Over the last 7 years, I have had the use of 5 different laptops. Mostly used for Microsoft Office – Excel, Word, & Power Point, along with Chrome for surfing, research, etc. Starting with the oldest:
Lenovo ThinkPad – I can’t remember the model. Bought it “off lease” from an engineering company. Excellent build quality, and the performance was good for a 2 year old model. Loved the track point feature. After 3 years of ownership, it would only turn on intermittently.
Toshiba Satellite L500. Bought new to replace the Lenovo as a combination work and “family” laptop. This thing has taken a beating and never let us down. It was being used 14 to 15 hours a day on average between 3 kids and 2 adults. 6 years later it still works, but the battery has about a 30 second life – just enough to unplug and run to the next outlet. And I had to buy a universal power supply. Based on our experience, I would buy another Toshiba.
ASUS (Model ???) Bought new for me by the company I work for. I had no say in the selection. Actually they bought two – one for me, and one for the service manager. Biggest piece of crap we have ever used. Both have lags and glitches galore, and are slow as molasses. I stripped all the bloat software out of them, boot with only the absolute minimum, and it only makes a slight difference. I complained so much that my boss gave it to his daughter, and bought me the next one.
Lenovo G500. This is the computer I am currently using. Night and day performance compared to the ASUS - it is fast! But because this is the entry level model, the build quality is not that great. It is flimsy, and one of the hinges partially broke about a year in. Not enough to send it in, but you can tell something isn’t right. The other drawback is the proprietary power supply connector. This prevents using a universal supply if the original dies. If I were to look at Lenovo again, it would be one from the ThinkPad line.
About 2 weeks ago we bought my daughter a Macbook Pro for her 16th birthday. This thing is unreal. Build quality seems to be off the charts, and the Retina display is simply stunning. 10 hour battery, SSD storage, and it only weighs 3.5lbs. I want one – bad.
