The Laptop Thread.

Futile

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Mmk, here's how it is.
Dad's getting pissed about all the music I download, so im prowling round the place for a laptop that will download as much music and iPhone app's that I want.

I was thinking a HP or something, but budget is always the matter.
...And yes, i've considered a mac ;)

This thread will also double for other people's laptop questions.
 

Sethius

Crashed out somewhere
my HP laptop:
16mths old and nothing but a nightmare 1 month after warranty expired.

It's a 17".

All hardware is just packing up.
 
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Daneel

Likes Dirt
a few rules of thumb with laptops:

1) you get what you pay for. no exceptions.

2) always get the three year warranty.

3) learn how to charge the battery properly and stick to it, otherwise kiss your battery life goodbye.

4) light is good, unless you're specifically after a behemoth powerhouse, in which case, get a desktop. so, light is good.




really ,the best advice i can give is that a 13" laptop should be enough for everyone. i have a 12 inch and wish i'd bought the 13" one now instead, but certainly no bigger. there's nothing wrong with dell laptops - in fact, i find them to be less plastic-y than a lot of other manufacturers these days. toshiba nd asus do make reasonable ones nowadays though.

if you're on a budget, then the 13" dell inspiron 13z is decent - reasonable specs, you can get a decent size hard drive in it and at around $1000 :)

what sort of price did you have in mind? that's the better question.

Dan
 

Futile

Likes Bikes and Dirt
if you're on a budget, then the 13" dell inspiron 13z is decent - reasonable specs, you can get a decent size hard drive in it and at around $1000 :)

what sort of price did you have in mind? that's the better question.

Dan
Yeah, around $1k.
 

wombat

Lives in a hole
Hrmm. My brother has a HP laptop, a 14" one from their business range. It's built like a tank and has been great for him, he's not exactly careful with his stuff and even then we got it for him second hand, hasn't skipped a beat.
 

Morgan123

Likes Dirt
a few rules of thumb with laptops:

1) you get what you pay for. no exceptions.

2) always get the three year warranty.

3) learn how to charge the battery properly and stick to it, otherwise kiss your battery life goodbye.
Couldn't agree more.

If you really want a laptop go for it... But if you're just going to be using it at home save up another few hundred and get a decent desktop. Computers are advancing increasingly fast meaning most of the hardware now will be average at best (especially with laptops) in only a couple of years. We had to buy a laptop for school and they were fairly decent (which it should be considering it was $3k) and it lasted a couple of years and is pretty much junk now meaning you can pretty much kiss $1000 for a laptop goodbye within a year or two. This is because once a laptop becomes obsolete it's generally useless as you can't upgrade much of it unlike a desktop which can last a lot longer.

Only get a laptop if you really have to.

My opinion of course.
 

taquar

Likes Dirt
1) you get what you pay for. no exceptions.
Not quite. My laptop cost $100 and it's got a 15" screen, 60Gb hdd, 640mb ram, and a 1.2 processor. (I have a desktop as well though)

Mine has absolutely no problem running stuff from the net, a few older games, and it can play videos + movies better than some desktops. I even have 2 operating systems on it. Battery lasts a good 4 hours or so (Still got the original battery), screen is still in great condition, same with the keyboard + mousepad.

You just have to know how to treat it, don't load it up with junk and crap that's not needed, and try to take care of it. ;). Computers are like the perfect women. Treat them well, and they'll be just as nice back.

As the others have said though, if you are going to be taking the computer around alot, get a 13", dads got one and it's great. Otherwise, get a desktop.
 

Spike-X

Grumpy Old Sarah
Mmk, here's how it is.
Dad's getting pissed about all the music I download, so im prowling round the place for a laptop that will download as much music and iPhone app's that I want.
If it's a storage issue, just get an external HD.

If it's a bandwidth issue, getting your own computer won't help, unless you also get your own Internet connection to go along with it.
 

LJohn

Likes Dirt
Macbook 13".
If not, Macbook Pro 13".

If not, Asus make some great laptops. All of my friends seem to be buying bloody Vaios though. Product placement in movies I say, because they aren't that fantastic.
 

evObda2

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I have a macbook pro 13" and its nothing short of brilliant for what i do.
It is quiet a bit different if your used to pc.. but there other things which you learn as you go which are better as well. (eg: just using touch pad can do a heap of functions other than just click - can scroll, alternate between pages, tabs.. there's heaps!).

However you are limited to some functions compared to the pc which you can basically do anything on. In short its just a little different.. so you may really like it or really hate it if you get me. So may be worth trying one out first.

If your shorter on cash then id recommend the standard macbook. Only thing i didnt like was it didnt come in aluminium and spec was a bit lower than i wanted.
 

24alpha

mtbpicsonline.com
toshiba nd asus do make reasonable ones nowadays though.
Dan, another one of your mis-informed responses.:D

First off, ASUS make excellent notebooks. I have purchased notebooks of almost every brand, and they are by far the best. Toshiba have only ever made crap! I agree with you about the Dell's, yeah they occasionally have a problem, but I have purchased and delivered hundreds of these puppys with a small percentage of problems. My choice of the big brands.
HP, since being over run by Compaq only make crap. I have had too many problems with them, and that dates back to when I worked from them.

Get an ASUS if you're getting a Windows based notebook. If you want an exceptional machine, get a Mac.
 

LJohn

Likes Dirt
I have a macbook pro 13" and its nothing short of brilliant for what i do....
I have to say I agree.

It's fast, it boots up in under 30 seconds, the screen's fantastic, and the touch pad is the most intuitive, coolest thing I've ever used. It's so bloody clever. I love it.
 

Spanky_Ham

Porcinus Slappius
Get an ASUS if you're getting a Windows based notebook. If you want an exceptional machine, get a Mac.
spanky just wants to let it be known that his work gave him an ASUS FS3 series laptop almost two years ago... and despite all his bad intentions and travelling on Public transport daily, and taking into the lab where its all wet/salty/contaminated... its still going very very well..... previous to that he'd killed an HP, f*cked an IBM thinkpad, and his experience with Mac Motherboards... well, lets not go there.

+1 ASUS for winblows PC.....

s
 

rival1413

Squid
macs

whats with all the negative feedback on the macbooks ive been hearing, is there technological problems with them?
 

Big_Chief

Likes Bikes and Dirt
A couple of months ago i got an asus laptop F5SL series. All is going well but despite what the salesman said the battery life has not got longer as it "wore in" (for lack of a better expression). On battery power the computer wont last more than 2hours max, and that is with the screen backlight on its lowest setting. this is really irritating as i got it to take to uni and as most lecture theatres dont have power points this function has pretty much become redundant and the laptop is basically being used as a desktop computer at home.

My question to you guys is this. Is it possible to buy a laptop battery for my computer that is longer lasting, maybe 4-5 hours?

And dont give me any of this should have bought a mac crap, i know, but i didnt pay for it so cant really complain.
 
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frostbite

Likes Dirt
A couple of months ago i got an asus laptop F5SL series. All is going well but despite what the salesman said the battery life has not got longer as it "wore in" (for lack of a better expression). On battery power the computer wont last more than 2hours max, and that is with the screen backlight on its lowest setting. this is really irritating as i got it to take to uni and as most lecture theatres dont have power points this function has pretty much become redundant and the laptop is basically being used as a desktop computer at home.

My question to you guys is this. Is it possible to buy a laptop battery for my computer that is longer lasting, maybe 4-5 hours?

And dont give me any of this should have bought a mac crap, i know, but i didnt pay for it so cant really complain.
is it covered by warranty? a couple of months sounds way too early for that issue to be coming up..
 
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