[Sparks]

So I'm moving out for a few months in a couple of weeks, and bringing my desktop with me would be impractical, therefore I'm in the market for a laptop. Thing is, I'm far from tech savvy, which is why I trust you guys to give me some good suggestions for a laptop. I haven't really had a laptop since 2011-12 and my desktop is Windows 7, so walking in to Best Buy earlier today was a surreal experience. I think the Surfaces got my interest the most, but I don't have much knowledge on people's personal experiences with them, but anyway.

I noticed some (a lot) of laptops have touch screens nowadays. Would you guys suggest or know if any have pen pressure sensitivity? Mainly wondering because I've considered getting a drawing tablet for a long time, so killing two birds with one stone would be nice.

My other concern was power. I know laptops aren't usually as powerful as desktops, but as long as I can run a game like Sonic Mania on it, I'll be happy.

Any experiences and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Overlord]

I think you'll struggle to find a laptop with pen-sensitivity rather than a regular touchscreen.

The news is good - I'll leave it to someone with more recent and knowledgable experience, but power has gone up with costs coming down a lot in the last few years - while I'd never replace my desktop permanently with a laptop, it's a lot harder to go wrong now than it has been in the past. Only snag is you'll likely have to deal with Windows 10.

[JaredAFX]

I've been a Dell person all my life, but in the IRC chat GerbilSoft and others were talking about how they swear by ThinkPads, and I see why. I've never personally used one so I can't give a first-hand account, but I know they're very solid machines, and if not having Win10 is important to you, they still offer downgrades to 7. They can be much more expensive and I don't believe any of them have pressure sensitivity, but if you want a laptop that will physically hold up, definitely go with a ThinkPad.

Like I said I've been using Dells since forever, but there's really nothing special about them. If it's between an Inspiron and even a YogaPad, I would go with the Yoga (I'm currently using an Inspiron I got over the summer, but that's because it has gaming specs and was at a really good price). I think any decent laptop will be able to run Sonic Mania, but even if you want to play more demanding games, it's not hard to find a laptop from any manufacturer with specs to do so. If you want battery life I would avoid getting one with a dedicated GPU. Integrated graphics are a lot better now; you should be able to play relatively non-taxing 3D games with a middle-of-the-road machine.

[synchronizer]

The Thinkpads are well-built, but be careful with the monitors. Many of the laptops in the current line have some severe PWM issues, and a laptop I tried has annoying coil whine. I suppose that most laptops have issues though.

This post has been edited by synchronizer: 10 January 2017 - 09:25 PM

[biggestsonicfan]

I have been using Asus ROG branded laptops for several years now since I made the jump from desktops because I just wanted to show computer things to so many people I needed something more mobile.

I recently purchased a new one as my old one of 5 years finally bit the dust, and the quality is just awful. I can imagine it might be better to run linux on this sucker, but Windows 10 runs like garbage on it. The hardware issues are also rampant with the ROG name, no matter which model you chose. There is even faulty information printed in the manual which can only be addressed if you call the company and ask for the real information.

I was once a loyal Asus fanboy, now I can only spread a word of caution about the brand: try before you buy and beware of rapid end-of-life-support to happen in less than a year for your model.

[Sparks]

Thanks for the tips and suggestions guys. Ended up going with a Surface Pro since they had a deal going on at the Best Buy I went to. It was a bit more than what I wanted to pay for, but so far its turning out to be a neat device that's holding up to what I was expecting and hoping for. Hopefully that won't change as time passes.

[doc eggfan]

I bought a Vaio Z Canvas - "the tablet nobody should buy"

[Aerosol]

Sparks, on 08 January 2017 - 03:42 PM, said:

So I'm moving out for a few months in a couple of weeks, and bringing my desktop with me would be impractical, therefore I'm in the market for a laptop. Thing is, I'm far from tech savvy, which is why I trust you guys to give me some good suggestions for a laptop. I haven't really had a laptop since 2011-12 and my desktop is Windows 7, so walking in to Best Buy earlier today was a surreal experience. I think the Surfaces got my interest the most, but I don't have much knowledge on people's personal experiences with them, but anyway.

I noticed some (a lot) of laptops have touch screens nowadays. Would you guys suggest or know if any have pen pressure sensitivity? Mainly wondering because I've considered getting a drawing tablet for a long time, so killing two birds with one stone would be nice.

My other concern was power. I know laptops aren't usually as powerful as desktops, but as long as I can run a game like Sonic Mania on it, I'll be happy.

Any experiences and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. />

I wouldn't get a laptop looking for pen sensitivity and such.

It'd help to know what kind of budget you have.