A good Surface laptop 2 replacement

[Guest]

Dear LTT users,

I'm new here and I think you guys/gals know a thing or two about computer hardware, but let's start from the beginning.

Exactly 1 year ago I bought the entry Surface Laptop 2 and I fell in love with it. As a student and a person who is always 'on the go', the keyboard, build quality etc. are perfect for me. I don't play videogames and if I do it's nothing more demanding than Gothic or Team Fortress 2. Unfortunatly for me, the issues with this laptop started almost instantly. After a few months of usage I started seeing yellow marks on my panel. After confirming with Microsofts support that it indeed is a screen defect. I have sent it back to them to get a free replacement, which I did. End of story? Of course not!

Not so long ago my Surface Laptop 2 decided, it doesn't like beign charged anymore. 1 day before the 1 year warranty expires… Of course according to the polish law, after sending a replacement the warranty should reset but corporations like Microsoft or Apple don't really care about the law but that's besides the point.

Now I got another and last free replacement, unfortunatly a brand new laptop isn't good news to me, since if even they would rather just trash it and send in a new one I can imagine how servicable it is. Now I'm getting rid of this laptop because I'm too scared that it might just break in a week leaving me with nothing.

What I need is a portable device running: A Operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux, PotatoOS as long as it supports office), Has a good keyboard, will not explode instantly after warranty expires and is fixable no matter if it's a factory defect or my error. Also I don't need it right now, if there is something promising coming out in a few months I'm fine with that.

Thank you for your time 

[Kobathor]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the Surface Laptop 2. Mine has been wonderful over the past year.

 

About a replacement: if you still trust Microsoft, the Surface Laptop 3 is better and more serviceable than the Surface Laptop 2. If you don't like Microsoft anymore, that's okay. Dell makes some really good laptops at multiple price points. An XPS 13 is similar in specs and price to the Surface Laptop, but with a 16:9 ratio screen instead of the tall Surface screens. Dell's keyboards are top-notch, too. If you like Apple, lots of people will recommend the Macbook Pro 13; the new (old style) keyboard switches are supposedly really good. There are lots of good laptops though, these are just some that I can personally recommend based on reviews and prior research.

 

EDIT - most new laptops are not user-serviceable in any significant way. That is just the industry standard nowadays.

[IAmAndre]

I would recommend the XPS indeed although I really don't like the pricing on these. However it's pretty similar in pricing so it will be fine for you.

I personally think that HP has the best offer for premium feeling laptops with the Spectre and more particularly the Envy lines.

[Sorenson]

I would wait it out for the upcoming 13” macbook pro with the fixed keyboard. I’ve tried a couple windows laptops (including the XPS 15, razerblade 15, and surface book 2) and always ended up returning them to stick with my aging macbook pro. I personally believe that OS X is more reliable day to day than windows for mobile devices. 

[genexis_x]

Go for business laptop for better QC+QA

[Lord Vile]

On 1/29/2020 at 2:28 PM, Doctor_GLaDOS said:

Dear LTT users,

I'm new here and I think you guys/gals know a thing or two about computer hardware, but let's start from the beginning.

Exactly 1 year ago I bought the entry Surface Laptop 2 and I fell in love with it. As a student and a person who is always 'on the go', the keyboard, build quality etc. are perfect for me. I don't play videogames and if I do it's nothing more demanding than Gothic or Team Fortress 2. Unfortunatly for me, the issues with this laptop started almost instantly. After a few months of usage I started seeing yellow marks on my panel. After confirming with Microsofts support that it indeed is a screen defect. I have sent it back to them to get a free replacement, which I did. End of story? Of course not!

Not so long ago my Surface Laptop 2 decided, it doesn't like beign charged anymore. 1 day before the 1 year warranty expires… Of course according to the polish law, after sending a replacement the warranty should reset but corporations like Microsoft or Apple don't really care about the law but that's besides the point.

Now I got another and last free replacement, unfortunatly a brand new laptop isn't good news to me, since if even they would rather just trash it and send in a new one I can imagine how servicable it is. Now I'm getting rid of this laptop because I'm too scared that it might just break in a week leaving me with nothing.

What I need is a portable device running: A Operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux, PotatoOS as long as it supports office), Has a good keyboard, will not explode instantly after warranty expires and is fixable no matter if it's a factory defect or my error. Also I don't need it right now, if there is something promising coming out in a few months I'm fine with that.

Thank you for your time 

If you have the budget the MacBook Pro is excellent. You might want to go into the store though because of the keyboard, personally I love the butterfly switches but a lot don’t. They should be updating it to the new(not really) keyboard that’s on the 16” so you can try both and see which you prefer though you’d be waiting for the updated 13” to launch which probably won’t be until at least the spring event.