[jg18]

Crowdsourcing an advice request from my sister:

My android tablet is not very useful as a computer (for word processing, particularly). I'd also like to have a machine that I can use to watch movies and skype with people.   Do you have any recommendations for a laptop?  I have heard good things about mac book air, but at $1000 seems very pricey for a basic machine.

I looked through recent GenDisc threads and saw Dragon's thread from last month, but since the use case is a bit different (this isn't going to be for games), I figured I might as well start a new thread.

Thanks!

[Dragon]

Well, I've got that Latitude E6500, and it's awesome. Not too heavy, with a really solid case and really nice design. Oh, and it turns out you can get a much less capable version for a much lower price, too. Mine is an upgraded version with a better CPU and additional RAM, among other things. A baseline version has much less impressive specs, but has the same magnesium alloy case and ergonomic layout. Battery life is also good, despite this being an used laptop (I actually expected that particular component to require replacement, but didn't). Windows 8.1 runs great and despite it's quirks, turned out to be somewhat usable (wouldn't want it on my main, though, will probably wait for 8.2 with that). Also, since it's so modular, you get an option to upgrade the laptop later if you, for example, need additional RAM or a bigger HD.

[Mito [PL]]

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/latit/topics/en/latit_d410_sp_spec?c=us&l=en&cs=RC956904
Small, light, pretty high performance. Without CD/DVD, but can work .

[Mikes]

Anything with Haswell should work just fine for work & light gaming nowadays.

Apple is more or less a lifestyle choice in my eyes. People either love em or hate em for various reasons.

If you are not an Apple fan you do have to research carefully what you want to buy, but will find objectively better products (build quality, performance, functionality & compatibility) amongst the higher class business laptops. - which of course are expensive. Alternatively you can find regular consumer machines with decent (but not superb) build quality that offer the same performance, for a lot less money as well.

Really depends on what you want and what you want to do with it.

For a basic machine where price/performance is important I'd actually recommend Dell. Usually hassle free, but the one time I required customer service it was excellent and after 2 repair attempts (with a technician at home, no less) resulted in me getting a brand new machine, which worked flawlessly for now 3 years.

[Scourge of Ages]

Basically any Toshiba Satellite with an i5 or i7 processor would be more than enough, and you can usually get one of those on e-bay for 500-700 with some clever and determined bidding.

Plenty of power for even gaming, really nice screen, and a keypad.

[Mongoose]

My one brother's had a relatively entry-level 15" Dell for a solid four years of college, and I've never heard him voice any complaints.  And that's saying something, since he's not very computer-literate in the first place, so I'm amazed he hasn't broken it.

[jr2]

Basically any Toshiba Satellite with an i5 or i7 processor would be more than enough, and you can usually get one of those on e-bay for 500-700 with some clever and determined bidding.

Plenty of power for even gaming, really nice screen, and a keypad.

Toshiba, seconded.  If you look up the consumer reports for laptops, you're pretty much going to go with a Toshiba if you want reliability without paying through the nose (looking at you, Apple).  ASUS and Samsung are up there with Lenovo as well but IIRC they have customer support issues.  Been a while since I read the report, prolly better Google it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/699391-samsung-top-laptop-reliability-2012-q2.html#post9015233