Is there a laptop brand (not meant for gaming) that actually works for everyday use?

TechnologyHatesMeButILoveIt2 · Apr 1, 2016

I am on my sixth laptop now, and once again it has problems. This never ending laptop nightmare started last may, and since then I have spent many hours at best buy trying to find something that isn't junk. All laptops have been in the $1000 range, so it's not like I am buying things that are meant to be bad. I'm a writer (or trying to be) but thanks to these laptops I have lost tens of thousands of words. Not an exasperation. I lost 20,000 words thanks to a Lenovo laptop deleting the file. I've lost whole chapters, book ideas... and today almost half of a book I've been working on for over a year if I had not backed it up on a external drive. At this point my only solution is to use my gaming pc that I built. I know it works, but I don't want to be stuck at a desk. I like the mobility of a laptop.

What I've dealt with: :kaola:

Lenovo yoga 3: bad trackpad that caused ghost touch on the screen, which would then delete files and screw with open software.
Lenovo yoga 3 (round 2): Same problem. (I looked into reviews of the new 700, and they have the same problem)
Lenovo, thinkpad yoga: damaged networking card straight out of the box, so impossible to connect to the internet
Dell Inspiron: Had an intel processor but a AMD GPU... caused extream overheating to where it would leave burns, and after a week became extremely slow and would freeze
Asus (didn't have a name, it's just one of their 2in1s) : fine for about four months. Longest I had a laptop since my old sony viao. It started coming out of sleep, even when closed, and would open many files, from word docs to google. The trackpad and screen were clean so I could not figure out why it did this. It started to move my files and delete words on docs I had left open, I did not want to deal with it
Hp Spectre 360: Fine until I use ms word, then my CPU usage jumps up to 35% and the laptop becomes very hot. Actually, it's like that half the time without word. Asked Microsoft tech for help, but they can't seem to be able to fix it. Now documents are disappearing not just from their files, but from the pc.

I can try to see if geek squad can fix my newest laptop. But if they can't I have nothing else left to buy. I don't like Acer or Toshiba, and loath Apple. The Samsung ATIV book is around the same price as the spectre I have at the moment so I could always try it... I love the way the dell laptops look and what they have inside, but after that last one, and also knowing a family friend died because her dell caught on fire while she was asleep...

P.S, I know there are grammatical issues, but right now my laptop is way too hot to hold and the fan sounds like it's about to take flight, so I'm just going to post it before my computer burns my leg :ouch:

popatim · Apr 2, 2016

Check out a Surface Pro, perhaps you have a Microsoft store near enough where you could play with one for a few hours.
The touchscreen with a BT keybd (w/o touchpad) should end your woe's (I have a similar problem where I accidentally touch the pad and cause my own issues) and the few people I know with the Surface pro really like them.

Best of luck to you.

Math Geek · Apr 2, 2016

i have owned a bunch of hp laptops and never had any issues. lenovo and acer are junk brands with lots of cheap parts. that's why they mess up a lot. dell has a lot of the same issues as well.

hp is a solid company that makes solid laptops and charges what they are worth. want better specs? spend more money. lenovo and acer offering high specs for cheap should be an eye opener for you. they save money on thngs like keybord, screens, touch pad and other things you don't think about until they break.

asus has not impressed me either. not sure who makes those but i'd be willing to be they are from the same place as lenovo (guessing but they are cheap as well)

wpgwpg · Apr 2, 2016

I've had two Toshiba laptops that were very reliable. The first one I gave my son after 4 years, and the 2nd one I replaced with a new Dell after 5 years. The Dell's 4 months old and so far so good. I have two Dell desktops at home and support 28 more that all have been rock solid. The 28 I support are 5 years old and still going strong. YMMV.

TechnologyHatesMeButILoveIt2 · Apr 5, 2016

Math Geek :

I have a hp at the moment, and it has problems. Now most seem office word related though. I'm not sure. I just spent an hour with a Microsoft tech and he couldn't find any 'problems'. The guy seems to think 32% of cpu usage when using word is normal. Right... and I guess my old asus and old hp from five years ago only using 9% makes them super computers? I paid 400 for the hp back then, and 800 for the asus, defiantly not super computers. He then said my HP was slow and I should buy a patch... I doubt that. It's the spectre 360 with an 6h gen i7. . It works fine with everything but word. I would like to love this pc, but until it stops overheating and lagging when using word I can't. Do you think this is word related or something else? Since Microsoft tech is unhelpful, (He tried to sell me a path after claiming I had a bad computer) should I go to geek squad and see what that can do, or just trade it in for another spectre? I still can, it's only two weeks old.

TechnologyHatesMeButILoveIt2 · Apr 5, 2016

wpgwpg :

I've heard both good and bad about Toshiba. Some say if you can get one out of the box that works you're set for years, but its a 50/50 chance that it will be just as bad as good. If I can't find a solution to my hp then Toshiba and Samsung ATIV are the only things I have left.

popatim · Apr 5, 2016

Every manufacturer makes good and bad stuff, even Clevo. IMO, Its up to the buyer to do their homework and research their prospective purchase for reliability and known issues (like overheating). Being able to easily return an item plays a factor in some of my purchases. Things I want a quick return on (dont want to be without for a week) I will only buy local and from better stores.

TechnologyHatesMeButILoveIt2 · Apr 5, 2016

popatim :

My problem is I have gone through the best brands. I've had almost every laptop except acer and Toshiba. And best buy is a good store, which is where I buy my computers. They sell the same thing as stables, hhgreg, amazon and office depot. There are better laptops out there, but all are thicker gaming laptops, which is not want I need. I need slim and protable. There is still one dell for me to try, but those are are knows for heat issues

hang-the-9 · Apr 8, 2016

Your issue is buying fancy featured home use laptops instead of the higher end business or gaming models.

For slim, Dell 7000 series, HP Elitebooks.

If you want stability vs fancy looks, Lenovo T models.

What Microsoft tech would "sell" you a patch? None of Microsoft patches are sold, unless you are talking about an upgrade to a newer version. If someone tried to sell you a patch to fix an issue, you likely were talking to a scam company.

TechnologyHatesMeButILoveIt2 · Apr 8, 2016

hang-the-9 :

I've had one of the dell 7000 seires, and hated it. It over heated and lagged, and reading reviews others had that problem. As for gaming pcs it defeats the purpose of probability. I have a gaming pc already that I built myself, I don't need another. I need a computer for writing, and a 8 pound laptop won't cut it when it's too hard to take with me. My asus is six pounds and it's too heavy and clunky even if it is slim.
I refuse to buy another lenovo after having 3, one a thinkpad that was bad straight out of the box and the other 2 deleting important documents because of the ghost touch track pad issuse. Bad reviews for lenovo are almost equall to the number of good.
As for the tech, he was a Microsoft tech for sure, considering I went to the Microsoft website, logged into my account, and requested assistance. He simply had no idea what he was doing.

I have a good pc now if not for word using half my cpu and causing my pc to lag. No one can seem to fix it so I have no choice but to get rid of the pc.

popatim · Apr 11, 2016

I suggested a gaming laptop because you apparently work so hard the usage resembles gaming and for that you need efficient cooling = gaming laptop to me. If this were me I would contact Sager Notebooks and see what they could build for me. You dont actually need a gaming GPU for what you do so maybe they can come up with something that isn't terribly priced also.

Anyways, good luck in your endeavor. I'm out of ideas

hang-the-9 · Apr 12, 2016

TechnologyHatesMeButILoveIt2 :

Your issues do not seem normal at all, I've worked on maybe a hundred of the 7000 model Dells, very few complaints, most about the keyboard. Same thing for Lenovo models, any T, X and W series has had minimal issues of the hundreds of them I touched. Most common issue was drive failure (not a laptop issue really) and some of the T420s models were overheating pre-maturely, which was fixed with cleaning of the heatsink and applying new thermal paste. I'm talking maybe 2-3% of the system needed that work to get CPU temps down 10 degrees.

The reason you want a larger gaming or business system is because they tend to use higher quality components and have better heat dissipation, along with stronger build quality. Or get a MacBook, those have good reliability and build quality along with being thinner. Or Lenovo T model with an "s" after it, they are slimmer than standard T series but built just as good. I've sold dozens of Lenovo T, W and X systems, many to people who had consumer grade laptops before, none had issues with them over the years. Many systems went to friends and family so I know the history of the systems, there is nothing wrong with their reliability as long as the systems are not abused.

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Is there a laptop brand (not meant for gaming) that actually works for everyday use?

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