I'm reviving this thread for suggestions. A laptop in the 800 dollar price range with which I could do the normal stuff of browsing the bet, homework, bills etc. but run recent games decently. I'm interested in the newest total war game. Any tech geeks got recommendations?
Laptop discussions always are a bit funny to me. Everybody has their opinions on brands that are good/bad, and I think the opinions are mainly shaped by having a bad experience with a particular product (I bought an HP and 6 months later the screen starting flickering! Avoid HP!). In reality, you get what you pay for in the laptop world and a lot of people that complain about a particular brand are the types to go to BestBuy and get a $300 crappy laptop and get surprised when it breaks or becomes unusable a year later.
Basically, all laptops at a particular price range are going to be similar in terms of build quality and specs regardless of the manufacturer, with the main difference being where the manufacturer takes shortcuts. For example, two laptops are priced at $500. They both have similar specs, but one laptop sacrifices screen quality (720p display instead of 1080p) to have a better processor (i7 instead of i5). While the other has the weaker processor (i5), but a better display (1080p). As a consumer at the $500 price point, you need decide which is more important to you - a better display or a more powerful processor. Deciding between laptops should be focused more upon the relative tradeoffs you have to make at a particular price and what is the most important to you as a consumer. It should be a lot less focused on the particular manufacturer.
Sorry - just a bit of rant as I see this as a constant theme across similar threads. For your needs, I would look for the following:
- SSD (Solid State Drive) storage. Looking for 256 GB minimum, especially if you are holding multiple games on the HD and don't want to deal with an external HD. SSD is a must in 2019 (instead of a normal Hard Drive). It just makes the entire laptop experience feel much faster.
- 8 GB of RAM minimum. At $800 budget, you could easily find a 16 GB laptop which could be helpful if you run more demanding games or running several programs at once. But 8 GB should be sufficient to do all basic web browsing and should be sufficient for the game you want to play as it does not appear to be a very demanding game.
- i5 or Ryzen 5 processor minimum, preferably 8th generation. Again, could get an i7 or Ryzen 7 at your price point, but it will be overkill for your needs.
- Dedicated graphics card. For the game you want to play, you really just want a very basic dedicated graphics card. Something like a GTX 1050 or an MX150 will do just fine. If you ever want to run more demanding games, you might want to look into a more powerful dedicated graphics card like a GTX 1060.
- 1080p display. This should be a given at your price point, but just make sure you have a 1080p display.
- Weight and measurements. You need to decide this for yourself. Generally, a smaller, thinner, and lighter laptop will have worse specs than a similar price more thick/heavy laptop. Lots of people value thin and light laptops as they are easier to travel with, but others use laptops mainly at home and don't travel with them often, so it's not as important. If you want a more thin/light laptop, I'd look for a laptop 15' or smaller and weighing 5 lbs or less minimum. If you do not care as much about this, don't worry about it.
I would go to Amazon and do a filter for those minimum requirements and see what pops up. You should have absolutely 0 trouble finding a good laptop that meets those minimum specs at your budget. Don't be too particular on the manufacturer and if you find one that meets the minimum specs, read some of the user reviews to see if there are any major red flags. There are also sites like slickdeals where users will post good online laptop deals, which could save you $50-$100 if a really juicy deal comes up on a good laptop. Just have to be more patient and have to spend a bit of time monitoring for a good deal, which may or may not be worth it to you.
Good luck!