By necessity I am having to change/modernize/update my man cave come hobby room come bedroom and I have always used my desk top PC but to save room I am thinking of getting rid and buying a laptop instead, any recommendations ? I have a ipad air which I only use when travelling etc but I prefer windows as i'm used to it and to old to change :)
What about a Microsoft Surface ?
Surface pro? Mini? Laptop? Surface book?Originally Posted by TheTigerUK
I honestly do not rate the 2in1 devices as main devices as the keyboards are crap. The laptops get reasonable reviews.
MSI gaming ones are strong all rounders and generally worth their money and easy to re-sell later on.
17" ones are nice to have, I prefer them to 15"
What are you going to use it for and how portable do you want it?
I don't play games so basically mess with photos a little, use word/excell, browse internet/forums, ebay and really thats about it.
Being portable not important as I wouldent take it out the house.
I swear by surface pros. They're portable, powerful, adaptable, take up very little desk space as the keyboard folds up rather than the screen folding down, and I absolutely love the keyboards for typing. There are issues with them such as occasionally you'll connect the keyboard, and it won't remember if you want to be in tablet mode or not, or it might not instantly be recognized requiring bashing a few keys (granted I'm on an SP4 so old tech). But overall, I'll never buy a conventional laptop again. I'm on the entry level SP4 with 4gb of Ram, and while not fast at it, it is still perfectly capable of doing all my lightroom work.
If portability is not an issue, then tbh, a laptop will offer better bang for the buck, even if it takes up 4-5x the desk space when not in use.
Surface Pro 100%. Powerful machines and lightweight to transport / store.
From experience supporting them at work, some 200+ units:
TYPE keyboard covers break with 6-8 months
ARC mice break with in 6 months
Battery dies within 2 years and is a sealed unit
Limited return to base support during warranty period, almost non existent once warranty runs out
Over priced for spec.
Lack of USB-C (until current gen models)
£-£ light portable, better size and res screen, I'd be looking at a Lenovo X1-Carbon, plus has a proper keyboard.
If you are not leaving the house - do not buy a surface pro - terrible to use *on your lap*.
I disagree entirely. I've been using one on my lap for the past 6 years. Not a single problem. In fact I'd say the form factor makes it a positive attribute compared to a laptop.
Last edited by hafle; 12th February 2020 at 22:21.
I have used pretty much every surface and the idea they are better on the lap - sorry I just do not buy it.
Using a Brydge keyboard case deals with this (although it then becomes like any other laptop).
One thing I'd say: lower priced laptops (sub £500) tend to have chassis that 'snap shut' and are never designed to be easily opened again. My Dad has a 17" HP like this. When I tried to upgrade him to SSD drive it was a curse.... The whole laptop had to be split open to even see where the HDD was.
In contrast, a HP Probook or Elitebook from HP comes with hatches underneath, with quick and easy access to they underneath. You can get at the HDD and RAM upgrade areas with ease.
It just means that you have the ability to easily upgrade later when things get slow. With the cheaper laptop, I DID manage to split it and get inside, but it was a tricky job to do without breaking locating tabs on the case.
Next question is what's your budget and do you care what it looks like? As portability isn't a concern, battery life is less important as well and you don't need much grunt I'd go for a mid range model from a known vendor. You can safe money as it doesn't need to be very light and also get a bigger screen.
Lenovo make solid laptops, as do Dell and HP. Go for a mid range business model or a higher end consumer model. If you want a bit more cachet then a Microsoft Surface Laptop 3.
Have a look at these guys:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/
You can tweak the spec to suit what you want it to do and avoid paying for what you don't need. Plus with a laptop you can easily upgrade hard drives and memory than you can with Surfaces and the like. I've had mine for five or six years and it hasn't missed a beat. But then I don't run Windows
Tapatapatapatapatalk
I can highly recommend a Lenovo X1 Carbon.
Excellent build quality, super light, super thin and relatively powerful
My Dell XPS13 is coming on for 5 years old and performs almost like it did when it was new. It's been all over the world with me on every conceivable type of transport.
Not cheap, but I'll buy another when the time eventually comes.
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