need input on general use laptop

Hey guys,

Need an office type laptop. General usage 95% of the time (Internet, movies) with small office applications.

So here's the kicker... I need one to last as long as possible. Reliability trumps features for the most part.

Under 800$ is mandatory. From my searching, the lenovo s41 has piqued my interest the most. Refurbished is ok if it has an aweso m e warranty.

S41 has the following

I7 5500u
8gb 1600mhz ram
1tb spinner
1080p screen
5hr battery life (not horribly important)

Things that DON'T MATTER
- no gpu required
- battery life is irrelevant
- weight is irrelevant

I would love to have an os ssd and a storage drive, 1080p, and a great warranty.

Budget is flexible a bit IF it includes office suite and antivirus.

Thanks in advance!

That Lenovo you list looks like about the best you'll get at $800. They have a great warranty, and they use decent parts, I would venture a guess and say outside of the power adapter (because they always get messed up and die), that laptop will last a good 6 or 7 years.

Not sure what you mean by Last as long as possible..... Here is a last Gen CPU, but still a winner. Too bad you missed out on the Lenovo Y50 current Gen with 16GB Ram and i7 - 4720 and 970m, but these specs are not too far off. You wouldn't notice the difference IRL.

Brand Lenovo
Condition Used
MNF. PN 59421810
PC Type Ultrabook
Processor (CPU) Type i7 4th Generation
CPU Speed 2.40 GHz
Screen Size 15.6" Touchscreen
Max. Resolution 1920 x 1080
Chipset/GPU Manufacturer NVidia
Memory Capacity 8 GB
Memory Type DDR3
Storage Capacity 1 TB
Interface SATA
Optical Disk Drive No
Operating System Windows 8 64-bit

http://pcpartsoutlet.com/lenovo-y50...gb-gtx860m-cpu-i7-4700hq-8-gb-1-tb-w8-64.html - $721

If you want new.... Here is one from Newegg. Its a little over budget, but its a 5th Gen (Dual Core) i7 5500u

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834318428

the y50 was my gut reaction, but its overpriced since it has a GPU (which is not needed in this build). I wound up getting the s41, thanks guys.

I would think buying an i7 for general use would be a waste of money. You could probably find an i5 with the ssd you want for about the same price.

BugFreak said:

I would think buying an i7 for general use would be a waste of money. You could probably find an i5 with the ssd you want for about the same price.

Click to expand...

Not quite complete. The laptops with the features I wanted don't often come with an i5, and when they do, they pretty much cost the same. For example, the i5 s41 was 719$, the i7 s41 was 769$.... but it was on sale for for 719$ lol; rest of the features were identical. In some cases the i5 variants were actually MORE expensive. Why? I dunno...

another thing, i7m vs i5m is a different animal than i7 vs i5 desktop. both i7m and i5m are dual cores with hyperthreading, both closer akin to the i3 chips.