My bad! I should've know there would be such a guide here. OK, so here goes:
1. What is your budget? Not unlimited, but difficult to pin down. I'll ultimately be making an objective assessment based on various factors, hopefully covered below.
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? Size really does not matter. 😀
3. What screen resolution do you want? The maximum which appears to be either 1920x1080 or even 1920x1200.
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? This would be a desktop replacement. Frankly, I can make anything portable.
5. How much battery life do you need? I really don't care. I'm happy to troll for a power outlet rather than give up on functionality. Heck, I have been known to use a car battery and inverter with a laptop.
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to [play] with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? This is a key question given that I'm not a gamer in any way shape or form. I'm beginning to understand that there are big differences in graphics capability. I had thought there was value in discrete graphics but am now wondering if that's worth it if it primarily benefits gaming.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, etc.) All of the above to some extent. I often have a multitude of programs open and do a lot of remote desktop and virtual machining. The ability to avoid paging seems to be key here. As needs be, I'd like to have the ability to upgrade system memory to the hilt. 16GB? More?
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? This tends to be an easily upgrade-able item although I'm leaning towards machines that ultimately support having two HDDs where, ultimately, the primary drive would be an SSD for the operating system. Doesn't have to come that way at the outset.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. No preferences here.
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? As long as possible. I'm still using a Thinkpad T60p right now.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc? Another upgrade-able device, presumably, so less of a concern in terms of upfront pricing.
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. I'm trying very hard to be open-minded here and don't want to prejudice the responses I might get based on my experiences and predispositions.
13. What country do you live in? USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. Not much more to add. Ultimately, I would not compromise on the display. That's the biggest thing for me. Having said that, a better quality 17" display would be preferable to a lower quality 18.4" (or larger) display, for example. Most everything I can think of, beyond the things one tends to find on all laptops, are in the "nice to have" department. Perhaps one other thought is the "user experience". I do a LOT of typing and odd keyboard layouts as well as poor touchpads, "mouse" buttons, etc, might just drive me over the edge. Also, I can care less about preloaded software, even operating systems. All of that can be "fixed".
Thanks and I look forward to suggestions. I'm already looking at those already provided.
/bestapplenotebooks.webs.com/
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