Advice on new laptop

pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
edited October 2008 in Hardware
I am in the market for a new laptop and I am way out of the loop; haven't owned a laptop since 2004.

My primary concern is that it be a moderate weight, have good battery life, cost under $1200 and a min. 14.5" screen.

Secondary concern is HDD space and gaming. I will be putting XP on this machine.

This is for school, so I don't need a super badass desktop replacement mobile gaming rig. I would like it to be able to play most games, but thats not too big of a concern since I will still have this system. I just need a laptop that I can take to class with me (hence the battery life requirement) and one that will last at least two years.

I have about a month before date of purchase, so any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    So I started with the budget limit and then you can go on the left side and work from there, setting filters on specs that are important to you.

    $1200 is pretty reasonable, you'll have a lot of options.
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    tablet! and trust me you don't want a screen bigger than 15" if you are going to be moving around with this thing. I have a 14" gateway tablet and even it is pretty big. I wish I would have found a 13.3" tablet as it is a good compromise between 12" and 14"
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    My advice would be to watch SlickDeals vigorously and wait for a good coupon to use with a Levono notebook - sometimes they have killer deals.

    Ditto with the Dell notebooks. If the Levonos are still pricey look into the new Dell Latitudes. We got some in at work and let me tell you they are swaaaaaannnk. If you do a search on Engadget they wrote up their first impressions and they said the new Latidute is the first notebook to give the Levenos some competition.

    So if I was you i'd pick between a Levono or a Dell Latitude. Both top notch. You get what you pay for :D

    cheers
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Lenovos are fvcking bomb, they're solid as a rock with great specs and battery life. I love mine.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    New sMacBooks are on their way supposedly.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    He said under $1200 ;)
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Actually the new MacBooks which are reported to come out at the end of the month are rumored to:
    - be $999 or $1099
    - be powered by more robust nvidia chipset (versus POS intel graphics)
    - have a sleek case made from aluminum like the current MBPs

    I think it would be a great option, but I know you're not much of a Mac guy :P
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    You know I like OSX (I pretty much like toying around with any software, though). Still, all-aluminum cases AND nVidia graphics AND a lower price point? That'll be exciting if true.

    All I've ever had against Apple was the pricing and the user attitude. I've met enough Macheads to know that not ALL of you have the attitude, and if the pricing changes... who knows?
  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Ok, no tablet, NO MAC. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY, NO MACS. Did you not see the little part where I would like to be able to do some mobile gaming? Also, its a ****ing Mac. Just NO.

    Also, where the hell are you hearing that Lenovo is good? They ruined the ThinkPad name and when multinational corporations start dropping them due to reliability problems, yeah, no dice.

    Also, on the big screen thing, I don't have a problem with weight. My first laptop was a Dell Inspiron 7000 that weighed 9.1 lb with one battery and almost 11 lb with two batteries. My main concern with weight is that I am lazy.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    pigflipper wrote:
    Also, where the hell are you hearing that Lenovo is good?

    Personal ownership and use.
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Next time don't ask for suggestions. kthxbai.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Lenovo is the #1 most reliable notebook manufacturer.
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    yeh. I was just giving advice from my own personal experience as far as weight and use goes. Also, if you're taking an adequate course load and student org. involvement you won't be having much time for games. Trust me. I have a PS3 sitting on my desk that I haven't played in nearly two months.

    And to second what thrax said, if lenovo had the x200 available I would have bought it. Very durable business machines.

    btw, tablets are the future.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Other good options, HP and Toshiba.
    I have had bad fortune with Dell.
    My latest is 15.4, Core2Duo, ATI 2600 GPU
    It is a little heavy, but it does what I need.
  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Its not that I don't like tablets, I love them, I just don't want one for this purpose.

    As for the Lenovo, well, my personal experience and the experience of my family indicates that they are not the machine I have been hearing so much about.

    I will be extremely active in school and school related activities, just as I am now. The reason for the gaming part is so that if I am on the road somewhere, I can jump into a game for 30 minutes to get a little stress relief.

    Sorry I came off too strong on my first reply, I tend to do that sometimes; nothing personal was meant by that response.
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