Which of These Laptops Would You Choose?

herbo on 26/01/2024 - 18:10
Last edited 26/01/2024 - 18:18

Trying to choose a laptop, looking at refurbished and perhaps new. Purpose is for a bit of late primary school / early secondary use. Some home use, nothing too intense. Looking at 16GB RAM. I’m a bit confused about processors and their age, also whether the screens are any good, I understand one is OLED so is way ahead of the others, while the best screen is great it’s probably not the determining factor. After any thoughts on which of these might be the better buy, there’s three refurbs and one new. Leaning towards the first two for price reasons:
Dell Latitude 7400 - $415, 3 month warranty
Lenovo Thinkpad T14- $470, 1 year warranty
Or stretch the budget a little:
HP Envy X360 - $746, 1 year warranty
Acer Swift Go - $997

Appreciate any opinions on these, perhaps others in similar range.

Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • OpayuOnam on 26/01/2024 - 18:27
    +3

    T14

    • barge-in hunter on 26/01/2024 - 19:00
      +1

      My reason for agreeing - we have a t14 and it’s built really well. That’s a reasonably recent cpu so should do well for a few years.

      Many of the cheaper consumer grade laptops (like the 360” flip one you’ve listed) just aren’t the same physical build quality, so they’re susceptible to things like broken hinges and cracked/damaged screens

      • kerfuffle on 26/01/2024 - 19:24
        +2

        I beg to differ; my work-supplied T14S has cracks in the lid

        • rumblytangara on 27/01/2024 - 11:28
          -1

          Have you considered not dropping your laptop?

      • herbo on 26/01/2024 - 19:45

        Thanks for the advice

  • rumblytangara on 26/01/2024 - 19:23
    +2

    late primary school / early secondary use.

    Then stuff like OLED screens or 16GB RAM are total overkill. But get the T14 over the others.

    Don't spend twice as much on a new but second-tier laptop brand (Acer).

    • herbo on 26/01/2024 - 19:47

      Cheers, my son’s into a bit of video editing for the school kid’s news so thought a bit of RAM would help out.

      • rumblytangara on 26/01/2024 - 21:01
        +1

        Serious video editing software? Sure- toss RAM at it then, that's a valid reason. Ditto compute power.

      • OpayuOnam on 27/01/2024 - 10:28

        If you are really after any form of video editing capabilities you should look a bit more and see if you can find anything with a Ryzen CPU in it.

        • herbo on 28/01/2024 - 08:40

          Like this HP? Seems ok, Pro Book X360 - $439

          • OpayuOnam on 28/01/2024 - 09:02

            @herbo: CPU is good, but I would avoid X360, the hinge design is very weak compared to ThinkPad Yoga.

            • OpayuOnam on 28/01/2024 - 09:08

              @OpayuOnam: https://techsc.store/a/search/all?filter_type=Laptops&sort_b…

              have a look at this store, most of their stock has onsite Lenovo warranty which is much better than random seller warranty.

              For speed/performance the E16 2023 model for $899 seems like a good deal, you're getting the latest CPU and a massive upgrade compared to most of the models listed, RAM is upgradable and there is a spare NVMe slot for a second SSD. has warranty until 2026.

              not sure what the new prices is on that machine.

              so you may also want to check the Lenovo edu store.

              • herbo on 28/01/2024 - 09:36

                @OpayuOnam: Cheers, was hoping to keep to keep the weight down by sticking with a 14 inch screen though. They have L14 with similar specs?

                • OpayuOnam on 28/01/2024 - 10:37
                  +1

                  @herbo: that's the only machine with latest gen AMD CPU under $1000

                  edit: just FYI the Ryzen 7th gen is about 20% faster than 6th gen which itself is about 30% faster than 5th gen so on so forth…

                  • herbo on 28/01/2024 - 12:09

                    @OpayuOnam: This at Mobileciti is latest gen I think? Seems reasonable value, there’s 10% off this weekend so ~$900

                    • OpayuOnam on 28/01/2024 - 13:25

                      @herbo: This seems latest, I'd still pick the other one as it has onsite warranty until 2026, that's worth about $200 in itself

                      • OpayuOnam on 28/01/2024 - 13:28
                        +1

                        @OpayuOnam: The 14 and 16inch have about 300g weight difference…

                        at the end of the day you have to prioritise something, weight, price, performance, pick 2.

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