Want a new laptop...and can't find anything that actually has what I want.

glennmagusharvey

Unfortunately I've missed the ball on getting the last bunch of super-cheapo (i.e. < US$300) Windows 7 computers.  Now, even the lowest-end computers are all running Windows 8.

Windows 8, from what I've heard, is a touchscreen-optimized operating system, and is not the greatest thing for keyboard+mouse usage.  So, if I'm getting a Win8 computer, I might as well get one with a touchscreen.

A touchscreen would be nice for use in making it possible for tablet-like use -- for example, reading documents on a flat object.  And I'd heard a lot about these "convertible" or 2-in-1 computers, that can lay flat -- by folding back 360 degrees or detaching or with swivel screens (personally my favorite design), or otherwise.  So I ought to get one of those.

I'm used to a 15" screen (diagonal length).  I used to be okay with about 14", but that was back when screens were 4:3; now that everything is widescreen, 15" and up is most comfortable.  I frequently multitask and have too many things going on on one screen anyway -- and I'll especially need screen space when I work with visually complex applications like geographic information software (GIS) -- where I'll need good detail AND a large field of view.  Honestly, the larger the screen, the better.

Problem is, there are very, very few computers that are convertible to lay flat and have 15" or larger screens.  In fact, there probably are just three: the Acer Aspire R7, the Sony Vaio Flip, and (very recently) the HP Envy x360.

The Sony Vaio Flip is discontinued, and even if it were around, it's priced at over US$1200.  The Acer Aspire R7 and the HP Envy x360 are both priced around $750-$800 (depending on your luck that week), making them more viable choices.  Between them, I prefer the Acer Aspire R7, because it has a custom double hinge design that allows it to stand in many different ways -- it can fold flat like a tablet, but it can also act like a tablet+keyboard, a display stand for a person sitting across from me, and (probably the coolest feature) a near-horizontal screen on a raised platform, which would let me comfortably view the screen while standing up.

Unfortunately, I just found out that the Aspire R7 and the Envy x360 both lack VGA ports.  The Aspire R7 also lacks an ethernet port.

My external screen at home uses a VGA connector.  It might do HDMI (I'm pretty sure it doesn't do this other thing, which I think is called "thunderbird" or something, but which I know like next to nothing about and as far as I know is rare and generally useless), but even for that, I'd have to buy an HDMI cable, and I'm also concerned about the content-filtering copyright protection technology that I've heard about HDMI using.

My external screen at my cubicle is a somewhat older screen and I'm pretty sure it only does VGA.

At my cubicle, the printers are connected to the ethernet LAN.  If you only have a wireless internet connection, you can't print to them.

And of course, both they and the Sony Vaio Flip lack optical drives.  Though at this point I've already resigned myself to dealing with the lack of one...I mean, I'll just ISO stuff and transfer it via flash drives and mount them into virtual drives...what else can I do?

I was originally hoping to get a new computer that would act as a study/work replacement for my current one, so my current one could become my media and gaming computer while the new one is where I do all my work.  Hopefully that would increase my productivity.  Well, this is a problem.

Now since getting a touchscreen convertible 15"+ screen laptop computer running Win8 is a challenge, I thought about getting a Win7 computer instead.  No, Win7 computers are no longer even displayed in stores.  They're those things that you can only find online anymore.  And they no longer form the shit-tier of computer pricing (around US$200-$300) -- even the ones with the shittiest processors (we're talking Intel Celeron and Intel Pentium) are going for upwards of $350.

I could pay upwards of $500 for a computer with an Intel Core i-whatever processor and Win7.  I got my current Win7 computer with an i7-3### processor (I don't feel like looking up the exact number at the moment) for about $749; and Best Buy (which tends to have the best prices) is giving me an i7 starting at $903 thanks to having an solid-state drive for a hard drive rather than a traditional hard drive.

(I have less need for fast drive speed and more need for tons of storage space.  I'd rather not have an SSD, as strange as it sounds.)

At this point, I'm seriously considering just buying a cheapo shit-tier laptop that runs Win8, pirating Win7 onto it, and using it as my new backup computer and keeping my current computer as my primary study/work computer...

Kraken

[user deleted]

Nyktos

Windows 8 is shitty but as far as I'm aware it's fairly easy to just turn it back into 7.

I can definitely sympathize with the broader problem here though. All I want is a relatively cheap laptop with a 1080p display and nope.