Laptop Recommendations
My last laptop model was a custom HP Pavilion 17t, but the exact model is no longer made. Most people probably do not need what I want though. My recommendations for others would be as follows:
- Basic Laptop
- Acer Aspire 5 Slim w/ Ryzen 5 3500U
- This is a solid laptop with good performance for the price. It also has a very nice screen. The only downside might be that it's a bit heavy.
- Specs:
- Screen size: 15.6" IPS (1920×1080)
- CPU Passmark score: 7549
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- Weight: 5.7 lb
- Buy at:
- Acer Aspire 5 Slim w/ Core i5-8265u
- This is a decent laptop. It's very similar to the last one, but it has a bit weaker of a processor. This kind of makes it a worse value, but it does let it be lighter and should improve battery life.
- Specs:
- Screen size: 15.6" IPS (1920×1080)
- CPU Passmark score: 6656
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- Weight: 4 lb
- Buy at:
- Acer Aspire 5 w/ Ryzen 3 3350U
- This is a quite a bit cheaper option. The performance will be passable, although the RAM is quite worrisome. I recommend upgrading the memory with this option, which is admittedly easy to do. It's still pretty cheap even buying extra RAM though and does have a nice screen.
- Specs:
- Screen size: 15.6" IPS (1920×1080)
- CPU Passmark score: 5864
- RAM: 4GB
- Storage: 128GB SSD
- Weight: 4 lb
- Buy at:
- Buy extra RAM at:
- Gaming Laptop
- Lenovo LOQ 15.6" Gaming Laptop w/ Ryzen 7 250 and GeForce RTX 5060
- The Lenovo LOQ is a great budget gaming laptop. It is capable of playing most modern games at decent settings for half of the price of most gaming laptops. I would definitely get at least 16GB of RAM, but you can't beat the specs and quality for the price of the cheapest 16GB model, especially with a good sale. You also have lots of flexibility and the ability to upgrade it to huge quantities of RAM and storage, either through Lenovo or on your own. Currently they have it with either an Intel Core i5-13450HX and RTX 5050 or an AMD Ryzen 7 250 and RTX 5060 for roughly the same price. I would definitely go with the Ryzen 7 250 and RTX 5060 version, as it has notably better graphics and a CPU that uses half the power for the same performance. The main thing to look out for when shopping is that you get the newest model. Lenovo has been updating this laptop frequently with the same name, but the newest models are significantly more powerful and have better screens than the older ones.
- Specs:
- Screen size: 15.6" IPS (1920×1080) (144Hz)
- CPU Passmark score: 25000
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Weight: 5¼ lb
- Buy at:
- Repairable Laptop
- Most modern electronics are designed to break in a few years, at which point you're supposed to throw the whole thing away in a landfill and buy a new one. This harmful cycle wastes your money and pollutes the environment. Buying a laptop made to be repaired and upgraded is a great way to save money and reduce the increasing amount of e-waste we generate.
- The Framework Laptop
- Buy at: