Beware of their low cost ones. If you open and close it a lot, the display ribbon cable fails (three times in the family) Now we buy Asus. If you move the power supply cable around a lot, it fails and is tough to repair (two times in the family). New ones are expensive and cheesay, but knockoffs are cheap and even cheesier.
OTOH, the business models are much tougher, but more pricey, of course. Never had those failures.
Just our experience.
I also have a Gateway laptop & it is great too.
Well, you have a choice:
Chinese, with their backdoors to your stuff - or
US Govt, with their backdoors to your stuff.
Right now, I’d go with Chinese.
I also have an ASUS (a - sooos). I bought a laptop 3 years ago and bought my spousal unit one last year. Great warranty too.
The only “problem” I’ve had is with the out of the box adobe and java software loaded in the WIN7 image. If you are going with Linux, you may avoid that.
I had an Everex laptop made in Fremont California by Filipina -American assembly workers in 1998. But the company was Chinese owned by a brother and sister who fought all the time and stole all the salespeoples` accounts for themselves so they wouldn`t have to pay any commissions.
Hats off to you for taking the time to locate and buy one NOT made in China. As an added bonus your purchase will probably be less likely to have a back door built into it. We all need to stop feeding the monster and buy things made here or at least in friendly countries.
IMHO, the Lenovo Think Pad is the best notebook out there, bar none. Yes, it’s made in China, but so what? You won’t find a better one and their support is US based.
I wouldn't touch an HP, Toshiba, Dell...those things are overpriced or just carp. Asus is a really good company and generally make superior product for any price point. If you are buying a desktop, buy Asus motherboard.
Asus laptops are good for the price point but are not the easiest things to repair if you have problems.
Almost all the laptops/brands are coming off the exact same lines, with the same components. One day the line will build Dell, the next, someone else. It really comes down to the motherboard and its design and how much the brand is willing to pay to put it together.
We have been buying Acer laptops for at least 10 years. Not sure how many that is but enough to say with all those purchased we have had hardware problems with less than 1% of them (2 out of hundreds and hundreds...one Acer even covered out of warranty...we had to go through their wholesale channel to get to their service people). Acer's have been rock solid for us.
Acers also have very little bloatware (like HP, Compaq, Dell, Toshiba...) so your computer won't have a bunch of carp running in the background.
Get a third generation Core i3 processor (can't remember the product numbers) for general. For graphics, get a Core i5. If you need heavy duty processing, Core i7 (I think this will be out of your price range). Going up in the processor capability chews battery life.
Stick with an Intel Core series processor and avoid AMDs. AMDs are cheaper for a reason. The processor chip or motherboard (or both) burn up a lot...for every brand.
If you need graphics, look for something with a separate video/graphics card and at least 4GB of RAM on the motherboard.
Get something that has USB 3 built into it.
If you can still find one with Windows 7, get it. Avoid Win8. I am still not that thrilled with Windows 64 bit architecture, yet. Their are still some hardware glitches and some internet stuff may or may not work with 64 bit. We generally reload Windows in 32 bit (keycodes work for both 32 and 64 bit versions). For almost all users, their is very little gained by the 64 bit, other than more than 3GB of RAM.
None
I understand that you hate Apple, but they are looking to move some manufacturing back to the US.
So you have to ask yourself, what’s more important.
You can probably go on Ebay and find an old IBM or HP with an 80286 CPU. Those weren’t made in China.
I also hate Apple with a passion. Like I posted before. Just to prove a point at how UNSECURE the really are. I hacked one in 1 hour. If your looking for a realistic laptop that’s tough and not based on “pretty”. Go with an IBM. They are very good. Likewise, their price will be high also. In fact I still have an IBM Lenovo Thinkpad T60 and T42. Yes, they are old. And yes, guess what. They still work. I put Windows 7 32 bit on the T60. In fact I actually spilled, try not to laugh, a Latte on the T60. A complete 20oz. Turned it off immediately, pulled the battery out, dried it off quickly, and turned it back on the next day and it’s still running. You will NEVER be able to do that with a Dell, or other laptop unless you buy a Toughbook. There’s not need for that when you can buy a Lenovo for less.
Concerning Lenovo:
There was a post on FR within the past couple of years — I don’t have the link — by a Freeper with a son who works in US intelligence. This poster asked his son what laptop to buy. The son said to buy any brand other than Lenovo. He was unable to say why, but he was adamant that the parent should not buy Lenovo under any circumstance.
MSI
In fact, I paid $121 just last week for the one I'm typing on at this moment.
In addition to the *LOW* cost, they have near netbook size, high-res graphics, tremendous audio and a 64-bit AMD CPU.
I've got external monitors and wireless keyboards and mice on a couple, so they can serve me as regular desktop workstations.
So, that's my notebook tip for the week ... FWIW! :)
(I do look forward to installing Kubuntu on one some day soon)
Advice...... concern about China is irrelevant.
Politics and purchasing smart don’t mix