Laptop recommendations

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wtburnette

2[H]4U
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Jun 24, 2004
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I'm looking to get my wife's daughter a laptop for Christmas. She's in college and doesn't do any gaming outside of some flash games and some of the facebook games. I'd like something fairly light if possible, but I want it to have a 14" screen minimum as it will be her primary computer and she doesn't have an external monitor. I'd like it to have a 2Ghz+ dual core Intel CPU, 4GB RAM, a 320GB or 500GB hard drive, decent video, an optical drive, a 6 or 8 cell battery, wireless b/g/n, HDMI out, eSata out if possible and I can't spend any more then ~$750.

I'm partial to Toshiba laptops. I had one where I worked for years and it was great. I bought my wife one this past summer (a Satellite A505 - S6965) and it's close to perfect. It's heavier then I'd prefer, but otherwise it's as close to perfect as I could imagine. The only problem is they're no longer carried anywhere I've looked, at least as new. A similar model I've found is reasonably priced, but has crap Intel video using shared memory. For her needs though, this might be fine:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba...uId=9999120000050003&childSku=9549054&count=1

Just thought I'd poll the experts though to see if there are any better laptops or deals I should be looking into. Thanks for any assistance... ;)
 
Go smaller, like 12-13". Trust me, it's big enough. I went from a 1680x1050 15.4" LCD to a 1280x800 12" LCD and I don't miss the resolution or size in the things you're describing. Truth is, for college? Small and light. Nothing much else matters. Even one of the bigger netbooks would be fine. It's going to go through hell. Be abused, both by your daughter and her friends and random people that somehow manage to spill beer on it. Get something cheap, don't worry about HDMI or eSATA or even optical drives -- we barely use them anymore and an external drive is what, $40? Get something cheap you can replace in a year or two without batting an eye, and move on.
 
I looked up the G60t HP series laptops. They got the best review.

I upgraded some of the parts, and the total came to $703.99, without shipping.

Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T6600 (2.2GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Memory - 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Hard drive - 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Graphics card - Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD with 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader and HDMI
Display - 15.6" diagonal High Definition HP Brightview Display (1366x768)
Primary optical drive - LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
Personalization - Microphone + Webcam
Networking - Wireless-G Card
Keyboard - HP Color Matching Keyboard
Primary battery - 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Productivity software - Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
Security software - $10 OFF! Norton Internet Security(TM) 2009 - 15 Month Subscription

If you want, you can pm me your email, and ill email the configuration.
 
Well, revising some of my specs to look at lighter options as well. I don't think I want to go down to a 12" screen, but I've noticed a few 14" models that have decent power, battery life and are only around 5lbs. That sounds like something that can work. Thanks for the comments. Keep them coming... :D
 
If you are willing to go to about 1000$ the Asus N81VP-D2 might work great for you. It has a fair amount of power in a 14".
 
Sorry, not willing to go that high. I looked at a Dell Inspiron at Worst Buy's site and it looks pretty nice to me. As a bonus to being smaller, lighter and still being decently powerful, it also is only about $450. I think $600 - $700 is the max I will want to go with this purchase.
 
I bought the A505-6980 last Friday from BB. I'm very happy with it. The 12 cell battery gives the laptop a lot of unplugged use time. Just surfing the net and basic computing I'm getting 6.5 hours use out of it but I haven't actually run it from full battery to empty battery in any formal test to find out just how much time I can get out of it total. 6.5 hours does use most of the battery though so you should be able to get at least that. Toshiba claims 7hrs 35min but actual use is probably closer to 6.5-7hours depending on use. Which is not too shabby if you ask me.

It plays movies very nicely. First movie I played on it was the latest Transformers movie just to see how well it does with a high action film with lots of explosions and CGI. It ran smoothly with no lag or hiccups.

The 6980 is not a gaming laptop by any stretch of the means but I downloaded Torchlight (Diablo/Fate clone game) and been playing it and I am quite happy with its performance. Torchlight doesn't have a high system requirement but its nice to know you can play a dungeon crawler on it if you wanted to. But remember it is not a gaming laptop. Since your daughter isn't into gaming other than web based games the 6980 will provide plenty of power for such things.

The 6980 is not a light laptop though. Its a 16" so there is some weight to it. How heavy is too heavy is something only she can determine. A 14 or 15 inch would be more ideal for College work obviously due to smaller size and lighter weight. Toshiba makes some smaller models so you can always choose one of them and get the same quality. The T6600 is a great CPU and Toshiba makes the 12 cell battery for many of its models both smaller and larger than the 6980. So if you find a model that has a T6500/6600 CPU, 4GB RAM, and the 45MHD video but a lesser size battery go to the Toshiba website and see if you can buy a extra 12 cell battery for it. They run $149 from Toshiba direct but well worth the longer battery life.

The biggest con to the 6980? Other than cost(we all would love to pay less for any pc)? Probably the fact Toshiba puts some bloatware programs on it thats not really needed. You can delete the stuff you don't want though so there is a work around to that problem.
 
Thanks Skott, I'm actually back to looking at that model. My wife says her daughter doesn't plan to take it to school (she goes to a commuter campus), it's going to be home almost all the time. She wants to ability to take it into any room with her, so size isn't really a concern. She'll most likely only take it out of the house very rarely. Because of this, the larger screen will be better for her I think. Going to BB to take a look here soon. Gonna look at this one and comparable models to see what I think. Again thanks to all for the suggestions.
 
Thats whats nice about buying from BB. You can go and put your hands on a model and play with it, hold it, etc., I think you'll find the speakers adequate on the 6980 but jack it up on BB's demo and see if its good enough for her. Some laptops have pissy little speakers that puts people off. The 6980 have good ones though so I don't think that will be a problem but do check it out. Ask one of the sales people to put a dvd in it. Thats what I did before buying or take one with you even and see if you like the video playback. Not all stores will have an extra dvd movie lying around for show. Good luck and happy shopping! :)
 
i really like the studio 14z, if you dont mind the missing dvd drive.

or the Asus ul80vt although it might be too expensive.
 
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