starting school in a month or so, and am looking at laptops right now for purchase. never owned one before, and I'm quite uninformed about the technology. I've been reading and reading with no definitive answer as to what would be ideal for me. I know that i cannot have a Mac (damn!) because I'll be taking tests that require windows (which I KNOW macs can run now, just don't want to find out the hard way...). I've been looking at the Lenovo Thinkpads for a while as they seem to have a good reputation. I've been told I should get a Dell....but I feel like I'm not going to get a quality product. Compaq is out of the question. Don't know much about HP or Toshiba or Sony.

was curious if any of you have purchased laptops recently (for school or otherwise) and I"ll definitely take any advice on any facet of owning/purchasing a laptop.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

I can't speak for the other brands except for what I've read and heard but I use a Lenovo ThinkPad for work purposes and it runs great for me. It's not a high end model or anything. It's the R60 which has the T2400e Intel processor and I've got 2GB of RAM on it. For what I need, it's been reliable and the standard battery lasts me almost three hours. It is heavy compared to offerings from other brands though.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

Lenovo's are a pretty good standard for business laptops, haven't ready too many shabby things about them (more good than bad). Sturdy and reliable overall (unless there have been a few model specific naggings I'm unaware of). One of their recent models was even rated PC MAGS business pick iirc.

Dell's on the other hand I've read more horror stories than none. In our office as well, everyone gets a Dell and our Head Accountant had the inside of her Dell smoking away when plugged into a power outlet, of course they changed it for free even when it had run out of its warranty, which is something Dell is absolutely fantastic with. They have been great in terms of replacements etc. for our office but then again, it's a small business and we've purchased over 16 Dell PCs/Notebooks over time from them.

I personally have a Sony [URL]http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-VAIO-15-4-Widescreen-Notebook-PC-VGN-FZ140E-B/sem/rpsm/oid/179323/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do[/URL]

So far I've had zero complaints with it running on Vista. Other than the one off software or hardware incompatibility that'll be addressed over time. I was hesitant for buying a Sony because I'm not a fan of their products other than their TVs + Playstations but I have been happy with my notebook so far. Moreover, I just fell in love with the way this thing looked when I bought it.

HPs are alright, their support isnt as good as Dell's and the one shitty problem they can't seem to have gotten fixed is the fact that their screens get loose at the hinges and so the display has a weird "play" in it. It just doesn't stay sturdy as time goes by. Also their warranty terms are odd, only for "known defects" and you'll get a replacement (that could also be the case with the Sony).

Not too much experience with Toshiba's but all I know is that other than the Dell's and the Toshiba's, none of the other laptop manufacturers actually give you any OS discs. In my Sony's case, its embedded on a hidden partition and you have to create it manually.

I have an older Acer as well and the thing is a fucking workhorse. Comes with recovery CDs, no loose hinges after 2.5 years of rock solid abuse. Short of dropping it, I've bumped it, hit it, dropped stuff on it, took it to India and it survived the dusty environment 2 whole months, yet it sings without a single problem till date (knock on wood). I can personally vouch for 'em and they tend to be the cheapest of the lot.

Before brand consideration, consider hardware. Be sure you get at least 2 gb ram in your Laptop AND you get the new Santa Rosa build (there's another thread in here highlighting the details of Santa Rosa)

Good luck with your purchase.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

if you want a business workhorse get a stinkpad. if you want some power for gaming and quality components i read that Asus makes decent laptop too. heck even HP is better than dell now...

some thing to consider when buying a lappy for school:

1. battery life
2. mobility I.e. screensize, weight
3. harddrive size (make sure you have a good backup source)
4. reliability / warranty etc...

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

[QUOTE=88Mariner;507592]starting school in a month or so, and am looking at laptops right now for purchase. never owned one before, and I'm quite uninformed about the technology. I've been reading and reading with no definitive answer as to what would be ideal for me. I know that i cannot have a Mac (damn!) because I'll be taking tests that require windows (which I KNOW macs can run now, just don't want to find out the hard way...). [/QUOTE]

You're heading to law school, right? The legal profession is notorious for having nothing that is Mac compatible, but I have a number of colleagues that travel with MacBooks and MacBook Pros and just run Windows as needed. Evidently, with Bootcamp, it's not an emulator, you're actually running Windows natively as if it were on a PC. They all love having a Mac with the flexibility to run Windows apps on an as-needed basis. No problems to report at all.

FWIW, I'm picking up a MBP to use for work once Leopard comes out in October -- I can't wait. Obviously, get whatever you think will work best for you, but don't count Macs out just because you'll need Windows for some things.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

If you are looking for something powerful check out this baby [URL]http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1710?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19[/URL]

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

I just bought an alienware and I love it!! It seems they've dropped their prices and you get a great laptop for the money, when you compare it to similar laptops from other brands.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

Last month's Consumer Reports magazine tested several laptops.

Toshiba came in first in a lot of individual categories and overall.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

found this out about Dell: They're going to start selling thier laptops with the option of pre-installed Linux (Unbutu?). This is terrific new, imo...cause i want to learn Linux eventually. However, these laptops will be sold outside of the USA. Quite interesting.

Thanks for the help so far, it's definitely helped me slim down my choices!

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

go with toshiba. they're badass...

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

my cousin got a fujitsu laptop and damn the screen is sooooo crisp its like highdef! its really bad ass and has some very good specs.

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I have an Acer, a new one. It works great for me, I use it even for live performances and no problem. The battery lasts for about 3 hours. I have wi-fi, bluetooth, and all that shit i'll never use.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

The one thing I keep noticing in laptop reviews is that you can't just stick with one brand. In each price catagory, one brand will have a better product than the rest which is quite scary for the average consumer. I've seen some Dells that test way better and then there's an Acer that smokes everyone in another price category, etc., etc. Best thing to do is just start sneaking into businesses, blend in, talk to the workers as if you're a colleague and borrow their laptops while you're there.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

We always use Dell at our office.... I've had good and bad experiences with them. I've always liked HP and Toshiba laptops as well. But my personal favourite, and I wouldn't trade in the world is my Asus W5F.... I always lean towards Asus when it comes to mobo or laptops.. btw Asus is coming out with a $200.00 laptop :D

[url]http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9292516116.html[/url]

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

I am such a huge advocate of any Apple product. Their low end macbooks will serve the purpose, but if you want to keep in pace with things I would recommend a macbook pro. Yes it is a lot of money and at first I was not certain if the value was worth it. I have taken my MBP to numerous hotels, trips, camping sites, etc. It just works. It actually has a lot of power, the battery life is strong, i get on average about 3.5 hours and that is rendering, photoshop, playing music, etc. so not too shab.

I love the overall design, to me all laptops are hideous and poorly designed, but this is the exception to the rule. Perhaps the most beautiful laptop on the market. My main concern was I needed something with powerful guts. I needed to have a mobile workstation that I could control the world. 2.4 ghz and 4 gigs of ram serves me well. The new Nvidia card has 256, which is a lot of graphic fire power. I also have the 15.4 screen, which is enough for me. 17 becomes large and clunky in any laptop.

Technology changes quickly ... there a lot of thing coming down the pipe. You either go high end and have it for the next few years, or you get yourself the min to scrape and then invest in a pro system later. Apple allows you two worlds, windows and mac os x. As a recent convert to the os x world, i can proudly admit I will never go back. The grass is truly greener. ;)

good luck. do your research.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

Toshibas are pretty good i heard....

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

My one is a Dell and works pretty well. Notebooks nowadays need atleast 1020 RAM

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

min 1 gig. I agree.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

2GB minimum.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

[quote=beanzncheez;513015]2GB minimum.[/quote]

agreed, with the way software + bloatware + features are being added to Notebooks these days, 2 gig is a minimum if you want to get any mileage out of your laptop.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

i have to agree with asdf_admin about mac's.

i just got a new black macbook with 2gb of ram and i just love it. osx is just so nice and with boot camp and my 5gb windows partition, i can run any windows program if i need to. i am not much of a big video gamer anymore so i did not really see the need to spend 600$ more for the macbook pro... but as said before, definately do not count mac out just because of capatability issues, boot camp slves everything, windows runs very smoothly on it and i have read tons of forums about people using windows on macs and i have not heard anything serious about things not running.

also, you just cannot beat the overall appeal of a mac laptop, all of them are so freakin beautiful. in college, jsut about everyone and their mother has a macbook... sooner or later i probably will make the big switch and make this by resident computer and just make my desktop my gaming computer once starcraft 2 comes out.

but yea, definately look into mac

and also, by being a student u get cash off plus a free ipod nano if you order it by september.. apple really do cater to the college student

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

Last November I migrated to Mac and will never look back.

I have a Windows development background and wouldn't consider doing it on Windows again :)

I use Parallels - not Bootcamp, and it works fine.

With Parallels or even the future VMWare Fusion product (for Mac) you can connect to a Bootcamp partition, or just make a virtual machine file.

I could go on, but you should just get a Mac. My org uses HP, some Compaq, and they're crap. My parents use Dell and they're ok, but they seem cheap made.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

exactly. come on over ... the grass is greener!

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Laptops suck. :p

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

[quote=asdf_admin;511284]I am such a huge advocate of any Apple product. Their low end macbooks will serve the purpose, but if you want to keep in pace with things I would recommend a macbook pro. Yes it is a lot of money and at first I was not certain if the value was worth it. I have taken my MBP to numerous hotels, trips, camping sites, etc. It just works. It actually has a lot of power, the battery life is strong, i get on average about 3.5 hours and that is rendering, photoshop, playing music, etc. so not too shab.

I love the overall design, to me all laptops are hideous and poorly designed, but this is the exception to the rule. Perhaps the most beautiful laptop on the market. My main concern was I needed something with powerful guts. I needed to have a mobile workstation that I could control the world. 2.4 ghz and 4 gigs of ram serves me well. The new Nvidia card has 256, which is a lot of graphic fire power. I also have the 15.4 screen, which is enough for me. 17 becomes large and clunky in any laptop.

Technology changes quickly ... there a lot of thing coming down the pipe. You either go high end and have it for the next few years, or you get yourself the min to scrape and then invest in a pro system later. Apple allows you two worlds, windows and mac os x. As a recent convert to the os x world, i can proudly admit I will never go back. The grass is truly greener. ;)

good luck. do your research.[/quote]

I would go Mac if I could. I've been warned not to get one simply because some software I'll be using is not compatible with it. (yet). Being that I'm starting school in two weeks, I'm not going to buy a Mac because they are simply awesome. It would be a waste of money not to get soemthing that works.

I've also just found that I can get AMD's in dell's. hmmmm

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

[QUOTE=88Mariner;513398]I've also just found that I can get AMD's in dell's. hmmmm[/QUOTE]I remember when that was a huge problem between the consumer and Dell. Dell was being stubborn when everyone wanted AMDs due to their proven performance. This was back when AMDs architecture was putting the spank on the P4s but now we see it's the other way around until AMD finally gets their act together. They never should have bought ATI and done what Intel did. Just pay the money for a few key people. Arrrrrrgh.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

[QUOTE]I would go Mac if I could. I've been warned not to get one simply because some software I'll be using is not compatible with it. (yet). Being that I'm starting school in two weeks, I'm not going to buy a Mac because they are simply awesome. It would be a waste of money not to get soemthing that works.[/QUOTE]

what software are your referring to?

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

[QUOTE=asdf_admin;513582]what software are your referring to?[/QUOTE]

There's lots of software in the legal realm (pretty sure 88Mariner's heading to law school) that is just not available except for Windows. With Bootcamp and Parallels, though, those concerns are a thing of the past -- that's the way I view it anyway, and I've got plenty of lawyer friends that have now shifted back to Macs recently on that basis...

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

yeah, that, a few others that slip my mind, and examsoft. anyways, i'm on the phone with the IT dept right now... i'll find out pretty shortly here

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

core2duo or bust imo

if you are going for a PC, i would get either a toshiba, sony, or asus. i have heard good things from all three

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

that was going to be my point. If it is not on a mac. You got bootcamp to run all your windows apps. Like I said ... the Grass is truly greener.

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

i just bought a toshiba labtop with vista on it and heard there are a lot of start up programs that you can remove to make it run much faster, can anyone help point me in the right direction on how to do this?

Re: Suggestions on Laptops/Notebooks

I found all of mine at google.com but first, disable User Control. That's one of the major annoyances right there.