Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#1

Post by reacharavindh » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 6:23 PM UTC

HNers, any recommendations for a laptop for my girlfriend with following considerations?

* Windows 10 * Not too big/heavy. Preferably 13/14 inch display - preferably higher res. * Good build quality even if that means paying more. * Battery that yields at least 5-6 hours of real-world usage (Excel, lots of it, social internet stuff) * Possibly buying in Europe with a German keyboard.. (Would buy the US version if there is a excellent laptop missing just this.)

I'm wary of Lenovo after Superfish. Would prefer to steer away unless things have demonstrably changed and hear better about Lenovo from HNers.

And, No, she is not considering running Linux, neither does she want to use a Mac. She is used to her ways with some legacy stats tools that work well with Windows.

Any inputs welcome..

Re: Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#2

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 6:29 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#3

Post by t1k3 » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 6:30 PM UTC

Dell XPS 13. It's light, it's got the battery life and it's competitively priced. More importantly, it's not Lenovo.

Re: Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#4

Post by jareds » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 6:33 PM UTC

Any of the ASUS ZenBook laptops. THey are reasonibly priced and good if you don't need a tun of CPU power.

Re: Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#5

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 7:54 PM UTC

jareds wrote: post #4

Any of the ASUS ZenBook laptops. THey are reasonibly priced and good if you don't need a tun of CPU power.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#6

Post by Jonnax » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 7:54 PM UTC

t1k3 wrote: post #3

Dell XPS 13. It's light, it's got the battery life and it's competitively priced. More importantly, it's not Lenovo.

I second the XPS 13. The 3200x1800 has revolutionised how I view excel sheets with tons of columns.

And yep, I get about 5 to 6 hours of usage.

Re: Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#7

Post by brudgers » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 8:25 PM UTC

Curious why not just ask her or even why get involved at all since it's not an area of immediate and direct deep expertise?

Laptops differ in their tradeoffs and better and worse sets of tradeoffs vary by individual. I love the Dell Precision M7510 I currently have and I loved the Thinkpad X series it replaced as my daily driver and between them are two very very different sets of tradeoffs.

Re: Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#8

Post by gaspoweredcat » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 9:21 PM UTC

i really struggle if i cant recommend the x1 carbon because i love it so damn much but if you must avoid lenovo the asus zenbook would probably be my next choice, that or an xps13

Re: Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#9

Post by AnimalMuppet » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 1:36 AM UTC

jareds wrote: post #4

Any of the ASUS ZenBook laptops. THey are reasonibly priced and good if you don't need a tun of CPU power.

What's the pricing? ASUS's website didn't say, as far as I could see.

Re: Ask HN: Laptop for girlfriend?

#10

Post by reacharavindh » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 3:41 AM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #7

Curious why not just ask her or even why get involved at all since it's not an area of immediate and direct deep expertise? Laptops differ in their tradeoffs and better and worse sets of tradeoffs vary by individual. I love the Dell Precision M7510 I currently have and I loved the Thinkpad X series it replaced as my daily driver and between them are two very very different sets of tradeoffs.

Fair point. She came up to me asking to find choices in the sense I described. Ultimately it'd be her who tries it and makes the final choice.

My objective is to get pointers like what you just gave - Dell Precision M7510 so I can research and give her a few options to choose from :-) Thanks!