Laptop is busted and need a new one, but what to look for?

Kay_Faraday

Kay_Faraday

CAGiversary!
Dont know anything about what to look for when buying a laptop. Halp? I had a dell inspiron 700m that just broke down.

I can spend around $700 on a new replacement. Anything decent available at bestbuy? Nothing fancy schmancy, as long it WORKS, isnt painfully slow, has wifi and I can do my schoolwork then it's fine.

Help is appreciated. :)
 
If all you need is a computer for surfing the web, watching videos and listening to music then this computer will be more than enough. No need to spend anywhere near $700 for a basic computer.
 
Yeah, sounds like you don't need much power, so lots of laptops in the $400 range that will fit your needs.

Only other consideration is whether you need something small/light to carry around to classes etc. That would push you toward ultrabooks which cost more. Battery life is also a consideration if you need to get through classes without charging etc.
 
Some possible options, from emails I received in the last few days:

http://www.frys.com/product/7051841?site=frysecampaign1date:090712
http://www.frys.com/product/7274003?site=frysecampaign1date:090712
http://www.frys.com/product/7252083?site=frysecampaign1date:090712
http://www.frys.com/product/7149952?site=frysecampaign1date:090712
http://www.frys.com/product/7161662?site=frysecampaign1date:090712

I don't own any of the laptops linked above, though they should all meet your criteria of under $700 and work for doing schoolwork, have WiFi and aren't painfully slow.
 
I was looking at the Toshiba Satellite for the same pricerange. Amazon has them for a heck of a lot cheaper than other places I've seen.
 
I do computer repairs for a living, and I can tell you from experience (8+ years for my bricks-and-mortar shop, about five more before that working out of my home) that DELL and Toshiba are probably the top two laptop brands right now as far as having the least amount of issues with hardware problems.

Any PC can get viruses or malware problems, but HP has lots of motherboard problems, SONY is really finicky with Microsoft's Service Packs. We've seen some issues with poor manufacture in some of the ASUS, Samsung and Gateway models (bad spot welds on simple things like the DC jack) or they use junk components (crappy RAM and crappy hard drives mainly).

Lenovo laptops are pretty solid, but they're probably going to be a bit outside your stated price range.

On the non-PC side of things, you can't beat a Mac! But unless you're picking one up used, it'll definitely be outside. Macs have a lot of up-front cost, but overall cost of ownership with respects to repairs makes them the better bet for the long haul.
 
[quote name='SilentBob50023']I do computer repairs for a living, and I can tell you from experience (8+ years for my bricks-and-mortar shop, about five more before that working out of my home) that DELL and Toshiba are probably the top two laptop brands right now as far as having the least amount of issues with hardware problems.

Any PC can get viruses or malware problems, but HP has lots of motherboard problems, SONY is really finicky with Microsoft's Service Packs. We've seen some issues with poor manufacture in some of the ASUS, Samsung and Gateway models (bad spot welds on simple things like the DC jack) or they use junk components (crappy RAM and crappy hard drives mainly).

Lenovo laptops are pretty solid, but they're probably going to be a bit outside your stated price range.

On the non-PC side of things, you can't beat a Mac! But unless you're picking one up used, it'll definitely be outside. Macs have a lot of up-front cost, but overall cost of ownership with respects to repairs makes them the better bet for the long haul.[/QUOTE]

I was going to go with dell. :) My old dell laptop lasted 8 years.

What do you guys think of this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron...qid=1347094566&sr=1-31&keywords=dell+inspiron

There doesnt seem to be many reviews for it yet(new model?).
 
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