Laptops - tell me about yours?

[Terry36]

I will be on the hunt for one this Christmas and wanted to find out what others have bought. I want a small/light laptop for surfing internet, playing games, downloading music, etc. My price range is up to $1,000.

What kind do you have? What do you like and dislike about it? How much RAM do you have?

What other information would be helpful for me?

Thanks

 

[zazu1971]

Mine is slow and annoying. I recommend making sure it will do EVERYTHING you might want it to do rather than what you think you just need it to do.
I had a computer that was basically obsolete for my needs within 2 months. Very annoying.
I know a lot of people are happy with their Dell laptops.

 

[mommytoone]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1501. Just got it last Christmas for DD 8, WE LOVE it. It does all I need it to do. I was not too expensive either, about $500-600 depending on what you want. More memory, games, etc.

 

[wdwfan1]

Dell products are great. I would stick with them.

 

[BackSlash3]

I have a Dell 1.6ghz with 512mb that I bought off lease from a company called CDI computers here in Toronto for about $400 CAD. I wouldn't recommend shipping what is effectively a used but reliable laptop from Canada to Terrytown, LA but if you're just looking for something light to haul around, try looking for a company that sells off lease computers locally.

Corporations change executive laptops well before they need to be changed, and I've found it a good budget tactic for light use computers.

Have a good one.

 

[Mickeyherewecome123]

I have a HP - Pavilion Laptop with 3 GB Ram. 16 inch screen, dvd and cd burner, builtin webcam, and its really fast.
I really love it and it was great price at under 800.00.

Happy laptop shopping!!!!.

 

[pipervali]

I've had my HP laptop almost 4 years now and I love it. I've had to replace the power outlet twice, because of my own carelessness, but she's an old workhorse.

 

[disneysteve]

If I had my choice, I'd have any Mac laptop. Unfortunately, we decided we needed to get a PC in the house, so I'm typing this message on our Toshiba Satellite. I will admit it is nice and I've gotten dozens of compliments on the TruBrite screen. It is crystal clear and bright and really makes my digital pictures look great. I've spoken to others who have Toshiba Satellites and everyone seems pretty pleased with them.

 

[kmvand1]

My Dell is CRAP - as I type, my battery is getting ready to die AGAIN because this is the second charger we have had go bad since my daughter got this for Christmas - apparently this is a real problem with these.

 

[Terry36]

I have a HP - Pavilion Laptop with 3 GB Ram. 16 inch screen, dvd and cd burner, builtin webcam, and its really fast.
I really love it and it was great price at under 800.00.

Happy laptop shopping!!!!.

Is it this one http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8776149&type=product&id=1204332255236
or this one http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8907944&type=product&id=1213046785626?

Thanks

 

[Mrs.Reese]

Buy one based on your actual needs. I have a laptop that runs on windows 98 with a pentium processor. It's 10 years old but guess what it is the computer that has lasted. The best part was that I only paid $100 for it

 

[NHWX]

Consider buying a refurbished one. Buy.com has frequent specials on laptops.

NHWX

 

[simonkodousek]

I have a 17" Compaq laptop that I bought in December/January. It cost $599 at Best Buy and does everything I want it to; Internet, e-mail, Microsoft Office, Sims 2, and photo editing. Even with Windows Vista, it has had no problems to this point. The only thing I can see as a negative is having a 17" screen which slightly reduces it's portability but since I leave it plugged in on a table in our house 95% of the time, that really isn't a huge issue to me.

By the way, it has an Intel Dual-Core processor and 2GB of RAM.

 

[breathinforluck]

I have a Macbook with 2gb of memory and intel core 2 duo.

And I couldn't be happier!
In my opinion Macs are a much better than PC's. Sure I may have spent much more on it than I would have buying a PC, but it was worth every penny.

 

[Mickeyherewecome123]

Is it this one http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8776149&type=product&id=1204332255236
or this one http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8907944&type=product&id=1213046785626?

Thanks

I dont think its either one of these, my model number is DV9700 on the bottom of my laptop..

 

[PIERCEDRN]

The salesmen will try to tell you that you need a $1000 laptop. For most people, including a geek like me, this is not the case and we can manage quite well with the laptop priced just above the cheapest one.

The cheap computers are slow b/c of all the junk software that each company puts on them. My first step with a new computer is to get rid of all of the "bloatware" that HP, Gateway or Dell install to try to get you to buy full versions. A simple google search of bloatware will tell you what and how to uninstall.
After uninstalling this junk, I usually end up with a computer that loads and runs twice as fast. Just as fast as a laptop twice its price.
Unless you are doing some heavy video editing, you will likely find a cleaned up computer in the $600 range is more than sufficient.
By the time you may need it to do more...then you will be probably computer savvy enough to throw an extra RAM chip in... which is a total breeze.

The salesmen love to tell you how much RAM you need as they know that you can't get 3GB without a webcam, huge harddrive, and super duper video card that you don't need.

 

[thistle922]

I have a Macbook with 2gb of memory and intel core 2 duo.

And I couldn't be happier!
In my opinion Macs are a much better than PC's. Sure I may have spent much more on it than I would have buying a PC, but it was worth every penny.

Amen to that!

My Dell (Inspiron 1150, I think..I can't remember) is a total piece of junk. It's been through 2 dvd writers, 2 batteries in under 3 years, and had a slew of other problems, too. The first dvd writer went when the computer was less than six months old.

We bought a Mac Mini as a "supplemental" computer and were so pleased with that one, I am now the proud owner of a new MacBook (same as yours). My dad bought a MacBook Pro a week after I got mine, upgrading from his iMac (the "lamp" one).

I will never, ever go back to a windows based computer again. Macs are seriously some of the best machines out there.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I bought an Acer laptop last November on sale at WalMart ($349). It has a Celeron processor, has 1 gb of RAM and runs Windows Vista. I had no illusions that I was getting a state-of-the-art computer; we needed another Internet terminal in the house, and this computer does that job OK.

Now if I had a $1,000 budget to buy a new laptop, I'd get a MacBook. We got one for DD19 who's going away to college, and it's the anti-my-laptop. Elegant in design and operation, everything working together very nicely. Using her computer after using mine is like driving your old beater down to a Lexus dealership and test-driving one of theirs. You never thought that much about what you were using, until you saw what else was out there.

 

[Halbleib1]

Be aware that dell has a problem with their hard drives going bad. My niece has a dell laptop and has had the hard drive go once already and it is about to go again. My dh works on dell computers for work and has had problems with the hard drive going out. Dells are not what they use to be. A lot of people still buy them because of the name. So buyer beware.

We bought our current HP laptop in 2004 on black friday at Walmart and have not had any problems at all with it. We only paid 380.00 for it. We did what a previous poster said and removed all the extra junk added on that we did not need. Currently Walmart has a pretty nice laptop computer for 598.00 a couple of months ago it was 698.00 it has pretty much everything you would need in a laptop. My dh was looking at it and said that it could even handle the sims 2 pretty well. If you know this game you know it takes a lot of ram and has a lot of expansion packs.

 

[bnorm27]

You can search around now, as there will be plenty of back to school deals coming up in the next few weeks. I have a Compaq laptop that cost around $600 at Best Buy last Spring. I am running Windows Vista, and the machine has been very good. I do load a LOT of photos on it too!

I would simply recommend that whatever laptop you do buy, make sure it has at least 2GB of RAM if you plan on running Vista. If you can get 3GB, even better. If you can get a CD/DVD RW drive on it, that is also a bonus.

Good luck with your hunting!