Laptop for my daughter

JaredBusch

@EddieJennings said in Laptop for my daughter:

I've seen good results with the Inspiron laptops from Dell.

I use these all the time. They do seem to work well.

travisdh1

My sister picked up an ASUS convertible a few years back that she really likes. A midrange model with a 2nd gen Ryzen is actually quite reasonable. https://www.microcenter.com/product/628544/asus-q406da-br5t6-14-2-in-1-laptop-computer---silver

1337

@JaredBusch said in Laptop for my daughter:

Since I am never in the consumer market, I am unsure what to look for and where.

A laptop is a laptop. I can't think of any laptops that are just sold to the consumer market, but perhaps there are.

Anyway, about five years in a school/high school setting sounds like a tough environment for any laptop.
Either go very high build quality or go cheaper model and change after 2-3 years / when it breaks. I think I'd go with the short time frame and put less money in it for starters.

Dashrender

a 6 year old laptop that's better than a current chromebook, say it isn't so...

yeah yeah, I know there are fucking awesome chromebooks out there, but damn who wants a $1500 device with the limitations of chromeOS? a few I'm sure, but not many.

To the question at hand - I have no idea... I've had some awesome devices over the decades and some shitty ones.
My Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 was fanstatic (short of course of Superfish which required a replacement WIFI card) until it didn't - like a failed solder joint or board component.
Something similar with a HP pavilion laptop - had a known problem after years of heating and cooling, failed solder joints on the video card.

These are the only two units that I've purchased that failed before I retired them due to performance. Of course, there's definitely a chance that's won't the case any longer, as machines have been more than powerful enough to do what people need/want for a while.

Obsolesce

Lenovo X1 Yoga is incredibly solid and efficient. Before I used one, I thought it was dumb, but turns out it's great for kids (and adults) in many situations.

There are other manufacturers that do this type of laptop, but not sure of their quality. The Lenovo I have i know is great from tons of use. A new one, I could see holding up for a decade if spec'd right.

If a gaming GPU is required, there is a high end one that would do games pretty well... or go with an Asus. Those are great gaming laptops. I've had mine for a lot of years now.

Dashrender

@Obsolesce said in Laptop for my daughter:

Lenovo X1 Yoga is incredibly solid and efficient. Before I used one, I thought it was dumb, but turns out it's great for kids (and adults) in many situations.

There are other manufacturers that do this type of laptop, but not sure of their quality. The Lenovo I have i know is great from tons of use. A new one, I could see holding up for a decade if spec'd right.

If a gaming GPU is required, there is a high end one that would do games pretty well... or go with an Asus. Those are great gaming laptops. I've had mine for a lot of years now.

Agreed, if not for Superfish, I'd definitely own another Lenovo.

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said in Laptop for my daughter:

but damn who wants a $1500 device with the limitations of chromeOS?

Limitations? It's really not all that limited. People say that a lot, but since it supports three ecosystems, it's surprisingly not limited.

Dashrender

@scottalanmiller said in Laptop for my daughter:

@Dashrender said in Laptop for my daughter:

but damn who wants a $1500 device with the limitations of chromeOS?

Limitations? It's really not all that limited. People say that a lot, but since it supports three ecosystems, it's surprisingly not limited.

Yeah, now that you can run a full Linux-based OS on it, I guess not. The whole Android apps - I could see some value there, no idea if that value has any value for business though - it probably does, and now you'll tell me how it does

dafyre

If Discrete graphics aren't required, I just got an Asus VivoBook from Walmart for $400 and change. It runs decently and plays the games he likes (Roblox / Minecraft) with little issues. I've spent some time with it, and it's not terrible.

Ryzen 3 / 8GB Ram.

scottalanmiller

@dafyre said in Laptop for my daughter:

If Discrete graphics aren't required, I just got an Asus VivoBook from Walmart for $400 and change. It runs decently and plays the games he likes (Roblox / Minecraft) with little issues. I've spent some time with it, and it's not terrible.

Ryzen 3 / 8GB Ram.

Oh that's a good find.

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said in Laptop for my daughter:

@scottalanmiller said in Laptop for my daughter:

@Dashrender said in Laptop for my daughter:

but damn who wants a $1500 device with the limitations of chromeOS?

Limitations? It's really not all that limited. People say that a lot, but since it supports three ecosystems, it's surprisingly not limited.

Yeah, now that you can run a full Linux-based OS on it, I guess not. The whole Android apps - I could see some value there, no idea if that value has any value for business though - it probably does, and now you'll tell me how it does

A lot of places want Android, because SO many things use Android apps.

ITivan80

Here one that might perk your interest:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FX8GTFP/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B08FX8GTFP&pd_rd_w=gKFLd&pf_rd_p=7d37a48b-2b1a-4373-8c1a-bdcc5da66be9&pd_rd_wg=UeoyX&pf_rd_r=HQYNZJYP6DG92FCAD6YY&pd_rd_r=035457cd-144d-4332-82e2-72c90d77cba8&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUE1OTlOTklVOVFTRlcmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAwMDEyOTYzQzBHUk9QTlVCTUpPJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA0NjUyOTMzQ0JOTU1QSVdTQzQwJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

JaredBusch

@ITivan80 said in Laptop for my daughter:

Here one that might perk your interest:

I will never buy Lenovo. I did not like them before they got caught stealing info.

ALso, tha tis Windows 10 S mode. No thanks.

Dashrender

@JaredBusch said in Laptop for my daughter:

@ITivan80 said in Laptop for my daughter:
Here one that might perk your interest:
I will never buy Lenovo. I did not like them before they got caught stealing info.

ALso, tha tis Windows 10 S mode. No thanks.

Wait - stealing info? I don't know about that one.

I know about Superfish - installed shim in network stack you couldn't get rid of to allow advertisers, etc access into encrypted transmissions
and the BIOS thing would would reinstall the Lenovo tools under windows...

travisdh1

@Dashrender said in Laptop for my daughter:

@JaredBusch said in Laptop for my daughter:
@ITivan80 said in Laptop for my daughter:
Here one that might perk your interest:
I will never buy Lenovo. I did not like them before they got caught stealing info.

ALso, tha tis Windows 10 S mode. No thanks.
Wait - stealing info? I don't know about that one.

I know about Superfish - installed shim in network stack you couldn't get rid of to allow advertisers, etc access into encrypted transmissions
and the BIOS thing would would reinstall the Lenovo tools under windows...

That's what Superfish does, sends data back to a Lenovo "partner" company. They can steal any data they want, and you can do nothing about it.

Dashrender

@travisdh1 said in Laptop for my daughter:

@Dashrender said in Laptop for my daughter:
@JaredBusch said in Laptop for my daughter:
@ITivan80 said in Laptop for my daughter:
Here one that might perk your interest:
I will never buy Lenovo. I did not like them before they got caught stealing info.

ALso, tha tis Windows 10 S mode. No thanks.
Wait - stealing info? I don't know about that one.

I know about Superfish - installed shim in network stack you couldn't get rid of to allow advertisers, etc access into encrypted transmissions
and the BIOS thing would would reinstall the Lenovo tools under windows...
That's what Superfish does, sends data back to a Lenovo "partner" company. They can steal any data they want, and you can do nothing about it.

OH I didn't realize it was actually sending data back to partners.. I thought it's general purpose was to insert ads... of course, it could do any damned thing it wanted....

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said in Laptop for my daughter:

@JaredBusch said in Laptop for my daughter:
@ITivan80 said in Laptop for my daughter:
Here one that might perk your interest:
I will never buy Lenovo. I did not like them before they got caught stealing info.

ALso, tha tis Windows 10 S mode. No thanks.
Wait - stealing info? I don't know about that one.

I know about Superfish - installed shim in network stack you couldn't get rid of to allow advertisers, etc access into encrypted transmissions

No, it hijacks your data, all of it. That's its purpose. Don't repeat the "after the fact retelling" that Lenovo tried to do to downplay the biggest security breach in equipment history. They had ANOTHER breach that was about advertising and they did a great job getting people to repeat that second small breach as being what the big one was. Superfish was a man in the middle attack to gain access to anything that could cross the network stack.

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said in Laptop for my daughter:

@travisdh1 said in Laptop for my daughter:
@Dashrender said in Laptop for my daughter:
@JaredBusch said in Laptop for my daughter:
@ITivan80 said in Laptop for my daughter:
Here one that might perk your interest:
I will never buy Lenovo. I did not like them before they got caught stealing info.

ALso, tha tis Windows 10 S mode. No thanks.
Wait - stealing info? I don't know about that one.

I know about Superfish - installed shim in network stack you couldn't get rid of to allow advertisers, etc access into encrypted transmissions
and the BIOS thing would would reinstall the Lenovo tools under windows...
That's what Superfish does, sends data back to a Lenovo "partner" company. They can steal any data they want, and you can do nothing about it.
OH I didn't realize it was actually sending data back to partners.. I thought it's general purpose was to insert ads... of course, it could do any damned thing it wanted....

Right, exactly, it was an unlimited capability device. It could inject or retrieve data in either direction. In order to inject, it would have to send back first.