I know they used to be IBM, but they seem alot cheaper than other leading brands. I usually wont buy other than HP but there seems to be some good bang for the $$ when comparing like or like.
When my daughter bought her macbook pro, the sales person said that Lenovo were FABULOUS, and showed her an on par lenovo...(she went with mac)
Also, i like the idea of the "Flex", has anyone had one of these?
Looking at spending $1200-$1500. Any feedback welcome!!!

Edited by sunny119 at 12:39 pm, Tue 3 Nov

sunny119 - 2020-11-03 12:36:00

Personally I don't like them I prefer HP or Asus.

aoc1 - 2020-11-03 12:45:00

Yeah I generally like Lenovo. But like any brand they make cheap entry level models and good mid to high end models so it pays to do a bit of research

Edited by videomonkey at 12:46 pm, Tue 3 Nov

videomonkey - 2020-11-03 12:46:00

My cousin overseas had one and it was a nightmare.

hesian - 2020-11-03 13:55:00

hesian wrote:

My cousin overseas had one and it was a nightmare.

Knowing one person who had a bad experience isn't a good reason to make a bad recommendation.

videomonkey - 2020-11-03 13:58:00

aoc1 wrote:

Personally I don't like them I prefer HP or Asus.

Asus A+
HP, End User ones - rubbish
Lenovo - mid range, not bad.
Acer - the bottom of the list.

lythande1 - 2020-11-03 14:41:00

lythande1 wrote:

HP, End User ones - rubbish

Why? I've had nothing but HP laptops over the years and have never, not once, had a single fault or problem with one.

kingfisher21 - 2020-11-03 14:55:00

This message was deleted.

puddleduck00 - 2020-11-03 15:03:00

They just phishing kingfisher. Seems they hooked a whopper kingfish! lol

muppet_slayer - 2020-11-03 15:05:00

The 'T' range are good.

muppet_slayer - 2020-11-03 15:07:00

Used to have a lenovo, worked well but screen wasn't as good as other models but it was a cheap one. Have had a few dells but they're not what they once were, every one recently has had battery life issues. Depends on what you want it for

vellumbooks - 2020-11-03 16:02:00

The member deleted this message.

frogycrzy - 2020-11-03 16:03:00

For years we had Toshiba laptops (they don't seem to be doing them any more). Seemed reliable and lasted well.

Hated the HP I bought for a sports club and had a nightmare dealing with HP when the hinges packed up. Wouldn't touch any HP product ever again.

Bought a Lenovo, which I still have as a back up but a bit too large to carry overseas and some aspects such as keyboard layout I'm not keen on, but it does have a built in DVD drive. Seemed to be a bit erratic connecting to the internet at home.

Against the advice of some in here, currently on an Acer with a flip display and touch screen, but prefer a wireless mouse anyway, but have to use an external DVD reader. Due to it's lighter weight, much easier for travelling, where hand luggage weight limits are critical.

No complaints so far.

Edited by socram at 7:21 pm, Tue 3 Nov

socram - 2020-11-03 19:20:00

had 3 acer ones, all lasted about 5 years.

sirrab - 2020-11-04 13:05:00

ASUS are rad as.

tygertung - 2020-11-04 13:18:00

The Thinkpad series of business laptops are excellent for durability. I have a small 12" model that has traveled the world with me and just keeps on going. Great keyboard and crisp, non-reflective screen.

Getting to time for an upgrade (RAM is maxed out) and I'll likely buy Lenovo again, or possibly a Dell, but likely a Lenovo.

soundsgood - 2020-11-04 15:18:00

soundsgood wrote:

The Thinkpad series of business laptops are excellent for durability. I have a small 12" model that has traveled the world with me and just keeps on going. Great keyboard and crisp, non-reflective screen.

Getting to time for an upgrade (RAM is maxed out) and I'll likely buy Lenovo again, or possibly a Dell, but likely a Lenovo.

Ram is generally easy to upgrade unless the motherboard wont take more.

nice_lady - 2020-11-04 15:26:00

I am a big Lenovo fan. I haven't had to buy one in recent years as both my old ones are still working great. I have had several others in the past and never had a problem with any of them

duncb - 2020-11-04 15:57:00

nice_lady wrote:

Ram is generally easy to upgrade unless the motherboard wont take more.

Sometimes there is a maximum limit on the CPU.

Intel Atom N570 has a maximum limit of 2 GB which was quite a bit in 2011, but now the websites suck and use a lot more.

tygertung - 2020-11-04 16:51:00

frogycrzy wrote:

go with Lenovo laptop and make sure it has 2 or more ram slots and a good hdd more than 1tb hp are crap thuy only have max 1 ram slot and 500gb to 1tb hdd and always get them to fill in warrenty card so you have proof if it ever has to go in for warrenty job and make dam sure its not a model they had out for cust use as they wont cover warrenty if anything goes rong plus if you can affored get extra warrenty cover. do not get hp other wise you will spend weeks takeing all there crap out like xtra games or other junk software and always push for xtra perks for free if you pay more than a grand for it and make sure it has dvd or blu-ray drive.. blu-ray burner if you pay more than $1100.. and if it has a cam and you never use it slap a bit of black tape over it

wow, firstly storage :hdd = bad. get an SSD. Sure it wont be 1TB or more, so what? it will be much faster, and much more reliable. If you really need more storage (doubtful), get a external drive.
secondly only fools buy from chainstores. Buy a business model with an onsite warranty, like an HP probook, any hardware issue will be fixed the next business day by a trained HP technician. Going to a chainstore with a broken computer is an argument + 2 weeks of no computer.
thirdly nobody uses disk media DVD's , blu rays are a waste of time & money, everybody streams nowadays.
EDIT: All the brands do business level hardware, lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer. There are models that have onsite warranties. And harvey norman / noel leeming wont be selling them, go to a real tech store.

Edited by bitsnpieces2020 at 5:44 pm, Wed 4 Nov

bitsnpieces2020 - 2020-11-04 17:39:00

frogycrzy wrote:

if you can affored get extra warrenty cover. do not get hp other wise you will spend weeks takeing all there crap out like xtra games or other junk software and always push for xtra perks for free if you pay more than a grand for it and make sure it has dvd or blu-ray drive.. blu-ray burner if you pay more than $1100.. and if it has a cam and you never use it slap a bit of black tape over it

Oh yeah - nah. DO NOT pay for extra warranty. It's not reccomended as the CGA will be your friend. Hp are not the only manufacturer who include boatware. That's not a reason to avoid any particular manufacturer. IT's easy enough to remove most of it and/or simply ignore it, (stop any autostart crap - it's simple to do).

Unless you have a REAL need for a DVD or BluRay drive then forget it. They're disappearing technology anyway. AS for slapping a bit of tape over the camera yeah sure do it if you're really paranoid and if you're that paranoid make sure you buy a pack of 10 tinfoil hats at the same time you get the device.

nice_lady - 2020-11-04 17:51:00

A DVD drive for me is a must. Firstly my favourite waste of time is Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, which will only run if the DVD is loaded.

Secondly, with a vast collection of music CDs, converting to MP3, requires a CD reader.

socram - 2020-11-04 18:21:00

socram wrote:

A DVD drive for me is a must. Firstly my favourite waste of time is Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, which will only run if the DVD is loaded.

Secondly, with a vast collection of music CDs, converting to MP3, requires a CD reader.

External.

nice_lady - 2020-11-04 18:25:00

socram wrote:

A DVD drive for me is a must. Firstly my favourite waste of time is Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, which will only run if the DVD is loaded.

Secondly, with a vast collection of music CDs, converting to MP3, requires a CD reader.

Heard of a no-cd exe before?.

bronzeblood - 2020-11-04 18:54:00

Dell, Asus, HP Elitebook series are the best
Lenovo is mid tier. Used to be a lot better before IBM sold it off

csador - 2020-11-04 19:34:00

Dunno about IdeaPad but I think their Thinkpads. Very laptop of mine since 1997 have been second hand Thinkpads and 1 second hand Toshiba and they worked until the day I dispose them or sold them off.

I am currently using a 2013 or something T420 which is a i5 gen 2. I still have a 2007 X61T due to the Firewire slot which I use for a old dedicated film scanner. Before that was a X20 with a P3 600Mhz which I probably dispose off around 2008 or something after the screen didn't work but it was OK I just used it on my desk with a external screen. Then it was a Thinkpad 600 I think then a 380ED.

They are IMO business computers doing spreadsheets, word processing, web surfing. If you are looking for a gaming computer they are not the right one.

Even back to the dates of 1995 they had more cutting edge office setups like a 2.88MB floppy drive than a standard 1.44MB. You could stick in a GSM mobile data / fax device or a 100MB Iomega ZIP Drive. The ones now you can swap in a 2nd HDD instead of the optical drive.

For $1200-1500 then you would be looking at the half price sales sign up online for their emails maybe with Black Friday coming up or just before the end of the financial year and occasionally other dates of the year. Thinkpads even the E series which are cheaper than the X and T series they tend to be around $1000-1200NZ with half price promos.

Edited by rayonline_tm at 9:45 pm, Wed 4 Nov

rayonline_tm - 2020-11-04 21:42:00

csador wrote:

Dell, Asus, HP Elitebook series are the best
Lenovo is mid tier. Used to be a lot better before IBM sold it off

Since when did IBM sell Lenovo off. Lenovo is a Chinese company who bought IBM's computer business. They always made good phones and also make the Moto phones. Like most companies they make cheap and expensive ranges, their good is very good. They don't sell phones outside Asia. Ive had three over the years and all still work.

peanuts37 - 2020-11-04 23:12:00

bitsnpieces2020 wrote:

secondly only fools buy from chainstores. Buy a business model with an onsite warranty, like an HP probook, any hardware issue will be fixed the next business day by a trained HP technician. Going to a chainstore with a broken computer is an argument + 2 weeks of no computer.
thirdly nobody uses disk media DVD's , blu rays are a waste of time & money, everybody streams nowadays.
EDIT: All the brands do business level hardware, lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer. There are models that have onsite warranties. And harvey norman / noel leeming wont be selling them, go to a real tech store.

Can you recommend a tech store? There is no tech stores where i live, only noel leeming and smiths city, so would probably need to buy online but am a little concerned about having one sent.

Edited by sunny119 at 8:49 am, Thu 5 Nov

sunny119 - 2020-11-05 08:48:00

Google tells me theres a company called Go Tech with good reviews in Greymouth 65 Mackay Street, 037689937

bitsnpieces2020 - 2020-11-05 09:02:00

bitsnpieces2020 wrote:

Google tells me theres a company called Go Tech with good reviews in Greymouth 65 Mackay Street, 037689937

Thanks for that. I think hes the repair guy like iphone screen replacements and computer fix it guy type of thing, but i will definitely look into that. Thanks!

sunny119 - 2020-11-05 09:21:00

socram wrote:

A DVD drive for me is a must. Firstly my favourite waste of time is Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, which will only run if the DVD is loaded.

A disc in the drive to play a game? Geez, those were the days. Just pay $10 for it again on Steam and never have to worry about a disc every again!

cube_guy - 2020-11-05 09:51:00

Bought 2 Lenovo online from their site in 2013 both still going.
Only problem in last year both have got hotter, fan was going but apparently the oil?? can go seize. Had one replaced and other will need it soon.
When I bought I dont think they sold them locally, was a bit concerned but there was a helpline ph number which I used a lot a first (mostly due to me lack of knowledge) . Only other prob is keys arent quite as flush as other makes and I get a build of dust I can see.

karmae - 2020-11-05 09:54:00

nice_lady wrote:

Ram is generally easy to upgrade unless the motherboard wont take more.

Yes, RAM is maxed out.

The laptop continues to work fine, but my own demands (along with lazy programmers and bloated web sites) have increased therefore need a model that can accommodate more.

Might aim for 32GB this time.

soundsgood - 2020-11-05 10:43:00

karmae wrote:

Only problem in last year both have got hotter, fan was going but apparently the oil?? can go seize. Had one replaced and other will need it soon.
.

Those fans don't have oil in the bearings they're what you'd call a solid bearing - like this - https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQKhc
D8hRZHbugullZIMMLc_BS26GQfFBqZaT8cSooaY-P-pvZDlop_b0YxJntr_-
eYIBqcu5e_&usqp=CAc

they wear eventually. And also fans get dust buildup in the blades they're turning. These suck air, (and dust), in to blow over internal bits to cool them Some of the dust sticks. And then the fans don't work so well. If you have look on youtube or similar you will see help articles on how to take the device apart and check and clean the fan. Usually you only have to removve a few screws from the bottom. But some are a bit more difficult than others.

ETA: A drop of cooking oil or similar, (whatever you have), even into a solid bearing, can work wonders. Just don't mix the oil and any electrical parts. NOT GOOD.

Edited by nice_lady at 10:49 am, Thu 5 Nov

nice_lady - 2020-11-05 10:47:00

Oil and electrical parts are actually usually no problem as oil is non conductive.

Some crazy people actually fill a fishtank with a light oil and submerge their whole pc in it. No fan noise then. No fans required.

tygertung - 2020-11-05 11:29:00

My model is difficult, I watched them do the other have to take every thing out to get to fan at bottom, keyboard, some other things unclipped and moved,
Cant get to it from bottom. Probably is dust, it started groaning on start up then fine but gets hot. Have to find a tech who knows what the'yre doing

karmae - 2020-11-05 12:23:00

I purchased a Yoga C740 just after level 4 lockdown after going through all the pros and cons . I an use it as a tablet and laptop which I find great, came with a stylus. I wanted a fast unit for photoshop. The only downside is the battery life. All the benchmarks said youll get hours of playback which is not the case. After really needing it, Ive used it very little other than browsing the web. The battery just gets drained at phenominal rate, I reckon Id get about 4 hours of use out of it before having to recharge it. I have checked background apps arent sucking the battery. The settings are for performance, not battery saver, but imo, it should be lasting longer

simplekiwi - 2020-12-14 11:26:00

This message was deleted.

kittycatkin - 2020-12-20 14:26:00

kittycatkin wrote:

That was a bit uncalled for and not very 'nice'.

Wtf ?

nice_lady - 2020-12-20 14:37:00

tygertung wrote:

Oil and electrical parts are actually usually no problem as oil is non conductive.

Some crazy people actually fill a fishtank with a light oil and submerge their whole pc in it. No fan noise then. No fans required.

True.

nice_lady - 2020-12-20 14:39:00

This message was deleted.

kittycatkin - 2020-12-20 15:03:00

Get a life. Jeez. I give out good advice. I didn't call anyone paranoid. And if they were, and buying a tinfoil hat made them feel better then what's the problem?

Ate you trying to say that tinfoil hats don't work?

nice_lady - 2020-12-20 15:12:00

sunny119 wrote:

I usually wont buy other than HP!!

End User HP is the pits. Commercial Blade servers and the like are fine, but cheap home user stuff? I saw a lot of problems with them when I was a tech.

lythande1 - 2020-12-20 15:26:00

The member deleted this message.

kittycatkin - 2020-12-20 15:28:00

kittycatkin wrote:

'...do if you're really paranoid....if you're that paranoid...' Your words.

Perhaps you could try to be actually helpful to some off the people who come Here and ask questions instead off just picking on others and not doing anything useful.

Or you could just:
Go away.

Edited by nice_lady at 3:33 pm, Sun 20 Dec

nice_lady - 2020-12-20 15:29:00

This message was deleted.

kittycatkin - 2020-12-20 15:36:00

kittycatkin wrote:

I didn't realise that calling people paranoid, telling them to buy tinfoil hats and go away was helpful advice about computers. Or that objecting to this was 'picking on others'. My mistake.

Why did you ignore my advice in post #45.
Don't bother answering it was a rhetorical question.

nice_lady - 2020-12-20 15:45:00

Professionals know to keep their camera covered. High end laptops come with a shutter built in.

"ThinkShutter, a physical camera cover, blocks the lens to ensure that you’re only seen when you want to be."

https://www.lenovo.com/nz/en/laptops/thinkpad/x1-series/X1-C
arbon-Gen-7/p/22TP2TXX17G

soundsgood - 2020-12-20 20:48:00

My vintage eee pc netbook which I still use even now has a built in shutter.

Even the paranoid have enemies.

tygertung - 2020-12-21 06:14:00

This message was deleted.

kittycatkin - 2020-12-21 11:52:00