My Sony Vaio laptop died when I spilled coffee on it. Would appreciate advice on what to get as a replacement. I can use computers but get totally bamboozled by gigabites, ram and other assorted terms, not to mention the staggering array of brands, prices, retail stores and online shops.

My needs are fairly simple:
Laptop - I don't like using i-pads, tablets or notebooks
Relatively lightweight
Fairly fast - hate waiting ages for pages to load
Uses:
Social media, emailing, word docs and general browsing
Short (<5 min) videos, I don't watch TV or movies on it and definitely don't play games

I use a Vivid wi-fi thingy. Don't really want to pay more than $1,500, but could be persuaded (gullible, me).

Thanks

I just got a Lenovo full to the hilt of RAM, I7 and a couple of on board massive Solid State drives. It goes like the clappers but to be fair, I'm not a fan of Lenovo's. Their outside appearance is a bit rubbish.

Looking at your needs you don't need to spend anywhere near $1500. Maybe jump on Google shopping, put your max price in for say $500 and see if anything comes up thats appealling. Post them on here and we can check them out.

If I did have your budget and was looking for something to do simple tasks but was say a laptop / tab combo I'd probably look at the latest Microsoft Surface.

I reckon you'd get what you need for around $500 - $600 if you went into a JB Hi-fi or similar and bought last month's model on special.

BB

If you want the laptop to run quickly, then by all means get one with a Solid State drive.

If you want pages to load quickly (and I presume you mean web pages), this almost totally depends on your internet connection, and whether you are connected via WiFi or physically to a router. Any new laptop these days will eat the internet for breakfast and not break into a sweat.

For a web browser, I use Chrome as I personally detest using Internet Explorer. Chrome is more up to date with the latest web standards and offers a better user experience (IMO), althought to be fair to IE, it is catching up.

I've heard a lot of good things about the Microsoft Surface.

I didn't think much of them when they first came out but apprently they are meant to be really good.

I got my wife the base model when it was on sale for $220 a few months ago

It's okay. Beautifully built and although not the greatest device I've used, for the money tremendous value. You also get a copy of MS Office preinstalled

Get the Type keyboard and not the Touch version as it is useless

Yep .... I have a Surface 1, the RT model, so its the lowest of the lows but I like it. Pretty much only use it as a tab.

Get yourself a MacBook Air.

That's what I was going to say. Also make sure OP maxes out on extended warranty as Macs are great but their laptops do breakdown a fair bit.

I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon at work, and it's a cracking machine - can't fault it.

At home I have an Asus Zenbook Prime, which is also a great machine - if a tiny bit heavier than the X1.

I'd happily recommend either. The Zenbook I managed to pick up for $1200, i7 with 8GB Ram an a zippy SSD. Nice screen, and Nvidia graphics too. Great value for money.


S

Don't be bloody silly

+1

Pfft. Buy a MacBook Pro then.

No way! I like my laptops with a proper delete key!


S