What kind of laptop should I buy?

[Anonymous]

I need a laptop that I can use for personal and freelance work. I have an older HP from my full-time job, but have been using an iPad for my other stuff. I really need something bigger, though.

I just need to get online and do the usual Microsoft Office apps. I want to be able to use it as a desktop by connecting a monitor, keyboard and mouse when using it at home. I don't want to spend a lot, but I also want something reliable that will still be usable maybe five years from now.

Please give me your recommendations and where to buy. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

For that really it is just personal preference. Most anything will be suitable.

[Anonymous]

I would just go to MicroCenter or Best Buy and get what's on sale.

[Anonymous]

Agreed that pretty much anything is fine. Look for an 8th gen i5 (or newer), 16GB of RAM (or more), and 512GB-1TB of SSD storage.

Economically, the best deal is to get a refurbished business laptop (e.g. Lenovo Thinkpad, HP Pro/Zbook, Dell Latitude/Precision) and plan to upgrade it in 3-4 years. You can get something totally decent for $300-500, and, unlike consumer-grade models, these tend to be reasonably well built, upgradable, and repairable. Micro Center sometimes has these, or you can look on Ebay, Amazon, or Newegg. Get an 8th gen Intel model (or the equivalent AMD) if you need Windows 11 support, which you probably will want (Win10 becomes EOL in October of this year, which means no more bug fixes or security patches); check the Windows 11 processor compatibility list before buying.

If you have more of a budget, you could buy one of the above models new with a warranty for about $1500-ish. Lenovo and Dell (not sure about HP) both have outlet web stores that often have good deals; machines purchased through those web stores (even the refurbished ones) can have an extended warranty added after purchase, if you want that.

[Anonymous]

You don’t need to buy an expensive laptop. Get a quality one at one of the places mentioned earlier, Costco too. You should be able to get well under $1k.

Do you use any cloud services? If so, consider using those as your “hard drive”. Put most of your files there. That way, when it’s time to upgrade your laptop, or if it fails or gets lost, you can quickly buy a new one and start back up with minimal downtime and loss.