Laptops

[Maverick00]

around 1000 plus or minus. would like to stick with windows, to scared to try something new

[mark]

Been using Toshibas for work and no complaints with the Tecras, got my last personal from Costco since cheap.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Maverick00

around 1000 plus or minus. would like to stick with windows, to scared to try something new

With that budget, you can get a very good windows based laptop. Asus, lenovo and vaio probably make the best of windows machines. Toshiba does have good reps but I don't have experience with them. I personally would stay away from HP and dell. I think dell has separate production quality for commercials and consumers; I have always heard good stuff about dell from offices/institutions but bad reviews from personal users. And if you want to use a laptop and cook on it the same time, HP would be ideal. But my experience might be different from recent models.

Or you can just get a mac; probably will take you a few days to learn. I haven't seen a disappointed macbook user till now (especially those who moved away from windows). Then again, it should be a personal choice

[Aquattro]

I have a current Toshiba at home, I like it, other than the bilingual keyboard they come with. I hated that so much I bought a new keyboard for it. We use Lenovo at work, lots of good models and price points. Also a few Dells, which I always enjoy working on, but we don't utilize Dell support, just the hardware. Nice units, but we buy the $2000+ models.
I had a HP at home that I loved, until it blew up after slightly more than a year. Common problem apparently, so I'd stay away from those

[mseepman]

I would recommend a good Asus laptop. Dell's in the Latitude line are usually good too but avoid their Inspiron lineup.

At around a $1000 you can get an Alienware (which is owned by Dell) but they treat you like a completely different type of customer...they "LIVE" for their customer service.

(Edit: Oops I guess that is a $1000 US, not Canadian, sorry)

[mike31154]

Define general home use. I've been looking for a new notebook for a while myself, the old Compaq is really getting long in the tooth & can't handle the latest version of Google Earth! Not sure what's up with most manufacturers still producing notebooks with spinning hard drives. Should all be SSDs by now IMO & that's why I'm still holding out. I've been keeping my eye on the latest generation of smart TV's. I don't run too many RAM intensive apps any longer & mostly spend my computer time on the web. The latest smart TVs have dual core & better processors. If most of what you're doing is web based, forget the notebook & splurge on a new smart TV! Why fart around with a tiny screen when you can surf on something with a huge one, unless you really need a notebook for portability. But nowadays seems like tablets are all the rage for portability. Or big honkin' smart phones even.

[Jason McK]

I've had 1/2 a dozen Lenovo's through work and an Asus and by far the Asus was far better out of the box.
IMO if you go Lenovo strip out all of the Lenovo tools they do nothing but cause issues

J

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Jason McK

IMO if you go Lenovo strip out all of the Lenovo tools they do nothing but cause issues

J

Ya, they do come with a lot of utilities. We build our own images without most of them, and the performance is much better.

[Maverick00]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Define general home use.

web surfing, streaming video, maybe alittle photo/video editing. I did play around with lightwave 3d at one time and would like to get back to tinkering with that. Rendering without horsepower sure doesnt make it fun. I have an lg smart tv but its horribly slow when it comes to doing just about anything. If i want to surf on the big screen I just hook up my tower computer. I thought about going the tablet route or even a surface, but i cant see it being comfortable sitting on your lap with your feet up (which is where I spend most of my time on the laptop) Another thing that had me scratching my head were all these 13" screen sizes. It seems to be the new standard. When I bought this laptop I only had to choose from 15 or 17 from what i remember.

Thanks for the ideas! Still leaning towards asus. Ill have to take a look at costcos lineup, its been awhile since i was there.

[mark]

If you are looking to display on a smart TV might want to see if laptop supports WiDi. Mine doesn't (not enabled although processor shown) but looks like could be interesting.