Rep: 11
Hi, I’m looking to buy a laptop or tablet screen size <= 14” with USB, HDMI etc ports and SD card reader. What brand/model do you recommend as far as ease of repair-ability
You can see the laptop repairability scale here.
https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairabil...
Personally I would reccomend a 2015 MBP 13” because it has HDMI, 2 USB ports, 2 thunderbolt ports, headphone jack and SD card reader. It doesn't have a great rating on the repairability scale but that is what I reccomend.
I usually go for HP (Elite/Z series) or Dell Business lines, personally. Many of these (outside of the E5 series before the E5X70) have complete component access after you remove the bottom cover and are easy to work on. These newer HPE designed Elite series machines are actually really good. I usually recommend 14” because it’s the best balance of usability and portability.
Pretty much anything with a Broadwell or newer processor will have that soldered, but that’s because Intel has moved to BGA CPU packaging over the years. You can catch a break with M/MQ Series Haswell (HSW) machines since those are socketed but beyond that they’re pretty much all soldered today.
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