Help finding a new laptop- Asus bought in 2009 dying

[greentea2017]

My Asus K53E that I've had since 2009 is finally dying on me. I want to stay below $800 if possible, but under $1000 is okay. I love ASUS and mine lasted for nearly nine years. However, I need to upgrade. I want a minimum of 16GB RAM and AT LEAST 500+ Storage (I currently have about 250GB, so anything more than that would be okay, however, more storage is better.) An SSD Hard Drive would be nice, but again, not needed. Most of what I am finding in my price range is HP laptops, however, I have heard that those are not reliable and if you buy one you should plan on it being disposable. If I buy a laptop I would like it to last for a MINIMUM of five years. It would be nice to have a laptop that I could flip open and draw on, but it isn't necessary. I stream video,do work & browse with multiple tabs open. I also play games and need something that will run my games at more than 30 FPS. What do you all recommend? Battery life isn't so much of an issue, as I don't have my laptop on battery power much. (mine lasts about 30 mins now, so I would be content with 2 hours.) I would like it to have a USB 2.0 or 3.0. I need a minimum of 1, but two would be nice. Currently my #1 pick is HP Envy x360, but I am extremely worried about how long it is going to last. What brand last the longest and what do you recommend?

 

[GreyCatz]

OK, so you're an ASUS-kind-of-user? Well, here's a $1,000 13.3" Zenbook from newegg.com:
https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232777&cm_re=asus_zenbook-_-34-232-777-_-Product

I know I'm stretching your budget, but this Zenbook packs some impressive specs, including a 3K touch-IPS panel and 512GBs of SSD storage. The dedicated GeForce 940MX GPU obviously adds some graphics power to the HD 520 IGP but it's going to be mid-level gaming at best.

Alternatively, there's this flip-version, priced at $630 also from newegg:
https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4P05UE7501&cm_re=asus_zenbook-_-9SIA4P05UE7501-_-Product

Decent specs and much less expensive than the clam-shell version. But the CPU is Intel's Y-series of 'fuel-efficient' units humming along at 1.2GHz, and don't try anything remotely resembling gaming on this machine. Other than that, a good-looking and practical candidate.


Finally, a few words on long-lasting laptops:

Your ASUS stayed with you for almost 9 years. This is very unlikely to happen again no matter what brand or type of laptop you look at. In some ways laptops have become cheaper to buy, but more and more models are sold as sealed-off units which means any malfunction basically equals buying a new laptop.

ASUS laptops nowadays feature some of the best-looking designs in the business, but they also tend to suffer from poor battery quality - mainly because ASUS consistently try to make their devices extremely slim and stylish. This requires some very creative battery designs that sometimes don't quite work.

The good news is that you seem to be a diligent and considerate laptop user, so you'd probably be able to get a far longer life-cycle out any laptop than the average consumer. Even so, I doubt you'll ever see 9 years of service from any laptop currently available.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.