What's a quality basic 17" laptop?

antonhaus

Solid State Member
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12
Location
USA
Hi,

fng here, basically an idiot w/pc's as I've only had one for about 7 years and I'm old and forgetfull but I manage somehow so far.

My young 7 month old $500.- acer went south already so I'm looking to buy a nice quality laptop. I only use the pewter for web browsing, banking, amazon, ebay,you tube, emails and a few other basic things. I don't really need a fancy bells and whistles touch screen, games, music, movies, photoshop, business(office) matters, letter writing, etc. - just want a basic QUALITY 17" laptop that will meet my needs is what I'm looking for.

I went to Best Buy the other day and the HP's caught my eye. I'm seriously considering the HP ENVY m7-n109dx even though it's way more pewter than I'll ever need. Tested it out and love the keys compared to the previous acer I had.

After my acer experience I don't mind spending a bit more for something that will last a few years longer. Been doing my research but figured asking here could possibly give me some good tips on possibly a more inexpensive QUALITY pc for my needs as the one I'm looking at is just under a thousand bucks.

Got me some shopping to do in the next day or two - any comments greatly appreciated

Thanks!
 
One advantage to the HPs is that they have an online parts catalog... you can look up the part numbers for your particular machine and then google them somewhere else to get a better price (buying straight from HP will cost you, big time).

From my personal experience, I'd steer away from Acer and Asus-- I am running on Toshiba right now; really nice machine, the only thing I don't like is that the battery is not user-replaceable.

I recommend you list exactly the things you do and don't need. For me, I wanted a backlit keyboard, and a DVD-RW drive built-in and made sure I got those. I did not think about the battery thing, but I am okay with it-- by the time it's time to replace this, the warranty will be long expired and I can crack this thing open and change it myself.

Believe it or not, once I decided on a brand and series, I got my best deal at Wal-mart. Twice! (had to buy a new one for Dngrswife, go figure).

If you have a little patience, I'd wait until the end of this month or early August, when the back-to-school sales will start kicking off.
 
... I am running on Toshiba right now; really nice machine, the only thing I don't like is that the battery is not user-replaceable.

I recommend you list exactly the things you do and don't need. For me, I wanted a backlit keyboard, and a DVD-RW drive built-in and made sure I got those. I did not think about the battery thing, but I am okay with it-- by the time it's time to replace this, the warranty will be long expired and I can crack this thing open and change it myself. ...
I have a Toshiba Satellite S55 laptop, not sure how similar yours is but the battery is certainly user replaceable. They make it a little more difficult, but not impossible, to remove. There's about a dozen screws you need to remove and then the whole back comes off. Mine came with a 1TB HDD which I promptly swapped out for a 500GB SSD. Had to remove the back, but once the back is removed the battery and drive bay are easily accessible.

Not sure where you got the idea that taking the back off voids the warranty. I don't think it does. Can you provide a link to somewhere where it states that?

I also have a Dell laptop that I like a lot. I really can't fault either brand and would recommend both. Just the other day, I sold an older Dell laptop of mine that I bought in 2006, it still ran fine, and still had the original battery in it that still held a charge.

I haven't had any recent experience with Acer products but our family had 5 of the Acer Aspire One netbooks that were about 8 years old. All of them were still working 100% when I sold them a few months back. I had run Win XP, Win 7, Win 8 and Win 10 on them without issue. Installed Linux Mate on a couple as well. I thought they were great little machines.
 
Oh, I disassemble laptops on a semi-regular basis, so it isn't a big deal, except, it requires me to find space to do it (usually at work) and a little time. I just like to upgrade to a double-size battery when I can and I can't when it's internal.

And by 'user-replaceable' that's the term the manufacturer uses to convince people to send the machine in for repair.

I try to not dig into expensive stuff, when new, because I have had things break and need warranty repair (don't get me started on my refrigerator). Dngrswife has threatened to buy me a t-shirt that says "I Void Warranties" though.

I own an S55t with a broken touchscreen (my son uses it in a dual-screen configuration) and I am currently using a P55t.
 
Looking at Dell's now & found this one...

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiro...468235392&sr=8-2&keywords=dell+laptop+17+inch

looks to be quite nice but I'm still in novice status - any opinions on this one?
Based on what you stated you use your computer for, the specs of that computer would work fine for you. In fact, it would be overkill.

Not sure if these things are important to you or not but, 1) No Gigabit Ethernet port, 10/100 only. 2) Keyboard is not backlit. No big deal if these things aren't important to you.
 
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