I'm Going to College! Laptop Time! (HAAAAAAAALP)

[ODX]

Yes many of you are probably caught by the title: "wtf ODX y u no had coledge yet?"
Whelp, I'm leaving September 10th and it's time to look and buy a laptop...HOW THE FUUUCK DO YOU DO THIS. HALP.

I've tried looking based on my specifications/interests but there's just so much shit to sift through and I'm not too technologically-savy like most of you here. So please, help me out here.

My specifications (in somewhat priority order):
-Good battery life (at least 6-7 hours)
-$500 to $700, exceptions could be made but nothing above $800
-Widescreen, 1366x768 or 1600x900, 1080s are too expensive for the most part. Screen no bigger than 15.6in probably
-Able to play games at a decent clip (medium/high or so for current games, or low if they're more demanding)
-Windows 8, fuck Macs too expensive anyway don't need your shit (and everything current is W8 anyway, which I don't mind)
-Not ugly as fuck (preferably just a black or white laptop, or blue if that's available)

So that's pretty much it. In terms of what brand to get or if I should get a Haswell laptop as opposed to a current 3rd Gen Intel which is still good, I'm lost here.

Currently I've looked into:
Lenovo Thinkpad Edge
Acer Aspire
Samsung Series 3
Sony Vaio E Series
ASUS (found nothing specific though)

Feel free to tell me how much of a complete moron I am, as long as it'll help me get a first laptop that isn't shit. I appreciate any input. Thanks!

[PlasbianX]

What college are you going to? Most colleges tend to have some sort of partnership with a manufacturer (mine had a dell one and a microsoft one) in which you can get rather nice discounts towards laptops. I ended up getting my laptop for $200 dollars less going through it. Just a thought.

Also I looked up that Acer Aspire, and it seems like a really good buy. Newegg only 2 bad reviews on it, and it said it could run BF3 no problem; solving the gaming issue. Battery issue can always be solved with an extended battery.

Also, if you have any questions outside of the tech area in regards to college let me know. I was the head of the orientation process for my University during my Junior and Senior years and feel that I have a lot of tips and suggestions for college life.

[Zeph]

Mobile GPU solutions are horribly underpowered compared to their desktop line and badly designed at that. A GTX 780M performs slightly worse than a GTX 660ti while getting stupidly hot because there's not an actual cooling solution on it. With that said, you can imagine what a GTX 760M can compare to. After forking out $$$ for a 7900 when that was the big thing I'd recommend against doing something similar now.

After years of age, the heat problems become incredibly worse as the hardware tries to do more it was never meant to do. Even watching netflix or a twitch.tv stream caused the thing to get so hot I couldn't do anything with it.

Ran into this with CryEngine 3 support where Mac fags were whining saying they should get a version of the engine that runs off OSX when less than 2% of their hardware barely meets minimum spec on the SDK itself and absolutely none of it comes close to meeting minimum spec on something AAA using it. Those with macbooks booting into Win7 to use it were confused as to why it felt like their computer was on the verge of melting.

Give up on thinking you'll get a good experience playing games that have come out any time soon. You may be able to get a laptop that will play BF3 well, but once that new experience wears off you'll be constantly plagued with knowing that you have a portable star sitting on your lap radiating everything around it with heat. If it's enough to be used in a benchmark on new desktop hardware, don't bother trying to play it on a mobile GPU.

Go for a good CPU, a good battery, and enough RAM to not be useless in five years. If you're not going to use an integrated GPU, get something low-end enough that it won't catch fire trying to handle your movie/stream encoding.
Like it or not, this thing will become your mobile internet and generic typing :words: machine, so build it around that.

[Donut]

My school (I go to RIT, as it says under my user-name) has computer labs for classrooms and plenty of open lab space. I've gone through 2 years there and still haven't ever had even a remote need for a laptop. I'm doing just fine with my desktop. Only (slight) hassle is packing it up and putting it in my car to come home for breaks. If you're planning on taking a bus home for breaks, you won't be able to take the desktop obviously.

Like zeph said, gaming on a laptop is absolute ass. I would never recommend it.

[kid908]

My dell XPS L502X (it's about 3 years old now) runs stuff quite nicely, but it's around double what you're wanting to spend.

As for the performance, GT 540M w/ 2GB dedicated ram is able to run most games at 30fps. You'll have to lower the quality of lighting but usually textures and models can be set to high. It's still no where near as smooth as desktop GPUs though. With the integrated graphics, the laptop has no problems running 3 monitors (2 monitors at 1920x1080 and it's internal monitor) for multitasking.

Sandy Bridge i7-2630QM (Quad core 2.0Ghz base)
6GB Ram (at time bought, upgraded to 8GB since)
1366x786
Extended battery ~6hr at start. Since decayed to about 3-4hr.

~1200.00usd
Just as a guide.

I'd avoid the newer XPS as the battery is basically integrated/hard to get to.
It's rather hard to find a laptop in that price range that has the option to even select a graphics card able to play games.

This is the build I got for you:
Sony VAIO Fit 14E
i5-337U 1.8Ghz
Win8 64bit
14" LED backlit display 1600x900 (No touch screen)
GT 740M 2GB
750GB 5400rpm HDD
8GB 1600MHz Ram
CD/DVD player/burner
Sony estimate battery life to be around 4hr.

789.99usd. Best I can do with price range. You may be able to get VAIO Extended Battery (http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&identifier=S_VAIO_S_Series_Batteries) which is 149.99usd.

I'd say 740M will be comparable and bit better than my 540M. If you want some benchmarks I can post some.

[ODX]

I guess I'll clarify more on the gaming. I don't mean I want to play Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite, Assassin's Creed, or those giant budget games that require shit tons of power. Those games will be for my Xbox One (fuck off, not the discussion of the thread).

I just need it to be able to run something like CoD4, Starcraft II, or neat little Indie games and such. As well as just run well in general.

[RedBaron]

You're definitely not going to be playing any recent games on a laptop worth $600-$700. You'll be able to enjoy source games and Halo pc, but that's about it. As stated before, hoping to get a laptop dedicated to gaming is absolutely the worst idea. I would know, I've tried. 3 years ago when I was a freshman, I forked over $1500 for a Sager NP8690. At the time it could play BC2 maxed out, but soon after I have been settling with medium settings with newer titles. So if you want to even play current games on high setting, expect to spend around that much. And don't even expect any of these huge power houses to have 6-7 hours of battery life. You'll get 1 hour if you're lucky, and that's with power saver settings while using your web browser (the battery would probably last 15 minutes running a game). Because of the ridiculous power draw if the CPU AND GPU, my laptop has basically been a desktop. I never bring it to class; its only convenience is that it can be transported between my friends' places, not to mention that it weighs as much as a child.

And as Zeph stated, expect heating issues as the lifespan of the laptop progresses. I've actually had little problem with that yet, since I open up the case and clean out the fans once every few months. However, if you aren't very tech savy as you've stated, I would suggest you avoid doing this yourself.

The advice that I give everyone is this: if you still want to fork over this much cash for your computing needs, then you're better off building a desktop. You can build a desktop with the same stats as one of the highest end gaming laptops, and it would cost half as much. With the left over funds, you could pick up an ADDITIONAL low profile laptop to bring to your lectures or what have you.

But if you're limited to $600-$700, then I would probably just get a basic 14-15" laptop with no hope of ever running games. They will have your desired battery life for web browsing, and should be no more expensive than $500. Save the rest of your money for a PS4 or something.

[Donut]

Could always go with a smaller desktop with micro atx parts for around 500. A friend of mine picked up a decent IBM netbook thing for 100 bucks, and if you shop around newegg, you can get a netbook for typing notes and browsing the web for around 200.

If you want to drop 6-700 on a laptop though, I would look into asus. I've had two HP laptops, but it looks like asus does a better job with high-ish performance laptops. Of course, if I were to buy a laptop today, I would immediately format it and throw a fresh windows 7 install on there, so whatever software bundles come with the laptop is totally irrelevant as far as I'm concerned.

[kid908]

Not benchmarks, but this is the settings Nvidia recommends for a few recent games. You can image how a GT740M would compare. Note most are running at 1080p, so you may beable to boost performance by lowering the resolution to say 720p.
3236

As for the heat problem, I recently opened up the laptop after 3 years and cleaned the fan and replace the thermopaste. You can expect the GPU to get to temperatures up to 80C depending on load. 85C after a few years of use. (I do use an external laptop fan.)

[neuro]

i'd say go with a micro ITX build.

you can shove your whole computer into a backpack, and you won't have to make the sacrifices you ahve to make for a laptop.

i recenrly transplanted 80% of my parts into a coolermaster 120 elite case, and it's so fucking tiny, it's awesome.

[ODX]

I'm not building a desktop. I'm a college kid so I'll be all over the place (aka: our awesome library), making a laptop much better. Also I'm aware that gaming laptops are a complete sham. And have shitty battery life. And aren't worth it because you need them plugged in constantly which overheats the internals even more. Again, I don't need it for current and future titles, just to be able to run a few minor games and such.

@Kid908 and his Vaio suggestion: My brother first had a Vaio, it was good at first but then just deteriorated and became ultimate shit/horrible battery/etc so he bought an Asus. I guess that's what I'm currently looking into now, but any other suggestions would be nice.

@RedBaron: Well I'm not ENTIRELY a moron when it comes to technology. I'm fully capable of taking apart a laptop and cleaning it out a little, I'm sure.

Edit: I've looked into Dell a bit, and I'm finding the Inspiron 15z Ultrabooks to be quite good and have nice prices (http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15z-5523/fs)

[RedBaron]

Curious, what is your intended major? If it's anything sciency, then you really don't need a computer outside of your dorm at all, unless you like to pirate your books in .pdf format. If it's anything liberal related where lectures consist of spoken words and nothing else, then that is the only time where a laptop is absolutely necessary to keep up with the note taking.


Well I'm not ENTIRELY a moron when it comes to technology. I'm fully capable of taking apart a laptop and cleaning it out a little, I'm sure.

Did not mean to disrespect, but depending on the laptop, taking some models apart is no joke, especially if you ever have to get down to the CPU to apply new thermal paste because of heating issues. But at that point I guess most people RMA/use customer service. Which I would like to point out, ASUS makes great laptops for all power levels, but if you ever run into hardware issues and need to go through their customer service, you're screwed. They're based in Taiwan, so enjoy communicating with them in engrish and sending them your laptop and not getting it back for half a year.

[ChemicalFizz]

My school (I go to RIT, as it says under my user-name) has computer labs for classrooms and plenty of open lab space. I've gone through 2 years there and still haven't ever had even a remote need for a laptop. I'm doing just fine with my desktop. Only (slight) hassle is packing it up and putting it in my car to come home for breaks. If you're planning on taking a bus home for breaks, you won't be able to take the desktop obviously.

Like zeph said, gaming on a laptop is absolute ass. I would never recommend it.

Gotta agree with this. I also wish I invested in a tablet instead. It makes textbook reading MUCH more palatable and convenient. Even an iPad will do just fine. Instead I lug around my laptop and charger which together weigh too much for my backpack, and it's just a hassle to load it up for textbook PDFs or even just to use Microsoft Word. Chances are, especially if you go to a school like RIT which invests well into good computer labs and libraries, you'll find you don't usually need a laptop. If anything, you'd be better off building a really good desktop and taking it with you to your dorm, especially if you want to fulfill your gaming needs.

[ThePlague]

If you are going to seriously consider a laptop over a desktop, just build a $500 desktop and buy a chromebook or tablet. Both are $200 and for $500 you could build a halfway decent gaming desktop, miles above a laptop.

[Warsaw]

Want some games:
Lenovo IdeaPad 410p (http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y410p/)

I cannot and will not condone the purchase of a laptop equipped with 1366x768. It is a garbage resolution. It sucks for work, it sucks for play, it just sucks. There isn't enough room to do much of anything on it. Seriously, steer clear.

[Dwood]

I cannot and will not condone the purchase of a laptop equipped with 1366x768. It is a garbage resolution. It sucks for work, it sucks for play, it just sucks. There isn't enough room to do much of anything on it. Seriously, steer clear.
QFT

Get an iPad or a nice Android tablet, purchase the keyboard attachments they have, and use that. My family got me an iPad since i've been back from my mission and it's the best decision my family ever made. I'll never use a laptop for class notes. Again. Save your money, take your desktop to college and upgrade it with a new GPU. I've found that even my old AMD Athlon x2 from 2006 or whatever can still run most if not all of the recent games at considerable FPS as long as it has enough RAM and an updated GPU.

Edit x2:

Unless if you're going to school for computer programming, at which point typically thumb drives or the local computer labs at your school do the job.

[kid908]

The IdeaPad is your best bet if you're seriously considering a gaming laptop. The prices with the discount can't be beat. But the best performance for the price will probably a cheap 200usd net/ultra book or tablet with a 500usd desktop. A friend of mine uses a mini iPad with a touch pen to take notes in class. It saves on paper and you can sync it across multiple systems for easy access.

As for screen, 1366x768 at 15in works fine for me since it keeps me focus (I rarely do research papers in my field), but you'll definitely be scrambling for real estate if you need to look at multiple programs. If you're going to heavily rely on a computer, invest in monitors. It's so much better than alt-tab.

Also depending on your field, if you go into science (and even if you don't), I recommend you take a look at LaTeX. It's heavily used in Natural sciences for report writing and what not. It's, in my opinion, a lot better than word. It uses a pseudo-code method for formatting the papers. There's many types of GUI out there for it, but you'll probably need to download the backbone which is MiKTeX on windows and MacTex on Macs.

Anything science, you might want to drop an extra few hundred bucks to get a nice CPU, it'll frustrate you less when you're running calculations with alot of data sets. I found that some of the computer labs lack the CPU power necessary to run the calculation in a timely manor.

[DarkHalo003]

My current HP Laptop is two years old, runs most everything published on Steam at Medium-High settings (if not higher) and was $900. The battery life is okay, but you need to know what to do to preserve it in any case. At the same time, the price is probably lower now because a lot of Laptops have been dropping in price since I got mine (go figure). It is kind of heavy though for a Laptop.

That all said, my resolution is 1366x768 and my graphics driver is weird as hell. I can't play anything with 640x480, unless I get a windowed version somehow with that resolution (think Chaos Launcher for Brood War). Even then, it absolutely hates anything older than 2003, which it relatively dislikes anyways. Playing those games results in freezes after 45 minutes to 2 hours of gameplay. If you get a Laptop meant for gaming, just make sure you know what the specs of the card, driver and resolution are.

And here's a good chunk of advice: after about half a year (or a year at the most), clean the vents out. It improves performance significantly if it feels sluggish or not as good as before.

Edit: It can also run SC2 fairly well at High settings, though honestly even the best computers have issues running it at high-ultra settings. It plays League of Legends generally well at High settings. It plays Skyrim well at High settings.

[Warsaw]

My laptop is an 8 year-old Dell Latitude E1405 with a 1.8 GHz Core2Duo, first Gen, 2 GB of RAM, and a screen resolution of 1440 x 900. It can't run anything more demanding than Counter Strike, but for work it's perfect. I installed Ubuntu on it. When the battery was new, it got 7 hours. Now it gets two, but that's fixable.

[ODX]

I had looked at the Lenovo Ideapad Y410 before, but it's a bit too pricey and the "up to 5 hours of battery life" shit is shit. If anything, I'm having most of my frustrations coming from the fact that no one seems to understand battery life but Apple. And I'm not getting a Macbook.

And once again: I'm not looking for a gaming laptop. I don't need a gaming desktop. Gaming will be for whatever console I buy. Just need a solid-preformance laptop that could run a few minor/medium-spec games, but mostly just not have shitty battery life and be able to not freeze up or slow down. In regards to tablets, I'd much rather prefer a laptop setup instead of buying/attaching a keyboard with no trackpad to a tablet. It's a neat idea I suppose I could toy around with, but right now I'm mainly interested in a simple laptop. I just feel like there's a ton more usability in them than tablets can presently offer.

Currently looking at HP's and Dell's, they seem to have some idea of what battery life is. HP Envy Sleekbook or Envy Dv6 seem to be good bets on HP's side.
DarkHalo do you know what specific HP Laptop you have?

And I'm a Psych major ("BOO OMG YOU DON'T NEED SHIT FOR THAT MAJOR BOOOOOO" too bad, irrelevant to personal laptop needs), for those curious.

Edit: Sorry if I'm coming across as a massive prick at times, I greatly appreciate the tremendous feedback I've been receiving. It's helping a ton in my laptop search.

[Cortexian]

Get MS Surface Pro.

It's what I'd get for school/business use right now.

[Dwood]

In regards to tablets, I'd much rather prefer a laptop setup instead of buying/attaching a keyboard with no trackpad to a tablet. It's a neat idea I suppose I could toy around with, but right now I'm mainly interested in a simple laptop. I just feel like there's a ton more usability in them than tablets can presently offer.


While I can't argue with the useability, what I'm thinking is this- You have your own desktop, correct? If that's the case, then I'd just as soon take the desktop, set it up in the dorm or home I was renting or whatever, and use that to modify my tablet's functionality. I'm curious, because I do wonder what kind of 'options' are you thinking of for your laptop that a tablet wouldn't have?

Here are the things to think about for an iPad or a similar or COMPETING tablet device.
iPad's have incredible battery life. I can run my iPad for 6+ hours with NO recharge necessary.
Lightweight and typically low heat even in high-computing apps. (As in, the chances of you having children is not affected if you hold your tablet on your lap)
Because they are both lightweight and slim, you don't have to worry about lugging around the weight. If you have lots of books, which I'm sure is keen to be with a psych major, you don't have to have the extra weight of a laptop.

The app stores of amazon apps (if you get a kindle fire) or the stores of apps from the iOS app store have plenty of fun and intriguing games for those occasional pointless/boring lectures. If you need extra power, as already mentioned you can use your own desktop or one provided in the school labs.

STILL Not pleased? Just make sure the native resolution of the screen can go higher than 1366x768- I wish I had gone for a higher resolution screen to this day.

[ODX]

Get MS Surface Pro.
It's what I'd get for school/business use right now.Too expensive, $899. And shitty battery life from reviews I've seen. It's a neat tablet by Microsoft for a first try, but not something I would buy right now (or my parents would let me, since they're the ones with the price range and I don't want to spend anymore than that on a first-year laptop anyway).

And no the desktop isn't mine, it's my brothers. My parents would never let me take a desktop either anyway, think it would cause me to do nothing (which it probably would). The laptop, I'd at least be out and about instead of stuck in my room. For the last time, no desktops.

Dwood: My problems with tablets are they just aren't laptops. They can be neat, but I really would like a solid and sturdy laptop that I can rest on my lap anywhere and use. Tablets+Keyboard attachments need a flat surface as far as I know. Plus, if I can, a disk drive would be nice too even if most things are digital. And laptops tend to have much more storage options in form of a hard drive. And Steam is a big one, iPad's don't have that obviously. Personally it seems like I would only buy a tablet to turn it into a laptop, which seems pointless. Weight isn't too much of an issue, I've factored that in and have avoided hefty laptops anyway. Honestly it's just a personal preference as well that I'd like a laptop. Thank you again for all the input, but I'm going to drop tablets from consideration.

[Llama Juice]

My college threw a macbook at me when I walked through the door the first day. I groaned, got used to it, and fell in love.

You can dualboot between OSX and Windows, or run windows within OSX via a virtual machine.

I know it's a little bit out of your price range, but you're always able to find used ones online that'll be more friendly to ye.

Other than that... if you're concerned about battery life in a laptop... well... you're gunna be shit outta luck man. Just get used to having to carry that charger around and scout out seats in classrooms/libraries that are near power sources. If you find that your school sucks at having heaps of power outlets (or that the few that are available are already being used) then be a hero and carry a power strip with you as well.

There are a few things you can do to help boost battery life, but they're shitty and trivial. (Make sure you have bluetooth off, and you work with a low brightness setting on your screen. Tweak power settings in Windows to basically underclock your laptop while on battery power.)

Overall, have fun in college, man. These kids are growing up so fast these days...

Edit: Oh, you're a FIB? ... Get This (http://shop.leapfrog.com/leapfrog/jump/My-Own-Leaptop"/productDetail/Learning-Toys-(3-5-yrs.)/SCOUT19150/cat580010) it might be more your speed.

#WisconsinIsBetterIllinoisSucksMyBalls

[ODX]

My college threw a macbook at me when I walked through the door the first day. I groaned, got used to it, and fell in love.
You can dualboot between OSX and Windows, or run windows within OSX via a virtual machine.
I know it's a little bit out of your price range, but you're always able to find used ones online that'll be more friendly to ye.I'm aware of dualbooting, but I really want to avoid a Macbook that is nearly impossible to repair and looks just like everyone elses laptop.



Edit: Oh, you're a FIB? ... Get This (http://shop.leapfrog.com/leapfrog/jump/My-Own-Leaptop"/productDetail/Learning-Toys-(3-5-yrs.)/SCOUT19150/cat580010) it might be more your speed.

#WisconsinIsBetterIllinoisSucksMyBallsI'm actually going to college in Michigan (Kalamazoo, specifically), although yes I do live in Illinois. It's alright.

[Kornman00]

IDK what is more disturbing...a llama telling you to suck its balls, or sucking a llama's balls.

or ODX going to college, heyo!

[ODX]

I think I found an awesome laptop, the HP Envy 15t-j000 (http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C9G47AV?HP-ENVY-15t-j000-Select-Edition-Notebook-PC) I'm still skeptical on their claim of "up to 9 hours and 45 minutes," people have said it gets more like 5-7 but that's still amazing. I've tried searching around and I haven't really gotten anything negative about it. People say the build quality is alright, but that's not a huge concern for me. If it stays together, we're good. For $739 I can upgrade it to the nVidia GT740 (which people say isn't exactly a huge different from the integrated Intel), 1080p screen, and 8GB DDR3 RAM. Seem worth it? It's a 3rd gen i5 too, which is nice enough.

I could, however, try and get deals on the Haswell Envy 15 (http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/E4T17AV?HP-ENVY-15t-j000-Quad-Edition-Notebook-PC). I don't go to college until later (September 10th) so I could wait for better back-to-school sales, as well as see about student discounts. Suggestions?

[Warsaw]

I had looked at the Lenovo Ideapad Y410 before, but it's a bit too pricey and the "up to 5 hours of battery life" shit is shit. If anything, I'm having most of my frustrations coming from the fact that no one seems to understand battery life but Apple. And I'm not getting a Macbook.

Well, there is nothing out there that can play games at medium settings and still get you 7+ hours of battery for your price, unless I maybe look at laptops with 1366x768 screens. That would, however, betray my principles and I do not want to reward OEMs for being cheap mother-fuckers. That Lenovo is the closest you'll get. Sure, an Intel with HD graphics can play some relatively games on low to medium-low settings, but you're also looking at spotty games support in addition to sub-par performance. Unless you can get that budget lifted to $1000, you'll have to really compromise. I saw no Dell machines that meet your requirements that I can recommend; the ones with a decent resolution were either too big or too expensive. The ones with good battery life were either too low-res or too expensive. All of the options with great battery life were either under-featured or expensive. See the trend? You need to either make a compromise somewhere or go home.

You are right to stay away from tablets, though; they can't do number crunching, the games suck, and touch interfaces are terrible for anything but browsing. And as for MacBooks, Apple can take OSX with its bullshit UI and go straight to hell.

The GT740M, by the way, is not really going to play things much better than an integrated AMD part. It's tolerable, but the GT 750M is really the bottom floor. Otherwise, the HP is alright as long as you get the 1080p option. Don't be playing games at 1080p, mind you.

[ODX]

I'm aware, the 1080p would mainly be used just to make it all bearable. Trying to run games like that would kill me lol.

Hmmm, that's a shame. I was already starting to figure out the compromise, but I still know there's gotta be some low-mid laptop that has nice battery and plays games at a decent pace/performs well as a general computer.

What parts do you guys think I should get for that HP Envy 15 if I were to get it? Keep the Intel HD 4000? Add more RAM? 1080p screen probably, what else?

[Warsaw]

I configured one when I looked.

You want the Nvidia GT 740M GPU:
For gaemz, obviously.

You want the 1080P display:
For work and ease of use.

You want Windows 8 Pro:
Because why buy a gimped version of an already gimpy OS?

You want 8GB RAM:
It'll let you load more things into memory to improve response. Also, the future. It doesn't cost much, anyway.

That came out to $810 or $820, I think. I will also be surprised if it gets better than 5 hours with the Nvidia GPU. No, the HD4000 is not good enough to play games as you described.

Edit: By the way, the current set of laptops sporting the "ENVY" branding are not worthy of the name even slightly. They are pieces of shit compared to the first three generations of ENVY machines.

[PlasbianX]

Check out this bad boy on sale today:

http://www.woot.com/offers/sony-13-3-or-14-core-i5-ultrabook-touch#read-more

[Warsaw]

Resolution: 1366 x 768.

Verdict: Laptop is shit.

[Donut]

This^. My regular-ass laptop from 2007 was 1600x900.

[PlasbianX]

Cause resolution dictates everything.

[Donut]

Exactly!

[Warsaw]

Cause resolution dictates everything.

All the power in the world means diddly toward being efficient when you can't fit your work on the screen. Sure, low res is a boon toward games performance, but for everything else? No. Rejected. On a personal note, I'm used to laptops from the era when 1440x900 was the standard resolution of a 15" notebook display. They tried to pass this 1366x768 and 16:9 ratio as an "advancement" when it wasn't.

[PlasbianX]

How many things are you going to need open in class at a time? Need the extra space? Plug in a monitor when youre back in your dorm.

[Donut]

I just changed my monitor from 1920x1080 to 1366x768 just to see what it would be like. It is disgusting. When I'm working on coursework (stuff like programming, writing papers, etc) I often have two windows open side by side. There have been a lot of times where 2 monitors would have been really helpful, but I only have one (and ODX is on a budget, plus that extra screen reliance would defeat the purpose of laptop portability), so having that screen estate was great.
Working in 1366x768 would be painful.

[Warsaw]

How many things are you going to need open in class at a time? Need the extra space? Plug in a monitor when youre back in your dorm.

Let me put it to you this way:
I use CORE as part of my work. CORE has very huge toolbars that cannot be collapsed or scaled down in size, leaving me with a very, very tiny window to work inside of when I am stuck with 1366x768. That resolution is worthless. Even apart from CORE, it has no vertical room for documents, and the horizontal space is not enough to have a reference window open side-by-side when doing some work.

And no, plugging in a monitor when you get back to your dorm is not a good option. Some of us don't have dorms, live an hour away from campus, and still have gaps in between classes where we can do things.

768p. Is. Trash.

[ODX]

What is up with this 1366x768 obsession anyway? Why can't these damn companies just up it a bit to 1440x900 or 1600x900? It's either 768p or fucking 1080p which is a battery killer.

My roommate brought up Samsung, and I've looked at their laptops. They seem to be quite well made and pretty affordable (well, some Series/Ativ Books at least). Opinions on Samsung, or even suggestions? I've been looking at the Ativ Book 4 and it seems pretty nice, though it is 768p.

Edit: Been staring at the Lenovo IdeaPad U410, and it looks gosh damn nice. (http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/u-series/u410-ultrabook/) AND IT COMES IN BLUE, BITCHES. $689
"Hurr durr 768p sucks" Well I dare you to find something better because that's all I can fucking find that's in my fucking budget because fuck.

[Warsaw]

Samsung hardware, as far as their laptops go, is actually really nice. Beginning with the mid-upper segment, they construct them from aluminum, the styling is very clean and square (I like square), the keyboards are backlit, and the screen panels are great. The internals you get are also potent for the price. But I still wouldn't get one at 768p.

The reason 768p became a thing is because all of the LCD manufacturers decided to consolidate their production to 16:9 because TVs were 16:9, and making the 720p TV panels (which all do 768p...yeah, weird) the base standard was cheaper than making the 16:10 1440x900 or the 16:9 1600x900 panels the base standard. It's all just OEMs being cheap-asses. The prices for laptops went up, but the value went down. Apple has started a trend toward higher screen resolutions, though, with their "Retina Display" laptops. This is good.

That Lenovo I suggested has a nice 1600x900 panel. The HP with 1080p that you are looking at is probably a slightly better deal than the Lenovo Y410p, but the Lenovo is going to have a better keyboard, be faster, and have a better feel in the hands. In both cases, you need an external optical drive.

For battery life concerns, it has been my experience that the battery can last you all day if you only use your laptop when you should be. Even my busted 2 hour battery can do this. I don't consider taking notes a valid use for a laptop because writing things down by hand makes them stick better in memory than typing it away. What is a valid use would be engaging in examples using whatever software your class requires. When you are free to browse and kill time, you always have an outlet to plug into. Heck, even in class you often have an outlet to plug into.

So, really, 5 hour battery life wouldn't concern me. 3 hour battery life wouldn't even concern me, because any laptop with a 3 hour battery life is going to be potent enough to do some serious stuff as compensation. I would only really be after 7+ hour battery life if I knew I would be travelling a lot. While my laptop is capable of 8+ hours, it was a hand-me-down. If I were buying, I'd be buying either a Lenovo Y510p, Y410p, or the Microsoft Surface Pro (because portable Wacom Cintiq).

[ODX]

That Lenovo IdeaPad Y410p is a complete steal at the discout it's at, holy shit. And it's sexy.
Some people seem to complain about wireless issues however. Those complaining about battery are probably on 100% brightness and terrible at battery-management so I'll hopefully be smart in ignoring those.

My searches found tons of comparisons between the IdeaPad U410 and the Acer Aspire TimelineU which is a beast and not that expensive either.

Back to the y410p though. If I can find a good answer for the wifi issues people seem to have, and I'm able to agree with my dad on it (which I'll probably just say I'll pay for half or more of the laptop) then as of right now I think I'll be going with the Y410p.
Edit: Reading through a thread and finding people with various little issues, not sure if I should ignore or look into? (http://forum.notebookreview.com/ideapad-essential/721331-lenovo-ideapad-y410p-owners-information-thread.html)

[Donut]

Just a heads up, every college dorm room I've ever seen is wired for ethernet, so as long as you have a cable, spotty wireless isn't the end of the world.

[Warsaw]

The wireless issue, as far as I can tell, was with the earlier Y400. My sister bought the U410, and it is a snazzy machine; the resolution and lack of discrete GPU are deal busters for your usage, however. TimelineU is also limited to 768p and has a slower CPU, slow enough that I'd hesitate to step down to it. The other little issues don't sound like anything to really worry about.

The big selling point of the Y410p, besides the current bang-for-buck, is the fact that there it features something called an Ultrabay. By default, it is occupied with the optical drive (it seems I overlooked that in my last post). In August, they are supposed to release a GT 750M GPU tht can slot inside, which means you can upgrade your laptop to SLI with that Ultrabay expansion and a 170W power brick. That is unprecedented for notebooks and I fucking love it. I never thought Lenovo would be laying smack down on Razer in the suave gaming laptop department.

[ODX]

Ah, yeah Donut you're right on that we do have Ethernet ports.

I talked with my dad and he said no to the Y410p since $800-$850 is much too much. Both of my brothers got theirs for $650 back their freshman year of college so I will too. He kinda explained more and I honestly think I don't need the Y410p anyway. I've begun to look into the U410 much more now since it's a great machine and is in the price range. I'm still really bothered by these wifi issues people keep reporting though, and even with ethernet ports I still would like to be on Wifi around the campus.

Also 1366x768 is honestly not that bad. My dad has that on a 17" and it looks fine, so I'm sure on something like a 14"-15" will look just fine as well.

[Dwood]

It's really not that bad. Go for the U. Then if you get it from best buy, purchase the extended warranty.

[ODX]

I'll probably purchase directly from Lenovo. Warsaw if you could ask your sister more about the wifi issues though that would be nice. I really don't want to buy this great laptop and then have it be so crippled by wifi woes.

[Warsaw]

That's what my sister said about the resolution, and now she says it is actually really annoying (my laptop is her old one). Her U model also has no wifi issues.

So games are now not an issue, yes? That actually makes this easier, as there are plenty of HD+ (1600x900) laptops with no dGPU.

Actually, go over to the Sony Education store (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834126011). Customize a 14" VAIO Fit E (starts at $549, $579 for the model with 1080p). For $670-ish, you can get the 1080p machine with GT 740M.

In the past, VAIO machines were crap, but the last three years have actually made them one of the go-to brands. I drool over the VAIO Z, it's just way too pricey.

[ODX]

Yeah I realized the Y410p was overkill and unnecessary. Games will primarily be for my Xbox One, as I've said (unfortunately that's the way it is). I'm looking at the VAIO Fit 14E though and it looks pretty nice. 1600x900 screen, GT740 1GB, and 6GB RAM would cost me $700 which is a nice price.

Now I'm going to bring up my battery life shit again, as tests show this at around 4.5 hours. Should I honestly be caring so much for battery life? I'm pretty good with battery management personally, I don't blast screen brightness at 100% on my phone, I don't have tons of apps open at once, the only time I would play games would probably be in my dorm plugged in. So, now I'm actually considering this VAIO. I know my brother had problems with his three years ago or so, but if you say they're improving (and I'm going to research and look into reviews of it) then I would actually like this one. People have already said good things about the touchpad, keyboard is usable, compared to some complaints I heard with the U410.

Warsaw thanks so much for all the input you've been giving me though, I really really appreciate it.

[Warsaw]

I spend a lot of time researching electronics. I like to know what is the best at all times. =p Admittedly, I was out of the loop a bit but your query gave me a reason to refresh my memory (c wut i did thar).

Unless you plan on sitting outside for extended periods doing work, I wouldn't worry about battery life so much. I just plug in during class, and so my crap 2 hour life is not really an issue. Even people with MacBooks plug in during class.

Here's a review (http://www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-reviews/sony-vaio-fit-e-15-review/) I found for the 15" model, and this is what they said for the battery life:


Unfortunately, you’ll have to add the weight of the charger to your bag for most trips. The Vaio only lasted around 2.5 hours with mixed usage (word processing, Web (http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/) surfing, video, and music). It scored just one hour and 53 minutes on the Peacekeeper Battery Test. This laptop is meant to sit in one place most of the time while still remaining portable enough to carry on trips, to study group, and easily move around the house or apartment.

Engadget got a better 3 hours and 37 minutes out of the same 15" version.

Honestly, if you choose to forgo the GT 740M, I'd still consider this laptop. It's not for me, but it sounds like it's pretty much what I should have suggested to you from the start.

[ODX]

I'd say I'm good at battery management so whenever I'm out (say, the library) I could probably make it last for the amount I'm there. Otherwise, it would be in my dorm or in a class if I'm not doing handwritten notes (which I probably will).

Just a question: isn't keeping your laptop plugged in a lot really bad for it? My oldest brother had done that back in 2007-2009 or so during his college years, and his motherboard got completely fried. Plus the battery just started to suck. Precautions I should look out for if I get this VAIO?

[kid908]

As someone who's gone through netbook, and laptop batteries. If you want the best lifespan for the battery, NEVER keep it charging past 100% for more than an hour (If gaming, consider removing the battery and have it plugged in). It will kill the lifespan of the battery. TRY to charge it to 100% everytime. Don't charge it to say 70% and call it good enough. Let most the of the battery discharge before charging again.

That'll help keep the battery at it's brand new charge level.

[Tnnaas]

If you want the best lifespan for the battery, NEVER keep it charging past 100% for more than an hour (If gaming, consider removing the battery and have it plugged in). It will kill the lifespan of the battery.

As the inheritor of an older laptop that was left plugged in all the time, I can confirm this. Unplugged, the lifespan now varies from 5 minutes to 30 seconds. This makes hunting for outlets an impractical sport.

I have yet to get a spare battery. Luckily they cost $15 on Amazon, so they are easy to acquire.

[Warsaw]

I'd say I'm good at battery management so whenever I'm out (say, the library) I could probably make it last for the amount I'm there. Otherwise, it would be in my dorm or in a class if I'm not doing handwritten notes (which I probably will).

Just a question: isn't keeping your laptop plugged in a lot really bad for it? My oldest brother had done that back in 2007-2009 or so during his college years, and his motherboard got completely fried. Plus the battery just started to suck. Precautions I should look out for if I get this VAIO?

That is the conventional wisdom, I'm not sure how true it is in 2013. I keep my phone plugged in past 100% all the time and it has not demonstrated any such issue in the three years I've owned it, and it uses the same battery technology. So honestly, I don't know. What really kills batteries is heat and the whole charge/discharge cycle. These things are not NiCad cells, though, so they don't require that ​much pampering.

[PlasbianX]

That is the conventional wisdom, I'm not sure how true it is in 2013. I keep my phone plugged in past 100% all the time and it has not demonstrated any such issue in the three years I've owned it, and it uses the same battery technology. So honestly, I don't know. What really kills batteries is heat and the whole charge/discharge cycle. These things are not NiCad cells, though, so they don't require that ​much pampering.

That depends on your phone though. Its still recommended that when you have a battery like these, the very first use should kill the battery. Following that, you should charge it to 100 and not any past that to keep from damaging your battery. It doesn't damage it that much any more, but its still recommended.

[ODX]

I thought that "kill the battery then charge it to 100% so it knows its limits" trick didn't work?

Gizmodo says it's only for nickel-based batteries (NiCad, as Warsaw mentioned), and recommends different tricks for lithium-ion. (http://gizmodo.com/how-to-take-care-of-your-smartphone-battery-the-right-w-513217256)
(Yes the article is for smartphones but it talks of lithium-ion batteries. There's even a giant article about most all batteries too (http://gizmodo.com/5952938/everything-you-need-to-know-about-batteries))

Still, I'm nervous about the VAIO Fit's battery life being so low.

[Warsaw]

A Lithium battery is going to die over time with use, regardless. Buy a new one when that happens or, if it's a sealed laptop, invest in a warranty. Otherwise, I wouldn't waste brain cells worrying about it. The fact that my 8+ year old battery still gets over two hours per charge despite supposed abuse tells me that it's not worth thinking about, especially since batteries have gotten better since 2005.

[ODX]

The VAIO Fit 14e has a sealed battery, which is kind of annoying :|

Sigh, someone just slap me and tell me not to worry so much about battery life. But seriously, it's pathetic how battery life is still awful while everything else gets better year after year.

[=sw=warlord]

Battery performance does get better, the thing is the rest of the technology becomes more demanding so it seems like nothing is changing.

[ODX]

Well yeah I understand that much, but SOMEONE has to have come in with a breakthrough somewhere. Or perhaps people should just start caring more about battery life ffs. Stop shoving in all the newest and coolest parts and throwing battery life out the window.

Or at least work on optimization, because I'm finding all these laptops with similar specs and their battery ranges from 4-8 hours. Da fuq? I don't understand tech.

[Warsaw]

Believe me when I say that they do give a fuck about battery. If you had a budget of $1500, it would be insanely easy to find you a laptop that gets 8 hours of battery life, is thin, is good-looking, and can play games on medium detail settings.

[Dwood]

Well yeah I understand that much, but SOMEONE has to have come in with a breakthrough somewhere. Or perhaps people should just start caring more about battery life ffs. Stop shoving in all the newest and coolest parts and throwing battery life out the window.

Or at least work on optimization, because I'm finding all these laptops with similar specs and their battery ranges from 4-8 hours. Da fuq? I don't understand tech.

Battery life in laptops seems to level out at about the same place after about ~2 years- you wind up having to keep it plugged in most of the time anyway.

[ODX]

Believe me when I say that they do give a fuck about battery. If you had a budget of $1500, it would be insanely easy to find you a laptop that gets 8 hours of battery life, is thin, is good-looking, and can play games on medium detail settings.What exactly makes laptops so expensive and cost twice (or more) as much as a similar or even better desktop?

[Zeph]

What exactly makes laptops so expensive and cost twice (or more) as much as a similar or even better desktop?

Lack of competition really. They're making a killing off the fact that no one is engineering them to give the best performance possible. It's all about making them slimmer and lighter as a selling point.

Mobile things, like tablets, are eating into that territory and for some reason we don't see laptops heading back towards their domain of a mobile PC.

[ThePlague]

I'm sure soon enough laptops will be a thing of the past, and more tablets will be bundled with keyboards.

[Amit]

Tablets bundled with keyboards? That's a perfect world. The other way around? That makes more sense now.

[Warsaw]

What exactly makes laptops so expensive and cost twice (or more) as much as a similar or even better desktop?

In a word, packaging. It costs more money to extract the same amount of performance out of hardware that is required to work under more limited thermal and electrical envelopes. It all leads back to that.

As for tablets replacing laptops, maybe. I think the convertible is more likely to do that than a straight-up tablet. Something like Sony's doodad with its slide-out keyboard or like the Lenovo Thinkpad Helix. You can always do more with a keyboard and mouse than touch alone, and touch is honestly crap for anything decidedly not surfing the web.

[ODX]

Well the Lenovo laptop deals are ending today, so I guess I'm not getting the U410 which is a shame because it looks cool. I'm just not up for dealing with Wifi issues or other things that might plague an otherwise superb laptop.

Sony Vaio Fit 14e is on the table right now, unless someone finds something better. I've starte to look at Acer's Aspire line actually, they seem to be quite good.

[ODX]

Actually scratch that last post about the Vaio Fit 14e. I finally truly believe I'll be getting the HP Envy 15z-j000 (http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C9W57AV). No bad reviews about it at all, no major complaints people say.

Going to upgrade with:
AMD A10
Radeon HD 8750M + HD 8000 (Dual Graphics)
1080p Display
Backlit Keyboard

With a coupon it comes out to be $729.99. A very reasonable and exception deal I believe. Battery life claims 9+ hours, though people say it's more about 5-7 and that's perfect for me.

[Warsaw]

And that's a wrap, then. Let us know how well it does on battery, because I honestly have no idea what the real-world power draw on AMD's finest mobile line is.

[ODX]

I mean no one was responding anymore and out of all the laptops, the Envy seemed to be the best choice in terms of everything I wanted (although it doesn't come in black >_>). Reviews say good things all the time, whereas there were always complaints about other laptops I looked at. VAIO battery life was absolute shit. Plus the Envy's price, for everything I'd be getting, is pretty amazing.

[Warsaw]

CPU is going to be weak next to the Intel offerings, but I doubt it will be that big of a deal.

I don't think they should call it an ENVY though...it's a far cry from being what the ENVY used to be.

[DarkHalo003]

Well the good news is that you can get any laptop that's basically as good as mine for 1/3 of what I payed two years ago. I recommend a Toshiba, even though you'll probably have to use Windows 8, which isn't all that bad since I had the chance to tinker with it. My grandmother just bought a new Toshiba laptop for $350 and its specs are relatively equivocal to mine minus dedicated graphics or another graphics card (mine has two). I basically got to play around with it from 1PM to 4PM and it was actually very neat once I figured it out.

[ODX]

I actually looked at all of Toshiba's available laptops (within my price range, so anything that said "starting at $750" I dropped, but anything else I looked at and customized). It came out to be that no matter what I did, I would have to update most to an i5 which took a ridiculous amount of money ($100-$150), many came with just a simple Intel 4000, or had a 768p display. Updating to a 1080p was too costly, although some came standard with a 900p. Still, upgrading the processor, graphics, or RAM came out to be above $750 on most models, and ones that didn't were stuck with a 768p display.

Shame, cause some of those laptops looked pretty nice.

[Masterz1337]

If battery is so important as is build why not go macbook air and put windows on? While I'm sure it's GPU is lacking, you make up for it in awesome battery life and the SSD performance. With education discount I think you can get one one for around 1200 with a 13" display at 1440x900

[Higuy]

Beacuase mac is terrible and for 1200 dollars you can get something a whole lot more superior.

For under 750, heres a nice laptop. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230416

Has an i5, Geforce GT 620M, 750gb of storage, and although not the best screen resolution, a 14" screen.

[ODX]

If battery is so important as is build why not go macbook air and put windows on? While I'm sure it's GPU is lacking, you make up for it in awesome battery life and the SSD performance. With education discount I think you can get one one for around 1200 with a 13" display at 1440x900Because $1,200 is way over budget. And if you install Windows on a mac, battery life decreases because the hardware was optimized for the Mac software, not Windows.


For under 750, heres a nice laptop. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230416

Has an i5, Geforce GT 620M, 750gb of storage, and although not the best screen resolution, a 14" screen.Looks nice enough, but I feel the HP Envy I've customized is a much better bang-for-buck. I have no real gripes with Windows 8 either (no matter how much someone's about to bitch over it), so I don't necessarily need a W7 lappy. Thanks for the suggestion though Higuy. Is that the laptop you've gotten?

[Donut]

if you install Windows on a mac, battery life decreases because the hardware was optimized for the Mac software, not Windows.
:raise: It does? As much as I'd love something else to criticize apple products for, this sounds strange...
fake E: Google is giving me mixed answers. Some people are saying the drivers on macs aren't optimized for windows on bootcamp or something, and other people are saying it makes no difference.

[Higuy]

Thanks for the suggestion though Higuy. Is that the laptop you've gotten?

Hell no, I stopped after two HP laptops that were garbage. They were great when I first got them, ran all the games I wanted at decent settings (even the last one could play Crysis decently), but over time they could hardly even handle Firefox. There was nothing wrong with them, I even tried giving them fresh reinstalls and new batterys, they simply just became garbage.

I got my desktop pc while I had my second laptop and never went back. I see no real point in a laptop other than mobility and using word etc like that so if I was to ever get one again I'd just get a netbook or a smaller laptop for storing files etc. Laptops are great when you first get them it seems, and the mobility has always been one of the many reasons people buy them; but I do alot more hardcore stuff on my computer that requires alot more processing power and graphical needs, so my money goes where it lasts IMO.

[ODX]

Sigh, first negative feedback I've heard on HP computers. Did you abuse them in any way whatsoever? Leave it on, charge it constantly, always run hardware-intensive stuff?

[Kirby_422]

I've had ok experiences with HP. Compaq, their child company/brand, will sometimes use cheaper parts, although my Compaq laptop (CQ50 104CA model) lasted about 5 years (It still runs, its just the hardware is on a downhill slope, as well as the screen connection being loose/pinched so the screen seizures a few times a day). As its replacement, my Grandma got me one of the HP ENVY17 laptops, while its not as fast as I expected, it runs without issues (after I reinstalled the OS... Fresh out of the box, Google Chrome wouldn't run on it for some reason). The screen doesn't move as smoothly as I feel it should though, so if you adjust your screen a lot, that might be a problem (although it may be stiffer because of it having a touch screen). If you use the microphone a lot, I noticed mine isn't the best (I even have 2 microphones.. Its meant to have noise cancelling, but its inverted, it ONLY catches the background noise... Haven't checked whether linux can use it better or not yet). Futureshop seems to have faith in this laptops hardware, as its apparently the only one with 4 year extended warranty.

Anyways, if you use linux at all, you'll need to use ACPI options in grub or else you'll get a blackscreen.

Given that you where looking at 14, and mine is 17, me checking my battery life probably wont help you (haven't tried out the battery life yet) although I will mention that it took quite a long time to charge. Compaq/HP batteries only seem to last around a year and a half though. My old laptops initial one completely fried itself in under a year, and the company replaced it. year later it would jump between 40 and 60% usable, bit after that, charging function completely died (although that raised the capacity to 70%.... How great is it to have 70% usable battery when it wont even accept a charge..) My friend who had bought HP branded laptop the year before that had his do the same thing a month before hand, so he got a year and a half out of his battery. So, I then replaced my battery with one from some ANKER people online, and its still at 110% capacity last time I checked it. So, if you grab a replacement battery, go third party. The ANKER battery was cheaper than an offical HP one, with higher capacity and 3 year warranty.

[Higuy]

Sigh, first negative feedback I've heard on HP computers. Did you abuse them in any way whatsoever? Leave it on, charge it constantly, always run hardware-intensive stuff?

I don't abuse stuff that I'd like to use in the future.

lol.

If you count 3ds Max and Halo CE as hardware intensive, sure, and yes, I did charge it quite frequently, although you'd imagine the battery life isn't going to really affect all the other hardware... I really didn't do a whole lot of other things on my computer. Keep in mind, this was a while back when I got the last of those 2 laptops, at least like 4 or 5 years. I don't know if they have changed or not, but if I'm ever going to consider getting a nice laptop again, its probably going to be an Asus. Then again, going back to my other points, the chances of me even buying another laptop to begin with are slim.

[ODX]

Sigh, well the laptop search continues then? No one has anything to save HP from demise? Oh well.

Oh, and Kirby, I was looking at the 15" and people said it got around 5-7.5 hours so it was looking to be really good but you darned varmints shot my hopes down again conffffffffonit.

Edit: Seeing as everyone seems to love Asus, I've looked into them...how the hell do you pick a model out of all of them? Christ.

[Warsaw]

All laptops are going to get slower, it comes from the exposure to heat. You know the cooling is bad if your laptop gets appreciably slower with age. Honestly, I don't think you have much to fear. You are not going to find the perfect PC that is everything you want it to be without compromise. The HP was a good bet. Buy it. Warranty it. If it breaks, it will get repaired or replaced. I know plenty of people with old HP laptops that have no issue. I also know plenty of people with low to mid-range Vaios with no complaints.

You are over-thinking this.

[ODX]

I just don't want to get stuck with a dead laptop in a year, and seeing as I don't need a laptop right now, I figure if I still need to look then I could.

People say the HP Envy 15 stays relatively cool though, and I'm going to be living in a frozen state anyway (Michigan), so maybe I should just go with it.

[Higuy]

You should be fine within a year, its long term that matters more, say like 3 or 4 years. For example, my friends laptop just randomly broke yesterday for no apparent reason after 3 years of use.

[Warsaw]

We have a two year old HP laptop (it's a Pavilion dv4) that sees daily use. It has absolutely nothing wrong with it.

[Higuy]

Thats fantastic and I'm really happy for you, what I'm saying is long term, closer to four years. By then they became garbage, at least the ones I had.

[Warsaw]

I was saying what I said for ODX's benefit more than to debunk your experience. I mean, I've had friends with Asus laptops that became garbage in less than two years. All I'm saying is that there are horror stories enough to go around and that at this point he needs to just pick what he likes and cross bridges when he gets to them.

[ODX]

Guys don't fight I'm just a poor defenseless incoming freshman who's never had his own computer and freaks out easily. I love you both, Warsaw because he's super smart and Higuy because he's my age and we've been fwends since some while ago on Halomaps :[

Alright, so what exactly happens when these computers "die," is it just overheating issues or the battery gets messed up, motherboard, power connections die, etc?

[Higuy]

Well, with mine I can say that they frequentaly became hot and just became real slow. Other than that, they worked, but the slowness of everything made it close to unusable except for browsing the web.

Now, my brothers laptop and even 2 of my friends have all had HDD issues. None of them are HP though. They all seem like they like to die. Once replaced and fixed they seemed to work, like one of my friends did (my brother has neglected to fix his over a year).

[Donut]

My old HP laptop had a discrete GPU in it (Geforce Go 7600), and I had that thing die on me twice. I assume it was due to heat issues. Once the GPU goes, you need to send the thing in to have it replaced, otherwise it's completly unusable on account of the display not getting any feed. In fact I think the laptop will refuse to boot if the bios detects that the GPU is dead. Two fried GPUs over a 4 year lifespan. Not great.

The lesson here is keep your shit cooled. Laptops generally have bad air flow, and all the parts are crammed into a tight space. Those two things combined mean you get a lot of heat, and heat kills your components. You might want to try to get comfortable with disassembling your laptop, if just to clear the dust out of the vent. I mean, you could just vacuum it out from the outside of the case, but I know a lot of people advise against vacuuming computers. It's never caused an issue for me.

[ODX]

Reviews say the AMD/Radeon combo run pretty cool together. I'll be getting a cooling pad too for use in my dorm (as that's where I'll be playing games which would be more heat-intensive, as opposed to research in the library), otherwise it'll be winter most of the time and it'll generally be cold anywhere else.

[Cortexian]

Just pointing out that while I worked at Best Buy and Future Shop, HP and Compaq laptops were some of the highest return/defective systems that we had. Now that I'm working at Memory Express, we still get a lot of them booked in for non-warranty work, however we don't sell them due to their lack in overall build quality and quality control. They're to much of a hastle to stock and sell to customers.

Asus is likely one of the better brands out there, followed by MSI surprisingly. Then there are Lenovo and Toshiba. Acer is decent, weighing in around the middle of the quality scale.

[ODX]

That's my dad's concern and other people have raised that as well. I'm still looking I suppose, but I feel like I've browsed every damn companies site at least 3 times each and every laptop too.

Sony, Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, Acer, and I just can't seem to find anything. I've never looked at MSI though, I'll do that now.

Edit: Looked at MSI, shit's expensive.

Edit 2: Looking at Acer's Aspire lines, a lot seem to be quite nice. I'm starting to make compromises and deal with 768p, as it allows battery life and price to be optimal. I would really like a discrete GPU though, I'm sure I can find something. The weight is mostly all below 5 lbs too.
This is one specific one I've looked at. i5 Haswell, 8GB RAM, 768p, 7.5 hr Battery, Intel 4400

(http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/NX.MC2AA.002)Now I haven't really looked into how good/bad Intel's integrated graphics are, but surely with a Haswell chip they can't be that bad...right?

[Rosco]

This is one specific one I've looked at. i5 Haswell, 8GB RAM, 768p, 7.5 hr Battery, Intel 4400

(http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/NX.MC2AA.002)Now I haven't really looked into how good/bad Intel's integrated graphics are, but surely with a Haswell chip they can't be that bad...right?

if we use halo as a standard you most certainly would be able to play it as well as source games,

i had a probook for a while by hp which had an older i5 architecture, was great for hd films and the odd game or two.. massive improvements considering its integrated lol

[ODX]

Looking at my Steam and thinking about it, I think the only real games I'd want to be able to play would be Assassin's Creed 1/2/trilogy, Portal, Witcher 1, Dishonored (??), Bastion, SC2, CoD4, Halo, and Skyrim.

I feel like most all would run decently on the i5 Haswell + HD 4400.

Edit: I'm sure someone would take enjoyment from this, as much as I perhaps have. I'm looking through Acer's Ultrathin/Ultrabook lines and I'm finding a ton that I love. (http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/models/ultrabooks) It's all coming down to configuration I suppose. I'm just not sure to what combo of processor (3rd gen i5 or find a Haswell) and if I should go with AMD Processor+GPU, or Intel+nVidia. They're Radeon 7000 series/GT 700 for the most part, which should be nice enough.

For filters, do: <$700+$700-$1000 (but only look at around $720 as max), 14"-15"+>15", battery life 5-6+>6. From there I just can't seem to pick.

[ODX]

Alright it's between these two:
Aspire V5-573: Haswell i5-4200, HD 4400 for $679.99 (http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/NX.MC2AA.002)
Aspire V5-572G: i5-3337 and nVidia GT 720m for $729.99 (http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/NX.MA0AA.002)

They're both relatively the same aside from a few minor deviations (battery life and such are all good). One thing to note is the Haswell has an LCD screen, though I could get the M5-583 which has an LED touchscreen for $20 more (http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/NX.MEFAA.001).

Help?

[Warsaw]

V5-572G has my vote. Why? It's prettier.

Also, Skyrim is a temperamental beast. It gives backtalk on certain AMD setups, so I wouldn't trust it with Intel. Hence, Nvidia 720M is a safer option.

[ODX]

Yes I do really want the second because it's black and not a strange gray color which is boring.

My biggest worry right now is it has a 5 hour battery life, which is good but 7.5 hours for the Haswell laptop would be damn nice. Especially with me using this for 4 years of college, I feel like the battery would hold up a lot better as it decays then. My only complaint is I want it in black, why the fuck can't they make it black?

Also I feel like the dedicated GPU would be nice for maybe a year or so, but then lose its luster as I got bored of the games I could play. Yes/no?

Edit: Warlord says I should go with the Haswell one, since that and the 4400 are about equal to the nVidia GT 720m. I've seen videos of people playing BF3 just fine on them as well (low graphics is fine, honestly). Coupled with the better battery, looks like this is just about over unless anyone has final thoughts. If not, help me find it in black because black kicks ass. Or I'll settle with the meh silver it is now...

[Warsaw]

Welp, there you go then. Honestly, I think all of the options are meh and I would never buy them even at those prices. If the Haswell works, then it works.

[ODX]

Seeing as I looked at just about every damn laptop priced $500-$750, this Acer seems to be the best option in terms of everything I want (minus screen, but 768p is noooooot that bad). Compared to all of them, these Acer's look to be god, and nearly all others were meh.

[Warsaw]

Give it a year before you decide how good or bad 768p is.

:)

[Amit]

Acer? Oh god lol. Worst brand besides their sub-companies, Gateway and eMachines.

[ODX]

WOW WHAT AN INFORMATIVE POST

Care to elaborate at all please? Because I've read nothing but good things about Acer and the laptops I've looked up. I highly doubt they are this so called "worst-brand" you are unjustly labeling them as.

Honestly I'm just trying to find a nice damn laptop and it seems like everytime I do one of you comes in here and shoots it down somehow.

[Donut]

I think it's getting to the point where you should just pick from the couple you've posted already. There really isn't going to be any one "perfect" laptop, and people will always give you a reason to second guess your pick (and rightfully so, since there are a lot of factors here). So you should decide what your priorities are, what you're willing to give up on, and make a decision. Some of the ones you've already posted look really nice.

[ODX]

I'm getting this nice Acer Aspire V5 Haswell laptop (http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MC2AA.002), and that's probably final.

This nice in-depth benchmark of both the HD 4400 (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4400.91979.0.html) and the GT 720m (http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-720M.90247.0.html) pretty much sealed it for me, showing there's not a huge difference. The 4400 will run pretty much everything I wanted to it pretty well (low settings to be expected, not a big deal).

Amit I am still curious what your buffs with Acer are.

[Warsaw]

I have only owned one Acer PC, and it's a Pentium I desktop from the early 90s. It's still running as a server. The monitor sucked ass, but otherwise the machine is fine.

[=sw=warlord]

Acer? Oh god lol. Worst brand besides their sub-companies, Gateway and eMachines.
I think you mean Asus.
Asus has the worst customer support.

[itszutak]

I've never tried their support but I've had nothing but good experiences with asus laptops (once I remove the bloatware).

[=sw=warlord]

The Asus AI suite II is the only application I've used which has ever caused me to run out of memory even when I have 16GB's worth of RAM, nothing has had that effect before nor since.
As for their customer service, I sent a motherboard on RMA to them few years back, it got lost in Prague for 9 months.

[ODX]

Alright my Aspire V5 came in today, it's pretty nice but I didn't know 15.6 in would be as large as this for a laptop. Screen is decent-good, I can tell it's 768p if I move maybe a foot away, but from far away it's fine. The only damn problem I have is it is glossy and the viewing angles are really really weird. Like there's a perfect 5 degree cone for perfect viewing, and moving too low causes deep saturation, and moving too high up causes bright saturation. I'll get used to it I'm sure. Build quality is pretty nice I feel, very thin and light. Touchpad is ridiculously sporadic, no idea what it's doing but I'll have a mouse to solve this. Keyboard is like any standard laptop keyboard. It works well enough, don't mind it too much.

Overall, pleased with my purchase so far. Doing my first few setups now (after Windows was ready and such). First thing I did was load up Internet Explorer, used the default Bing right there to find Google Chrome, installed that lol. Finding a wallpaper now.