Laptop users

[WiseGuys]

Need help deciding. What do you use and why? If you could/would upgrade what would it be and why? Be specific, please so I can do some research. But any help would be appreciated.

[Donna D.]

What do you want to use it for? Seriously, it matters.

[WillyB]

I upgraded mine when it finally died, not before.

Frugal.

PS: Always be sure to back up your computer routinely!

[sofmerc]

I will use mine for work type stuff, internet access need every few days..No gaming type use or video requirements.

[fudge_brownie]

Having a desktop, a laptop and now several iPads I have experienced a variety of technology. A desktop is not convenient in an Escape but be aware there are some operations that can only be done with a desktop or laptop, not a tablet or iPad. A laptop has the advantage of doubling as a TV set or DVD player, it would require a USB adapter.

We have finally settled on using iPads. For our needs we have always found an app to do whatever task we needed. Not as elegant as a desktop or laptop. For ease of use we carry a keyboard for the iPad and a mouse. All our data is stored in the cloud, we have now placed all photos, data and app data in the cloud. For now our music is not in the cloud. Our choice of cloud storage is Microsoft OneDrive with an annual fee of $70. This includes Microsoft Office on all our devices. The cloud and Office resides on a Windows desktop, two iPads and two iPhones.

I have enjoyed having photos readily available when traveling. We both use Excel for lists, calculations and planning. The cloud also gives access to the same data, no matter what device we are on. Apps like Password Manager, Fidelity Investments, Excel, Word, Amazon, eBay share common access. Not all due to the cloud.

[John in Santa Cruz]

I've gotten away with traveling with just my 8" Android tablet, a Huawei MediaPad M5, it has a /very/ nice high res IPS screen that works great for video, and even has decent sounding speakers. If I buy a new laptop I'd be looking at the Dell XPS 13 and XPS 15 lines, the current generation of those have /very/ nice 4K screens and are very thin and light. As it is, I still have an old Latitude E6420, which I think is pushing 10 years old now but still works fine. at home, I use my big desktop for stuff thats not tablet-able, having dual 24" screens is nice..

[Ian G]

My primary system is a Google Pixelbook (Chromebook), I run a business from it and it serves all my personal needs. You do need internet access to maximise the platform, never have to worry about updates, no ongoing expenses for applications and no worry about viruses. Everything is backed up on the cloud in real time (as long as you are connected to the internet).

[Ron in BC]

I've been using computers since the days of the DIY Sinclair. But I know didley squat about them and there's oviously many folks on this forum that know way more than I ever will.

I've owned many laptops over the years and currently have 4 in use, don't ask me how, including the large Toshiba I'm using today instead of my desktop.

My handsdown favorite of all the laptops that I've owned is my Surface Tab. I do have a Panasonic Toughbook that I've always liked traveling with because it can withstand some abuse. But I just finished a rough trip with the Surface Tab and it stood up just fine.

It seems like the perfect size for the trailer. traveling and it works well. What more can I ask for?

Ron

[gbaglo]

Currently a MacBook Air.

[Centex]

I'm sold on Dell Latitude business laptops for their robust 'takes a licking and keeps on ticking' performance. They are available in a wide range of screen, processor, and keyboard configurations (I do lots of number-crunching in MS Excel so am partial to laptops with built-in full numeric keypads).

The motorcycle roadracing club I worked with for decades uses 'em exclusively (running about 20 of them), those take a beating with that travelling circus and failures have been extremely rare.

For personal use I'm still running two Latitude E6530's that I bought 1/30/2014, both are refurbished 'like new' units from Dell's online factory outlet. I don't use them for gaming but most everything else imaginable and they've traveled a lot, nary a hint of a hiccup from either one.

I haven't owned a 'desktop' in forever, my 'main' laptop sits in a simple Dell docking station when at home, that supports an external keyboard, mouse, and two external 21" monitors in addition to the laptop display for the home workstation.

Religious about frequent full back-ups to multiple SSD's? You betchya, never needed to date but more effective than 'knocking on wood'!

I suppose I'll have to look for a more modern Latitude when Win 10 end-of-support happens in October 2025 - Microsoft already warns my trusty 'old' E6530's aren't capable of supporting Win 11, no doubt due to 'features' I'll never use, but I'll not run an OS that isn't subject to security update support.

[John in Santa Cruz]

re: backups, on my home network I have a homebrew 'NAS' with 4 x 8TB disks, in RAIDZ, that holds 21-22TB of data. It has both backups and media on it (tv/movies, and music)

[oldwave]

I was an IT pro for 20 plus years for the National Park Service, like Centex I use Dell refurbs, though I usually buy Precision laptops for my window needs. That said, I like my MacBooks much better. I use windows because I need to support the few clients I kept in retirement. But most of my work is audio and video editing for personal and some client work. The question you need to ask and answer is what are you going to do with the machine. I use a high end tablet for most of my needs on the road.
If you need help, pm me.

[oldwave]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

re: backups, on my home network I have a homebrew 'NAS' with 4 x 8TB disks, in RAIDZ, that holds 21-22TB of data. It has both backups and media on it (tv/movies, and music)

I have a couple of those also, though it’s time to retire then and build a new one.

[alanmalk]

My camping machine is a Dell Inspiron N7010 that I picked up very used for $50. Upgraded with SSD and new primary battery, and just last week replaced the CMOS battery with much help from various interweb videos. Unfortunately it is more than 10 years old, obsolete, end of life and destined for that computer graveyard (overseas?).

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by oldwave

I have a couple of those also, though it’s time to retire then and build a new one.

My NAS is a first generation HP Microserver (the N40L), with 16gb RAM, and said 4 drive bays, plus a small/cheap SSD installed in the CD/DVD bay with some velcro. Its running TrueNAS CE (fka FreeNAS). and I'm /really/ happy with how well it works, how reliable it is, and how flexible Free/TrueNAS has been. The only thing I wish is that I could get a similar chassis that held 6 disks instead of 4.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Wow, pretty good Black Friday deal on a damn nice ultra-slim/ultra-light XPS 13" , but only a few more at this price before the deal expires
https://deals.dell.com/en-us/productdetail/bifj

good luck! physically, this thing is in the Macbook Mini class.


edit: this is the 9305 cost reduced model of the XPS13, and the 8GB ram is not field upgradable.

[cpaharley2008]

Like Glenn, another Mac Air travels with us as well as our smart phones.

[Perry Butler]

The computer department in our small school had one employee, me. I was responsible for 240 Dell desktops, 60 iPads, and a couple of Windows laptops (one was mine). I could service and image the Dells from my desktop, that allowed me to still teach 3-4 classes a day.

Can't pinpoint the year, but around 2008 purchased a couple of Chromebooks. Everything started changing when I realized how simple and functional Google software worked and no licenses to keep up, and an operating system that didn't get viruses, or crash from continual updates. My last year we had over 200 Chromebooks for students and another 30 for staff. Google Classroom had taken over education for our teachers and students. We quit buying iPads and our software costs went from $4-6,000 a year to nothing. There was an app out there for every task we needed at the school.

I retired in 2005, and dumped my Windows computer as fast as I could get away from that archaic system. I have a high end Acer Chromebook now that's as fast as my internet allows (low-end Chromebooks can be slow).

I'm the treasurer and webmaster of our condo and all our business is done using Quickbooks and Google Docs/Sheets. It took a while for some of our residents to grasp that Docs/Sheets can do everything Word/Excel could, and they worked the same.

We carry a cheap, used, 15" Chromebook to watch movies when we're in a site with a couple of rainy days. Terry and I have our own individual Chromebooks for surfing/business, we each have an E-reader (Terry has two), and our phones are OP's that were free when we switched from Google Fi to T-Mobile, for unlimited internet. When traveling in the winter months we have a monthly plan on my old Pixel 3, so if internet is available we can still surf.

Enjoy,

Perry

[Mike Lewis]

In September I bought a refurbished MacBook Air from Apple's website. It has 2 TB of SSD storage which I needed for photographs. I use it for editing still photos; I don't do video. At home I use it to drive a 27" monitor. I replaced a 2014-era MacBook Pro with this machine.

The MacBook Air has Apple's M1 chip. I found that it sips power compared to the old MacBook Pro, which is important to me while boondocking; the MacBook Pro was a major user of power while camping.

Interestingly, the MacBook Air with the M1 chip will run Apple iPhone and iPad apps, as it has the same microprocessor architecture. Some apps are fully certified by Apple's app store to run on the new laptops, other apps are hit-and-miss. For instance, the Morse code training app Morse Toad works on the Air, but you have to respond with the trackpad; you can't use the keyboard.

[oldwave]

Originally Posted by Perryb67

The computer department in our small school had one employee, me. I was responsible for 240 Dell desktops, 60 iPads, and a couple of Windows laptops (one was mine). I could service and image the Dells from my desktop, that allowed me to still teach 3-4 classes a day.

Can't pinpoint the year, but around 2008 purchased a couple of Chromebooks. Everything started changing when I realized how simple and functional Google software worked and no licenses to keep up, and an operating system that didn't get viruses, or crash from continual updates. My last year we had over 200 Chromebooks for students and another 30 for staff. Google Classroom had taken over education for our teachers and students. We quit buying iPads and our software costs went from $4-6,000 a year to nothing. There was an app out there for every task we needed at the school.

I retired in 2005, and dumped my Windows computer as fast as I could get away from that archaic system. I have a high end Acer Chromebook now that's as fast as my internet allows (low-end Chromebooks can be slow).

I'm the treasurer and webmaster of our condo and all our business is done using Quickbooks and Google Docs/Sheets. It took a while for some of our residents to grasp that Docs/Sheets can do everything Word/Excel could, and they worked the same.

We carry a cheap, used, 15" Chromebook to watch movies when we're in a site with a couple of rainy days. Terry and I have our own individual Chromebooks for surfing/business, we each have an E-reader (Terry has two), and our phones are OP's that were free when we switched from Google Fi to T-Mobile, for unlimited internet. When traveling in the winter months we have a monthly plan on my old Pixel 3, so if internet is available we can still surf.

Enjoy,

Perry

I like chrome books, but you won’t be editing video on them.
We have a chrome book around, but most of my work now is multitrack audio and up to 4 k video. Right tool for the job.