Help recommending a new laptop, please!

• 

  adamren on 30/08/2014 - 00:41

  -6

  Lenovo is cheap Chinese brand that bought IBM's ThinkPad laptop biz. Wouldn't trust it to not have PLA spyware/backdoors etc on it.

  "Well built"? Are you going to drive it too? ;-p Most of the top 5 brand name laptops are made well enough to last 4 or 5 years. It's the hard drive mainly but you can replace those for $50-$100.

  E-Mails unless you store copies locally with Outlook to access offline shouldn't impact your hard drive space.

  Your 850-950 budget might be reasonable for an i3 with Office or i5 without.

  Officeworks have 16" Acers for around $800 and 4GB RAM with 500GB HDD. They're Windows 8 now usually. I still prefer Win7 for now and the next 9 or so months.

  If you want to order online and wait for discounts try dell.com.au otherwise if you want store service try JBHiFi and Officeworks.

• 

  BryceW on 30/08/2014 - 03:28

  +1

  Actually, Lenovo is a good brand well known for its quality. A Google search will support this. One source (owned by TomsHardware, a very respected brand) put it just below Apple: http://blog.laptopmag.com/best-worst-laptop-brands-2014/3
  All laptops come out of Asia, including expensive brands like Apple so the backdoor thing could apply to any of them. Not really relevant.

  You wont notice the difference between an i5 and an i7 if you are only doing surfing/email, so I would go the i5. Ideally, if you can, put the money saved by going the i5 and get one with more RAM. That tends to "futureproof" the laptop a little bit more.

  Acers are a terrible brand with some of the lowest quality (Source: I am a computer technician who owns one of the largest sites FOR computer technicians) and I have had to fix tons of them. That URL I linked to above also puts them second last.

  Officeworks prices decently and dont forget they will beat any physical store by 5%. Plus they have an excellent warranty including change of mind. Find the model you want, punch it into Staticice.com.au, find the cheapest location with a Physical store that mentions the laptop on their site, goto Officeworks and tell them to beat their price, and they will.

  • 

    Geewhizz on 30/08/2014 - 08:32

    +1

    Officeworks prices decently and dont forget they will beat any physical store by 5%.

    Or online. They will factor in shipping costs though

• 

  RI4V4N on 30/08/2014 - 10:54

  +2

  Just so u know, the 5th gen series is just around the corner, likely to be in christmas laptops.
  Will increase battery life quite a bit.

• 

  Riczter on 30/08/2014 - 12:37

  +1

  This should be the first consideration: Get one with an SSD for the hard drive. You'll notice a massive difference more than any RAM or CPU upgrade.

  You should be able to get a Haswell i5, with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD for under a grand easy enough. Check MSY, wait for a 20% off deal at dick smith, check the reviews then pricematch it at officworks, and you're laughing.

  Or just wait for ozbargain to post a good deal, tho laptop deals have been pretty scarce lately, looks like prices have risen a fair bit since last year and the market somewhat stagnated with the delay of the broadwell chips, but hopefully that will turn around come christmas

• 

  scrimshaw on 30/08/2014 - 16:39

  +1

  Dell Latitude — get one refurbed from Dell Outlet.

  Also consider a Surface Pro 2 as well… great build quality and performance, plus a stylus.

  • 

    jv on 01/09/2014 - 22:36

    Also consider a Surface Pro 2 as well…

    Have you tried to use Excel on a 10" screen !!!