Buying a laptop

[JJ72]

I'm thinking of getting a new laptop and as I've never bought one myself before I thought I'd ask your advice.

Which in your experience would you say have been the best brand? And who are 'Acer' because I see a lot of their stuff around but have never actually used any of their stuff - any good?

Also, I'm trying to steer away from people like Currys and PC World for buying, so I was going to use Laptops Direct. Has anyone else used them before?

as always... thanks.. :icon_thum

[CiS]

Need more information... What are you planning on using it for? Do you travel a lot with it? What is the most important features for you?

IMO - you can not beat a Thinkpad. I have used a lot of different brands between work and personal and the Thinkpad is by far the nicest. Also the support is far better than any other company if you need that. Well, Apple customer satisfaction might be better but I am not a Mac person. Of course I am a little biased since I have about 7 thinkpads sitting around my house. X,T,and R series.

The downside is that is definitley not the cheapest laptop around. However, the Lenovo 3000 series is not a bad alternative. It has the same keyboard which is really nice. The one thing I dont like about them is the glossy screens.

[hdneto17]

yea it really depends on what you need it to do.

if you are completely new to laptop shopping, i would suggest shopping through newegg and reading through all the reviews there. has never steered me wrong before.

also, here's a great place to discuss mobile computing and the such.
http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=73

[fangoria]

I got an Acer from Newegg a while back. I've not had any problems with it either in Windows or Linux. Above posters are right. You need to define your objective as to what you want your laptop for. If you are interested in just p2p, watching movies, etc most laptops will do. However, if you also want gaming you should look into its graphics capability as well as the processor specs. Aside from that, if you are also interested in being able to run osx86, some laptops don't work very well.

[robincheema]

if ur gonna be doing any thing professional you need a desktop a laptop can't take a lot
Hint: HardDrive... Graphics..OpticalDrive...

[CiS]

if ur gonna be doing any thing professional you need a desktop a laptop can't take a lot
Hint: HardDrive... Graphics..OpticalDrive...

That is not a true statement at all. Define "professional".

I work on my laptops all of the time. I use it for all sorts of things. If you are going to use it for gaming then I would suggest a desktop not a laptop but even some of today's laptops are good for gaming.

[JJ72]

I should've specified, I know. Come to think of it, I don't even know what I want, but I'll try and hit the mark any way and I certainly will read over newegg.

I would be using my laptop mainly for schoolwork (Microsoft Office, internet research) and some light leisure stuff like downloading music. I wouldn't game on a laptop because I feel kind of weird. I agree desktops are more suited to gaming even if laptops are becoming more capable of it, so I wouldn't be looking to game on it.

I suppose I wouldn't be looking for a really super-expensive lappy then? And that an Acer would probably do the trick for what I want. I just want one with a good amount of HD space and a decent processor that isn't going to stall and go sluggish.

[CiS]

What is your price range?

[Sexytkat41]

JJ72,

I purchased my laptop back in March of this year and I love it... I don't really care for the Vista program but I do enjoy using it for more of my personal stuff. I use my desktop for my at home business.

So if you have tons of homework and need the storage you should do that one your desktop.

[aboghosian]

i've heard good things about the dell inspiron 1420
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspnnb_1420?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=bundlestab&~ck=mn
you can customize it however you want = ]
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops.html?tag=glnav
you can find a lot of reviews here
good luck

[JJ72]

Around 300-500 GBP. I think that's around $500-700. I know it isn't gonna get me a demon of a laptop but I'm on a budget.

I need to rule out a desktop because I have no room for one.