howdy everyone,
i am looking for a new laptop, anyone got any ideas on laptop brands?
maybe you guys could post top 5 brands?
all i no is i hate acer......
thanks pancheesy ;)
Acer isnt a really bad brand. I do like Asus, MSI, and my current laptop (Lenovo ideapad)
Brands are irrelevant, it's the products that matter.
ok thanks guys will keep that in mind.
think i will get the
I would have to say that it is still a little overpriced for only having a GTX 650M. I find that a GTX 660M is really the only acceptable starting point for a gaming or rendering laptop. I like this one thus far, at that pricepoint: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312792
It does actually seem to offer an SLI'd set of GTX 750M chips along with a mobile i7. I would expect it to produce some adequate scores. It isn't necessarily a gaming laptop, but it should manage it nicely, although it is also well suited towards rendering tasks.
I've had laptops from Toshiba, Sony, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Apple and now I have a Dell Latitude (overall I own/owned about 10 or 11 laptops - everyone above $1k). It really doesnt matter what brand you take, because every single consumer laptop literally sucks. Especially gamer laptops are extremely bad. Don't get you blinded by high performance and low price, because it's things like the keyboard, screen, noise, or over all build quality that can drive you mad about a laptop.
A few years ago, when I decited to go laptop only, I also started buying business laptops, which are so, so, SOO much better. You always know that it's a solid piece of hardware meant to be worked with. Yes, you have to spend a lot of money for the performance you get, but if you have to use it for hours every day, it's so worth it!
As for my top 5 favorite "brands": 5: Lenovo ThinkPad L-Series, 4: Lenovo ThinkPad T-Series, 3: HP ProBook 6xxx, 2: HP Elitebook 8xxx, 1: Dell Latitude
I wouldn't necessarily say that all consumer-grade laptops are horrible, but I will concede that business laptops do tend to lean more on the sturdy and sophisticated side of things. This is especially true for the HP ProBooks and Elitebooks which are milled from solid aluminum and make for a rather fetching, if somewhat large, package. Lenovo has generally high build quality, and their ThinkPad lineup is notoriously reliable, I am fond of their carbon series, although it is somewhat lacking in the whole performance area.
I will have to say this as well though, I am a bit of an Apple snob. I really like their build quality. I've has a Macbook Pro 13" for the past 3 years and it has performed wonderfully despite my usually ham-handed attempts to use it normally which result in prodigious amounts of wear, tear, and occasional drops onto carpet covered concrete. Despite all of that, it still works beautifully with minor signs of wear. Although I will still search the market before buying another laptop in the future, I will definitely be spending some time looking at the Apple booth (assuming they get their act together concerning graphics and their integrated models being entirely insufficient for retina displays.)
Top 5 favorite laptop brands? Let's give this a go:
- Apple: Despite what everyone has been saying, I'm still particularly fond of Apple due to their typically high build quality. Make sure that you buy a model that has graphics chops big enough to chew the massive resolution they are trying to squeeze onto their displays. GTX 650M is really only a good starting point. Not designed for gaming, but it does make for a good general use laptop; runs Windows 7 well.
- Asus: Offers a multitude of devices, most of which come in several flavors from integrated graphics and low end components all around, to gamer-level upper-mid ranged discrete cards and quad core CPUs. Expect to pay for what you want to get. Most of these laptops are plastic, but they do have good build quality regardless, devices feel suitably sturdy.
- Razer: The brand offers only two laptops, but they are good ones. New models offer the brand new Haswell and NVidia Kepler based matchup. The 14" model will set you back $1800 at the start, expect to pay more for options such as additional RAM and SSD space. The 17" gets a minor update and still features their switchblade UI, a very unique approach to trackpads and gaming.
- Lenovo: This is an interesting one. This brand branched heavily into the consumer market as well as the business line when they absorbed IBM's computing department. Their quality is surprisingly good despite prices that are often very competitive considering the components crammed into the devices. Most laptops sold by Lenovo are intended for business use for things such as productivity and rendering. However this doesn't mean that they are not suited also for gaming. Newer models feature Haswell and NVidia Kepler, as well as offering an SLI'd GTX 750M option, which allows it to compete roughly with the GTX 680M in gaming, and the GTX 660-670M for rendering.
- Samsung: The brand that planned to take the world by storm. Thus far it has been less by storm, but it does little to affect how widespread this brand has become. Notoriously fine quality and a fair choice of components make this brand stand out from the crowd, however their design scheme does seem a little bit familiar if you push it too close to any device from Apple. This doesn't mean anything bad, because imitation is merely the sincerest form of admiration. Now if Apple could just stop suing them over it. Expect lots of aluminum, high resolution displays, and island style keyboards. The bezels are really thin, awkwardly so, and the trackpads are often peculiarly sized. But overall the devices exude a feeling of luxury. The price tags may be a tad off-putting though, so be prepared to pay for the feelings.
These are by no means ranked from one to five, these are just the five brands I tend to look at when I'm skimming electronics news sites because I know that they are typically worth considering.
thanks for all the feedback. i was searching around for a while. i was interested in the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500, but its not possible to get in australia, and things in australia are quite pricey.
I currently have the Asus G74SX and I have put a 750GB HDD, 256GB SSD, and I also upgraded the ram. I have had the system for almost two years now and it plays any game I throw at it usually at very high settings. Can't reccomend Asus enough not just for laptops, but also for MOBOs and other hardware. The laptop itself two years ago with an extended warranty cost about $2000 but it was grant money for school so it was just on budget. A little pricey, and lacking on portability and battery but a complete beast of a gaming lappy.
If you want a good all aroud laptop there are alot on the market using AMD APUs paired with a discrete graphics card the have great gaming performance and a 15" 1366x768 panel at a cost of around $500.
The best deal I have found lately is the Lenovo IdeaPad Z585 it has a quad core 1.9 ghz A8, 4GB DDR3 1600 memory, 500 gig hard drive, a Radeon HD 7670m (paird with the apu graphics by default) and a 15.6" LED backlit 1366x768 panel can be fount on newegg for $550.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16834312434
HP build quality sucks.
asus and MSI and sager make great laptops. lenovo, dell, and toshiba make good buisness laptops
Overall, I really like to recomend Dell, HP, and Lenovo to regular users. Stay the hell away from Sony and Toshiba.
But for gaming I would recomend Acer or MSI. Stay the hell away from Asus ROG laptops.
I Like the Toshiba Sattelite series, their build quality is usually pretty good. Sony has consistantly high build quality, but they are expensive and typically not as powerful as some of their cheaper counterparts. HP is a brand that I've been fond of in the past, but they've forgotten how useful dedicated graphics can be. When they dropped dedicated graphics from any of their Envy lineup, I stopped recommending them for people that actually use their laptops for things. Dell has started doing similarly to HP. Acer has a very broad lineup with a niche for everyone, but I've found the greater majority of their products tend to be of the flimsy plastic variety. And Asus always has good build quality, usually for a pretty competitive price.
Why don't you let me know what brands you are able to purchase in Australia, and I'll try to give an opinion on them. A budget never hurts either.