I have an eight-year-old laptop that needs replacing and I’m paralyzed. What are the most reliable ones now? Do I need a desktop for CAD? Pros and cons of operating systems (and where do I find them?) Browsers ditto? Where do I find answers that aren’t just product marketing?
My god, thank you!
His advice is fantastic but I have to mention 1 thing… HP is TERRIBLE. I’m a repair technician and we get so many of these damn things, it’s like 10% to 20% of our business, and we repair iPhones, androids, iPads, Mac’s, PC desktops, laptops, gaming PCs and even vintage computers.
This is because of how HP laptops are designed. All of the components and hinge assembly are attached to this thin flimsy plastic palm rest, it has the rigidity of a wet newspaper. During use, opening and closing, the plastic flexes constantly and over time the plastic gives, snaps and the laptop can no longer stay open.
Not only do they break frequently but the repair is expensive. Since everything is attached to the palm rest a technician needs to gut, then reinstall every component onto a new palm rest. Around 1-2 hours. Troubleshooting and testing afterwards also takes longer, as every component has been “fooled around with” there’s a high likelihood for mistakes.
It stings when I have to tell customers that the repair for their $500 laptop is like 250 or 300$.
Oh: if you’re doing fancy-schmancy 3d industrial CAD stuff for designing car engines or the like, you’d want to make sure you have a nice GPU, which is typically in the ‘gaming laptop’ category if you’re going laptop.
However if you’re just doing ordinary diagrams and stuff, then onboard video will be absolutely fine.
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As much flak as I may get for this, I also second the Apple rec for laptop hardware. Install whatever OS you want on there, but in general their build quality is very high. I have a Macbook Pro that has been going strong for 11 years now. It’s no longer my daily driver and the battery life isn’t what it once was, but it still works really well.
Ironically, I can’t speak to the build quality of the newer laptops because my current one has lasted so long, but I believe they are still up there.