A bit of advice, o wise ones...

[ellid]

I am strongly considering getting a laptop. My needs are simple, my wants are few, and I don't need much more than Word, PowerPoint, and Internet capacity.

I've had Toshiba and Dell both recommended to me. Any other ideas? :D

Comments

[alphasarah.livejournal.com]

Get a mac.

I kid. Sort of.

;^)

[musikologie.livejournal.com]

I would mention Lenovo. They're having a pretty massive sale on their IdeaPad and ThinkPad lines right now.

I'm loving my MacBook, but I'm thinking you're wanting to spend under $1000 on this thing...

[bronze-ribbons.livejournal.com]

I have a ThinkPad with Windows XP Professional. The plus is that they're rated high for sturdiness. (This is mandatory for any laptop I own, since I travel a lot and am a klutz.) Having a trackpoint instead of a trackpad doesn't bother me, and it works well with projectors.

Downsides: Lenovo customer service is spotty, and it's been unreliable when it comes to installations of new software - they often take a long time or stall out completely. (I'm not enough of a techie to sort out whether it's the hardware or o/s at fault for the latter, however, and it doesn't sound like that would be much of an issue for you.)

[musikologie.livejournal.com]

Oh, word on that. My family has had ThinkPads since IBM owned them, and Lenovo has not been good on the customer service front. I'd get it serviced at a local repair shop.

[lherelenfeline.livejournal.com]

I'm seconding the Lenovo. I have one, and its fantastic.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

First off, I love the portability of a laptop. I take it anywhere in my house and slightly outside (my front porch). It's great!

I like my Toshiba well enough, though it can take a bit to warm up and get going.

[zephre.livejournal.com]

I have had two wonderful Toshiba laptops, and I love them. I have a lot of Toshiba brand loyalty. They have been very responsive AND I can take them to the Geeksquad at Best Buy if there is any problem or I want to add hardware.
I have heard a lot of good things about Lenovo, as well, and am considering them for my next purchase because they tend to be smaller and cheaper, and I really want to get a machine that's very small, just to write and surf.

I don't even look at Dell anymore, because their proprietary hardware annoyed me so much when I was last a user. It may have changed since 2002, but when I had a Dell there was nobody I could actually take the machine to, I had to ship it out of town for repair when something went wrong. Geeksquad and the local independent geeks couldn't even open it up.

Good luck!

[fitzw.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I only have a laptop because it's the one provided to me by the company.

That being said, I use an IBM T42.

[aseneth.livejournal.com]

I've just gotten an Acer Aspire One (the link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-8-9-inch-Processor-Battery/dp/B001EYVBE0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1225336891&sr=8-1 )and so far I like its portability a lot; the small screen size might get to be a problem if it were my only computer, though. I also have a Fujitsu laptop at work and have been very pleased with its sturdiness. It even has a "spill-resistant" keyboard and an antishock feature.

And at the moment, if you have an eBay account, buy through Paypal and register with (and access Ebay through)Microsoft LiveSearch, you can get 25% back from eBay "Buy It Now" purchases - with that, and if you get one of eBay's 10% off coupons, you can save some serious money! (That's how I got the Acer).

[zaduzbina.livejournal.com]

I love my MACBook

[aunty_marion]

IAWTC.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you currently own any software? If so, for what platform?

Software currently costs, so you need to factor that into your decision.

And then there's the Windows Vista issue. It can be hard to get your hands on a PC with non-Vista software.

[aunty_marion]

Anything that you happen to like and can afford will be good, AS LONG AS you can get it with Windows XP. Do not, under any circumstances unless there is absolutely no way of avoiding it, get anything with Vista. It will be underpowered and buggy and you will end up cursing it.

OR - get a Mac instead. They may cost a little more (apparently) but they are far more efficient. You can also get ones which will dualboot into either Mac OS or Windows - and as far as I know, the version of Windows would be XP. That means that you'd be able to run pretty much any software. Macintosh versions of most of the main things are available - I run Office on the MacBook quite happily, and it's perfectly compatible with the Windows versions.

Another alternative, if you can manage with a smaller screen and keyboard, is to get one of the new 'netbooks' - there's the Acer, and the Asus Eee (which I covet, but can't afford); they're much cheaper, they have internet/wi-fi built in, but (apart from the higher-end Acers, I think), they run on Linux. Which is NOT a problem except for a very few things. They have a graphical interface which looks and feels very similar to XP, and have versions of the major software programs. You'd need to look at them in computer shops and online (that applies to everything, really, but...).

Laptops

[islenskr.livejournal.com]

I have a ThinkPad (and old IBM) and a Lenovo laptop (from this century) at work. Both have XP and work just fine. But, if I had my druthers I would have a Mac. The problems I've had with viruses and spyware, although rare, are horrendous enough to be worth every penny of $1000 of laptop.

[baronessmartha.livejournal.com]

I have a Toshiba refurb from Toshiba. I adore it and it serves me well.
My sister is a computer guru and loves Toshiba too.

[prince-hring.livejournal.com]

1) not Dell

2) buy used (pawn shop or the like)

3) if Windows, use XP

4) use Linux if possible (less trouble)

5) if you want light and portable, Thinkpad 240, which is what I have. It is slow and very tiny, no CD try and no floppy (you'd install things over a network), but it is small enough to almost disappear into a briefcase and you can get one on e-bay for $100 or so.

My $.02

[prince-hring.livejournal.com]

For example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultra-portable-IBM-Thinkpad-240-plus-Extras_W0QQitemZ320314803416QQihZ011QQcategoryZ177QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[bronze-ribbons.livejournal.com]

There was an article in this morning's Wall St. Journal you might find of interest:

http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20081029/shopping-for-basics-and-saving-money-on-your-next-pc/

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

I've had 2 Toshiba laptops and both had serious powercord issues. It felt like I spent mroe time sending them back to the shop to get fixed than I did actually using them.

Currently I'm using an Acer and I'm very happy with it. Acers are extremely economincal and I've had zero problems with it for 8 months.

Also, I had my husband flatten the system to get rid of Vista and load XP. It was worth it. If you can avoid Vista I highly recommend it.

[(Anonymous)]

The new MacBook (with aluminum unibody) is supposed to be DA BOMB. I'd get one if I had the bucks. (Sacriledge! I WORK in PC support...)

Lady H

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

Hi. Wandered over from med_embroidery -- My first laptop was a Toshiba. I loved it. It lasted for almost 7 years before the hinges broke (I limped along on one hinge for quite some time). It survived a Thesis and made it almost all the way through the disertation -- I worked it hard! Other than the hinges, the only "problem" that I had with it was that the fan would clog up and it would overheat. I understand it's a common problem with laptops. In the Toshiba, it was very easy to fix.

This POS is a Gateway. I'll probably never get another one. I find the keyboard to be a piece of crap. It tends to overheat too, but I can't clean the fan -- I've got to take a can of compressed air and blow all the stuff back into the interior of the laptop. I even tried to take the thing apart and clean the fan. Couldn't do it. Basically, the Toshiba died, and I *HAD* to have another laptop. I could buy new hinges (150/each) or buy a replacement on ebay for $350 with a dead hard-drive and swap the pieces parts around, but I'd still have a 6 year old laptop. Best Buy had these on sale, so I bought it. I'm biding time till I can replace it.

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

And ... quickly scanning the comments. This laptop has Vista on it. I rather like it, actually. I love what they did with the picture capabilities -- coz I gots lots of pictures. Embroideries and Paintings and .....

Anyway, everything that I run, runs just fine on this machine. (They changed the Help System, so the Help Feature on WordPerfect 12 doesn't work any more, but it's not like I need it any more). I've got Corel Suite 12, Paint Shop Pro 8 or 9 (don't remember which), Office 2003 (I LOATHE Office 2007 with the fury of 10,000 suns. Worse than Klingons hate Tribbles. SPSS 14 ran on it just fine as did some specialty phylogenetics software for Grad School.