Laptops (1 Viewer)

[burkeyyy]

Hi everyone. I was wondering if some of you could offer some pointers as to which laptops are the best quality at the moment, with the following considerations:
* something hopefully under $1500
* not a Mac
* has a wireless chip thingy......
* I'm not too fussed about having a fancy widescreen, or having a really light laptop... as long as it can obviously do wordprocessing and I can access the internet.

So which brands are good? Dell? Toshiba? Hewlett Packard? I really have no clue!

Thanks in advance.

 

[jm1234567890]

You need to be more picky with your criteria or there are a million laptops that could suit you.

So what is it that is most important? price?

 

[burkeyyy]

I guess what I'm really asking is if a certain brand for laptops stands out from the rest? Or should I avoid certain brands because they are notorious for having problems?

Or is it pretty hard to go wrong with any laptop, and if so, then yes I'm basically looking for the best value laptop... hehe

 

[jemsta]

sony, fujitsu and toshiba are probably the best...but being the best means that theyre not going to be cheap

 

[Collin]

Fujitsu is a pretty good brand. Sony machines are also generally good, but you'll be paying a high premium for the fact that it's a Sony.

Personally, I always go with Dell. All the manufacturers give you atleast 1 year's warranty, and for $1,500 right now.. no one else can unload a 1.83GHz Core2, 1GB DDR2, 120GB HD 15.4 inch widescreen PC notebook for me. For the same price, you'll only be getting barebones to half-decently-specced machines from some of the 'shiny brand' companies, like Sony. If you're trying to save yourself as much money as possible right now, Dell has their Inspiron 6400 going for $1250, with a 1.66GHz Core2, 1GB RAM and 80GB HD. Pretty damn good deal for low-$1000s.

As for wireless, most $1,500 laptops nowadays should come with inbuilt wireless. If you're getting an Intel-based PC notebook with the Centrino platform, that will also guarantee you inbuilt 802.11b/g compliance.

 

[sunny]

The best built machines I've used are IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads. You pay through the roof for them, none of the machines they sell are below your price range, but I picked up a brand new T43 for $1200 (RRP ~$3000) on eBay couple of weeks back.

 

[burkeyyy]

Ok thanks for the help guys! I think I'll check out that Dell, Collin

 

[hYperTrOphY]

If it isn't essential that you have a laptop, would it be a waste of money to purchase one nonethless, simply for its convenience (e.g. using it between classes / presentations / research or note-making wherevere you want).

I am considering getting a laptop, but I wonder if it's worth it considering I could spend the same amount of money on a desktop that would be of superior quality.

I was doing some searches earlier and came across this site: www.laptop.com.au
What do you think of the prices?

 

[The Gate Keeper]

hypertrophy, it does really depend on what the purpose of the laptop is for. If you intend on using it for multiple tasks, such as school, gaming, movies and that, then i would go with a desktop as it is more superior (as you said). However, if your not a big gamer or don't a movie buff, just get yourself a laptop, dell or apple are reasonably decent.

Apple's 13.3" is 1700 or so, and gives you a mac system. Google the software "Bootcamp" and it will provide you the ability to install Windows XP onto your apple. I'm not a strong apple supporter as their first generation (which is what the iMac is at) hardware (everything from computers to iPods) are really crap cause there is always some defect. The defect with the iMac is that the place that your hands are placed go yellow, and it's unexplainable.

Dell on the other hand (which i am a reasonably strong supporter of, i have bought a Dell desktop in 2003 and a Dell laptop in 2006) is resaonable. I haven't had any real issues. I did find my 1394 port a bit screwed up, nothing that the warrenty didn't resolve. I got it fixed within a week, and the laptop didn't even leave my house. Monday i reported it, wednesday confirmed it was the harddrive, friday, technician came out and changed it all right infront of me, took about 20 minutes. And the software is reasonable, getting all the discs, as well as a few extras, which are almost all uninstallable (with the exception of dell restore and the 4.6gig space for the media controls in the inspiron 6400), it is very nice none the less. I use my laptop for gaming, movies, and everything. It is a complete desktop replacement. However, i spent quite a lot more. My laptop is about $500 to $1000 extra to a computer of equal power. Main contributor is the 2ghz core duo, 2 gig of ram, 100gig hdd and 256 radieon x1400.

LOL i'm waffling on. I answered your question in the first paragraph.

 

[hYperTrOphY]

I never play games or watch movies on my computer. Most of the time I'm doing uni stuff, and if I'm not doing work I'll just be on websites, msn. In that sense, it would seem as though getting a laptop would be beneficial, for I would have the benefit of its mobility and the lack of power would not seem to be so detrimental.

Looking through the wesbite I posted before, I was thinking something like one of these would be about how much I'd like to spend:

SONY® Vaio® VGN-FS Series laptop/notebook: Intel® Cel M-1.50GHz, 512MB, 80.0GB, DVDRW (Dual Layer), 15.4-inch WIDESCREEN, Modem, Ethernet, Wireless, Windows XP, 1 Year Laptop.com.au Warranty -- $1388

SONY® Vaio® VGN-FS Series laptop/notebook: Centrino M-1.60GHz, 1GB, 80.0GB, DVDRW (Dual Layer), 15.4-inch WIDESCREEN, Modem, Ethernet, Wireless, Windows XP, 1 Year Laptop.com.au Warranty -- $1588

SONY® Vaio® PCG-K Series laptop/notebook: Mobile P4-3.06GHz, 1GB, 80.0GB, DVDRW (Dual Layer), 15.4-inch WIDESCREEN, Modem, Ethernet, Wireless, Windows XP, 1 Year Laptop.com.au Warranty -- $1599

Also, is it possible to be able to get some kind of wireless internet so I can be online regardless of where I am?

 

[mr_brightside]

Ex-rental HP N1000c P4's. DVD ROM, 256 ram.
300 - 400.
pm me if you like.

 

[Affinity]

In that case... almost anything would do..

 

[The Gate Keeper]

hYperTrOphY, I would consider those laptops to be a bit backdated in their processor abilities. The first has a "Intel® Cel M-1.50GHz", now I have never gotten a Celeron before because of the lovely ("crap") stories I’ve heard of them. The second is running "Centrino M-1.60GHz" which I’m presuming is solo, not duo, which means that it's already obsolete, and the third is a "Mobile P4-3.06GHz" meaning that it's still solo, and already obsolete as well, and would be more of a pain drainer than any other processor chip because of the speed it gives you.

I would recommend trying to hit on laptops that offer you Core duo or Core2 duo, or even an amd version of same nature. Either that or find yourself a 64bit amd (if you can get one that cheap).

I know that Sony is good, but where did you get those listings? Seems like that is something on eBay, people trying to get rid of their crap computers so they can get a better one that is more up to date. That is the problem now a days, you buy a computer which is low to middle range, and within 6 months it's obsolete. Spend a lot to get a high end computer, it lasts you like 3 to 5 years, but then you might be buying 2 or 3 computers anyways (as in buy 2 or 3 crap comps, or one really good comp).

 

[hYperTrOphY]

Those were from www.laptop.com.au - they have a list of laptops from around $500 to about $4000.

Unless it is too complex to explain, what is Core duo?

 

[The Gate Keeper]

core duo basically means that you have two cores within your cpu. This is useful for multi tasking, as 1 core could run a primary function, and another core, a secondary function. What i mean is, you can split the load on the cpu between them both. Don't be decieved by core duo 1.83ghz, because a processor like that will be same power as say a 2.6ghz or 2.8ghz solo, on a comparision of running an individual application. Where core duos come in handy is the ability to perform several tasks at once. Core solos (as in P4, and anything not dual core) do tend to offer my power for an individual application, but cannot perform as well under multi tasking requirements that core duo can.

For more info, guess you could check out wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_duo (basically you just look at Advantages and shortcomings, unless you want to know it all).

I would still recommend visiting actual websites. The normally show their laptops, and pricing for them. Some websites like DELL and Acer allow you to customize the laptops and order them online, and they are delivered to your front door within a week or two. Other websites like LG require people to actually goto a store to purchase a laptop, but their specifications are listed online for their laptops and models, though these laptops are less likely to be customizable.

 

[maskd]

I know you said you don't want a Mac, but look at getting a MacBook, you don't have to run Mac OS X on it, you can run Windows XP on them if you want, with the educational discount it only costs $1,574.10...

It has inbuilt wireless, although only physically having one button the laptop may annoy you, considering Windows has a lot of right click context menus. But the solution to that is to just buy a little wireless mouse and plug it in the USB port.

 

[The Gate Keeper]

i would support MacBook, but as i discussed earlier about it, first generations of anything from Apple are always faulty in some aspects. So if you are considering MacBook, wait till they make/release a second version/generation so that it cleans out some of the faults, like the white fade to yellow where you hands rest.

 

[hYperTrOphY]

I know you said you don't want a Mac, but look at getting a MacBook, you don't have to run Mac OS X on it, you can run Windows XP on them if you want, with the educational discount it only costs $1,574.10...

It has inbuilt wireless, although only physically having one button the laptop may annoy you, considering Windows has a lot of right click context menus. But the solution to that is to just buy a little wireless mouse and plug it in the USB port.

I didn't say that I don't want a Mac. I've never used one and know nothing about them though. There is a guy in one of my tutes who always bring a MacBook, and he was telling me that they're better because they never get viruses. I doubt that is the only/main consideration in determining the superiority of one over the other though.

By saying that you can run Microsoft XP on them, are you conceding that the Mac OS is inferior?

Btw, thanks for the info Gate Keeper.

 

[maskd]

i would support MacBook, but as i discussed earlier about it, first generations of anything from Apple are always faulty in some aspects. So if you are considering MacBook, wait till they make/release a second version/generation so that it cleans out some of the faults, like the white fade to yellow where you hands rest.

They fix little things like that without announcing it, they're not going to keep a defected product for months before they announce a new generation.

 

[maskd]

I didn't say that I don't want a Mac. I've never used one and know nothing about them though. There is a guy in one of my tutes who always bring a MacBook, and he was telling me that they're better because they never get viruses. I doubt that is the only/main consideration in determining the superiority of one over the other though.

By saying that you can run Microsoft XP on them, are you conceding that the Mac OS is inferior?

Btw, thanks for the info Gate Keeper.

I was talking to the original poster.

And no, I'm not conceeding that it's inferior, Apple just realised that they can get more people to buy their products if they have the option of installing Windows on it.