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The horror, the horror, I need a windows laptop

pcb

pcb

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 9, 2009
93
0
Oxford, Ohio
Hi everyone,

I am going to be purchasing a new laptop here shortly.

I need windows for classes. I know I can put windows on a mac but that isnt going to happen.

My current laptop is in need of a new battery and a new hard drive. So that is easy $180. Plus it is 4 yrs old and I am worried about something major failing sometime soon. Basically I dont want to put 180 in it and have it fail shortly thereafter. Plus apple doesnt support my laptop and windows 7 in bootcamp.

I looked at buying a macbook but I wouldnt settle for less than the baseline 15inch and simply cannot justify the cost at this time. I want it but right now it is simply to much cash.

I am looking to purchase a windows laptop that will last me for 2.5yrs of college and at that point when I start a career I will have cash to buy another mac, but for now a 1800 computer simply isn't in the cards.

I am looking at the Lenovo Y560, specifically the 06465AU model.
It is a
i5 2.53ghz
4 gb 1066 ram
500gb hard drive
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 1GB (switchable)
isplay
15.6" HD LED Glare 1366x768


With a student discount it runs me 789.99


Any thoughts on Lenovo laptops in general?
Does anyone have any experience with this laptop?
Thoughts on its specs?
Feel its a good deal?
Any other laptops on the market that would be similar specd that is in the same price ballpark that you would recommend instead?






Here is a link to the product page
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...=536DDAD2272C43B4B4EFE41A7A5D7192&action=init
 
Do you really think you're going to get good, unbiased advice on this forum?

I just was over at YesWeCan.com, asking which Republican I should vote for. No one answered.
 
mattwolfmatt said:
Do you really think you're going to get good, unbiased advice on this forum?

I just was over at YesWeCan.com, asking which Republican I should vote for. No one answered.
Click to expand...

Actually yes. Once you explain that you aren't buying windows for a reason people are usually pretty helpful
 
for that price thats a pretty sweet laptop. Windows 7 really isnt that bad. I would say go for it, I have heard good things about lenovo in the past.
 
honestly if your spending $800, you might as well just get the macbook for $799 from microcenter.

now if you were going to pick up a POS windows notebook for $400, then I would have said fine. But your not really doing that either.

microcenter needs to start paying me for all the free advertising I do for them.
 
Doc750 said:
honestly if your spending $800, you might as well just get the macbook for $799 from microcenter.

now if you were going to pick up a POS windows notebook for $400, then I would have said fine. But your not really doing that either.

microcenter needs to start paying me for all the free advertising I do for them.
Click to expand...

I wont settle for a macbook though.
Reasons:
Dont want a 13inch
Not happy with the core 2 duo processor
Also want more than 2gb ram
 
ok good luck then!

We have Lenovo at work. They're top of the line with premium specs I'm sure. I still fill out a repair order every month on at least one of them. But ours get a lot of abuse as well.
 
Doc750 said:
ok good luck then!

We have Lenovo at work. They're top of the line with premium specs I'm sure. I still fill out a repair order every month on at least one of them. But ours get a lot of abuse as well.
Click to expand...

I baby my computers. As long as the damage/repair needs are because people are careless, im not to worried about it needing repairs.
 
Whatever you do, please don't buy a laptop with a 15.6 inch 1366x768 screen. This is no different that the one you get on a 13 inch. So you might as well get a smaller one with the same screen estate.

Seriously, it will frustrate you crazy.
 
SidBala said:
Whatever you do, please don't buy a laptop with a 15.6 inch 1366x768 screen. This is no different that the one you get on a 13 inch. So you might as well get a smaller one with the same screen estate.

Seriously, it will frustrate you crazy.
Click to expand...

x768 isn't even enough vertical resolution for the toolbars in Photoshop. That's a terribly low resolution IMO. I'd much rather have a higher resolution even if it meant I had to compromise and get a smaller screen.
 
SidBala said:
Whatever you do, please don't buy a laptop with a 15.6 inch 1366x768 screen. This is no different that the one you get on a 13 inch. So you might as well get a smaller one with the same screen estate.

Seriously, it will frustrate you crazy.
Click to expand...

ActionableMango said:
x768 isn't even enough vertical resolution for the toolbars in Photoshop. That's a terribly low resolution IMO. I'd much rather have a higher resolution even if it meant I had to compromise and get a smaller screen.
Click to expand...


OK any laptop suggestions that have a better resolution but still are similarly specd as this one and around the same price?

Also why is this so bad? I am seeing across the market that this seems to be a quite standard resolution.
 
I just got an HP DM4 14" i5 laptop that came with a 500Gb HDD (I replaced it to an eSATA enclosure and installed an Intel G2 SSD), 4Gb RAM that I swapped out to 8Gb RAM and an extended 3 year warranty = with rebates, that cost me ~$1,000+ all in and win7 is actually pretty good!

Best thing is, the machine weighs 4.2 lbs and it feels much lighter than that when compared to my whitebook!
 
J&JPolangin said:
I just got an HP DM4 14" i5 laptop that came with a 500Gb HDD (I replaced it to an eSATA enclosure and installed an Intel G2 SSD), 4Gb RAM that I swapped out to 8Gb RAM and an extended 3 year warranty = with rebates, that cost me ~$1,000+ all in and win7 is actually pretty good!

Best thing is, the machine weighs 4.2 lbs and it feels much lighter than that when compared to my whitebook!
Click to expand...

That might not be a bad option. I can get for 795 and change
HP Pavilion dm4t customizable Notebook PC
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-460M Dual Core Processor (2.53 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz
512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5470 switchable graphics [HDMI, VGA]
4GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 6.25 hours of battery life
14.0" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768)
FREE Upgrade to 640GB 5400RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision Webcam and Fingerprint Reader
Wireless-N Card
Standard Keyboard
 
When they were IBM brand they were excellent AND expensive. I could never afford one! There is some question about quality now I see expressed. And they now have consumer-grade lines. I don't know about their models so don't know where the Y560 stands. I used a consumer grade Lenovo in a training session and absolutely hated it.

I teach Electrical Engineering classes and students come in with every brand of notebook (including Apple!). In assisting, I get to type on all of them. My general impression is that only Apple makes a decent trackpad and about half of the keyboards are junk. Lots of bad displays as well. The best ones are the business notebooks, usually stamped with the student's employer's name!
 
+1 for Lenovo. We use their laptops at work, and they've easily matched the high quality of my older (read: IBM built) Thinkpad. If I wasn't buying a mac portable, i'd buy a Lenovo Thinkpad.
 
I'd suggest you to strongly think about an SSD. Once you try it, I don't think you want anything slower.
 
Lenovos and Dells fall under the "People who think they know alot about windows machines" recommendation. Dells are bad systems. Really. Lenovos are average systems.

If you want bang for your buck and a well built system look at the midrange Asus machines. I have never had to fix one once. Ever. My last job we had around 500 Asus laptops too. I can't say the same about Dell, Lenovo, HP, Compaq, Sony, or Acer.
 
My first choice for an i5 Windows laptop would be Asus. There are some in your price range.

When I was shopping for the Sony laptop I have now, I took at look at a Lenovo at the local MicroCenter. Not sure of the model. It was hideously cheap. Everything else in the store appeared to have better build quality. That pretty much killed my interest in following future Lenovo products.

No HP for me at any price, due to poor firsthand customer service experiences and HP's declining reliability ratings.

Good luck with your shopping!
 
pcb said:
Any other laptops on the market that would be similar specd that is in the same price ballpark that you would recommend instead?
Click to expand...

I buy computers either from Dell or from Apple. Dell has BY FAR the best service/warranty in the industry, so in your case it would be a no-brainer for me to buy a Dell with their 3-years-warranty. Just look what they are going to sell you for the money that you want to spend. You usually get a better deal when you call them, by the way, so you shouldn't base your purchase decision on their website alone.

Lenovo: When Lenovo notebooks used to be IBM Thinkpads, they were quite good. I don't know if their quality increased or declined since IBM sold their PC business to Lenovo. And in all honesty, somehow I don't want to find out.

But again: In my daytime job, I've had to deal with all computer brands, but the only company that has really impressed me with their support and (on-site) service is Dell. Everybody else, including Apple, just sucks in comparison. Apple has the more beautiful machines and OS X, but certainly not the better service.
 
pcb said:
OK any laptop suggestions that have a better resolution but still are similarly specd as this one and around the same price?

Also why is this so bad? I am seeing across the market that this seems to be a quite standard resolution.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind, the Macbook Pro 15" you have is 1440x900 and they're starting to ship with 1680x1050 because some people (myself included) find 1440x900 to not be enough room on a 15" monitor. You're going to be going down in resolution size but keeping the same sized monitor...

Dell has some laptops that may cost you a tad more (like $50 or so), but have better screen resolution than that.
 
Toshibas are pretty good.

But if you are going to spend 800$ on a pc laptop, why not get a refurb macbook for same price? Upgrade ram to 4g for like 60-80$. A 13 inch screen is fine, why do you NEED 15?
 
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