Thinkpads were the only Windows laptop I felt was worth buying. However, IBM selling to Lenovo, and then Lenovo having a couple high profile issues around 2015, with things like SuperFish, made me swear off the brand.
Reputations take a long time to build. Lenovo bought their reputation from IBM and then threw it in the trash and set it on fire. I don’t think I’ll ever trust them enough to buy a PC from them. As a result, I end up buying Macs as my primary devices. Looking at the PC market, I can’t see paying a premium for anything being offered. I’ve regretted every attempt I’ve made to buy non-Apple hardware.
rekabis•7h ago
If you are wanting a laptop for general or creative work, I would absolutely agree with you.
If you are wanting a laptop for business work with Windows-only apps that are niche enough to never get support from WINE, I would honestly recommend Dell business-class laptops.
The downside is the price: these are built like tanks, somewhere between consumer and toughbook standards, and as such, are commensurately expensive. The ones I am talking about are the “pro precision workstations”.
Before the AI price spikes (mid 2025), it was not unusual to spend $2k CAD on a midrange model, $8k CAD with all the bells and whistles. But as a result, running one for 6-8 years is not uncommon.
And since last fall, it seems that prices have jumped by $2k CAD on the midrange machines to as much as $14k CAD on the high end thanks to RAM, SSD, and GPU prices. Like JFC, plumping out to 128Gb is now +$8k CAD all by itself, and +$3k CAD just for a decent SSD. The top end machine went from something around $8k to $22k CAD, and even dropped the options for 256Gb and 512Gb RAM.
al_borland•16h ago
Reputations take a long time to build. Lenovo bought their reputation from IBM and then threw it in the trash and set it on fire. I don’t think I’ll ever trust them enough to buy a PC from them. As a result, I end up buying Macs as my primary devices. Looking at the PC market, I can’t see paying a premium for anything being offered. I’ve regretted every attempt I’ve made to buy non-Apple hardware.
rekabis•7h ago
If you are wanting a laptop for business work with Windows-only apps that are niche enough to never get support from WINE, I would honestly recommend Dell business-class laptops.
The downside is the price: these are built like tanks, somewhere between consumer and toughbook standards, and as such, are commensurately expensive. The ones I am talking about are the “pro precision workstations”.
Before the AI price spikes (mid 2025), it was not unusual to spend $2k CAD on a midrange model, $8k CAD with all the bells and whistles. But as a result, running one for 6-8 years is not uncommon.
And since last fall, it seems that prices have jumped by $2k CAD on the midrange machines to as much as $14k CAD on the high end thanks to RAM, SSD, and GPU prices. Like JFC, plumping out to 128Gb is now +$8k CAD all by itself, and +$3k CAD just for a decent SSD. The top end machine went from something around $8k to $22k CAD, and even dropped the options for 256Gb and 512Gb RAM.