i'm buying a new laptop

[youbebosley]

i am getting a new laptop for graduation, but i'm not really sure what to get. my budget is about $1000-1500. I heard alot of good things about dell, but i don't really know too much about computers. I know that i'll be using it for college, music, movies, and my camcorder. any suggestions? (no macs, sorry for those who love macs)

[MightyMouse]

I hear Acer makes a sweet book

[SKOT]

a few things to remember when buying a laptop:

if you buy a Dell you are dealing with the king of low bid computers. they shipped their non-corporate technical service over to India. It can be rather tough to understand them.

They also make you pay for certain features that tend to be a little more standard on other brands. Dells usually have smaller hard drives and sometimes dont have built in wireless cards

Sony has the best moniters i have seen. They have the best viewing angles of any other laptop moniter.

Dell is the only laptop company that offers an accidental damage protection plan. If you are clumsy, Dell might be the way to go.

Battery size differs between brands and models. most laptops have either a 6cell, 8cell or 9cell batteries. An 8cell battery will give you 33%more life than a 6cell and a 9cell will give you 50% more life than a 6cell.

If you never want to deal with viruses, get an Apple.

Oh, and i went searching for an amazing choice for a laptop. Its an Acer!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834115224

[vaultmd]

MacBook.

It can run both Windows and MacOS. At least one of those will run right.

It's also in the price range.

[Mecham]

Absolutley Macbook, that is what I am getting, it can run 2 different programs that can run both windows and mac OS, the first one is Boot Camp, the second is i think Parallel. I would suggest Parallel because you do not have to reboot the comp everytime you want to switch. But definently MacBook. They are the best computers for the price.

www.apple.com/macbook

[SKOT]

in my humble opinion, the MacBooks are underpowered and lack functionality.

They don't have a dual layer DVD burner and they wont be able to work with Microsoft Vista when it comes out because it can not support anything that runs at 64 bits!

also, the video cards are grossly underpowered unless you get the MacBook Pro (which starts at $1999). the video card is so bad, it can not run Final Cut Studio! just a few incites about the MacBook.

[Mecham]

MacBooks are probably designed for college students who want a nice laptop. Not a professional one. Thats why they call it the MacBook, not MacBook Pro.

[vaultmd]

And you make it sound like Microsoft is capable of making Vista run right within three years. They won't, and by then it's time for a new computer, anyway.

[rainbowgirl28]

Apple has an awesome warranty. My last laptop kept breaking, and they fixed it over and over again for free, and then replaced it for free, plus I got a whole new warranty! The new one was better than my old one too. I got a DVD burner, all new software, more RAM, etc.

You can get an educational discount which helps with the price.

[MightyMouse]

One of the reasons Macs are so virus free is that their operating system is so restricting. if you want to do something besides multimedia and word processing, go PC.

[ashcraftpv]

The reason why Macs are so virus free is that less than 5% of computers sold are Macs. Why would a virus writer bother writing something for a Mac when he can go after the other 90+ % computers in the world.

[Skyin' Brian]

Why would a virus writer bother writing something for a Mac when he can go after the other 90+ % computers in the world.

because they aren't expecting it


i remember hearing somewhere that a lot of those "virus writer" people were mac users!

anyway, last time i shopped for a computer, i just bought an emachine because it was the cheapest one. worked out great.


i hear toshiba makes some machines that are a good value

of course $1000-1500 should get you a pretty nice computer