2020-06-26 20:08:23

It's that time of the lifecycle for most modern (and short lived) technology. As the subject line indicates, I am thinking of getting a new laptop for multi-purpose use, with a budget of about $1500.

  I kind of want to move away from common problems I had with my laptops, that being the harddrive constantly dying or malfunctioning. So an SDD drive might work out, which most laptops are now coming out with by default. I also want to avoid those annoying compact keyboards where every freaking key has a function option to perform common commands. Along with that, action keys/media keys that aren't reversed by default. (truely, hitting function and the function keys to do common keyboard commands would get annoying fast, and some options utilize the bios to change such functions rather than a keyboard shortcut).

    So what's people recommendation for a laptop for the new decade?

The answer to your question is forum.audiogames.net/search

2020-06-27 15:54:46

I highly recommend either the T series ThinkPads from Lenovo. The reversed control and function keys can be changed in the bios. If you're willing to spend a bit more, I cannot recommend the X1 Carbon highly enough.

You may want to wait a few months though because Intel's set to announce their Tiger Lake CPUs in a few weeks which will inevitably be used in upcoming laptop refreshes.

2020-06-27 20:37:45 (edited by defender 2020-06-27 20:39:14)

Yeah I can second that recommendation, and Lenovo has sales all the time for any possible reason they can think of.  The next one being independents day, then the back to school sales probably, which is good because their customization options are overpriced.
You can always use Aira or possibly the Microsoft Tech Support option through Be My Eyes to help you with the Bios after Googling the method.  It can be a bit confusing in there sometimes but you could always give the agent a link to the page with the info about how to do it, which should have screenshots they can look at.
Also, hitting function plus escape does temporarily switch modes on most laptops, at least until a restart.


I would suggest the Dell XPS line too, just keep in mind that you'll probably want to replace the sound drivers that come with it with generic realtech ones instead.
Both companies give you a fair amount of bloatware, which is common across the industry, and some of it can be useful at times.  You could always do a preemptive fresh reinstall if you want to get rid of that though.
The HP Envy Series is another good option, but the phone support is worse and there is more bloatware, both of which can be gotten around quite easily.


For the price your willing to pay, you should be aiming  for at least a 4 core 10th generation Intel I7 processor or at least an 8 core AMD Ryzen 7 4000 series processor, at least 8GB of RAM and at least a 512GB SSD.  A lower end dedicated graphics card isn't out of the picture either.
If you don't need the extra resolution, you can always save money by going with a cheaper screen, which will also give you better battery life.  In addition, you can get a lower capacity SSD if the option is available, and store most of your big files on an external harddrive or the cloud, though note that SSD's get slightly slower as you step down in size.
Of course, either way it's going to be much, much faster than a traditional harddrive.
If you can get 16GB of RAM you should, that way your computer can keep up for longer and you won't have to pay for a new one as soon, or deal with upgrading it later your self.

2020-06-27 23:43:22

Well the lenovo stuff is customisable to boot so you can have extra drives ssd or hdd.
Hp are also good, my amd workstation has a hard drive and ssd and only cost me 1200 dollars, however, hardly any of their newer systems have duel drives anymore.
The pavilian line looks good or the old amd au line if you can get a db 149au or db 1809 with duel drive.

2020-06-30 09:00:32

Hello and thanks for the suggestions. 

  I'm going to be field testing a T series Think Pad for a bit before finalizing a purchase. I most likely will back away from the X1 for now, as mainly I just want a new laptop to go into work with and don't really need anything that expensive yet. Current laptop is one a friend let me borrow to play around with.

  Also eyeing another HP laptop that was on there that had a comfortable enough setup. One of the pavilian models.


  Just deciding how each of them feel and seeing if I can subsist comfortably on one of the lower priced options. Once I hopefully get this job opportunity and have a stronger financial situation, I can probably splurge for a better laptop like the X1 or whatever comes out in the 2021's-2022 and relegate this choice as a reliable backup/dedicated work machine.

The answer to your question is forum.audiogames.net/search

2020-07-08 10:10:09

Hi.
As someone who has used many different laptops, I would stay away from Lenovo.
The main reason being is that out of the box there function keys are changed, so you even have to press 3 keys just to close a program with the regular alt F4 command that's on other laptops.
Yes, you may be able to change it in the bios, but I would rather invest in something I know I can use from the start, rather than getting sighted assistance to go into the bowels of my laptop just to reverse keyboard keys.
Personally, I would recommend either the dell range of laptops, or if you're looking for something with a bigger keyboard, you can pick up an Asus gaming laptop or one that has the numpad and other keys on it.

Though our eyes may fail, our ears prevail!
User Karma, every little helps

2020-07-08 19:21:18

Buh, it seems that I probably should learn to get used to smaller keyboard configurations considering the trend of most non-gaming laptops to be sleek and slim. All the keys are at least there, evading some weird options to replace certain commands with laptop-specific keys while they get designated to the arrow keys and such. I just think I need to wrestle out the old habits I had with more full sized and larger laptops.

  Also double checked with a store I might be purchasing from, and they actually do provide services like switching the media keys to what I'm more used to as part of a setup service they provide for free.

The answer to your question is forum.audiogames.net/search

2020-07-08 19:38:13 (edited by defender 2020-07-08 19:42:20)

@TheBlindSaiyan
Good luck with that policy then, because that excludes laptops from almost every major manufacturer in the last 5 years, including several product lines from Dell.
Does it suck? Sure. Is it hard to fix with a Google search and some sighted help? No.
Independents is all well and good, but sometimes adapting to your environment requires you to swallow a bit of pride and use the tools available to you so that you can actually get shit done in the short term, while fighting for better access in the long term.
@Vazbol
I know your pain.  Thankfully as you said, gaming laptops are less likely to do this, but I will say that most 15 inch business laptops are also pretty okay with it.
Worst comes to worst, you can always buy an external keyboard to use for more serious stuff.  Mechanical keyboards are nice for gaming anyway.

2020-07-08 23:12:17

I initially got a Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, but switched to this year's XPS 15 model with maxed-out specs. These are pretty great laptops, and you don't need to spend any more than what your budget affords you to get something worth-while.
I noticed on the XPS 13 2-in-1 I briefly had that in order to use the home and end keys, you had to press FN and F11/F12 respectively. I don't know if that can be changed. There are dedicated page-up and page-down keys, but not home and end - very frustrating.

What game will hadi.gsf want to play next?

2020-07-08 23:21:10

@leibylucw and @Vazbol: The xps15 7590 will allow you to use the function+left and right arrows for home and end, and the function+escape is a permanent toggle as well, so no bios configuration needed.

2020-07-09 05:19:33

@jack, the one I purchased is this year's model, the 9500. To my knowledge, it does not follow the same scheme as previous models with the function and arrow keys for navigation.

What game will hadi.gsf want to play next?

2020-07-09 06:17:24

Acer Predator gaming laptop. I own it, I love it, I recommend it highly. It was only 1200 dollars on amazon. When I have a moment, I will link you to it.

Heroes need foes to test them. Not all teachers can afford to be kind, and some lessons must be harsh.

2020-07-09 09:12:34

Yeah, Dell laptops specially have small keyboards if you buy one of their convertibles. But they also have a toggle to switch to media keys or function keys with FN + escape shortcut. But on my laptop, there are no page up or down keys either, so for that, I always have to use FN pluss up and down arrow keys. No home and end keys either, so that's FN pluss left and right arrow.
If you get use to it, it's not that bad, but, some application specific keyboard shortcuts, such as Reaper or NVDA can run in to problem. Most of the time it's manageable.
Whatever these people have suggested till now, are pretty expensive laptops in my opinion. I have a Dell convertible which just costed 550 dollars, has 4 gigs of ram, 1 TB of hard disk, and Core M3 processor. It's an amazing machine, I can even run Reaper with sample players and stuff. Some big libraries will give problems, but I am not using those anyways.