For Computer Experts: Choosing a Good Laptop

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

A friend of mine wants a second computer and has decided on a laptop.
He knows virtually nothing about computers.

I told him Toshiba was quality, but he wants a Dell, which made me cringe.

Some Toshibas have had heating problems and that pushed him back to Dell.

Anyway, to the experts here, how do I advice him on purchasing a laptop?

What do you suggest? IE Brand, CPU, Ram, OS, Waranty et al.

Terry

H Terry,

I got the same question from my brother in law. My answer was:

HP Compaq Business Notebook 6715b

Dual core, 2 GB, Vista Home Business, 15.4"

Yes,the 6xxx series of HP notebooks are an excellent deal....

[Terry McCracken]

A friend of mine wants a second computer and has decided on a laptop.
He knows virtually nothing about computers.

I told him Toshiba was quality, but he wants a Dell, which made me cringe.

Some Toshibas have had heating problems and that pushed him back to Dell.

Anyway, to the experts here, how do I advice him on purchasing a laptop?

What do you suggest? IE Brand, CPU, Ram, OS, Waranty et al.

Terry

Hi Terry,

When I buy a Laptop, I look at the hardware specs (warranty, processor, memory, etc) 1st. Then 2nd I look at the Brand, 3rd I try them out for feel (heat, weight, keyboard, feel, etc ...), 4th I look at price because I always want the best deal for my dollar, I normally do not do mail order (Dell), I tried that once and got burned (Most of you know that). I do take into consideration Customer service. IBM has one of the best, but so does Toshiba. I have never had to use HP customer service and I find that a good thing. Dell on the other have has very poor Customer Service (Consumer Side) unless you order from their Business side. Dell's business side has very good customer service, 2nd only to IBM.

Once I have made up my mind which to buy, I take it home Back it up and format it on day one, Built it to my likes and now have a juck free system (No crapware). Then I even backup my image so if anything goes wrong I can re-image it instead of building it all over again.

PS: Since most new Laptops come with Windows Vista and are Core2Duo's, try to make sure you get the 64-bit version of Vista and Ultimate if you can. Most Core2Duo Laptops come with 32-bit Vista forcing the user to upgrade at some point to take advantage of what will be coming down the road.

Thanks for the tips Ted. Can one request XP64 instead of Vista64?

[Terry McCracken]

A friend of mine wants a second computer and has decided on a laptop.
He knows virtually nothing about computers.

I told him Toshiba was quality, but he wants a Dell, which made me cringe.

Some Toshibas have had heating problems and that pushed him back to Dell.

Anyway, to the experts here, how do I advice him on purchasing a laptop?

What do you suggest? IE Brand, CPU, Ram, OS, Waranty et al.

Terry

H Terry,

I got the same question from my brother in law. My answer was:

HP Compaq Business Notebook 6715b

Dual core, 2 GB, Vista Home Business, 15.4"

Thanks Tony, although I may have a hard time convincing him to go with HP as they burned him with a crappy desktop several years ago. He's been using a Dell desktop and likes it, but I'm opposed to Dell. Ted's advice on the business end may of course be a lot better.

Thanks to all that answered in ernest.

Terry

[AdminX]

Thanks for the tips Ted. Can one request XP64 instead of Vista64?

Hi Terry,

I am sure as long as you order online that that may be and option. It all depends on you are dealing with. If you have a friend in the IT business, it might go better if you buy local and have you friend set it up for you.

[ArmoredGuns]

I recommend Asus notebooks, they're extremely nice and of very good quality.

[Roman Hartmann]

Two things are important for a Laptop imo:

-long battery life
-weight

Of course the CPU shouldn't be too outdated/slow but it's more important that the CPU doesn't eat too much energy and isn't sucking power when idle.

If you have to carry the laptop the whole day you don't want to it to be too heavy either.

I would recommend either something from Apple or the HP recommended by Tony Hedlund already.

best regards
Roman

[Terry McCracken]

Two things are important for a Laptop imo:

-long battery life
-weight

Of course the CPU shouldn't be too outdated/slow but it's more important that the CPU doesn't eat too much energy and isn't sucking power when idle.

If you have to carry the laptop the whole day you don't want to it to be too heavy either.

I would recommend either something from Apple or the HP recommended by Tony Hedlund already.

best regards
Roman

Thanks Roman.

I think Dell should be crossed off the list. Toshiba is dubious as well, unless it's ordered through their business line.

Others might be Sony or Samsung, however they're a bit pricy.

No one has commented on IBM, although you again would have to go with business line. ASUS was mentioned, but no real information given. I do know they make good motherboards.

I'd like an expert opinion on Operating Systems as well.

Best,
Terry

[AdminX]

Two things are important for a Laptop imo:

-long battery life
-weight

Of course the CPU shouldn't be too outdated/slow but it's more important that the CPU doesn't eat too much energy and isn't sucking power when idle.

If you have to carry the laptop the whole day you don't want to it to be too heavy either.

I would recommend either something from Apple or the HP recommended by Tony Hedlund already.

best regards
Roman

Thanks Roman.

I think Dell should be crossed of the list. Toshiba is dubious as well, unless it's ordered through their business line.

Others might be Sony or Samsung, however they're a bit pricy.

No one has commented on IBM, although you again would have to go with business line.

Best,
Terry

Terry,

Also note that IBM sold their Laptop Business to Lenovo a while back. So when you say IBM Laptop you are really talking Lenovo as they now own the ThinkPad label.

Google Lenovo

[Terry McCracken]

Two things are important for a Laptop imo:

-long battery life
-weight

Of course the CPU shouldn't be too outdated/slow but it's more important that the CPU doesn't eat too much energy and isn't sucking power when idle.

If you have to carry the laptop the whole day you don't want to it to be too heavy either.

I would recommend either something from Apple or the HP recommended by Tony Hedlund already.

best regards
Roman

Thanks Roman.

I think Dell should be crossed of the list. Toshiba is dubious as well, unless it's ordered through their business line.

Others might be Sony or Samsung, however they're a bit pricy.

No one has commented on IBM, although you again would have to go with business line.

Best,
Terry

Terry,

Also note that IBM sold their Laptop Business to Lenovo a while back. So when you say IBM Laptop you are really talking Lenovo as they now own the ThinkPad label.

Click here for more on Lenovo

It's too bad IBM did that. They were never big on small computers.

Terry

[Robert Weck]

It's too bad IBM did that. They were never big on small computers.

IBM notebooks had a very good reputation here in Germany. But with Lenovo this has changed a bit. At least the support seems to be worse than it was with IBM.

Regarding Dell: I am responsible for about 20-25 Dell Latitude (Dell's business line) notebooks here (i am working in an university as a sysadmin) and have very few problems with it. Two older D600 had problems with the Bluetooth module and a D510 had a defective display. So i can't say anything negative about the quality here!

Also the support is very good, but there seems to be some difference in the support for universities resp. business and the consumer line...


Robert