Solved! Need help choosing a new laptop. Would you recommend yours?

[mgistr]

Trying to decide on a new laptop and I'll appreciate recommendations from actual users. Budget is under $2k.

I want a brand new Windows PC with great speakers, excellent display (15" to 16" with minimum 1080 resolution), 16GB RAM (or more), 500GB SDD (or more). Would be nice if it has a touchscreen but that's not a dealbreaker.

One thing that IS a dealbreaker is the fan noise. I need something that's absolutely silent most of the time except on the extremely rare occasion when I'm running a heavy task.

I'll mostly use the laptop for Browsing, Excel, Word Processing, and content consumption. There might be the occasional video editing but I already have another [much noisier] laptop for that. If I can get away with an internal GPU, I'll take it.

Games I need to play? Solitaire perhaps. And Sudoku. Or Monopoly, if I can find a good game.

It doesn't need to be thin, light or portable, and a 3-hour battery life would do just fine. It's going to be plugged in most of the time and I'd only unplug to connect with my TV for the occasional movie.

Speaking of TVs, I'll definitely need an HDMI port. USB-A and USB-C ports would also be nice.

Some models I'm looking at already include:

• Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro 16
• Lenovo ThinkPad E15
• HP Envy x360 15
• Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 15

If you own any one of these, please let me know what you love or hate about it. Again, I'm concerned about noise.

Only used Lenovo at work but they seem quite reliable. Plus the keyboards are lit. Speaking of keyboards, I need one that's backlit with a numpad. The numpad is a dealbreaker.

I'm open to most PC brands but I get the feeling (from speaking with friends who've used them) that HP laptops are not quite reliable. Any long-term HP user that's happy with their purchase should please correct this notion.

 

[mrmike16]

Hi, I don't own these laptops but I thought I would help with what I do know about these laptops.

Lenovo ThinkPads, from my experience, are amazing laptops (Also when they were still IBM laptops), but they do heat up and therefore I would think it stirs up the fans more often. The Yoga Slim is probably quieter, but also from my experience and that of my company, Lenovo is a cheaper brand - meaning they have great prices for the specs but the material is made more cheaply than others. HP also is, but I have heard many good things about their Envy models.
I have no experience with the Samsung branded laptops, but the reviews on their Galaxy Book Pro 15 do not look too good for the price.

Always check out user reviews (Not the ones who get paid for what they say) and common issues of each laptop before buying one. That is the most important advice I can give on this. I spend hours just looking at reviews before buying something, since these days manufacturers couldn't care less about the quality of their products as long as they're selling it.

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

I have a zbook 17 g2 as my main laptop for cad and gaming.

It was the best budget choice for me at the time as it only cost $250 used.

I put in 32gb ram, a quadro p4200, a 500gb samsung 860 evo, a 512gb samsung pm991a, and a 2tb seagate barracuda.

The upgrades cost me more than the laptop did.

Do I recommend it? Yeah. Fantastic laptop that feels really solid and has a lot of modern features despite its age.

Do i recommend it to you? Idk, I don't know how comfortable you would be taking apart a laptop to install an MXM GPU.

There are more cost effective upgrades, such as a P3000 and smaller single SSD and less RAM that would put the laptop at around $800US instead of what I spent on mine.

m open to most PC brands but I get the feeling (from speaking with friends who've used them) that HP laptops are not quite reliable. Any long-term HP user that's happy with their purchase should please correct this notion.

HP consumer laptops are cheap garbage. Most consumer laptops are cheap garbage.

However, Hps business laptops and mobile workstations are over engineered to the point of absurdity.

In 2007 I gave my girlfriend a prosumer HP DV7 media laptop that cost $850 at the time. It's still running to this day and she still loves it. It has an AMD Turion 2 and 4gb of RAM, a 60gb ssd and a 500gbbhard drive.

In contrast, most consumer laptops made by any manufacturers ranging from 200 to 450 are gonna be literal ewaste so don't even bother with that price range unless you wanna be buying a new one within a year.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you want a silent laptop, for nothing past basic tasks, get a tablet with a keyboard case. Something like a Surface is pretty powerful, as are some of the Chromebook based systems.

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

If you want a silent laptop, for nothing past basic tasks, get a tablet with a keyboard case. Something like a Surface is pretty powerful, as are some of the Chromebook based systems.

yeah surface are good for email and facebook