Help selecting new laptop for girlfriend

By Stoffel
in Hardware Hangout

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Grand Master

Stoffel

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19 minutes ago, Cnónna said:

buy 5 of your preferred top picks, and throw them up in the air.

 

which ever ones land face down you discard,repeat till you have only one left :woot:

If i had enough money to buy 5 of my top picks this thread would not exist :D

 

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Cnónna

Posted
Posted
41 minutes ago, Stoffel said:

If i had enough money to buy 5 of my top picks this thread would not exist :D

 

well go into the store and do it, for Gods sake man I can't think of everything.:rofl:

Grand Master

Jason S. Global Moderator

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55 minutes ago, Stoffel said:

So does anybody have an opinion on where to buy the laptop?

 

Does anybody have any experience buying straight from ASUS.com?

it's going to be hard for me to recommend b/c you dont live in the US. Here, however, i typically buy hardware from either Amazon or Newegg.

Grand Master

Stoffel

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3 minutes ago, Jason S. said:

it's going to be hard for me to recommend b/c you dont live in the US. Here, however, i typically buy hardware from either Amazon or Newegg.

I'm planning on buying in the states anyway. Amazon works without any problem, they accept foreign CCs.

I'll have a look at Newegg too. as long as they accept PayPal or foreign CC i'm good.

Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Stoffel said:

So does anybody have an opinion on where to buy the laptop?

 

Does anybody have any experience buying straight from ASUS.com?

Amazon.. Also, ebay from a reputable buyer usually chips off a hundred bucks (by reputable i mean 98%+ feedback)

 

1 hour ago, Stoffel said:

I'm planning on buying in the states anyway. Amazon works without any problem, they accept foreign CCs.

I'll have a look at Newegg too. as long as they accept PayPal or foreign CC i'm good.

newegg accepts only US emitted credit cards and paypal with US verified address, sadly   

 

 

When you decide on the model, google shopping usually finds the cheapest one available (though careful, scam sites also appear)

 

 

 

Edit: also http://computers.woot.com/?ref=el_gh_cp_4  usually has some good deals.

Edited by Draconian Guppy
  • Stoffel and Victor Rambo
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Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

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3 hours ago, greenwizard88 said:

Personally, I'm a fan of the Dell XPS 13 lineup. She'll pay more for the touchscreen version, but it's a superb computer by any measure.

I have XPS 15, and I love it.   If I was ok with smaller size, I would get 13.   Considering I stare on it for 6 hours daily, 13 was too small for me...

 

 

EDIT: Unfortunately touch screen version is $1300 :(

 

but it is 8GB memory/256GB SSD AND IT IS FANTABULOUS :p

 

Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

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4 hours ago, Jason S. said:

ASUS ZenBook UX305CA or UX303UA

 

 

terrible screen on UX303

 

compared to Dell (which is just fantastic colors, amazing life like)   Asus usually has much worse screens.   Brightness too... 

 

Normally I would recommend Asus too, and I had great experience with their laptops, but not that I tried one side by side with Dell...  pfff, it just looks bad.

Grand Master

+Eternal Tempest MVC

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General Advice (hardware specs)

 

Intel i3 - Good Performance, more affordable (then i5/i7)

i5/i7 - If you plan on 3d rendering, audio / video editing.

 

On board intel graphics - normal games.

Nvidia/AMD - Plan on playing modern games / future games.

 

 

Grand Master

Stoffel

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1 hour ago, Eternal Tempest said:

General Advice (hardware specs)

 

Intel i3 - Good Performance, more affordable (then i5/i7)

i5/i7 - If you plan on 3d rendering, audio / video editing.

 

On board intel graphics - normal games.

Nvidia/AMD - Plan on playing modern games / future games.

 

 

So for light browsing (3-5 tabs open) and some Office work a Core M 6Y30 processor would be fine.

The laptops i'm looking at all have 8GB of RAM too so that should help.

Grand Master

Stoffel

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1 hour ago, Draconian Guppy said:

Amazon.. Also, ebay from a reputable buyer usually chips off a hundred bucks (by reputable i mean 98%+ feedback)

 

newegg accepts only US emitted credit cards and paypal with US verified address, sadly   

 

 

When you decide on the model, google shopping usually finds the cheapest one available (though careful, scam sites also appear)

 

 

 

Edit: also http://computers.woot.com/?ref=el_gh_cp_4  usually has some good deals.

Why do so few american retailers accept foreign CC?

I buy most of my stuff on Amazon anyway, but i can't find the exact laptop i want on there :(

Grand Master

TAZMINATOR

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Draconian Guppy said:

 

newegg accepts only US emitted credit cards and paypal with US verified address, sadly  

Newegg has 4 regions... which you see the bottom of the main page there. 

 

USA, Canada, China, Taiwan.

 

Not only USA.  Which means they accept any credit cards or addresses from those regions that are mentioned on the website.

 

14 minutes ago, Stoffel said:

Why do so few american retailers accept foreign CC?

I buy most of my stuff on Amazon anyway, but i can't find the exact laptop i want on there :(

If you can't find one, then buy alternative laptop for now and when the laptop you really want to show up on the retailer's website, buy it and sell the other.  Up to you.

 

All you do is bookmark that laptop you like the most and keep an eye on it. If they don't come back at all, then you might want to get alternative laptop.

Grand Master

Stoffel

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32 minutes ago, zhangm said:

XPS 13 for 850.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-XPS-13-3-Infinity-Edge-QHD-Touch-Ultrabook-Core-i5-8GB-RAM-256GB-SSD-/371657874633?hash=item5688891cc9

thanks for the link, sadly enough this seller only accepts USA Paypal accounts

Grand Master

Stoffel

Posted
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51 minutes ago, TAZMINATOR said:

Newegg has 4 regions... which you see the bottom of the main page there. 

 

USA, Canada, China, Taiwan.

 

Not only USA.  Which means they accept any credit cards or addresses from those regions that are mentioned on the website.

 

If you can't find one, then buy alternative laptop for now and when the laptop you really want to show up on the retailer's website, buy it and sell the other.  Up to you.

 

All you do is bookmark that laptop you like the most and keep an eye on it. If they don't come back at all, then you might want to get alternative laptop.

Sadly enough i'm not in the position to easily sell the laptop because of where i live. So i need to make a proper decision before i buy.

It's also a hassle getting a computer all the way to Honduras

Grand Master

TAZMINATOR

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Stoffel said:

Sadly enough i'm not in the position to easily sell the laptop because of where i live. So i need to make a proper decision before i buy.

It's also a hassle getting a computer all the way to Honduras

Oh.. Don't you have any local computer stores?  If so, look around and see if you can find one or find similar.   That way you don't have to worry about shipping issues/fees.

Grand Master

Stoffel

Posted
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2 minutes ago, TAZMINATOR said:

Oh.. Don't you have any local computer stores?  If so, look around and see if you can find one or find similar.   That way you don't have to worry about shipping issues/fees.

It's very hard to find a decent computer store in Honduras with up to date hardware. Most of the laptops being sold here are still with Haswell processors and 750GB HD,...

 

I'm just looking for something nice like the ASUS Zenbook or better for max $850 and was hoping at some input from Neowin. Somebody owning one of these devices of something similar. If they have that computer at Amazon then I will just buy it there

Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

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1 hour ago, zhangm said:

XPS 13 for 850.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-XPS-13-3-Infinity-Edge-QHD-Touch-Ultrabook-Core-i5-8GB-RAM-256GB-SSD-/371657874633?hash=item5688891cc9

This is a fantastic deal.  If I did not have XPS 15, I would totally get this one.      Too bad for OP.   Is there no one you know that can buy it for you in USA, and then you can Western Union them money or something???

Seriously good deal, this one!

Grand Master

Stoffel

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5 hours ago, E.worm Jimmy said:

This is a fantastic deal.  If I did not have XPS 15, I would totally get this one.      Too bad for OP.   Is there no one you know that can buy it for you in USA, and then you can Western Union them money or something???

Seriously good deal, this one!

Sure just rub it in. Great laptop, i just can't buy it because i have the "wrong" cc. :D

Why don't you come up with something i can buy ;)

Grand Master

Stoffel

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So, still not a 100% sure, but after doing some more reading i stepped off the idea of buying the Asus Zenbook UX305CA since to many people are complaining about the touch screen not working after the computer wakes up from sleep.

 

Haven't found anything bad about the newer flip version UX360CA.

 

A friend of mine offered to buy if for me so i can get it at the MS Store and get a Signature version

https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/ASUS-ZenBook-Flip-UX360CA-UBM1T-Signature-Edition-2-in-1-PC/productID.3389258300

 

Before I commit to this i was wondering if anybody has bought this yet or read any good/bad things about it.

 

I know I'm indecisive about this but it's a big undertaking to get a new laptop all the way from the US to Honduras so i want to make sure i make the right decision before i commit :)

 

 

Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

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5 hours ago, Stoffel said:

So, still not a 100% sure, but after doing some more reading i stepped off the idea of buying the Asus Zenbook UX305CA since to many people are complaining about the touch screen not working after the computer wakes up from sleep.

 

Haven't found anything bad about the newer flip version UX360CA.

 

A friend of mine offered to buy if for me so i can get it at the MS Store and get a Signature version

https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/ASUS-ZenBook-Flip-UX360CA-UBM1T-Signature-Edition-2-in-1-PC/productID.3389258300

 

Before I commit to this i was wondering if anybody has bought this yet or read any good/bad things about it.

 

I know I'm indecisive about this but it's a big undertaking to get a new laptop all the way from the US to Honduras so i want to make sure i make the right decision before i commit :)

 

 

Hmm... The review says no backlit keys. How important is it, you decide.

Grand Master

+Fahim S. MVC

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The one piece of advice I will give is that you look for a device that has a "precision touchpad".  Other touchpad do emulate Windows 10 gestures but they only work properly with a precision touchpad.

 

Also I would shoot for USB-C based charging, because it is the future :) 

 

The ELAN touchpads and their Smart Gesture software on the Asus laptops I have seen absolutely blow.

Grand Master

Stoffel

Posted
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7 minutes ago, Fahim S. said:

The one piece of advice I will give is that you look for a device that has a "precision touchpad".  Other touchpad do emulate Windows 10 gestures but they only work properly with a precision touchpad.

 

Also I would shoot for USB-C based charging, because it is the future :) 

 

The ELAN touchpads and their Smart Gesture software on the Asus laptops I have seen absolutely blow.

So do you have any suggestions regarding a device like that?

 

This one has a USB-C port, but not for charging.

 

Reviews so far say the touchpad on this is not bad at all.

4 hours ago, E.worm Jimmy said:

Hmm... The review says no backlit keys. How important is it, you decide.

I saw that yeah, it would have been nice to have but not a dealbreaker

 

I'm still open to other devices, just not sure which ones

Grand Master

+Fahim S. MVC

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4 minutes ago, Stoffel said:

So do you have any suggestions regarding a device like that?

 

This one has a USB-C port, but not for charging.

 

Reviews so far say the touchpad on this is not bad at all.

I saw that yeah, it would have been nice to have but not a dealbreaker

 

I'm still open to other devices, just not sure which ones

I'm sorry, can't really help with that.  Finding out what sort of touchpad a device has is very difficult.

There is no definitive list that I have found of laptops with a precision touchpad.

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