What are you going to use it for? You have to give us more details, a vague question will lead to generic answers that will probably not be the best choice for you.
Lenovo Thinkpad T14s AMD. Runs Linux perfectly, is fast, has a great keyboard, has a great trackpoint, and has good battery life.
If it doesn't run Linux, I don't buy the laptop.
There are computers that can't run Linux?
A lot of laptops have proprietary drivers that are Windows only. Wi-fi/touchpads not working is a common issue
Linux support for Apple Silicon is still early stages, for example.
The Thinkpad E series AMD ones are also really good. I use one daily at work to run 2 monitors and its own (for 3 total). It doesn’t hiccup at all on an AMD 5000 chip with Ryzen mobile. Battery life is fabulous when running just its own screen. I routinely get 8 hours of web/office suite work done.
I’ve had good luck with Lenovo over the years. A job just got me an HP and I’m missing my last Lenovo.
Thank you for the recommendation I'll look into it
Framework 13
I recently ordered one and had some issues with it so I returned it. Would prefer one from another brand as I did not have a good experience with Framework.
Can I ask what issues you had? I have one on order.
So I ordered the DIY edition and when it arrived the screw to input the SSD was stripped and wouldn't budge. I emailed their support and they said they would replace the motherboard, and when that arrived it had the exact same stripped screw. I told them about it and they said to ship to their repair center so I did. I didnt receive further details about it for a week so I just decided to refund because it had already been more than a month since i first got it. Of course I could've waited a few more weeks for it but I urgently need a laptop now and don't think I could have waited that long.
The exact same thing happening twice seems somewhat unlikely... You sure you knew what you were looking at? I bought 3 Frameworks for different members of my family, DIY and preassembled, and had no problems.
Apparently there was a batch of laptops/mainboards that had this problem and I got really unlucky to get both from that batch
Damn, did you consider buying it used? Should be faster than what you any through and cheaper. And considering the modularity, less risk if the laptpp wasn't treated well.
$2000 should get you something pretty nice. Do you have anything specific in mind that you're planning to do with it? Important stuff to keep in mind up front, in no particular order: do you play games? How big should the screen be? How long do you want to use it on battery? Any operating system preferences?
Hi thanks for the questions. I plan to just generally use for browsing the web, watching YouTube and of course Lemmy lol. I'd also like to use it for school work and coding. I was hoping to play some games on it yes. The screen should be around 13" as I'll be carrying it out a lot and need it to be portable. Above that its too big for me. I'd like a pretty good battery life around 7+ hour, enough to last an average day of use. No preferences on operating systems but I've only ever used windows and a tiny bit of Linux.
If your gaming is eSports, your battery life would benefit from an AMD iGPU rather than an NVIDIA GPU.
7840U for the CPU which is integrated graphics.
A thinkpad. You just can't go wrong imho
Do you have any specific one in mind?
This really depends on your use case and your screen size/portability/power requirements. Laptops with AMD processors tend to be the better choice in terms of power/battery life. I would probably skip Z series, E series, and ThinkBooks.
And skip the L series. They're budget variants and it shows in the quality.
I’m a Mac guy so my goto answer would always be something from Apple. If I was looking for non-apple hardware though I would look at Framework laptops because lack of upgradability is my biggest peeve about Apple gear.
I'm eyeing the M1/M2 macs with asahi, but I'm going to let it mature more for a bit before I take the plunge.
This is like year 3. How much more you think they’re gonna mature?
The distro (asahi) is still in very early development, gpu acceleration was just recently added. That along with a esoteric architecture, will cause headaches for the uninitiated.
The macs themselves hardware wise are quite mature, but I can't for the life of me use MacOS.
There’s no way to answer that question without knowing what you want to do with your laptop.
If you want anything but gaming, go for a Mac, especially if you are a musician (every Mac comes with GarageBand, is silent and has crazy battery life). You’ll also find the iWork suite installed for office work. No hidden cost.
For photo editing, built-in Photos app gives a good alternative to Lightroom.
For more advanced stuff you can also buy Affinity Photos or Pixelmator Pro, which are great alternatives to Photoshop, without the cost and the weight on the system
Little built-in apps like Reminders and Notes can be life-changer if you’re in GTD stuff.
The feature that impressed me the most back in the day was preview. Select any file and press the space bar. You’ll get instant preview (whatever the file is) without launching an app.
If you want to game, it depends on the games you play.
I would just be doing general use and for my studies. I was considering playing some games on it, like Escape from tarkov and games like that. Why do macs not work well for gaming? Also do you have a recommendation for what type of mac to get?
Macs are not good for gaming because it wasn’t delivered with a proper graphic card for years, so game developers left the platform.
Apple silicone Mac are pretty good for gaming now, if compared to similar form-factor PCs. Besides, Macs doesn’t lose any power when unplugged, contrary to PCs.
But the catalog is still lacking. There are good games (BG3, Metro Exodus, Resident Evil Village, Lies Of P, World Of Warcraft if it’s your jam) but nothing merely enough for a true gamer.
You could play Escape From Tarkov on a Mac using virtualizing software like Parallels Desktop, CrossOver or Game Porting Toolkit, but it won’t run natively, and I can’t make any promises on that subject.
You’ll have to do some research if you want to play some games on a Mac.
Otherwise it’s truly the best computer you can get. Not necessarily the most powerful (depends on what you’re doing) but definitely the best user experience.
Have such a hard time upvoting this, solely because OP posted their budget and they could get something much better. Apple is nice, but you'll be paying out the wazoo to be limited to their ecosystem. Nice, intuitive ecosystem, wont lie. Really pays to be in it, but getting out is hell.
Honestly I'd rather do the extra leg work of finding good enough replacements for basic mac functionality than getting an apple product. I'm hella biased though.
Oh I see. Do you have any recommendations of your own then?
Others have recommended good recs, inc linux options. Personally, I'm not nearly tech enough for that. I got a Lenovo Legion in my first college year and it lasted right until a month after I turned in my thesis. Using multiple Adobe programs at the same time, and gaming in the afternoon when I had time (Rimworld, Hunt: Showdown, Rocket League, and a bunch of other games). Spent about 1300 in 2016 I think. Battery was garbage tier though. Less than half an hour, so if that's an issue, look at tons of reviews.
Thank you for the detailed response. it seems like a good choice for me and it'll probably be the one I end up buying. Do you think macbook airs are better or pros? Also is there a noticeable difference for M1 and m2? Im not sure which model to buy
You won’t play BG3 comfortably on a MBA, otherwise it’s a good general purpose laptop.
MBP is more expensive but more powerful and comes with 16Gb of Ram and a much more powerful GPU.
There isn’t a big difference between M1 and M2 on the CPU side, but M2 GPUs are significantly more powerful.
Finally, Pro models have better sound system, 120Hz ProMotion display, and more battery life.
It definitely doesn't have all the deals, but I've had luck using www.lappylist.com to compare some options. Good luck!
Look into a ThinkPad.
If you don't care about gaming, just get a macbook tbh.
the new M1 ones are insane.
if you want to game on it, I got a Lenovo Legion that I really like.
For the Apple ecosystem nothing is better than an M1. Just outstanding laptops that raise the bar for the entire industry. If they need to run Windows though …
The Asus ROG Flow X13 is super portable and decent for gaming! I have the 2021 3050ti version but I'd recommend getting one with more than 4gb VRAM if you can swing it 😅 it really depends on what you want out of a laptop as to what people will suggest
Look into certified refurbished laptops on eBay, you could maybe snag a good deal on what you're already honing in on.
I had a similar issue recently and ended up going for a HP Pavilion. It's a versatile machine, you can do pretty much anything on it, it's in a metal case so sturdy to carry about, and you can get a bigger screen so you can multitask. I feel like you get quite a bit of laptop for your money.
I was also considering a macbook, I use them for work a lot so I'm used to them, but I felt like specs wise I was looking at lower specs and a lot more money.
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