08, 2022, 02:00:39 AM »
Thoughts on this?   Im looking for 32+GB, and this is 40GB, seems like a sweet deal.  Can better specs be found for less money?

Dell Inspiron 16″ 3k Laptop Evo 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 Processor, 40GB Memory, 1TB SSD
4.8 Ghz, 1 TB SSD, 3072 X 1920, 4.51 pounds, black friday special valid 11-14-22 through 11-28-22
Costco sku 1693069
I saw this in store at $1400, but its supposed to go to $1100 during the promotional period.  I couldn't find it on the Costco website but I did find it on another site
https://www.cochaser.com/blog/costco-early-black-friday-savings-november-14-28-2022

Offline stooges44

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13629 on: November 08, 2022, 05:53:41 AM »
There are some decent deals now, but black friday is soon. I'd wait till then.

Sounds like your budget should be around $380. You could get away with a lot less, but if you can afford it and want it to last for some time, there's kinda a minimum level

Here's one for $255 but like you said, it wont last very long

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/1676428/HP-15-ef2723od-Laptop-156-Screen/
If it's not free shipping it's not worth it.

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13630 on: November 08, 2022, 06:10:44 AM »
Thoughts on this?   Im looking for 32+GB, and this is 40GB, seems like a sweet deal.  Can better specs be found for less money?

Outta curiosity, what are you doing that requires that much RAM?
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Offline Moshe Green

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13631 on: November 08, 2022, 06:18:19 AM »
Outta curiosity, what are you doing that requires that much RAM?
dans deals forum. all the threads open. all at the same time.

Offline sguitarist18

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13632 on: November 08, 2022, 09:36:37 AM »
Here's one for $255 but like you said, it wont last very long

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/1676428/HP-15-ef2723od-Laptop-156-Screen/

Won't last very long in terms of build quality? Or is the issue the Ryzen 3?

Offline Chuchum Ainer

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13633 on: November 08, 2022, 04:17:37 PM »
Won't last very long in terms of build quality? Or is the issue the Ryzen 3?

It's plastic, and from the lowest end hp line so build quality is a concern.
I'd want to check the screen as well. It doesn't seem to be ips, so it might be washed out/dim/annoying. I doubt it charges with usb c, which might be something you prefer.
Battery life will probably be on the shorter side too.

All that said, $255 is a great price, the cpu and ram should be adequate for you, and the build quality just means you may need to replace it earlier. The savings might be more worth it than buying more expensive laptops and having them last a little longer.

@mushkovits this one is almost perfect for you, but you'd want to check out the screen in person. If your kids are going to be watching videos on it, you'll want something decent.

FYI, the Intel version will be going on sale at staples on 11/20 for $250 https://www.staples.com/hp-15-dw3363st-15-6-laptop-intel-i3-8gb-memory-256gb-ssd-4z3a9ua-aba/product_24504670

Offline sguitarist18

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13634 on: November 08, 2022, 05:35:18 PM »
i3 vs Ryzen 3, which would you recommend?

Offline csm

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13635 on: November 09, 2022, 10:00:07 AM »
Outta curiosity, what are you doing that requires that much RAM?


I'm a power user, currently with a 16 GB machine that is not enough.  In addition to a few each MS Word, MS Excel, it's the many containers and Firefox tabs  mostly that overwhelms my current laptop which is 5 years old.   Does it really matter what it is that requires more than 16 GB Ram?  I wasn't specifically looking for 40GB, just 32GB, so to get more than 32GB would be even better.

The poster who said having many tabs open in Dans Deals was a smart guess, as thats close to the reason why so much memory is being used, thousands of Firefox tabs.

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13636 on: November 09, 2022, 10:12:19 AM »

I'm a power user, currently with a 16 GB machine that is not enough.  In addition to a few each MS Word, MS Excel, it's the many containers and Firefox tabs  mostly that overwhelms my current laptop which is 5 years old.   Does it really matter what it is that requires more than 16 GB Ram?  I wasn't specifically looking for 40GB, just 32GB, so to get more than 32GB would be even better.

The poster who said having many tabs open in Dans Deals was a smart guess, as thats close to the reason why so much memory is being used, thousands of Firefox tabs.

It doesn’t really matter, as I stated I’m curious :P

Thousands of tabs? Maybe you need a better tab manager and/or some other solution to whatever it is you’re doing.
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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13637 on: November 09, 2022, 01:22:31 PM »
Workflowy. You won't know what you're missing until you try it.

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13638 on: November 09, 2022, 08:31:02 PM »
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1702700-
REG/microsoft_8qf_00048_12_4_multi_touch_surface_|
aptop.html

Is this one going to be on a Black Friday sale ?
Also does anyone have it ? Is it worth the value?

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13639 on: November 10, 2022, 02:08:50 PM »
It doesn’t really matter, as I stated I’m curious :P

Thousands of tabs? Maybe you need a better tab manager and/or some other solution to whatever it is you’re doing.

I'm a power user, ok?   Instead of making light of my excessive tabs, can the focus be moved back to the deal on the laptop?  The focus should be on that, not on my predilection for having thousands of tabs.   Sure, I could use a secretary, but I don't have one.