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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 3152432 times)

Offline mevinyavin

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13680 on: November 23, 2022, 03:46:22 AM »
Misc. collection of currently available laptops. Not necessarily deals, kinda what needs to be beaten to be a great deal.

Acer Swift 3 14" i5-1135G7 8GB 512GB SF314-511-51A3 - Walmart.com $379
As of now, 13.5" version with identical specs (though less weight and more battery, kamuvan) $400 at Newegg: https://www.newegg.com/acer-swift-3-sf313-53-56uu-home-personal/p/1TS-000X-03CZ4?Item=1TS-000X-03CZ4
Price history: Has been as little as $380 for brief periods (often a day), usually hangs out at $430 but sometimes $450. My experience has been that it sells at this price range throughout, but goes out of stock for six months before the next year's model comes into stock.

Agav, haskamos from three people who I know personally use this model, the oldest of which has been using it for six months with no issues.
Quote from: ExGingi
Echo chambers are boring and don't contribute much to deeper thinking and understanding!

Offline thaber

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13681 on: November 24, 2022, 03:20:25 PM »


Offline leaf

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13683 on: November 25, 2022, 02:42:14 PM »
Any good Black Friday deals for a laptop to be used primarily for Adobe Creative Cloud - graphic design and video editing (don't need gaming)?
Something relatively light and compact for travel would be a plus.

Offline Chuchum Ainer

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13684 on: November 26, 2022, 10:42:01 PM »
Any good Black Friday deals for a laptop to be used primarily for Adobe Creative Cloud - graphic design and video editing (don't need gaming)?
Something relatively light and compact for travel would be a plus.
A lot depends on what you are doing. For example, designing a yearbook on InDesign just needs a strong cpu and normal amount of ram. Photoshop and color grading photos would benefit from a good bright color accurate screen. Occasionally putting together short clips in premier pro is different than editing complex animations which need a strong graphics card.
Also depends on your budget.


Some random options:
Lenovo Slim 7i 14" 100%srgb 400 nit 2k Touchscreen i7-1260P 16gb 1tb $799
Hp spectre for just over $1k after upgrading cpu, ram and wifi card, promo code
Samsung Galaxy book2 pro360 is ~$977 at samsung if you have education discount. https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/galaxy-book2/buy/?modelCode=NP950QED-KA2US
https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-elitebook-845-g9-notebook-pc-customizable-544l8av-mb Different ways to customize. The way I built it, comes out to $719 after code SMBNB1522. ships in forever
The 16inch MSI Creator I posted earlier is extremely powerful with a great screen, large and heavy though.
https://shop.asus.com/us/90nb0xp1-m001w0-zenbook-14-flip-oled-un5401-amd-ryzen-6000-series.html $1200. great specs, likely a bit overpriced

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13685 on: November 28, 2022, 04:55:33 PM »
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadc/thinkpad-c13-yoga-chromebook-enterprise/22tpc13c3y1

Good chromebook, $149 no code needed
Choose model with fingerprint reader.
Cashback portals offering 10%/15%

Offline az

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13686 on: December 01, 2022, 03:28:28 PM »
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadc/thinkpad-c13-yoga-chromebook-enterprise/22tpc13c3y1

Good chromebook, $149 no code needed
Choose model with fingerprint reader.
Cashback portals offering 10%/15%

would this work for someone taking a course in photoshop?

Offline Chuchum Ainer

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13687 on: December 01, 2022, 07:30:09 PM »
would this work for someone taking a course in photoshop?

Not in stock
But more to the point, while you could technically run photoshop on a chromebook, you probably needs windows for the full app, enough power,  etc.

Offline Chuchum Ainer

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13688 on: December 02, 2022, 01:02:37 AM »
ISO a laptop in the $700-$800 range, for a friend who woke up at exactly 12:01am pacific time on Tuesday.
I'm looking at the swift x at $785 https://www.amazon.com/Acer-SFX14-41G-R1S6-Creator-LPDDR4X-Backlit/dp/B093TK1PXF
I'm not sure I'm ready to drop that much on an acer, I don't have a lot of long term experience with their windows laptops. How much better is it than an ideapad 5 from ebay? https://www.ebay.com/itm/165656617372 $517
The samsung galxybook2 pro 13inch is $800 at samsung  with education discount.

Anyone have any better suggestions in that range?

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Offline mevinyavin

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13690 on: December 02, 2022, 04:47:03 AM »
would this work for someone taking a course in photoshop?

Latest recommended specs for Photoshop (unless the basic one, didn't check that recently) include 4GB of VRAM (and best to have 16GB RAM). Everything else on the list always comes in a laptop with such a video controller.
Quote from: ExGingi
Echo chambers are boring and don't contribute much to deeper thinking and understanding!

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13691 on: December 02, 2022, 04:48:44 AM »
ISO a laptop in the $700-$800 range, for a friend who woke up at exactly 12:01am pacific time on Tuesday.
I'm looking at the swift x at $785 https://www.amazon.com/Acer-SFX14-41G-R1S6-Creator-LPDDR4X-Backlit/dp/B093TK1PXF
I'm not sure I'm ready to drop that much on an acer, I don't have a lot of long term experience with their windows laptops. How much better is it than an ideapad 5 from ebay? https://www.ebay.com/itm/165656617372 $517
The samsung galxybook2 pro 13inch is $800 at samsung  with education discount.

Anyone have any better suggestions in that range?

Been using the Swift X for a year, and no real complaints. But do you need that kind of power? There are lighter options built just as well without dedicated video...
Quote from: ExGingi
Echo chambers are boring and don't contribute much to deeper thinking and understanding!

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13692 on: December 02, 2022, 12:49:02 PM »
There are lighter options built just as well

Such as?

Offline mevinyavin

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13693 on: December 03, 2022, 01:07:43 PM »
Offhand, the regular Swift 3 for budget and the Swift 5 (14") or Samsung Galaxy Book2 (13.3" or 15.6") for built well thin and light models with oodles of battery without dedicated graphics. There are a few others but these are my favorites, and I have personal experience with all of them. The LG Gram costs a ton more and also has a thin/light 17" model (3 lbs), but tends to be wildly expensive and I have no personal experience of them.
If you are ready to buy, I'll do a quick scan of the sites and find you the best value.
Quote from: ExGingi
Echo chambers are boring and don't contribute much to deeper thinking and understanding!

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13694 on: December 04, 2022, 08:29:02 AM »
down to $999.97
that means it's on clearance and won't last (anything that ends in.97 is clearance)

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13695 on: December 04, 2022, 06:15:41 PM »
any reason not to buy a laptop from the "Amazon Renewed Store" ?
seams like good deals for less than $400

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13696 on: December 05, 2022, 12:21:10 AM »
any reason not to buy a laptop from the "Amazon Renewed Store" ?
seams like good deals for less than $400
Make sure you are getting a newer generation.
Also, physically, business grade laptops last longer and will be better value

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13697 on: December 06, 2022, 10:45:01 AM »

Offline mevinyavin

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13698 on: December 06, 2022, 10:49:12 AM »
any of these look like a good deal for someone taking a course in photoshop? (im also taking into account the shipping and import to israel)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H6LXXDV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A34UCSK9FQVKNX&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GL5G1FD/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=AFAU9XJXLQRAM&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JQX3H1D/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A27Q4NXVM8ES3L&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QZ46Q1N/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=AFAU9XJXLQRAM&psc=1
Not unless the Photoshop you use is as old as the computers are. Those are all pretty old.
PM me with your total absolute budget and I'll try to find you something that will work.


« Last Edit: December 06, 2022, 10:57:42 AM by mevinyavin »
Quote from: ExGingi
Echo chambers are boring and don't contribute much to deeper thinking and understanding!

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13699 on: December 06, 2022, 10:57:17 AM »
any of these look like a good deal for someone taking a course in photoshop? (im also taking into account the shipping and import to israel)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H6LXXDV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A34UCSK9FQVKNX&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GL5G1FD/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=AFAU9XJXLQRAM&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JQX3H1D/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A27Q4NXVM8ES3L&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QZ46Q1N/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=AFAU9XJXLQRAM&psc=1
Keep in mind that an 8th gen i7 isn't necessarily faster than a current gen i3. A modern computer will be snappier and smoother in many areas. If you get something with upgradable RAM, it's not too expensive to add additional capacity. Same for SSD.

Some of these do seem to be pretty solid computers, though. I don't think they're bad choices. Keep in mind that battery life will be significantly compromised on an older unit.