Okay, since i'm starting at an actual 4-year this fall i'm going to need a laptop. Does anyone have any suggestions? PC or Mac? Which brand to stay away from, anything specific I should be looking for in my search for one, etc. Thanks in advance.

Ive had several laptops over the past few years. The one I have liked more than all of the others combined was a Vaio.

Toshiba, but the IBook is sweet! I'd just get a windows Operating System to feel more comfortable though.

Ive had several laptops over the past few years. The one I have liked more than all of the others combined was a Vaio.

just bought a new vaio....love it so far...its the thinnest and lightest one ive found and came with all the toys and good processor, big hard drive etc....and relatively cheap for a computer with the specs that it had

Over the past 10 years I've used every major brand and found stuff I loved and hated with each one. So find one that you think you will like. My son just went over to the dark side and bought a Mac. I'm not enthralled with the keyboard, but it seems like a solid machine. Currently I have a Dell desktop repalcement E1705. Giant laptop display. If I had to do it over again, I would have saved a few dollars on the laptop and gone with a smaller display and bought a 17" LCD display and went with a dual display set up. The smaller screen would be nice when sitting at Moon Beans sipping coffee and checking my email.

Toshiba, but the IBook is sweet! I'd just get a windows Operating System to feel more comfortable though.

^ Toshiba. Have had no problems. They're light, thin, sleek, and have everything.

Toshiba, but the IBook is sweet! I'd just get a windows Operating System to feel more comfortable though.

 

Now that they are Pentium-based, you can boot the Macs to run Windows native with BootCamp or Parallels, so you can do the Windows stuff you need to do that way. My PowerBook Core 2 Duo runs XP better than a lot of PCs.

 

If you go PC, either stay the hell away from pre-loaded Vista altogether make the service people sell you one loaded with XP if they can, or have both systems installed on partitions. My wife tried for 3 months to learn to like Vista on her new laptop and she just gave up, but it has been a real hassle uninstalling and getting a clean XP on the machine.

Edited August 10, 200718 yr by FlaSoxxJim

I've been using Vista without any issues. The more I use it the more I am liking some of the little and not so little features. What throws me more is when a certain web site upgrades and I have to relearn for like the 10th time board commands and the f***ing green font machine isn't easy to use.

Really depends on what type of laptop you're after.

 

cnet.com is a good review web-site, and I think they do different categories for laptops e.g ones under $1000 etc.

A guy at Best Buy told me to go with the Toshiba or the HP. I went with the HP because the Toshiba's were out of stock and I didn't feel like waiting three days for one to come in for some reason. I've had no problems with the HP though.

People like Toshiba's, but I don't. All computers come from the factory with adware. Not exactly the harmful kind, just the annoying trialware and small apps they add. Toshiba adds about 20 processes of their proprietary software on top of all that garbage. I have to use many of them at work.

 

HP's are okay, but make sure you don't get stuck with the laptops without the traditional PCMCIA slots. HP has come out with their own "expansion slots." I don't know if they have done that to all their new models, but I have seen it on some.

 

Dell usually is solid. They also come with some garbage software, but not as bad as Toshiba.

 

Even though I always use windows I would get an Apple because of the boot camp. Having Mac OS and windows on one computer seems pretty handy.

 

Most important of all. Get what you will use. If you need something simple then get it, but make sure that's all you need it for. Don't go spending lots of money on stuff you won't use. If you will use it a lot and demand a lot from a computer make sure you get plenty of memory and a Core 2 Duo processor.

Thanks for the info guys, I'm heading out today to price and if anything catches my eye i'll most likely buy today too.

I bought a Macbook this summer and I am loving it so far. They also have a sale going on, free shipping and you get a free ipod nano when you buy a macbook.

I won't be much help here.

 

I bought a Dell Inspiron 8200 about 8 years ago, and I still use it today. I've done all my own upkeep on it though, but its still trudging along.

 

Talk about an absolute rock though. They made my lappy before the thoughts of "Lightweight PC" even were around apparently. NOT fun to lug around airports, etc.