Laptop for retired speech teacher.

[Lunas]

I have a customer who needs a new laptop. He doesn't need a special high end machine.

He needs it for web use, audio playback, light video editing, word processing.

In the past he has had a dell where the battery literally quit working 7 months after he got it and dell refused service on it due to it being an open box unit bought on special. He got it on black friday it was a display unit as that was all that was left. The laptop also developed issues with keystrokes not registering.

Next he had an asus where once again keyboard issues came up. And now it is just old and slow at everything as it was a amd e450.

So i need suggestions on a brand it needs to be as close to 300-450 as possible.

I am leaning for Acer, lenovo, toshiba, msi or asus.

 

[defaultluser]

This Asus Core i3 is pretty highly rated

Core i3, 4GB ram, 15" 1080p matte screen for $360. Full size keyboard and number pad, plus a big screen for those older eyes. DVD drive makes it easier for YOU to fix things

Only downside: only 4 hours battery life. But that's not a deal-breaker for most light users, especially if they're the type who plug it in and never move it!

 

[Lunas]

This Asus Core i3 is pretty highly rated

Core i3, 4GB ram, 15" 1080p matte screen for $360. Full size keyboard and number pad, plus a big screen for those older eyes. DVD drive makes it easier for YOU to fix things

Only downside: only 4 hours battery life. But that's not a deal-breaker for most light users, especially if they're the type who plug it in and never move it!

but the soldered in ram the buried hdd and non removeable battery dont help...

new requirement hdd size 1tb or replaceable and 8gig or 2 removeable slots as his old laptop has either 8gb or 16 gb of ddr3l

what about Amazon product ASIN B00XF0AQH4
What happened to the access doors they used to make into the bottoms where you can install 2 ram sticks and hdd

 

[defaultluser]

The 4GB is soldered-in, but there's an upgrade ram slot. You can upgrade the ram to 8 or 12GB. Just check the Amazon comments. And yes, the 8+4GB mixed memory works just fine.

Finally received f555l-ab31 last week, checked the onbroad ram is 4gb low votage (should be 1.35v), anyone try add 8gb normal ram into the empty slot?
Answer:
I can confirm that this 8GB Kingston worked and yielded 12GB total.
Kingston HyperX Impact Black 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L CL9 SODIMM 1.35V Laptop Memory (HX316LS9IB/8)

I wouldn't leave you hanging on that.

That Lenovo laptop is a refurb, so you have no clue how good the battery life is.

Also, it's Sandy Bridge, which predates Haswell (where they added the Active Idle, which increased idle battery life by 50%. Chances are the battery life is even shorter thann the 4 hours of thast cheap Asus model, even if you somehow got a miracle model.

You do get higher performanceif the machine is just going to stay plugged-in (Core i5, SSD), but are you prepared to deal with the 30-day warranty in exchange for that? And I'm nopt sure they'd notice the difference running web and office.

 

[Lunas]

The 4GB is soldered-in, but there's an upgrade ram slot. You can upgrade the ram to 8 or 12GB. Just check the Amazon comments. And yes, the 8+4GB mixed memory works just fine.



I wouldn't leave you hanging on that.

That Lenovo laptop is a refurb, so you have no clue how good the battery life is.

Also, it's Sandy Bridge, which predates Haswell (where they added the Active Idle, which increased idle battery life by 50%. Chances are the battery life is even shorter thann the 4 hours of thast cheap Asus model, even if you somehow got a miracle model.

You do get higher performanceif the machine is just going to stay plugged-in (Core i5, SSD), but are you prepared to deal with the 30-day warranty in exchange for that? And I'm nopt sure they'd notice the difference running web and office.

My concerns are he wants storage space and enough ram to have everything open at the same time it is a habit he has 6 word docs 12 chrome windows media monkey all open at the same time. The slowness in his current laptop stems from the low-end and apu it has. And he does typically stay teathered to a wall.

Thinkpad were built like tanks not so sure about that lately.

 

[defaultluser]

My concerns are he wants storage space and enough ram to have everything open at the same time it is a habit he has 6 word docs 12 chrome windows media monkey all open at the same time. The slowness in his current laptop stems from the low-end and apu it has. And he does typically stay teathered to a wall.

Thinkpad were built like tanks not so sure about that lately.

He wants storage space so the Lenovo is a loser.

So buy him the Asus with this 8GB ram stick. 12GB ram = happy time!

Total cost is still just shy of $400.

Or are you trying to tell me that you need 16GB ram top open multiple word documents, a dozen Chrome tabs and a media player? Even though we're talking about about a memory hog like Chrome, you can do this comfortably on 8GB ram. 12 should give you lots of breathing space.

The only way you're going to get 16GB at that price point is if you buy something refurbed. But then you get to take care of it yourself. Might as well get something with a warranty for the same price.

 

[Lunas]

After talking with him a bit he went with a new lenovo thinkpad the e565 model with 500gb hdd and 4 gig upgradeable to 16 bought 16 to stick in from micron said specifically for that model laptop...

Ended up with the a10-8700p based one...

total out the door was 613... direct from lenovo.
ram was an additional 45 from amazon...

 

[defaultluser]

Dude, if you had told me he had a $600 budget then I would have given you a helluva lot more options. You kinda boxed me into a corner there. as there's only so much you can do with a $450 limit ties around your neck.

Still, glad to see he came to his sensees and bought new. Hope he enjoys it

 

[Lunas]

Dude, if you had told me he had a $600 budget then I would have given you a helluva lot more options. You kinda boxed me into a corner there. as there's only so much you can do with a $450 limit ties around your neck.

Still, glad to see he came to his sensees and bought new. Hope he enjoys it

yeah i did not think he would go that far up either...