Every three years like clockwork I have to replace a laptop because they fall apart. This year my Asus decided to uninstall its touchpad drivers - this after two blue screens. Frankly the touchpad sucks anyway, I won’t miss it

Can someone recommend me a laptop I won’t have to replace? All I use is chrome and Word, and the only games I play on my laptop are from the 90s so it doesn’t need to be a gaming rig

  • amishjim@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I’ve had 3 Lenovos. 2 of them lasted over 10 years and I just got a Legion which will last just as long.

  • CombJelliesAreCool@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Depends on preferences and aptitudes. If you’re on a budget but are a little handy, then your best bet it to buy a used or broken and repairable enterprise or pro-sumer laptop. Prosumer just means hardware meant for tech savvy consumers. I prefer prosumer over enteprise because they typically have more creature comforts like 4k touchscreens and good speakers. They’re both great ways to go though.

    I’ve had a Dell XPS 13 2017 since 2021. The person who owned it before me sat on it and broke the screen, they just ended up giving it to me and I fixed it up and have used it for near 3 years now. The sad part is that it died from an internal short, so I’d need to get a motherboard to fix it(or develop skills and tools worth tens of thousands of dollars and fix it myself but fuck that).

    I replaced the screen and battery, both dead simple to do, and it was running like a champ. A rock with a screwdriver and opposable thumbs could do these repairs, you’re technically adept enough to know what a driver is so I’ve got faith that you can turn some screws to save some money.

    50 dollars a year to own a laptop is pretty fuckin cheap if you ask me, amortized many times over.

  • zfs_@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Current gen MacBook (Air or Pro, they are both great), Thinkpad X1, or HP EliteBook.

    If you’re on a budget, grab an HP EliteBook 850 G4-G5, or a Thinkpad T460-T480 on eBay for $100-250. They are fantastic computers and will last you a long time. Upgrade RAM and SSD as needed.

  • Sr546@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Check out slightly older thinkpads. You can’t get them new, but they are great laptops and if you don’t break them on purpose they can last many years. Older models are pretty repairable so if anything does actually fail you can get it replaced

  • Just4ThaFuqOfIt@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Lenovo Thinkbooks and HP EliteBooks are both absolute tanks and have good specs if you’re not a gamer. Dell also has solid business class laptops.

  • tanstaaflnz@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I’m guessing you’re running Microsoft Windows? Download Linux (Mint is my choice) and build a live USB. You might get a pleasant surprise.

    My first 10" Acer lasted 11 years, then just got too slow. The second lasted eight before the case fell apart. This year I switched to Lenovo. All running Linux.

  • thenormaluser35@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    You don’t need a fancy laptop at all. Get Linux, it has windows app support and LibreOffice, a very good Office alternative has word, powerpoint, excel, etc. You don’t need to worry about drivers, they install themselves and din get uninstalled. Touchpad drivers aren’t an issue, most drivers are built-in anyway and work very well. For someone that doesn’t want to mess around too much with configs, Zorin OS works wonders, to get Windows App support you run the app from the start menu and it installs all you need. If your laptop of choice has over 6GB and a quad core or better CPU at 2GHz or more choose Zorin. If it has less than any of these, get Zorin Lite, it’s the same mostly but runs faster.

  • Anhmq@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    M1 macbook air. Just get the base model. 8gb ram and 256 ssd are enough for web browsing and office.

  • Training_Seaweed1303@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    If it has to be windows maybe a mid to high end machine, or think pad. Or I’d argue if your under a budget a 2015 MacBook Pro or if your semi on a budget they still produce the 2020 MacBook Air m1 new. Hella huge upgrade.

  • TheEvilBlight@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Oddly, the MacBooks had decent build quality. I have a 2015 mbp that is not gonna win any contests but still trucks along