Jonathan

Daily use: Photography and business (legal) work.
Where to buy: IDK, Slick Deals, Amazon, Best Buy, HP, Dell???
What to buy:
Minimum specs I'm planning to look at:
I5 (not i7)
8G
SSD (I think 500GB)
15 inches;
upgraded Graphics card- worth the extra money
No touch screen and no 2 in 1

Some recommend the 2019 HP Probook 450 G5 15.6" Anti-Glare HD Business Laptop (Intel Quad Core i5-8250U, 8GB DDR4 RAM, Samsung 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD, UHD 620) Type-C, WiFi AC, Webcam, HDMI, VGA and I don't know if I need 500 GB.

I have an Window 7 HP w/i5 now, but it's about to die.

Someone with a lot of computer knowledge has recommended the Dell i5575a217slvpus inspiron 15 5575 ledbacklit display amd ryzen 5 radeon vega8 graphics 8gb memory 1tb hard drive, 15.6
I understand the past issues with AMD but he says he has a newish ryzen processor and it's great. The price is certainly great. 1 tb isn't bad, but the guy at my local Windows repair shop says Ryzen is untested and stick with the i5.

Like Seargent Shultz, 'I know nothing'. Thank you all in advance. I have a week or so. I dropped my HP on it's head, fan is going. It's not over-heating and I'm backing it up daily and everything is on the cloud too, but I replaced the fan a year ago, and the guy at the shop says don't bother again.
cheers,

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

Lenovo or Asus.
IMHO, Stay AWAY from anything HP - - they NEVER fail to disappoint (in my experience)
I agree - - stick with the i5, and my preference is for NVidia for Graphics.
-
Yep - - you can save some bucks with Ryzen and Radeon (AMD owns both)
Software compatibility is the only question - and not having had a Ryzen system - I can't comment.
My favorite trick is to Clone the rotating HDD to a WD Blue SSD with Macrium Reflect (FREE for home use)
Then replace the rotating disk with the SSD - - everything loads 3x faster !! (Costs about $100 for the SSD)
Then use the old rotating disk to clone backups - using Macrium.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I had to shop a few days but I just bought a mid 2015 MacBook Pro, 15.6" Retina, i7 2.5ghz, 16 gb memory, with a 1 tb SSD drive for under $1300 on ebay. The computer does not have one scratch on it, it looks brand new, the non-glare retina display was just replaced by Apple, there was a recall because of delamination of the non-glare surface on the display.

I am as happy as I can be with it, it is like new, it is fast, the original purchaser paid close to $3000 for it. Seller has 1595 feedbacks at 100% I read the first several pages of his feedback and it seemed that all of his customers were very happy with their purchases...… He still has several computers for sale as that seems to be his business, the one I bought specifically said that the computer showed no signs of wear which is true, looks like like a new computer.

Anyway, I trust this seller, here is a link to his feedback page, if you don't mind purchasing used you might take a look at his inventory, the thing about ebay if you feel that the merchandise was misrepresented you can send it back for a full refund.

https://www.ebay.com/usr/sta500?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754

therwol Loc: USA

I have a Dell 27 AIO with an 8 core Ryzen 7 processor and Radeon. No issue for nearly a year other than a Windows update corrupting everything.

I have no spinning drives in my computers. Every single one was cloned to an SSD with Macrium, as you do, and swapped into the computer, even the secondary drives. I save the spinning drives as an emergency backup to factory specs. (Can be cloned again.) You can't rely on a backup partition if a drive fails. I've had spinning drives fail in the past, but my SSDs seem pretty solid. You can, of course, make backups with all of your software installed with Macrium. Multiple options.

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

Morning Star International or MSI makes some real nice computers and of course Dell computers. Take your time look through google or whatever browser you may have.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Johnathan,

Consider Apple. I did three years ago and never looked back. Now have two Apple Book Pros and a Apple Desktop

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1423733-REG/apple_mr932ll_a_15_4_macbook_pro_with.html

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

Ahhh - - the inevitable crapple creep.
Of course NONE of your current software or hardware will work with crapple
AND - - it's a paradigm shift for you.
If you like brain-dead simple, and everything works the same - at a 150-200% price increase
Crapple is your huckleberry.
IF you don't mind an occasional puzzle to figure out, but like maximum flexibility in an open box computer
Stick with microsnot.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I bought one at Costco two weeks ago. I'm pleased.

(Download)

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Look at bsprague's response - Lenovo laptop from Costco. Costco also doubles the warranty period. It may be perfect for you.
Good luck!
Mark

lsaguy Loc: Udall, KS, USA

Acer isn't on your list but I think it should. Bought their cheapest model with a 17" screen. Almost four years in and it's still 100% perfect. A lot dirtier but essentially just like I bought it. And I got free shipping from Acer's online store. Great people to work with to get exactly what YOU want at YOUR price point. Highly recommended!!!
Do NOT buy Dell, especially the Inspiron line. Mine started ejecting the screws that hold covers on almost as soon as I unwrapped it. The screen hinges gradually froze up until all the screws holding the screen fell out. The battery swelled up and had to be replaced as did the hard drive.

DanCulleton

MacBook Pro is the way to go!

Jonathan

Looks pretty darn good. Thanks,

ggab Loc: ?

This can help regarding laptop processors.

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/cpu-comparison

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

THAT certainly has all the bells and whistles - - but MAY be overkill and $$$ for the OP ??
OP expressed interest only in photo editing and word processing - for which an i5 with 8GB RAM is plenty.
The Lenovo is a very nice package though - - likely even sufficient for small video editing tasks.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Yep, my vote also. Regardless of the make or manufacturer, I would definitely find a model with 16GB memory. While 8 will run, it’s going to be very limited for post processing and/or multiple applications, AND there may not be the ability to upgrade the memory in a laptop later. Whether an I5 is adequate depends on which I5 it is - there are fast ones that are faster than a low end I7, but slow ones that I would find marginal for PP. in general, I would prefer an I7 based machine such as the one above (which is a very good deal), but again, depends on the particular model I5. Regarding AMD, they are coming back strongly with their new processors, which spec-for-spec, are a match for Intel, but again, it depends on the specific AMD CPU. I would find out the specific model CPU whichever way you go, especially with an AMD, as some of their recent CPUs have been realatively power hungry, which translates into more heat and less battery life with a laptop. By all means, get a seperate graphics adapter (either NVIDIA or AMD) with at least 2-4GB VRAM rather than on-board graphics.