The Lenovo laptop with Win11 arrived today. The laptop looks brand new & runs yar. Win11 looks.... a LOT different from Win7. I sure hope most of my old favorite programs will run okay. Time will tell. I want to thank all you folks for your very kind assistance.
It's a used machine so I didn't have a choice. CPU is intel. The specs say it has Intel HD Graphics 5500. I *think* that means graphics are integrated. Once again, thanks to all you folks for the help & good wishes.
Unfortunately I've had hardware issues with Dell XPS 15 and XPS 13 laptops that I've owned, fan, hard drive, keyboard ... So prefer Lenovo ThinkPad/Book, though I believe Asus is good build quality also?
BTW, I wonder was the price a factor? I would have adviced to get a Lenovo IdeaPad 3 or 5, with 8 or 16GB and a 512GB SSD. In Europe they sell for 600 to 800 euro. I personally believe that Lenovo gives the best price quality ratio. Of course screen quality and battery life are better in higher priced laptops from HP for example.
The seller was the PRIMARY factor, by far. When I buy anything used, I prefer to deal with trusted persons that I have often dealt with. At my age, I am blessed to have a lot of those. The fellow who prepared & sold my Lenovo has sold me several computers over the years -- ALWAYS good quality & fairly-priced. He began with computers back in the days when Wozniak was building them in his garage. He is a whiz at all aspects of computers. He's mostly retired now, but often helps me find what I'm looking for, computer-wise -- as he did in this case.
The Lenovo is excellent. With even the very best manufacturers, you can sometimes get a lemon. By the same token, an item made by a middling-good company can sometimes turn out to be a plum. Shazam! I got a plum. Win11 is okay. Neither lemon nor plum.
The reason I asked is because I thought it was a bit odd that you went for a used product, but I remember you bought a MacBook some time ago. And we all know how expensive Apple products are. I have decided not to buy any Apple products, they have got a yearly revenue of $275 billion, mostly made with iPhones, so there is no reason to sell MacBooks and iMacs at such high prices, it's pure greed. Yes, but they are way more expensive. I wish I went for the IdeaPad 5, I didn't spend much time researching when I bought my IdeaPad 3 laptop last year, I had health problems and I was in a hurry to buy one. But to be fair, the IdeaPad 3 is still pretty good for a low budget laptop.
Their laptops aren't bad. I would never buy their desktops again. We had 2. One behaved oddly and the other one the motherboard died. It was under warranty so we sent it in. It came back with the CPU heatsink attached by 2 of the 4 clips and the thermal paste was thick enough that it was probably the reason why the heatsink wasn't seated.
That's why they are better quality. You get what you pay for. Not that IdeaPads are necessarily bad, but the quality won't be as good. That's why I prefer to buy used business laptops, than new consumer ones. Business laptops are expensive to buy new, but you can get some very good deals on used ones.
Not sure "quality" is the best word to describe the differences - at least not across the board in all areas of comparison. Typically, when I think of quality, I think of reliability and build. There is nothing to suggest the Thinkpad will fail less often or have a longer lifespan. For build quality, mean "fit and finish" - how well the parts fit together, are the edges smooth and even, etc. However, there areas where quality is absolutely the correct word. Thinkpad monitors produce a better quality image. Thinkpad audio has a higher fidelity. And the keyboards on Thinkpads are better built with better parts and able to take more abuse. Other characteristics, however, are more a function of performance "capabilities". The typical Thinkpad is more "capable" because it has a faster processor, more RAM, and more storage. In most cases, the Thinkpad has longer battery runtimes too. Those provide "better" performance or more capability - but is that an indication of "quality"? Personally, simply because notebooks are mobile devices, I feel it is wise to go with the "better" models. A PC typically just sits there. It is not banged about every day. It is not opened and closed potentially 1000s of times. It does not have its power cord connected and disconnected potentially 1000s of times. Plus, notebooks are inherently prone to heat related issues because of their tiny, restrictive cases. It is my experience, the higher-end model notebooks (at least from Toshiba, Acer, Dell, HP and Apple) have better cooling too - with more and/or larger/better, and quieter fans. I think it wise not to judge too soon. A plum to me would be a device that continues to meet my needs AND provides me trouble-free performance for as long as I choose to use it - even if that means for the next 10 years. Come back in a year or 3 or 5 and then tell us if you still think you have a plum, or a lemon.
One of my grandchildren asked to buy my Lenovo/Win11, now that it's all set-up for whitelist/default-deny security & R-Drive Image, etc. So I sold it to her for a buck (she is my grandkid, after all). I *might* buy another Win11 laptop after Christmas. Or maybe another Mac. No hurry -- I still have Sarah, my beloved old Dell Latitude E6320/Win7 sweetie-pie (not to mention a Trash (TRS)-80, Atari 800, Commodore 64 & an Apple IIc -- all plums & all still running AFAIK).
Just an observation... Retailers are listing their Windows 10 inventory, "with free Windows 11 update."
BTW, you might also want to check out Gateway laptops, seems they are very cheap, and you get quite a lot. https://gatewayusa.com/products.html https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-...Fingerprint-Scanner-1MP-Webcam-HDMI/654399212