Choosing a Laptop

[magicdanw]

I'm nearing the end of high school, and am going away for college, so I figure it's best to leave my bulky desktop home and buy a nice laptop I can carry to class, library, or outside if it's nice weather. I've never bought a laptop before, so I'm not quite sure what to look for in terms of brands or non-desktop specs. Here are two laptops I looked at that look nice:

Sony VAIO VGN-FZ240E/B
HP Pavilion dv6375us

I want to keep the price conservative, so I'd rather not go far over $1000.

My main uses will probably be internet browsing (wifi and ethernet are a must), writing/coding, and DVD/video watching (so a nice screen, but not too big, because the laptop should still be portable). However, there's a chance I might do other things with it, like video editing, gaming, etc. so high ram and cpu (and decent video) are good. Also, video output is good, in case I ever need to do presentations for a class, and want to show a powerpoint over a projector.

I'll let you know if I remember anything I've forgotten. Please, let me know what you think of the two laptops I posted above, and if you have any suggestions. Thanks! :)

Update: Just had another thought. Anyone who is in college now with a laptop, what you do you use it for? Do you take it to class to take notes on, or do you just use it for reports and such? Do your professors have a preference either way? Also, does anyone have a tablet pc (laptop with a touch screen)? It might be useful for math classes where I find it easier to solve equations and such by hand, but I'm not sure how convenient it really is, or if it's worth the extra price. Also, I suspect that tablet pcs with swivel screens are less durable than traditional laptops.

[Liazon]

you can get a lot of good stuff for $1000 if you're opportunistic. heck, I even got a friend an HP just like that except w/ Vista Ultimate for $500

just go to your nearest electronics store and see what's on clearance. Although perhaps you want to wait and see how the new peryn cores perform on mobile platforms. idk, it's up to you, but I've seen $1000 laptops w/ 4 gigs of RAM, 400 GB HD, bluetooth, 2.0 intel processors, and vista ultimate on sale at stores before.

one suggestion though, if possible, definitely get a 12 cell battery. It may stick out from the laptop like a sore thumb, but it definitely helps w/ cooling imho.

btw, definitely Binghamton?

edit: most ppl i know in college use laptops depending on major. If you're school has a lot of comps, and you don't mind them monitoring what you do, and you don't want to spend $$ on a game machine, perhaps you don't want one. However, most CS majors I know or have met use Macs. Most math majors I have met don't use a computer except maybe when then need mathematica. Only a couple engineers I know or fortunate enough to have a tablet PC, but most ppl are fine w/o. Really depends on your college afaik.

[magicdanw]

[Liazon]

nah, I was just wondering cuz I read your blog and said you visited there and were thinking about it.

hey, don't get me wrong about the macs and the tablets. I like tablets too, but my opinion is based on the college I'm going to go to. idk why I saw so many macs there, maybe there's a massive discount or something, but that's just what I saw. As for tablets, if you have the money, go for it. But I haven't seen too many powerful tablets at ~$1000.

maybe you should ask Kllrnhoj or Kerm @ cemetech since they both know a good deal about computers. iirc, they're both CS or EE in college right now so they maybe more helpful.

[magicdanw]

Ok, I'll go repost my initial thread at cemetech. Thanks

[AlienCC]

[bananaman]

I have a 13.5' macbook as well and it has treated me real nice. Even if you don't like its shiny appearance it has the features that you are looking for and is really nice for video editing.

My friend has a tablet (Standard issue at the Air Force Academy). I have noticed that it runs quite slow and has lots of problems with crashing. They may look cool, but their practicality is still a few years down the road.

[alexrudd]

I have a school issued laptop, which is required for our engineering program. I use it in engineering class to run the math/CAD/engineering software, obviously. In other classes, it is sometimes useful to download lecture notes and follow along, but 90% of people just use it as a distraction. (Myself sometimes included.) Don't plan on taking notes with it; you're usually much better off with pencil and paper.

[magicdanw]

How about the Lenovo Y510? It's got solid reviews at NewEgg and other sites (just google Y510) and a nice feature set, for under $1000.

[Newbie]

For me, I find a laptop with a 1.6 - 1.7 gHz processor and 512 mb of ram is ample enough to do whatever office/programming tasks I may encounter, but when I go to buy a new laptop finding one with a LONG battery life is what I'm going to be aiming for over anything else. I have an HP dv6000z right now and the battery life on that is crap and I can't stand it. Ever since I got that laptop I've noticed that the battery never really last that long.

[bananaman]

I wholeheartedly affirm what alexrudd told you. There are few people who actually use their laptop for taking notes. Pen and paper is some much easier and it gets ingrained in your mind much better that way.

I bring my laptop to class, but I almost never pull it out of my backpack. I use the calendar on my laptop, so I bring it out when the teacher assigns things. Otherwise, I only used it to watch sporting events during class.

[magicdanw]

Lol. Ok, so I guess I probably won't use my laptop much in class. But, I definitely need one, since I use my current desktop a lot, for programming and web browsing and just generally messing around with stuff for fun.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to MicroCenter near me to check out the Lenovo IdeaPad. I think right now it's between that and a Lenovo ThinkPad, and I'm leaning more towards the ThinkPad, since that product line has been around longer, and I can get dedicated graphics for less $ than an IdeaPad with dedicated graphics, by using an online coupon.

Anyone here have a ThinkPad and want to give their two cents? If I get it, it'll be a customized R61.

[nitacku]

I have a gateway laptop. (model MX6439)

It has an AMD 3400+ processor @ 1.8ghz
2gb of ram (after upgrading from 512mb)
A resolution of 1280x800

I'm not sure what the price was, but I'm almost certain it was under $600.
It came out in late 2006, so if it's still out there (ebay maybe) you could probably get a very nice deal on it. I'm just saying this because personally I find that my laptop outperforms my family's 2.5ghz desktop computer. The battery life is decent, 2.5 hours if you keep the backlight low. It can read and write any optical format except the new blueray. It can read SD cards and has 4 usb 2.0 ports. Also, the 802.11g wireless router is quite adequate for any internet browsing. I am also in my first year of college. I do use my laptop for college all the time, but it is never during class. The only time I will use my laptop at college is when I visit the library (free wi-fi is nice too)

I guess I'll wrap this up by saying that I am very satisfied with my laptop.
If you do plan on getting one (which it sounds like you will), you might want to consider buying an older model. It has almost the same specs as some of the new ones, but for a better price, and it doesn't have Vista

[alexrudd]

Make sure you get one with an Intel wireless chipset. You'll thank me later if/when you ever install Linux on it. Apparently recently the R61 has become pretty good overall with very new versions of Linux, so you shouldn't have any other problems.

Dedicated graphics are also important, on any OS.

[magicdanw]

Mhm. I'm looking over all the Lenovo laptops, and to be honest they all seem wonderful. I think that at this point, no matter what I get, it's almost definitely going to be Lenovo (formerly IBM, in case you don't know), because they seem to have great specs and reviews, and with a nice coupon I can get good customizations of either the IdeaPad Y510, the ThinkPad R61, or the ThinkPad T61 for under $1000, with dedicated graphics.

Basically, the differences are that the IdeaPad Y510 has a nice look but a very reflective screen, the R61 fixes that but has worse battery life, and the T61 is a bit more expensive than the R61 but has better battery life. I think the MicroCenter near me has all three of them, so I'll get to check them out sometime this week.