Looking to buy a laptop

[Molondo]

I'm really needing one for school specifically, mostly office work really. I'm not comfortable buying an apple as i grew up with windows. What are some of the brand names i should be dodging and what brands should i be looking at. I'm looking to throw around 1k-1.5k at it.

 

[CurseTheSky]

HP Envy 14. See the review in my signature.

 

[buzzsaw13]

Was looking around ebay, and theres a seller that has a refurb 15 inch HP Envy for 900. i5 proc, 5830, 1920x1080 screen. I was considering buying this but the tax and recycle fee tack on more than 100 bucks.

 

[CurseTheSky]

The Envy 15 was a love and hate relationship. I returned mine.

At it's core, it was a great machine - good build quality (aside from the stupid screen bezel), good specs, great screen etc. However, the battery life (2-3 hours tops), screen bezel (only glossy plastic on the thing), and the row of shortcut keys all the way to the left-hand side of the keyboard made me get rid of it. If you plan on using it as sort of a desktop replacement with a dedicated keyboard, etc., I'd say go for it, though the Envy 17's specs are definitely more suited for gaming.

 

[Molondo]

The Envy 15 was a love and hate relationship. I returned mine.

At it's core, it was a great machine - good build quality (aside from the stupid screen bezel), good specs, great screen etc. However, the battery life (2-3 hours tops), screen bezel (only glossy plastic on the thing), and the row of shortcut keys all the way to the left-hand side of the keyboard made me get rid of it. If you plan on using it as sort of a desktop replacement with a dedicated keyboard, etc., I'd say go for it, though the Envy 17's specs are definitely more suited for gaming.

Thanks for the input, i won't be gaming on it. maybe occasional game here and there but its strictly for school purposes.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Thanks for the input, i won't be gaming on it. maybe occasional game here and there but its strictly for school purposes.

No problem.

Don't take what I said about the Envy 15 and use it to judge the Envy 14. They're completely different animals, and the 14 essentially fixes everything that was wrong with the 15.

Another decent line to look at is the ASUS UL30/80Vt or U30Jc. The screen is crap and the keyboard is mediocre, but the battery life is excellent and build quality is decent.

Lenovo T400 or X200 series would also be a good choice if you favor ruggedness and don't care how it looks.

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[WildHorse]

 

[Molondo]

Is this the HP 14 you talked about?

Lots of envys on there.

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...8362d3437den02

 

[Molondo]

so i'v been reading and i'm liking the 14, but i'm not enjoying the thought of carrying this thing around since i'll be living at the uni pretty much >.>. Everyone is saying its heavy.

 

[fatpolomanjr]

There are really good 13.3" thin and light laptops from Acer (timelineX), Asus (bamboo), and Toshiba (portege); but they're a bit less than your price range. For $1.5k I can imagine you being able to get a 14.1" Lenovo Thinkpad T410s (these are light) or some of the ultraportable thinkpad X models (12.1", light, and powerful).

If you want to get the portability of, say, a netbook, but still want to have the ability to multitask, some of the 11.6" notebooks with ULV processors are good. But those are significantly cheaper than $1k.