We frequently turn down repair requests for Microsoft Surface computers. And when people ask for recommendations, we advise not to buy them. Why? They look great in the showroom. They are thin, light and neatly finished, and the Surface Pro promises the convenience of a tablet with the usefulness of a Windows laptop. But when we recommend a computer, we also consider what happens a few years later.
Your laptop stops charging, the battery barely lasts long enough to finish a coffee, or the screen gets smashed. Do you get it repaired or take that as your excuse to buy a new one? Here is how a quick repair can turn into a $500 overhaul.
School holidays are a good time to replace a laptop that has spent the last term freezing during class, dying before lunch or losing its Wi-Fi connection at the worst possible moment. Last year we wrote about the best new student laptops you could walk into a shop and buy. After another year of seeing machines come across our repair bench, we would start the conversation somewhere else: with a good refurbished business laptop.
“The cloud” sounds mysterious, but it simply means storing or accessing something on servers operated by someone else. If you use Gmail, Outlook, internet banking, Facebook, Google Photos or Netflix, you’re already using cloud services.
We don’t hate antivirus software. We hate antivirus software that behaves suspiciously like the problem it claims to solve. Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro and similar security suites often promise complete protection, with VPN, identity monitoring, and cloud backups included.
A laptop can look fantastic on paper. OLED touchscreen, ultra-thin aluminium body, unusual high-resolution display, powerful graphics and enough performance to handle almost anything. Then someone cracks the screen, damages a charging port or smashes the keyboard, and suddenly the impressive specifications don’t matter. The replacement part is unavailable or has to be ordered from overseas, and the laptop that was supposed to make you more productive becomes an expensive paperweight.
Privacy problems are not always caused by complicated hacking. In many real cases, the weak point is a person being rushed, trusting the wrong call or email, reusing a password, or sharing more information than necessary. Our article explains the practical habits that make a real difference: pause, verify unexpected requests independently, use strong unique passwords, and be careful with identity documents and verification codes.
Last week we had several customers come in after their accounts had been hacked. Not because some evil KGB agent was targetting them specifically. No, it happens easier than that. In most cases, the starting point is much more ordinary: a password that felt personal and memorable but was also fairly easy to guess.
