Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Recommendations for a New Laptop (self.Blind)
submitted by [deleted]
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I'm in the market for a new laptop, as my current one (Dell) is currently dying a slow death and I'm practically keeping it on life support and doing a fairly decent job at it.
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Anyway, I'd like some recommendations for what brand of laptop I should look into. Most of the Laptops I bought in the past were Dell, but the increasing issues I've found with them over the years, plus the terrible flaw revolving Screen Reader and audio on Dell's computer has me truely looking elsewhere for the first time since 2008.
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Also, just in case anyone is curious, I did buy an Apple Mac Air last year, thinking I'd make the full switch over to Mac computers, seeing how I already use an IPhone full time for the past seven years, but oh good gods I ended up hating that computer with the passion of a thousand stars. In the end I sold it to a good friend of mine and I'm planning on using the money to get myself a new Windows laptop.
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My budget is currently $888.00
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So far, most people have recommended either HP or Lenova to me. What do you all say? Can you also give me specific laptop brand names to go with the computer brand recommendations? And any detailed information, like pros or cons, you'd recommend?
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I'm in the market for a new laptop, as my current one (Dell) is currently dying a slow death and I'm practically keeping it on life support and doing a fairly decent job at it.
​
Anyway, I'd like some recommendations for what brand of laptop I should look into. Most of the Laptops I bought in the past were Dell, but the increasing issues I've found with them over the years, plus the terrible flaw revolving Screen Reader and audio on Dell's computer has me truely looking elsewhere for the first time since 2008.
​
Also, just in case anyone is curious, I did buy an Apple Mac Air last year, thinking I'd make the full switch over to Mac computers, seeing how I already use an IPhone full time for the past seven years, but oh good gods I ended up hating that computer with the passion of a thousand stars. In the end I sold it to a good friend of mine and I'm planning on using the money to get myself a new Windows laptop.
​
My budget is currently $888.00
​
So far, most people have recommended either HP or Lenova to me. What do you all say? Can you also give me specific laptop brand names to go with the computer brand recommendations? And any detailed information, like pros or cons, you'd recommend?
SiriuslyGranger 2 points 11m ago
What about an hp omen or an hp pavillian 360?
I am a mac person myself I love them.
I am a mac person myself I love them.
unwaivering 1 points 11m ago
Can you get a desktop, they last longer, in most cases. At least mine do.
My desktops usually last 6-8 years before I need to replace them. Although I'll be replacing this one next year, simply because I got it in 2016, and it doesn't meet the Windows 11 requirements. It will be nearly 7 years after I got it.
My laptops usually only last 3-5 years, at the most. My last one died on a bus trip home from washington, in 2019. I got the thing in 2014, it had motherboard failure in 2016, and was still under warranty, so I had to send it back.
My desktops usually last 6-8 years before I need to replace them. Although I'll be replacing this one next year, simply because I got it in 2016, and it doesn't meet the Windows 11 requirements. It will be nearly 7 years after I got it.
My laptops usually only last 3-5 years, at the most. My last one died on a bus trip home from washington, in 2019. I got the thing in 2014, it had motherboard failure in 2016, and was still under warranty, so I had to send it back.
Timely-Fruit 1 points 11m ago
I have to agree with you on mac. Fortunately mine's intel still, so I have the option of bootcamp, and having mac for a few things here and there is actually sort of convenient.
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I'm running an HP pavilion from 2019, so I appreciate my information might be out of date. But physically, it held up well, I've had no driver issues, I've had no audio issues, (reverted it to standard high definition audio and it runs beautiful) My keyboard comes with physical home end page up page down, no FN crap. Heard nothing but nightmares about Dell, and after having used 2 consumer Lenovos and them having worst build quality and worst keyboard on a 15 inch, (my HP is 14) I'm planning to stick to HP when and if I upgrade. Saw a few new Asus flopping over as well, so don't really know.
If you don't mind over paying, surface could be an option as well.
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I'm running an HP pavilion from 2019, so I appreciate my information might be out of date. But physically, it held up well, I've had no driver issues, I've had no audio issues, (reverted it to standard high definition audio and it runs beautiful) My keyboard comes with physical home end page up page down, no FN crap. Heard nothing but nightmares about Dell, and after having used 2 consumer Lenovos and them having worst build quality and worst keyboard on a 15 inch, (my HP is 14) I'm planning to stick to HP when and if I upgrade. Saw a few new Asus flopping over as well, so don't really know.
If you don't mind over paying, surface could be an option as well.
unwaivering 2 points 11m ago
Service is always an option for me, especialy because I've had a couple things go wrong. One of my desktops did have hard drive failure in 2013, and HP sent a technician and a hard drive, and recovery disks.
My Dell Laptop had Motherboard failure in 2016, and I sent it back for a replacement.
Do the HP Pavilion laptops still have overheating issues? that was a problem from a while ago. I certainly hope not, because I've always gotten HP desktops, and I'm looking to get a new laptop at some point, and I'd probably look at HP too.
My Dell Laptop had Motherboard failure in 2016, and I sent it back for a replacement.
Do the HP Pavilion laptops still have overheating issues? that was a problem from a while ago. I certainly hope not, because I've always gotten HP desktops, and I'm looking to get a new laptop at some point, and I'd probably look at HP too.
Timely-Fruit 2 points 11m ago
Mine can get a lil toasty if I put it to the nVidia graphics full time, but it's nothing overly concerning on the actual temp side consistently. But the fan works harder.
ukifrit 1 points 11m ago
I bought myself a Lenovo Ideapad 3 with an AMD r5500U processor, 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM. It's working perfect with NVDA, but JAWS feels kinda sluggish yet. I'm not a JAWS guy so it's not a big deal for me. I'm sure you can buy way better stuff from Lenovo with that much.
[deleted] [OP] 1 points 11m ago
[removed]
BaBaBroke 1 points 11m ago
I'll be doing the same shortly, the laptop battery dead and only 4mb of ram. With back to school sales coming up, I will be looking at sam's club, bj's and Costco. Costco right now seems to have a good selection at different price points depending on screen size, ram, processor, hard drive type and size. You can look online to see what they have. If you don't have a membership maybe a friend does and you just pay for it. I think they all extend the warranty two years.
I would get at least 12 mb ram for windows 11 and the SSD hard drive which should extend battery life. If you use dvd or cd's, those are not standard on laptops anymore that I have seen.
Chromebooks seem to be less expensive but I don't know what kind of accessibility there is or if you can put something like jaws or similar on it. Most of your stuff will be on the cloud with chromebooks also so there is probably a subscription.
I have had good luck with HP PC's and laptops. My wife has a Lenovo that can turn into a pad which is okay, but the screen is too small for me at 14 inches.. I have used a Dell PC with no problems also.
I would get at least 12 mb ram for windows 11 and the SSD hard drive which should extend battery life. If you use dvd or cd's, those are not standard on laptops anymore that I have seen.
Chromebooks seem to be less expensive but I don't know what kind of accessibility there is or if you can put something like jaws or similar on it. Most of your stuff will be on the cloud with chromebooks also so there is probably a subscription.
I have had good luck with HP PC's and laptops. My wife has a Lenovo that can turn into a pad which is okay, but the screen is too small for me at 14 inches.. I have used a Dell PC with no problems also.
CloudyBeep 1 points 11m ago
The only screen reader you can use on Chrome OS is ChromeVox. As with the OS itself, ChromeVox is OK depending on what you're hoping to do with it.
Migmatite 1 points 11m ago
I went through $1 and got a custom built Dell.
They do price match, have lifetime support, and a 3 year warranty.
I'll admit though, upgrading to a laptop with the USB-c ports was really annoying at first.
Edit: They do have HPs as well, I'm just not a fan of HP.
They do price match, have lifetime support, and a 3 year warranty.
I'll admit though, upgrading to a laptop with the USB-c ports was really annoying at first.
Edit: They do have HPs as well, I'm just not a fan of HP.
DHamlinMusic 1 points 11m ago
In the market myself, looking at Surface Laptop 4 or Surface Pro tablets, the Go models of both are in budget for you and can have the OS unlocked from "S" mode which allows them to install anything, though those ones max at 8gb of memory and 128gb of storage.
bradley22 0 points 11m ago
Yeah I'd recommend either HP or lenovo.
I'm going to get a laptop soon as this pc is slow and I need something faster.
I'm going to get a laptop soon as this pc is slow and I need something faster.
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