Laptop suggestions

Based on personal preferences, day of the week, planetary alignment, and possibly the phase of the moon. My own opinion stands as thus; Windows 11, is about as close to, "Windows done right", as we'll ever get. For now at least, Windows 12 promises to be enlightening, but that is then, and 11 is now.

I think you will enjoy Windows, once you get familiar with all the new keyboard shortcuts and 11 exclusive features.

Applications like Phone Link on Windows 11 are a nice little bonus as well. If you use an iPhone, and have ever used an iPad or Mac, you are likely familiar with being able to hand off text messages and phone calls from one device to another; phone link allows this with Windows.

On the flipside, if you are an Android user, you can not only do the aformentioned, but you also get the benefit of using your PC keyboard to control your Android.

I won't get into the whole Linux subsystem, though, as that is a little outside my pay grade. 😳

Please keep us posted about battery life on these snapdragon, I am extremely curious to see how for blind users this is gonna to be. And yes windows is the worst os in terms of battery, and security as well as crowddstrike dramma was partially because why a program would such low level access in the first place just to protect an os... The ironic thing is chromeos is an incredible piece of optimization in term of energy effeciency while the core is still the good old chrome taking insane space in ram.

Windows is the most accessible os overall especially since macos voiceover bugs have been piling out for years and years and years. It's still kinda usable but god the blind and visually impaired community needs to fight for their rights.

Subject says it all. I had high hopes for it, but found that it doesn't sync all messages. For example, it only shows received messages, and messages sent from within phone link itself, not messages actually sent on the phone. Plus, just trying to shift tab from the message edit box to message history makes the app crash on my Dell at least. I wonder if Microsoft can improve this now that RCS is a thing on the iPhone? I would certainly be happy to see it done. Phone calls via the app do work very nicely.
As for Windows 11, I absolutely agree. My favorite version of Windows by far. Back in the days of Windows 8 all through Win 10, I would always install Classic Shell, because I really didn't like the start menu, but on Win 11, they finally got it right.
You know what would be sweet? If someone could make a version of Tiny11 (a very stripped down Windows install) but that would work on Arm. As it stands, my last experience with a base model m1, trying to run Windows in a VM was just to resource intensive and I found Windows to just freeze up all the time. If there was some tiny11 for ARM, I bet it would be fantastic. While I really like this Dell, there is just something so nice about Mac OS. Sadly though, even a base model m1 is out of my price range just yet.

If you check your StartUp apps under Settings in Windows, you may come across somethng called "Mobile Devices". As it stands now, it looks like it mostly is support for Android devices. However, it looks like Microsoft may be extending the functionality to iOS.

If true, we may get the ability to control our iPhones via Windows like the new MacOS is reportedly going to do with macOS 15.

Here is to hoping. Would actually be nice to see a feature like Hand Off for PCs and iOS. 😀

Those rubber feets at the bottom of your laptop, fall off on most of budget laptops. The only one surviving for years and years I know is the Lenovo thinkpad. Those are built like a tank in my opinion.
I am very glad to know that someone tried the latest Surface laptop, and everything is working as expected. I was expecting the NVDA and Jaws Screen readers to struggle as they are compiled for X86 processers as far as I know. I am guessing that Narrator would be the most smoothest.

Hi.
@brian yes, mine is Intel. Since I haven't had it for long, I don't think the battery swelling issue has happened yet, it would need to be inspected by a technician.
@SeasonKing my laptop is not budget at all, it was actually a bit overpriced, to be honest. Since it still works perfectly and I don't have any major issues, I'll just let it be, ideally, it should last me at least another 2 or 3 years.

If it helps, there is a nice little freeware app called "Macs Fans". I used to have this installed on Windows 10, which was bootcamped onto my old MacBook Pro. It lets you adjust fan settings including min and max speeds, as well as running them at a constant rpm for max cooling needs.

Anyway, here is the link:

https://crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control/download

I've heard many great things about Thinkpadds, and I saw several myself and the meterial and robustness is incredible for a windows laptop. I,d kill to have this internal keyboard everywhere.
No, nvda and jaws they both have an arm version / they are natively compatible with it.
I don't use the start menu at all, the run window is the way to go for me on every windows os when you have autocompletion enabled via a registry key.

The Search UI. Absolutely, most horriblly, insainly humiliatingly, sucks.
It was it's best in Windows 7/8. Now it's just a webpage pulling things from different places in a really slow way. It's useless in my opinion on Win11.
On win7, I would be damn sure that typing first few letters of a file name would surely bring the file among the top results. On Win11, it's completely hopeless, even you set indexing to index entire drive. Web search results also are pathetic to navigate in to, 1 time you are arrowing down the search results, and suddenly you findyourself in an HTML page, throwing your screen-reader's browse/focus-modes in to absolute mess. The damn thing refuses to use my default browser or search engine of choise.
It's a rant, feedback, whatever. Microsoft knows it, yet refuses to fix it.

So, is this the Search we encounter when pressing the Start button/Windows Key? Also, is this the same Search as what is on the default Windows 11 taskbar?

I ask because I have only ever used Windows search occasionally, and even then only to find a specific app or directory. 🤷

I never used it to perform a web search. Hell, I never used Spotlight Search on macOS for web searches either. I guess I like doing some things old school. 😇

I would really love to try this Surface 7th laptop, but I can't find it for sale anywhere. I was in the United States as an exchange student, and my year ended just the week before these laptops came out. Now that these Snapdragon laptops are out, when do you think they'll be available in other countries? Also, Windows 11 tends to be slower and laggy when using battery saver mode. When it's turned off and balanced mode is active in the power settings, Windows gets much faster but consumes more battery, even when just writing an email or chatting on WhatsApp. Do you find that annoying issue on the Surface laptop?

They are already out in the UK so can't comment on other countries.

I got my laptop from Amazon. If it's not available in your country, you may be able to import it.
I've noticed performance does seem to take a hit when using balanced or Energy Saver which isn't surprising. You have to sacrifice performance for better battery life. I tend to prefer my desktop, as I always have it set to best performance and don't have to worry about batteries, but the battery life on the laptop has been okay. I need to seriously try using it all day and measure the total runtime, but this depends on what you're doing and what power mode you have it set to. I wish Windows was a more optimized and significantly less bloated OS, but that's gone along with XP.

This very HP laptop I'm using to send this very post and I are not really getting along well enough. Most laptops having their speakers under them really makes me mad. How can the manufacturers really think that the user can get the best out of the speakers with the device on some surface like a table or one's lap and anything coming through the speaker suppressed by the laptop itself and the surface? Anyway, this HP device has its problematic Realtek audio driver that applies some weird effects and makes the sound muffled. It has a ton of other issues and I can't even regret buying this thing because I got it as a gift some 8 years ago and it's probably approaching the end of its lifespan but is currently working fine despite some weird issues that causes me to have to reset it every so often. I would prefer Lenovo over HP. I have a Lenovo computer and it's been intact for well over a decade and a half and can still be used except that you have to wait for some 1-2 minutes for the BiOS screen to show up and then set the date and time after a terrifying beep as it has no battery and you have to set the time every time you power it on. I do regret managing to install Windows 10 on it as a result of somen insane experiment though.

For what it's worth, the laptop I post in the link above has speakers on the service of laptop, kind of between the keyboard and the screen, if that makes sense?

HTH. 😃

8 years is pretty onnorable for a windows laptop. I never had any issue with realtech since I acquired some windows litteracy in 2013 :) I just cut the effects altogether. On speaker... I don't use speakers at all so doesn't matter. For headphones, I usually use a 3rd party random usb or usb c to jack dongle and then the sound is higher in quality and we have different set of settings in mmsys.cpl, and I only enable baseboost at 9db exactly. I am an unpure audiofile for and only for this.

Those laptops that have the speakers under the unit itself are just... No... I had a dell laptop like that and had to return it.

I have an HP laptop now that has speakers kind of in the screen area.

I think i'll go back to lenovo when I need a new one too, they're a great company and their tool thing is accessible.

Nothing of use to be found there for me. People have been telling me to disable enhancements or whatever that makes the audio coming through the speaker unbearable but I can find no such thing and wish to disable the Realtek driver entirely but am not even sure how exactly that's done safely and permanently and whether the Microsoft driver will be enabled automatically upon the next restart.

Since you have a HP as well, look at your installed apps and check if you have something called, "HP Audio Center". I have this with my HP, and granted it is a newer model, but you may still have this app. It basically gives you a universal equalizer with presets, but some of the presets are God-awful.

Otherwise you could try updating the Realtek driver. I would not recommend disabling it entirely, as you will likely end up with absolutely no sound.

Just my 2 cents. 😇

I tried installing an updated driver and an app named Realtek Audio Manager or something like that that would allegedly let me access the GUI to adjust the various parameters, all to no avail. I have no such thing as HP Audio Center by the way.

Found the following but couldn't download it:
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nssrgmh5940?hl=en-US&gl=US
The download wouldn't start for some reason.

It is a possibility that your laptop is just too old to download certain programs from the Microsoft store. Unfortunately, all hardware has a shelf life, and it’s possible that your hardware, or hardware components, are no longer supported.
Just a thought…

I own the Dell Inspiron 155510 and have no issues with it. It's fast and has Windows 11. and I use it with jaws and NVDA as well and Narrator is snappier too I have noticed. Of course I always make sure it's running smooth and is happy. I bought it in 2021 and it's still going strong. 16 gigs of ram and 1 tb of storage. It has a great keyboard but you'll have to utilize the shift+f10 keys to activate applications context menu.

This article might hellp: https://support.audient.com/hc/en-us/articles/27973407405844-Disabling-Windows-Audio-Enhancements

If not, you probably need to save up to get a decent laptop with speakers in the screen area.

I had the same issue on my dell, and solved by mapping the right alt key to serve as applications key. Did it via sharpkeys. It worked really well, and I was quite happy with that Dell, but had the chance to grab a Macbook Air m1, and also am quite happy with that.

Personally, I am incredibly satisfied with my HP laptop. Granted, it was purchased for me by my VR counselor with my states agency for the blind. Nevertheless, they did quite right by me, far as I am concerned. Maybe I am lucky. Perhaps the planets were in alignment that week. Whatever the reason, I have not had any of the issues that others have posted here or in other threads regarding PC laptops. No battery issues. No overheating. And I game quite intensively on my machine, when I’m not doing my curriculum for my current certification program.

I did have a small issue with NVDA a while back, but as that was a third-party software, and not anything by Microsoft exclusively, I am not really counting that as a ‘ PC issue’.

I feel bad for all of you that have indeed had issues with your PC laptops, or hell even desktops. Truly. The only advice I can give is to wean yourselves off of Intel base machines, and as I believe Brad mentioned earlier in this thread, both HP and Lenovo are very good PC manufacturers.

I would also add that newer is better, and if you must buy a used or refurbished machine, try not to go more than two years old as computers age very fast in today’s market.

So, I just got a samsung t9 external hard drive and wow, the speeds on this thing are awsome.

I've just found out about USBC,, I thought USB ports didn't matter and I was so wrong.

Turns out there's a USB a, probably a b although I've not heard of one, and now there's a tiny port that's the USBC port.

Man I feel old, I remember when speads of 2 or so mb were normal, now I get 100, and something, I don't even think that's the fastest my t9 can go!

I don't think my computer supports the USBC 2.0 I think it's called, the latest one?

Maybe one day I'll be able to transfer 100 gigs in seconds, ah, to dream.

oh god i've been having so much fun reading this thread hahahaha
oh @season king i agree with windoes search thingy
i've an acer swift 5 sf 14. (no don't buy the built quality isn't good and now they've discontinued +replacement costs lots) my friend has an hP and its lovely. (though am weary of HP thanks to what's going on in the world and generally too) my cousin got a linovo yoga something i forgot what it is and damn the built quality is f**king fab! though a bit heavy but tbh its lovely.
I'm hoping (against hope) that apple fixes its mac i'd really love to buy one one day. because I already own an IPhone and the sink would be just lovely. + my windoes keeps crashing. and the size of laptops i need are as costly as macs here. without that security (anything can happen to windoes anytime) and the only windows i liked was windows 7. (don't judge) anyway that was my rant.

I'll be going back to them as soon as this laptop dies.

I've not had all these crashes on windows people talk about, I guess I just must be lucky.

True the way Apple devices sync with one another is simply insane. However, you can get a lot of similar functionality with an iPhone and PC, just takes a little ingenuity. .

For example, I use Firefox on my PC. Firefox on iOS is not bad, and everything within the iOS version syncs well with its PC counterpart, and vice versa. This includes bookmarks, active tabs, passwords, and reading lists.

Thanks to Thomas' podcast on file sharing between PC and iOS, I have absolutely no problems moving files between systems. Including photos, documents, and really anything file related.

Text messages seem to sync well enough for me via Phone Link for PC and my iPhone also, though I am aware some have had issues with Phone Link in the past.

Email syncing works just as well and good, using Outlook for iOS and PC, though I will humbly admit nothing to date beats Mac Mail. Mac mail is like the 12th wonder of the world.

Still, the syncing I actually use regularly works well enough, just requires people to be a little more open minded is all. 🙂

Glad you got the file sharing between PC and iPhone to work. Something tells me it's probably a long story. I use Outlook 365 for my PC and iPhone and everything works great too.

That article is of no use to me because I have no such check boxes to uncheck as I've checked for it so many times before but since checking (for) them failed, unchecking them will inevitably fail as well. I can't find a "Spatial audio" tab either so yes, I should probably start looking for a new laptop.

Hey there Tara,

Admittedly, and during AppleVis' downtime, I switched to a new cellular broadband ISP. My old ISP was getting too expensive and the security was ridiculous, even by my standards.

With the new ISp, I was able to follow Thomas' podcast to the letter, and file sharing works like a charm.

So, alas, I am happy. 😊

Hi Brian,
Glad it finally worked for you.

Also notifications sync seamlessly between my iPhone and my PC. I forgot to mention this above. 🙂👍

You're going to need to look for the spacial audio stuff in your new laptop just to make sure it doesn't crackle but you should be able to find it if it's on windows 10/11.

And make sure, whatever you do, that the speakers are in the screen, not under the machine.

I have no idea how anyone is supposed to use a computer with speakers on the bottom. Cited, or otherwise. That has to be the dumbest move any PC manufacturer has ever made. Ever.

I got a laptop like that once and had to return it ASAP.

Thankfully, this HP my VR counselor purchased for my certification program does not have speakers like that. I honestly do not know what I would do if I was stuck with that type of laptop for schoolwork.

I'd tell them I cannot complete the work and that they need to get a refund then make sure the speakers are on the screen, although I'd assume you'd be using headphones so it might be ok?

I do not typically wear headphones or earbuds while using my laptop when I’m home. Only if I happen to be out and about with my laptop. So in those cases, it wouldn’t be an issue, but at home, I would be banging my head on the wall. Thankfully, I do not have to deal with that.

Fair enough.