Are new cheap laptops really that bad?

[brchan]

The VAST MAJORITY of laptop users DON'T even need a PENTIUM for their computing needs, a modern CELERON is perfectly capable of running Windows 10 x64, playing youtube videos, browsing the web, and then some

This is a good point. Modern celeron cpus are decent and not nearly as awful as they used to be.

Most people don't care much for an FHD display, you don't really need a very high pixel density for browsing the internet. Back in the '90s, people were perfectly comfortable with 800*600, it's silly to say 1366*768 is so fugly that it's completely unusable

I disagree. The internet was way different in the 90s. There were few graphics and mostly simple text. Today, webpages have plenty of sidebars, pictures, headers, and fancy designs, all of which can take up a lot more space. XGA is just enough to fit most web pages without horizontal scrolling, but you will usually need a bit of vertical scrolling to read any real amount of text. If you don't view pages side by side or multitask, XGA will probably suffice, else 1440x900 or 1600x900 is probably a minimum. Add-ons such as tiletabs on XGA displays may allow for viewing multiple tiled pages, but they will need to be zoomed out.

The plastic case doesn't matter. Plastics are amazingly tough. A LOT of cell phones have plastic casing, and they need to endure much more physical abuse than a typical laptop.

True, but the problem is that many consumer grade laptops use cheap, brittle plastic. You have to treat them with a lot of care to not damage them. Laptops are also much heavier than cell phones.

[BillMorrow]

rdxlord, you seem to make a good case for older thinkpads..
and they tend to last and not break hinges..

i use older T400 thinkpads for specific tasks.. one talks to a scale that gives me bone density, body fat and so forth along with my weight..

so i agree with your basic premise..

OH, welcome to the forum..

[rambo47]

I have a W500 as a desktop device but I wanted something more portable, and Linux was a must. I bought a cheap Acer ultra-portable and it was horrific. Lag, stutter, freezes, etc. It was $400 on sale at BestBuy. After three days of trying to make it usable I gave up and returned it. Didn't even get to installing Linux. It came with Windows 8.1 installed and I hated that too.

So I bit the bullet and paid a little over $700 for my Yoga 3 Pro from BestBuy's open box sale table. And it's been terrific. I have gripes with some design features, but the hardware runs like a Swiss watch.

So it seems that with laptops, you get what you pay for. Cheaper is not a bargain if the user experience stinks.

[rdxlord]

...welcome to the forum..

Thanks, the only Lenovo I own is a Y-50 70, so I guess I don't really qualify to be a member of this group

[rdxlord]

I have a W500 as a desktop device but I wanted something more portable, and Linux was a must. I bought a cheap Acer ultra-portable and it was horrific. Lag, stutter, freezes, etc. It was $400 on sale at BestBuy. After three days of trying to make it usable I gave up and returned it. Didn't even get to installing Linux. It came with Windows 8.1 installed and I hated that too.

So I bit the bullet and paid a little over $700 for my Yoga 3 Pro from BestBuy's open box sale table. And it's been terrific. I have gripes with some design features, but the hardware runs like a Swiss watch.

So it seems that with laptops, you get what you pay for. Cheaper is not a bargain if the user experience stinks.

Sorry for the "stinky" experience you had to go through, but this is (IMO) an exception, not the rule.
I own 4 laptops (and not a single desktop) at the moment. These are:-

Lenovo Y-50 70
*4th gen i7-4710HQ
*16GB RAM
*GTX960M (4GB GDDR5)

HP Envy K204TX
*5th gen i7-5500U
*8GB RAM
*GTX 850M (4GB DDR3)

HP Probook 4530s
*2nd gen Core i3-2310M
*8GB RAM
*NO GPU

Dell Vostro 3558
*Celeron 3215U
*4GB RAM
*NO GPU (obviously)

Got the Dell vostro just about 10 days back, it's probably the cheapest computer one can get these days (if we leave the super cheap 32GB eMMC, 2GB RAM machines out of the list). The configuration is the most basic I can think of.
I use Windows 8.1 Pro and OpenSuse 13.2 on it. And it's not really very slow (IMO). Of course it won't be able to compete with my other three laptops, but it comes very close to the ProBook 4530s in performance. Both OpenSuse and Windows seem to run happily on the celeron, and there's no huge lag when performing basic operations. The only exception (barring games) is when I try to compile large programs (like compiling a software from its source code in OpenSuse), where the HP Envy is noticeably faster than the Dell Vostro (cannot comment about Y50, don't use Linux in it). A normal user doesn't need to compile from source code, he will simply double click on an exe file or install the software from a repository with something like apt get or a graphical software center. Ergo, an ordinary user (unless he's performing extremely high demanding tasks), will probably find even the dirt cheap Dell Vostro very much usable (again, IMHO).

A single bad experience, or even 100 bad experiences, is not enough to determine the usability of a whole line-up of some mass produced commodity. You probably ended up with bad hardware, you probably picked a product which has some firmware level issues that are yet to be addressed by a future BIOS update, your requirements probably exceeded the capabilities of the hardware (although it's very much unlikely that your hardware was so poor it didn't even let you install a Linux variant of your choice).

If this dirt cheap bottom of the line Dell can run everyday tasks without a major slowdown, it's only logical to argue even the most basic current generation hardware is capable of performing everyday tasks of an average user. You were just "unlucky" with your Acer, chances are if you picked up another cheap notebook (a different model from Acer, or a different brand altogether), you would be able to use it without any major issues. Of course the performance of this cheap notebook won't match that of a $700 yoga when you tried out demanding tasks, but in everyday basic use it would probably not disappoint you much (considering the amount you had to pay for it).

[KentT]

Agreed. Many an HP ProBook is very good. Especially as used models. And the Dual Core Intel Celerons from 1.6 Ghz up are for most users, very capable for average computing needs. One of my favorite Celeron equipped such is the ProBook 4440s, a well built 14" machine. And Asus Zenbook Pro for me is their finest standout in recent memory, and well built. One of the announcers at work has one, and I get to occasionally use it a little bit. If I find one down the line used at a decent price, I'd even consider one for a thin and light, it performs very well for that genre. Asus EEEPC machines I see few of to repair, for cheap, if equipped well on par for their class. Asus warranty and depot repair service for me is the major thing I dislike, but I like their better machines out of warranty OK. Which means if popular enough, I can find nice parts pulls on eBay and keep one running as I need to. That said AMD APU processors tend to be bog slow on average till you get to the higher models.

[TonyJZX]

Probooks are quite ok and a lot of the companies I consult for use them instead of Lenovo T and Elitebooks since they are much more sensibly priced and 90% of the time the laptop sits on a desk as a DTR so why the hell do you need an Elite?

Be that as it may, I'm generally not very impressed with the design of the Probook and on the 2nd hand market there's not a great deal of reason to look at one unless you get a great deal.

The price difference btw. a Probook and an Elite on the 2nd hand market isnt significant and you may as well get the better designed Elite.

Eg. why do I need to look at R or E series Lenovos? T/X series is so cheap anyway?

Back on the topic of cheap NEW units that hold promise:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=121337

Granted its the cheapest of cheap HPs so expect shortcuts.. I beleive the hdd inside doesnt even use a sata connect. It uses a ribbon cable to connect to the hdd and then you clamp it down like the Lenovo KBD connectors. LOL.

[brchan]

Back on the topic of cheap NEW units that hold promise:

viewtopic.php?f=58&t=121337

Granted its the cheapest of cheap HPs so expect shortcuts.. I beleive the hdd inside doesnt even use a sata connect. It uses a ribbon cable to connect to the hdd and then you clamp it down like the Lenovo KBD connectors. LOL.

On the upside, a flexible hard drive connector will reduce the chance of damaging the connectors on the motherboard or HDD in the event of drops. This feature is actually often found on semi and fully rugged laptops. Of course, the implementation is very important and may be suspect .