Requesting Advice On First PC Purchase

Greetings all, thanks for reading my post.

I'm a long time Mac user considering our first purchase of a PC laptop. I know nothing at all about the PC realm, so I'm here hoping to benefit from your experience.

Buying a PC laptop is an experiment for now. We'll continue using our Macs for many things, so the PC laptop doesn't need to replace everything we use computers for. Thus, my goals are modest, something along these lines....

1) Cheap - say $300 or so?

2) Ideally new from a reliable vendor. A big part of this experiment is seeing if we can find computer makers we have more confidence in.

3) Laptop should be able to run the latest web browsers.

4) Laptop should be able to easily play our nature video collection (.mp4 format)

5) The longer the battery will run between charges the better.

6) 13 inch or greater screen

So, I'm picturing something like an entry level PC laptop, which I assume will be running some version of Windows.

As a place to start, is there any consensus in the PC realm regarding who the most professional reliable computer makers are?

Thanks for any advice you may be able to share.

I would look at refurbished laptop from a reputable retailer like Best Buy:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpa...=960&keys=keys

Wow, that was fast, thanks.

Berton said:

1. I picked up a nice 11" Dell Inspiron 3000 2-in-1 last month at Wal*Mart for $139 with 2GB RAM, Celeron CPU and 32GB SSD, turned out they were on sale to make room for the replacement.

Interesting, thanks. Does it web surf with ease? Have you tried playing videos? Price is certainly right.

My Mac laptop has 2GB of RAM as well, and it web surfs and plays video well enough. However, it cost $400, used.

I did add a 64GB MicroSDXC memory card for more storage.

I was amazed to see a 128GB card on Amazon for only $30.

The new one is the same 2-in-1 but has a Pentium CPU, 4GB RAM and a 500GB HDD for $369.

That might work, almost within budget.

Most of the major well-known brands are available around the world.

What are the major well known brands in the PC realm? Like I said, I know nothing.

If you had to limit all your future computer purchases to a single maker, who would you go with? Who has the best credibility and reputation etc?

NavyLCDR said:

I would look at refurbished laptop from a reputable retailer like Best Buy:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpa...=960&keys=keys

Thanks for that. We do have a Best Buy here, and they do appear to have a collection of refurbs. For now I'm still hoping to buy new directly from the maker, but nothing is set in stone, very much a learning curve.

Best & Worst Laptop Brands 2017: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/laptop-brand-ratings
The Most Reliable Laptop Brands of 2016 - Digital Trends https://www.digitaltrends.com/comput...most-reliable/

Bree said:

Best & Worst Laptop Brands 2017: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/laptop-brand-ratings
The Most Reliable Laptop Brands of 2016 - Digital Trends https://www.digitaltrends.com/comput...most-reliable/

Excellent article, thanks! I found it credible because they dropped Apple to #5, which corresponds to my experience with everything Apple these days. They are no longer focused on Macs, but on iPhones, because that's where most of their profits come from.

Here's a similar article:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/comput...most-reliable/

Berton said:

It's quite important to check specs and decide what you need in making a list.

Yes, you are so right. Especially true in this case given that I'm venturing in to very new territory. I'll stop shopping for now and focus on my "must have" list. First things first, good advice.

Danger, Will Robinson!

1) Cheap - say $300 or so?
These are available. But ...

2) Ideally new from a reliable vendor. A big part of this experiment is seeing if we can find computer makers we have more confidence in.
Cheap laptops don't last. They're junk, really. I would never own one again.
First Toshiba laptop ... turned to junk inside one year. Dead wireless.
First Dell laptop ... turned to junk inside two years. Broken hinge.
Second Dell laptop ... turned to junk inside one year. Three successive dead chargers. Dead wireless.
Daughter's Dell laptop ... turned to junk inside two years. Dead screen.
Other daughter's HP laptop ... dead inside of two years.

I'm a die-hard Windows user ... but if you insist on finding a sub-$300 PC, just stick with your Mac.
The "home laptops" are crap.
The "good" laptops are sold as "business laptops". They're MUCH better than the home versions.
They generally start at around $1000. Maybe a bit less, but still far above your $300 target.