Do no good laptops exist anymore?

[Arika]

I've been helping a friend try to find a new laptop, and while it's not my money, i'm putting in as much research as if i was buying it myself, and holy shit there just are no good options anywhere. You are basically rolling the dice and hoping to not get something shit regardless of what you try to find.

 

Dell XPS: an infinite number of issues that get posted pretty much everywhere for every model

Dell Business: way too expensive for what you get

MS Surface: questionable reliability and longevity (laptop and book)

Lenovo Thinkpad: keyboard AND display panel lottery (and i've dealt with lenovo support in Aus...wasn't thrilled)

Lenovo everything else: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

HP business: stop putting all the main ports on the right....with shit 250nit screens.

HP consumer: way to expensive for any kind of upgrade over the base model for pretty much all of them

Acer and Asus: barely any information, which is either an extremely good thing, or no one is buying them.

 

 

I know things like the XPS line and Surface products are super popular and therefore a larger number of issues will popup purely because there is more of them out there, but goddamn is it frustrating trying to find any new products that can generally be classed as "good" without asterisks.

[Aereldor]

Rebadged Clevos? Eluktronics etc. Also, I've only heard good things about the HP Envy laptops, they seem well-priced and built well, HP has extensive online tutorials on repairing every single model if you choose to do it yourself, and seem to work hard on providing good customer support - at least in America.  

 

Depends on what he's looking for and how much he wants to spend.

[Moonzy]

9 minutes ago, Arika S said:

to find any new products that can generally be classed as "good" without asterisks.

imo laptop is all about compromises, because there's always different market that prefers different things

 

so find the one best suited for your friend and purchase it, it may not be an ideal laptop, but it's the best that you can find for that time, for their specific needs.

[Radium_Angel]

This may, or may not, be of some use to you

 

[jaslion]

What is the budget and what kinda laptop does it have to be? For gaming most of the time the clevo rebadges are about as good as it gets as those tend to be function first form second. But I assume this is like a portable notetaking school device? If so just get whatever is decent enough really. A hp envy x360 amd for example is a very nice laptop sure upgrading it is a pain but if it's a schoolwork machine the base model is plenty.

[Commodus]

Apple? Not that their latest laptops don't have issues (limited ports, a few compatibility issues for Apple Silicon at this early stage), but it's been one of the most friction-free laptop brands... well, now that the butterfly keyboard is gone, at least. You spend less time fighting with your computer and more time just using it.

 

They're fast, run for ages on battery, boast great keyboards (post-butterfly, again), offer the best trackpads I've seen, and have great baseline build quality with no chassis flex or cheap materials. I'd add that Apple avoids a few of the weird mediocrities that people just seem to accept with Windows PCs, like third-party bloatware or classist tech support (where you get crappier help if you buy cheaper models).