Which laptop to purchase?

DON'T get an HP laptop - at least, avoid the Pavilion series. Envy's are not much better, but are a bit better.

The brand is not as important as the model. Just about every manufacturer has some models or series that are fantastic, and others that should have never left production.

The best piece of advice I can give you is to find models that fit your demands, regardless of the manufacturer, then research those specific models (user reviews + professional reviews). Build quality is not as far and wide between the manufacturers as many people presume.

I find the brands that are most consistent - in my experience - with producing reliable laptops are (no particular order):

Asus
Apple
Lenovo
Gigabyte
Toshiba

When did this happen? I've only read that Dell was subject to a $24.4 billion leveraged buyout deal. Acer owns Gateway, but I haven't heard of them owning Dell.

How about Sony Laptops? I thought they're good (and pretty - Sony Vaio E series)

pc mag would help u out too...can't remember the other sites.
The 10 Best Laptops of 2015 | PCMag.com

Sorry, my bad. Got the wrong brand. Acer owns Gateway.

(Although I've noticed Dell quality dropping off too - multiple friends have Dells and have had trouble with the hardware...)


And I don't at all envy the HP Envy. But it's your money JustViv, get what you think you need. I would suggest at least considering what Siberian_Khatru said though, he knows what he's talking about.

Yep, Lynx. Siberian_Khatru is speaking as a Hardware specialist. The processor is quite important but the motherboard is much more important. My current Toshiba's motherboard is faulty, causing me to encounter blue screen very often. I don't use it for gaming but development during my free time, yes. Running a SQL Server in the background, I will have to consider the processor and RAM too.

Siberian_Khatru, I have been rather out of touch. Is AMD as good as Intel processor these days?

Their build quality was fantastic. Sony has sold the rights to their Vaio line, however. Someone else may be producing them under the Vaio name soon (likewise to how IBM sold the ThinkPad line to Lenovo). Quality may differ then.

Were you able to confirm it's the board that's causing the blue screens? (I ask only because blue screen errors often end up being memory related.)

AMD was a good contender at a lower price years ago. Now their processors are purely the value option. Comparing apples to apples, Intel's chips outperform AMDs in most respects. If you need performance, stick with a Core series processor; an i5 or an i7. Intel just released the sixth generation of the Core processors, so if you can find one of those CPUs, it'll be a nice upgrade from your current laptop.

Yep, it's the motherboard and to solve the issue, I need to purchase another motherboard but they no longer manufacture them. I'd prefer to get another laptop instead. I'm looking for an i7, not an i5.

Okay. i7 it is.

If you can wait another week or two, new laptops should be available. They will have the new processors. My recommendation is to shop around once those new models are available. If you find some laptops you're interested in and want to ask any questions about them, feel free to post links to them here or PM me the links.

I have had a Sony Vaio for 8 years...no issues ever!!!! I bought the Lenovo laptop that converts to a touch screen tablet for my oldest 2 years ago and have had no issues. Works great! ALL MY HP's have crashed within 2 years!

I have one of those Thinkpads that spins around to a tablet. It was made before touchscreens, it has a little stylus. I just use it as a really small laptop.

But I do like to spin the screen around and leave it looking like a laptop, but with blank black plastic where the screen should be. Confuses people.

As a computer tech, I have seen everything stay far from anything you see at discount stores like Walmart or etc. I am very even i watch what I buy from bestbuy and big box stores. Sometimes the same thing you get at Walmart is the same thing you can get at Bestbuy. Best thing if you want something good buy factory direct. They can customize it the way you want it. As for brands my favorite Laptop is Dell, I am not saying I get any Dell laptop, I have a Dell Latitude E6430 that I have bought from them did some upgrades to it and its one of the best laptops I have ever owned. Doing work to Dell Laptops are very simple they have guides how to do your own upgrades. Asus is a good company, but watch what you buy from them, they build some great system and some of there systems are just junk. Toshiba stay far away I have repaired more of them and the are a pain to fix. HP laptops they are not bad but yet again get something cheap from hp and it will only last so long. Apple from what you say what you want to use visual studio you can use it on a apple but it will take some time to get it working on a apple. Spend what you can and try to get something will last my latitude I have had it 2 and half years, I never had a problem.

Thats my two Cents .. Good Luck!

How much are ya looking to spend?

I have a Toshiba, it works just fine. Best Laptop under 500 Dollars 2016 | PC4U

I don't recommend taking these types of "top x laptops" lists very seriously.

Hi gene, you might want to scroll through the messages. I spend about USD 1, 000 for a laptop!

When I used to work on HP laptops at geek squad, most of laptops coming in for warranty had hardcore failures like motherboard or screen failure -- while Dells was just simple fixes like hard drives, which made me jealous to work over in that department. My personal experience was just as bad with overheating. This was many years ago and HP might be better nowadays, but I am never buying one again....

The Toshiba laptops I had in the past always had Hitachi Deskstar aka Deathstar hard drives that would easily fail, but other than that they was decent.

Well actually Sony discontinued making Vaio...but at some point Vaios came back, but are no longer a Sony product.

VAIO launches its first laptops without Sony and they're very, very familiar