When I bought my current laptop I looked for one of the low-end options because I didn't anticipate I'll overuse it.
And it has done its job. And will continue to do it, even if it's 6 years old and an older generation.
As the amount of activity I do daily and its diversity increased, the highest constraint became its 4 GB of RAM, which aren't really 4 because it has an integrated video card that draws from RAM too when used.
That made disk operations very frequent to use virtual RAM. Plus, there are updates and antivirus or other system processes that lead to intense disk usage. And when that starts, it is very frustrating because it comes with a degraded experience when I practically can't do much on the laptop but wait it out. To make things worse, the hard disk is HDD, not SSD.
I had in my mind to buy a second (to become primary) laptop for a long time. I wanted to buy it with crypto but I'm tired of waiting for the bull market. I'll use fiat to buy it, and withdraw some crypto in the bull market to cover this expense. This way, I can say I bought it with crypto. :)
This time I am not looking for a low-end option, but not for an expensive one either. Something in the middle. Probably something in the range of 500-900 USD.
Today I haven't done much else but look at the offers, but I couldn't make up my mind yet.
My set-in-stone conditions for the configuration:
- 16 GB DDR4
- 512 GB SSD
- silent, if not pushed hard (I don't know which ones fit in this category)
- decent display (any recommendations?), FHD, supporting a 1920x1080 resolution, anti-glare
- a keyboard that doesn't have pitfalls*
- price at most 900 USD (but preferably lower)
(*) What do I mean by a keyboard with pitfalls? Here's an example:
Who puts a Power button above Backspace and "="/"+" and next to Delete? Obviously, someone who doesn't use that keyboard.
Something else about keyboards. I noticed the so-called TrackPoints on some Lenovo configurations, like this:
I didn't have a Lenovo before, let alone one with a TrackPoint (which can be used instead of a mouse or trackpad). My question to you if you have used such a keyboard:
What happens if you press this TrackPoint by mistake while you type? Is it possible to move the cursor to a different location or potentially delete something you have written as you continue to type if a paragraph is selected when you touch the TrackPoint?
If this little red dot can be in the way (and cannot be disabled), that's a good reason to avoid the model(s) that have it, in my opinion.
I don't have brand loyalty, there are better and worse series for every brand. I just don't know which they are, lol.
The same for CPU, Intel or AMD is fine with me. Probably starting for i5 for Intel, and from Ryzen 5 for AMD. If it's i7 or Ryzen 7, I don't mind. :)
If it's Intel, I want their Intel Iris Xe graphics card, not the UHD one, if it's integrated (most likely).
AMD has a price advantage compared to Intel, so I might take that into consideration.
Connectivity is important too, so I do take a look at those too.
I don't put a lot of emphasis on the weight of the laptop or how much the battery lasts since I use it mostly statically (much like a desktop, but using less space and being less noisy).
It looks like the hunt for the laptop to buy continues tomorrow.
If you have any tips or recommendations, please share.
I intend to install Ubuntu on the new machine, even if I don't have much experience with it. And will split the workload between the two laptops, with the more resource-intensive tasks on the new one. Games may be involved, especially browser games, but I won't necessarily look for the perfect gaming experience.