Laptop recommendations needed

[Blotus]

Oh hello! It's me again!

Considering buying a laptop. Nothing super. I'd mainly be doing writing on it, gaming not so much. I'm incredibly out of the loop when it comes to computer specs, so I need help. Looking for something in the $500-750 range.

Geek squad, assemble!

[Kupek]

A Dell Inspiron 13 laptop fits your needs: http://www.dell.com/content/products/pr ... nspiron-13

You can also check out the Lenovo ThinkPad SL300, there's a model in your price range. I used an older generation ThinkPad last summer at IBM (so it was an IBM ThinkPad, not a Lenovo ThinkPad), and I was surprised at how good it was.

[Mental]

Do not buy an HP laptop. Mine is HP. They are utter crap.

[Zeus]

Do not buy an HP laptop. Mine is HP. They are utter crap.

I've had an HP Tseries laptop for 2 years and it's awesome. No issues with anything and everything runs quite well. Great thing is, they're cheap too. If you don't game and just need it for surfing, burning, and basic stuff, you can get a decent one for $600 from Futureshop.ca. This one should be more than enough for your non-gaming needs:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/prodde ... 377&catid=

Just stay away from Compaq & Acer.

[bovine]

Oh hello! It's me again!

Considering buying a laptop. Nothing super. I'd mainly be doing writing on it, gaming not so much. I'm incredibly out of the loop when it comes to computer specs, so I need help. Looking for something in the $500-750 range.

Geek squad, assemble!

netbook?

[SineSwiper]

Get an Apple laptop! All the cool kids have one!

[Tessian]

Netbooks are TOO cheap... as cool as they are they are only useful as an additional computer, not your ONLY computer.

Just stay away from Compaq & Acer.

You do know that Compaq and HP are the same company and have been for years, right?

Inspirons are a good bet... although you'll probably want a bigger laptop than Kupek linked (13" screen? damn that's tiny). I'd look at the mid range end Inspiron 15 and bump it up to Vista Home Premium; Basic sucks. 3GB memory is all you'll really need and most of a 4th GB will go unusable anyway. Spring for a longer warranty (depending on how they're priced) and you're golden.

[Shellie]

Just got a sale email from Newegg on Laptops.

[Kupek]

Sine, shutup.

A Netbook is probably not good as a primary computer. I wouldn't want to do significant amount of writing on it.

I find 13" widescreen laptops the best compromise between size and portability. That's what mine is, and the screen is big enough to get work done at home and working at say, a coffee shop. (At the office I hook it up to a monitor.) My laptop before this one was a 16" Dell Inspiron, and it was just too bulky to carry around comfortably.

Blotus, you should probably go to a store somewhere so you can see if a 13" or a 15" is what you want.

[Imakeholesinu]

Contrary to Replay's thoughts on HP, I've recommended two people use HP laptops and have heard nothing but praise for my recommendations. Now, it does come loaded with the HP Advisor software and some additional crap that Vista already does but that can easily be removed. Everyone at my work runs an HP workstation and I have to say 90% of the laptops in the office are HP's as well. Now, the HP's I helped build out were closer to $1000 but were on-par with a desktop machine.

[Zeus]

Oh, try and do everything in your power to get XP on there instead of Vista. You'll be much, much happier

[Lox]

Oh, try and do everything in your power to get XP on there instead of Vista. You'll be much, much happier

Ignore Zeus. If you are running a laptop with 3GB of RAM and a good processor, Vista will run wonderfully. You'll get used to it quickly enough. Then just upgrade to Windows 7 when it's out and you're set.

Also, I've heard nothing but good things about HP's from my friends who own them. I also know plenty of people with Inspirons who are also thrilled. I have an older Inspiron and it's great.

I really like the idea of a 13" laptop for the same reasons Kupek gave. If I could own 2 laptops, I'd have a 13" for travel and a 17" as a desktop replacement to leave in the house. But I would also go to the store and see what size you prefer.

[Zeus]

I have a 15.4" and it's perfectly fine for light travelling. Fits into a backpack or laptop bag well, only weights 10 pounds or so. And if you decide to upgrade to a 12-cell lithium ion battery, you'll get 7 + hours out of it. I get over 3 on mine with a 6-cell battery and it's more enough for around the house or if I go to a friends/cousins house.

Really depends how much he's gonna travel with it. The vast majority of people I've seen don't travel enough to warrant a smaller laptop.

[Kupek]

I carry my laptop every day. I take it into work and use it as a desktop (lid closed, but with keyboard and monitor hooked into it), and I walk to a coffee shop on Saturday and Sunday to get work done. My old one was close to 10 lbs. total, and carrying that a mile became a chore. I barely notice my 13" Macbook when I'm walking around.

Zeus, I used to carry my Dell around about as often as it sounds you do, but I realized I wanted to do it more.

I agree with Zeus it all depends on what you want to do, but I found that what I wanted to do changed over time. I'm also surprised that you guys think 13" is really small, but I guess I thought the same thing until I saw other people with 13" laptops, and I saw it worked well.

Almost forgot: Unlike my old 16", my 13" is actually appropriate to have on my lap. So, now, I'll sometimes do work while sitting on the couch with the tv on, which is something I never used to do with my 16".

[bovine]

cheapest, laptops of any reasonable quality that I have managed to find on websites that ship cheaply to canada.

Acer Aspire AS5735-4017

Acer Aspire AS4730-4758

Gateway MD2409H

Sony VGN-CS108DQ (requires instant rebate to be cheap)

you won't be playing games on these, but the gateway at least has a videocard in that one, so I would recommend it over the others. Integrated graphics are for losers.

If you're getting this as a desktop replacement, get the gateway. If not, then I'd recommend one of the acers. The sony is pretty, but you're paying too much for it when comparing the specs.

[Zeus]

And further to Kup's response, it'll depend on whether or not it's your primary or secondary computer. My laptop really is more of a convenience machine that I bought for mostly for my wife (she don't want to go downstairs all the time) and will use on occassion myself, even with my desktop only in the next room. I still have a desktop that I use as the hub of my network and where I do all of my downloading and heavy computer use (ie. video conversion and editing).

Even with the 15.4" I find it's perfect fine for the lap and ain't too heavy, perfectly fine for light travel or around the house. But if I were carrying around at school or to and from work? Yeah, I'd probably go with something a little lighter.

[Zeus]

Just stay away from Compaq & Acer.

You do know that Compaq and HP are the same company and have been for years, right?

That don't mean their operations have been combined or that they don't have "cheap" and "good" product lines. It depends on the strategy they decide to use. My sister had a 4 or 5 year old Compaq and it SUCKED.

Best Buy owns Futureshop but they're not connected in any way. Hell, I use their own price match policies against them by taking a Best Buy flyer into Futureshop and vice versa.

[Kupek]

The problem with my 16" Dell was partially bulkiness and weight, but heat was the biggest factor. After 20 minutes on my lap, it was just uncomfortable.

[Louis]

I have an above average gaming desktop, so I really only wanted a portable device that I could a) do my homework on, b) surf the web, c) check e-mail, d) online chat, e) play retro games through an emulator when I'm bored, f) not get a muscle cramp from carrying it around, and g) reasonable battery life. So far my Asus EeePC fits me just fine. I'm not sure of my model number, but I paid $329.99 for these options:

Intel Atom
1GB RAM
160GB Hard disc
Wireless N
10/100 NIC
4-cell battery (I honestly get about 4 hours battery life from full charge with the battery saver option on.)

I'm seriously considering buying a reasonably priced gaming laptop in the near future so I don't have to keep lugging my desktop over to Sine and Seraphina's. Even though I've become a pro at this point and can set up in under like 3 minutes I like this one from Gateway. I'm just waiting for Best Buy to put it on sale again <a href="http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 0">Gateway FX Laptop</a>

[Tessian]

Now if you want a REAL laptop, one that will last forever no matter how often you drop it or shoot at it...



Latitude XFR e6400

[Blotus]

Thanks, homies.

[Mental]

I stand by my position on my HP laptop. I bought it right around the time their CEO was getting fired for spying on the board, which may indicate she was more concerned with that than she was making sure her company was making very computers.

I paid about a grand for it, maybe a bit more. The keyboard sometimes misses keypresses (literally). For about a week or so I actually wondered if the "e" key had completely lost its ability to register. The battery can be really inconsistent to charge and even though it's a high-range Pentium with a gig of RAM the thing runs a far second to my home AMD3000 with 512MB of RAM and a Fry's motherboard that had already been opened and returned. Granted, I must have done a really good job with this desktop, because it's still responsive as hell and keeps up even today without me biting the bullet on upping the RAM, but the difference in processing power is still supposed to be vast and my older-tech desktop should not be able to rampantly kick my laptop's ass.

I've already had to reinstall Windows once after I loaned it to a friend, who as far as I can tell didn't actually install anything but just dragged the laptop into reasonably rough-wear environments for a few days. You can literally FEEL the poor EM shielding from the internals when you type on my laptop. Your fingers tingle.

So I stand by my statement. I still love my laptop as I love all computers that work at all, but there are more reliable and responsive machines out there by far.