need new laptop! suggestions?

hp and compaq are the same thing and not worth the waste of money. toshiba and sony are very close to each other and are great machines.dells are ok but have ups and downs. gateways are also decent. macs are good but pricey. it really all comes down to knowing how to take care of it.
just about every computer worth getting now has a duo core in it. most also have 250-320 gb harddrive and 3-4 gb of ram. good enough for what most people use them for. black friday is almost here and sales are gonna be plentiful. just do some research on what you might want and get out there early on friday or you may have to settle for less.
 
Currently manage 250 HP workstations and notebooks with only 1 dead battery in a notebook. This is over the last 3 years. Before this job I managed 75 HP workstations in a gypsum plant. Open up the computer and 4" of gypsum dust inside and still running. Hard to replace a couple hard drive though but all hardware delivered on site next day. I have never had any major issues with HP.

Now Dell whole different story.
 
hp and compaq are the same thing and not worth the waste of money. toshiba and sony are very close to each other and are great machines.dells are ok but have ups and downs. gateways are also decent. macs are good but pricey. it really all comes down to knowing how to take care of it.
just about every computer worth getting now has a duo core in it. most also have 250-320 gb harddrive and 3-4 gb of ram. good enough for what most people use them for. black friday is almost here and sales are gonna be plentiful. just do some research on what you might want and get out there early on friday or you may have to settle for less.

Have to disagree... Sony is overpriced and unless you are into Sony Memory sticks forget about it... Toshiba has been one of the more faulty machines and lackluster quality of parts.

Currently manage 250 HP workstations and notebooks with only 1 dead battery in a notebook. This is over the last 3 years. Before this job I managed 75 HP workstations in a gypsum plant. Open up the computer and 4" of gypsum dust inside and still running. Hard to replace a couple hard drive though but all hardware delivered on site next day. I have never had any major issues with HP.

Now Dell whole different story.

Agreed on HP, I was impressed once I spoke to the right customer service agent... Hopefully the new OS is lighter on resources and the battery will last longer, but doesn't everyone wish the battery would last longer...;)
 
Don't waste your money, everything depends on what it will be used for.
One you can state what you will be using it for then you will find good options.
Basic use laptops are very cheap now $250 - 450 - YOU CAN GET GREAT BUYS AS LISTED IN THE DEALS ABOVE.
 
Laptops in general have a pretty short life expectancy so in my opinion the manufacturer isn't critical. Its a lot more important to handle the laptop with care and prevent it from overheating, which is the leading cause of laptop hardware issues. Get a laptop cooler and upgrade the memory.
 
when i buy my new laptop im going acer again! im going on 5 years with out evin a format! it gets left on almost all the time like a desktop and its still kicking strong!. so ide would suggest a acer XP PRO(*no windows 7 or vista) with a 1.7ghs + cpu , 2 gig of ram or more with at least a 250-320gb hd.. i have found acer to have some of the nicest picture quaity.i play real flight 3d. its a flying/traning game for remote controlled rc plane and helis.. runs it with out a problem even tho its uses lots of recourses.
 
if you really want a laptop with the specs you listed, get a netbook. they have come a long way since the segment was "invented" a year or so ago; before, netbooks had small memory capacities, small hard drives, tiny keyboards, and short battery lives. this wasnt a problem though, because they weren't supposed to be your main computer, and were really only for those that only had a desktop computer or a huge 18" laptop and wanted something they could easily carry around and then transfer all of their work to their main computer later.

now though, netbooks have larger HDD's, some more than 250 GB, more memory (albiet, 1 GB of memory isnt much, but keep in mind that about three years ago the fastest laptops had about that much, and it can be easily upgraded), and longer battery life that can 7-9 hours in some models. plus, most netbooks like the netbooks from Toshiba, Samsung, Asus, Acer, and HP will do everything that aregular laptop does. in fact, many netbooks have larger HDD's and almost as much memory as some 12-13 inch laptops that people spend thousands on. keep in mind though, that the screens and keyboards are still pretty small, but thats the whole idea of a netbook: its a computer that you can take anywhere in a backpack or even in handbags. if you are interested in a netbook, both Toshiba and Samsung make some pretty good models that perform well for their size and price.

personally, im pretty exceited to see where the netbook segment goes...they say technological capacities double every six months, so this time next year we could be seeing netbooks with comparable memory (~4GB) to those of larger laptops.
 
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