How to Buy a Laptop

[AlexTheGreatish]

 

 

We wanted to do a Back To School Buyers Guide.. but the second we recommend something in 2021 it will be sold out. So instead we're giving you the tools to figure out what laptop is best for you.

 

Buy HP Envy 14

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/cBNC

On Best Buy (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/znuPpZ

On B&H (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/6dLPl

 

Buy Dell XPS 15

On Amazon (PAID LINK):https://geni.us/BKcV

On Best Buy (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/LiwHBNK

 

Buy HP Envy 13

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/dkRj

On Best Buy (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/SxQQXb On

Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/dVgF6f

 

Buy MacBook Air M1

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/ofdNxIK

On Best Buy (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/scOki

On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/ZjXcb

 

Buy Acer Nitro 5

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/LFOO

On Best Buy (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/NrR1gHF

On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/MvcWhLp

 

Buy Alienware m15

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/TiBFNAM

On Best Buy (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/z3MWtAA

On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/5ses

 

Buy HP Omen 15

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/WBR8Xo

On Best Buy (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/VnJpk

On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/7Ig6

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

[Murasaki]

How to buy a laptop "me edition": You don't.

[ahuckphin]

I like this video. 

 

For me, I would consider after sales support. Does the manufacture host drivers and understandable service manual on their website? A problem I face with my Tongfang barebones laptop. 

 

Wished the video mentioned MUX switches and Linux compatibility. 

 

My honourable mention goes to the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 with a i3 or Ryzen 3. Plastic build but still respectably light. Comprehensive I/O + lack of soldered components. 

[Astroprogrammer]

So I was looking for a laptop for myself. While most of what I was looking for matched most suggestions in the video, I had a couple of random points to add.

 

When it comes to keyboards, you can generally trust Lenovo to be excellent. I've used Lenovo laptops, both cheap and mid-range, for years now, and I had a solid time with them. They might cheap out on the build quality for the cheaper models, but they do not cheap out on their keyboards. When it comes to backlight, look for something with a dark key color if you're not getting RGB backlight. Otherwise you'll end up like the Asus Zephyrus G14, with it's Silver keys, and white backlight, and you can't see any of the letters clearly.

 

If you're going for a productivity laptop, AMD has some solid options. The Asus Vivobooks and Zenbooks are solid. (But Zenbooks DO have that little issue of not having a headphone jack.) There's other options as well, like the Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3. (Last I checked here in India, it was basically sold out everywhere in Online stores, and the offline stores I checked. It was my fav, but alas.)

 

However, on the other hand, if you're considering an Intel productivity laptop, and you've shortlisted two at or near the same price range, try to get the one that's marked Intel Evo. Intel Evo is a certification program from Intel for laptops, which basically means you're certified to be getting a longer battery life, thunderbolt ports, a backlit keyboard, a biometric authentication, etc etc. Just, quality of life improvements. It's not Necessary (I myself didn't go for one with evo), but given the choice, you should lean towards one with it. 

 

The video says that there's no direct way to compare battery life, other than looking at reviews. But, keep in mind, All things equal (Screen Size, Processer, RAM, Keyboard Backlight, Graphics), the laptop with the larger battery is going to get a longer battery life.  And if Battery life is your primary concern, go for AMD five thousand series.

 

MAKE SURE TO LOOK FOR REVIEWS FROM YOUR OWN COUNTRY BEFORE YOU PURCHASE. (The example I'll give is going to be focused on India, but you get the idea) Reviews that talk about Bang for the buck isn't really applicable for everyone everywhere. Not every manufacturer has managed to get around the funky import laws for electronics here. So the new LG Gram 14 would cost 73 Thousand rupees, (around 1000 dollars), but something like the MacBook Air would cost 92 thousand dollars(around 1250 dollars). Those are entirely different price categories, and there's a lot of variation in between those. HP Victus is about 10 thousand rupees cheaper than the next laptop with an RTX 3050 when it launched.

 

And for those going for a Gaming Laptop, I recommend waiting for a month, for the Dusshera-Deepawali sale, or the Black Friday sale, or whatever big sale is coming soon. Especially in India. Like I said, HP Victus is around 72k rupees, and the next RTX 3050 laptop is at 80k rupees. That's a huge difference.  You'll be giving time for more laptops with RTX 3050 to be available at regional pricing (ie, around the same as their prices in US), and also they're cheaper in the sales.

 

All things considered, I personally went for an MSI Modern 14, intel i5 1135G7, 8 GB RAM, 500 Gb storage for about 54 thousand rupees. It comes with a 14 inch screen, has a nice trackpad, 3 level keyboard backlight which is comfortable to type on, and a screen so bright, I don't have to bring it past the second brightness level to use. Two type A (USB 3.2 Gen 1), one Type C (3.2 Gen2/DP), HDMI and a micro sd reader. It's got a 52 Watt Hour battery, which lasts me about 7 hours of average use, and 10 on really careful use. Reviews also mention upgradable RAM and Storage, so that's great.  (And my sister really liked her model from last year, liked the MSI Customer Support as well, and told my dad it's a blind choice and we won't regret it, so that's where we went).

 

Aside from this and the Aforementioned Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3, I didn't personally have my eye on anything. But I've heard from family and friends that the Vivobooks with the 11th gen Intel CPUs, or even the Ryzen 5000 series CPIs are great, both Flip and non-flip versions. Keep an eye out for some extended reviews of the Redmibook, the Realme laptop, and the refresh of the Mi Notebook. They sound promising so far.

[PeachGr]

I think that was the most PC porn video of the channel for at least this year

Reminds me of the old times that I was getting into shops, just to see them and feel them all, laptops or anything

[Red :)]

What is going on with the subtitles on this video?

0:00 - "I wanted to make it back-to-school laptop guide"

1:53 - "that has enough grunt to game on your brakes"

3:17 - "integrated or IGP use"

8:21 - "on theltgstore.com"

10:05 - "lower is generally better"

10:47 - "look at you with your three players"

16:08 - "representing the rain of fannels"

16:25 - "including a fanon pad and extra modifiers"

16:31 - "and order your infinity work keycaps today"

[Egg-Roll]

1 week later:
I have some extra money, we can go on that date you wanted!

1 hour passes...

Are you angry about something? Did I do something wrong?

Why don't you go ask Keanu Reeves why I'm mad, @$$hole...

 

Lesson?

If you don't know it yet you deserve what is coming.

[Quackers101]

*more is not always better, HZ for the monitor.

[lorenmj1]

I give this back to school buyers guide a C-. You missed the mark. The two good things were the well laid out and practical naming and numbers of Intel and AMD processors and covering the technologies available on screens. Both points very helpful for a person trying to get bang for their buck and understand what they may experience. Now to the bad: Several times you sent people to your own and other reviews of various technologies and even specific laptops, but you should have sent people to the website of their schools. You could have showed a practical example of how to find what they might need for various classes depending on what they might take for this semester. We (I work for a University) write specific websites helping new freshmen get what they need as well as specifics on what an upperclassman will need for particular engineering courses - but the only websites you recommend are yours. While many schools probably fail to post lists of what a student might need, they could and that would be gold for telling you what kind of technology you will need to bring to campus. Oh.. as a mac user - if you touch my screen I will literally CUT YOU! Maybe we just don't like the anti-ergonomic maneuver of touching a screen - which most people do 3 times in their life - unless you work at LTT and Linus makes you do it to prove he has good habits. I guess you walk around all day showing each other whats on your screens(?) -otherwise.. why? You just can't help yourself but mention the touchscreen. Put your greasy infected paws on my screen and I WILL CUT YOU. Here is what you can say to other Mac users: Go get the Mac you wanted for school.. can't go wrong. Just do it. Stick with the intel inside if you use legacy software, otherwise get the M1. You could easily have helped people determine what they need with a couple of websites, like: https://doesitarm.com/ and https://isapplesiliconready.com/. Check both for good measure to see if you can run the software your school might require. Oh.. and.. where is the love for Linux? Patrick?? Other than those two positive things, all I heard was an HP ad and the usual, tiresome jibes at Mac. I saw that macbook air in the line up and wondered when you would get to it.. dead last and unhelpfully typical. Disappointing.

[sub68]

I am just happy when acer kun can boot into windows within 30min

[crazzp]

3 hours ago, lorenmj1 said:

Oh.. as a mac user - if you touch my screen I will literally CUT YOU!

I have a macbook and I would definitely pay more to have a touchscreen. Literally just put an ipad screen on a macbook. I don't think that's hard. 
And can we chill on being so extreme? You touch your phone's screen everyday? Has it bother you? What's the difference between a phone and a laptop screen? If you don't like to touch your screen, I don't think there is a need to go apeshyt on people who do.

[sydh]

What's up with the Rosetta ethical bit? That's a rather interesting tidbit to edit over the video. Not being a mac person all I can seem to find(around March) is that Rosetta might be removed in some different regions?

[Egg-Roll]

9 hours ago, crazzp said:

And can we chill on being so extreme? You touch your phone's screen everyday? Has it bother you? What's the difference between a phone and a laptop screen? If you don't like to touch your screen, I don't think there is a need to go apeshyt on people who do.

You clearly don't understand the Apple community then, if Apple doesn't offer it on their own accord it's nasty and anyone who suggest otherwise is blaspheming their deity

This also includes repairs, and parts (esp batteries)...

[hishnash]

22 hours ago, sydh said:

Not being a mac person all I can seem to find(around March) is that Rosetta might be removed in some different regions?

No rosetta will not be removed in some regions, the OS contains a string (error message) that it can display if some some reason your unable to download it. I expect apple have this in there just incase Intel (or someone else) were to take them to court to try to make them not use it. In the US at least recent case by Google winning the Java case means this would not be possible for intel. But legal likely wanted to have that there just in case in some random region were intel has more control over the gov/legal system apple might be forced to ban it, apple would not want to be forced to ship a different version of the OS for those regions just flag it server side and return the error code the displays a nice localised message.  When apple does remove rosetta2 (like when they removed rosetta v1) they will inform devs likely 2 to 3 years in advance and the removal will be based on the user upgrading to a newer os (like with the removal of 32bit support the os will likely throw up a load of warnings to users for a few years before informing them that the apps they are using will no longer work on the next os release and they should contact their developer)... Note at the point users will be able to continue to user the older os, not upgrade, and apple typically continues to ship sec updates for 4 to 5 years, at that point if the apps you depend upon still have not been re-compiled for ARM64 then you might have some issues but that will be at least 10 years from now.

[JManWasTaken]

This video was really informative and helpful, although I do wish that you had linked to other guides and websites that weren’t published by y’all. It would be really cool to see you guys do a secret shopper: laptop edition, because that would also be important to evaluate customer support. 

[GDRRiley]

I never get why LTT ignores the Probook line, they've been a great lineup for quite a few years assuming you configure them right

[chillmydrill1]

guys im looking for a laptop that I can go to school with an can also play roblox arsenal and bad business with .

Should I buy this https://www.amazon.ae/gp/product/B099GBY5HZ/ref=ox_sc_act_image_2?smid=A2QEYWXNIZDC2O&psc=1