Looking for a 13.3'' to 14'' "Laptop"

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One2The3

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 1, 2008
Messages
179
Hey guys, I'm in the market for a small portable laptop thats going to be mainly used for school work and some light gaming (think Doom II, Diablo I and II etc). Here are some of my requisites.

I'd like to have a resolution of 1366*768, but 1280*800 will suffice. I'm not terribly picky on aesthetics as long as it doesnt look too crazy. As for storage, I'll take anything 160GB and up. Needs to have at least two USB ports and a battery life of 6+ hours. I like to watch videos from time to time so it needs to be able to play youtube HD, Hulu (full screen), and espn360 without a stutter. Almost forgot! It needs to be at a place where I can be able to buy it locally, like Best Buy, CompUSA, MicroCenter, OfficeMax, etc within a budget of < $500.

Thats pretty much all I can think of right now.

Thanks, One2The3 :)
 
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Why do you want to buy locally? That greatly limits your options and pretty much guarantees you'll be taken for a ride with regard to price.

Anyway, if you're willing to consider a 12" machine I'd recommend a HP EliteBook 2530p off of Ebay with a 3 year warranty for ~$900 (less after the 10% cashback through Bing if you go the BuyItNow route). I have the 2510p, the older variant, and it is a great machine, very solidly built and quick for what it is with excellent battery life. I get ~6 hours with the 6 cell battery mine came with and there is a 9 cell available that'd get 9-10 hours. I am a law student and it is excellent for what I do. The keyboard is one of the best I've ever used, on par with the semi-famous IBM ThinkPad keyboards.

The only real deficiency of my machine -- the slow 4200RPM 1.8" PATA ZIF harddrive -- has been remedied in the newer variant, replaced by a 2.5" SATA drive that is much more easily replaced, and much faster from the start. You would also get a ~600Mhz speed boost and an even tougher chassis.

Again, I'd strongly recommend it. Great machine. I'd sell mine and buy the 2530p if I could justify and afford it.
 
Why locally?
I've been eyeballing something like the Dell XPS 13 or XPS M1330 for a while now personally.
 
Its not that I have a phobia or something for buying things online, its that I cant; my folks think its really sketchy and I can't really do anything about it. It sucks, believe me I know but I gotta make do with what my options are.

Wow that Dell looks sleek! A little more than what my budget is though. On a side note, from those of you whom own netbooks like the gateway one or the eee PC ones; is the youtube quality really that bad? Something just came up and now I cannot spend more than $500 max....

Thanks, One
 
One2The3 said:
Its not that I have a phobia or something for buying things online, its that I cant; my folks think its really sketchy and I can't really do anything about it. It sucks, believe me I know but I gotta make do with what my options are.

Wow that Dell looks sleek! A little more than what my budget is though. On a side note, from those of you whom own netbooks like the gateway one or the eee PC ones; is the youtube quality really that bad? Something just came up and now I cannot spend more than $500 max....

Thanks, One
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If you like the Dell's I mentioned... check Dell Outlet, you can often get a really nicely equipment XPS M1330 for $450-650 w/ factory warranty etc.

Factory refurbisehed there, you can often get a little more system for your money when strapped for cash.

Or other laptops, like this one:

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista BusinessMemory
2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)Hard Disk Drive
160 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)Video
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100Software Upgrade
Windows Live
Microsoft Works 9.0
Soundblaster X-Fi Hi Def Audio - Software EnabledMedia Bay
8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)Certified Refurbished
Certified RefurbishedBase
Inspiron 13 (1318) Laptop: Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache)Hardware Upgrade
4 Cell Primary Battery Network Interface Card
Dell 1395 802.11G Wireless Mini CardSystem Color
Pacific BlueWeb Camera
No CameraLaptop Screen
13.3 inch WXGA Laptop Screen with TrueLife
Click to expand...
$479

But they cycle through kind of fast sometimes.

If your parents think Dell is sketchy, I'd have to say they have a severe case of the stupid. Retail shelf laptops are often the cheapest crappiest laptops you can get.
 
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Its not that my folks think Dell is sketchy; its the thought of using online to purchase things.
Any thing not crappy at retail?

One
 
If you have a Micro Center nearby some of them do sell Lenovo Thinkpads (mine's, in Boston MA used to). See if they sell the 14-inch T400, T400s, or R400 models. However the price costs somewhat more than ordering them directly.

Also check out your local Craigslist, etc.
 
I do have a MicroCenter nearby! Oddly though I've never been there lol. Decided to go to their website and they dont have anything in my price range under $500 that meets my requirements. I think I'm going to put this laptop/notebook on hold for now. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a decent refurbished one somewhere.

Thanks for the input, One
 
If you don't like shopping online, there's local HP/Dell shops near most big cities. They're mostly for service and people who want to see the actual product, but you can pretty much order anything that's available online in the store, and have them shipped to the store.
 
I would consider that Acer, but it seems to be worse (specs wise) against other netbooks. I really doubt it can play youtube HD. I never knew that HP/Dell had shops; gonna look into this. I would be all over a netbook if it could play youtube HD or Hulu HD without stuttering, trust me! Would Ion based netbooks fix this problem? I read they that they should be able to handle it, but I'd like some clarification.

Thanks, One
 
One2The3 said:
I would consider that Acer, but it seems to be worse (specs wise) against other netbooks. I really doubt it can play youtube HD. I never knew that HP/Dell had shops; gonna look into this. I would be all over a netbook if it could play youtube HD or Hulu HD without stuttering, trust me! Would Ion based netbooks fix this problem? I read they that they should be able to handle it, but I'd like some clarification.

Thanks, One
Click to expand...

Ion would only play HD video if nvidia came out with drivers for gpu acceleration for flash. When that would be is anyone's guess. Even if they did do that later, you're not guaranteed same quality. It might be glitchy at first. I wouldn't buy now and expect it to come later. Maybe it'll be available when Ion2 comes out.
Unless you really need 8hr of use time and light weight, then I would suggest you not buy a netbook. The 1320 Vostro from Dell business is nice. It even has dedicated graphics option should you want it. It's not a light like a paperback like netbooks or let you surf 8 straight hours, but it has core2duo and can handle pretty much anything you throw at it while still being fairly light.
 
I don't think anything you buy locally is going to give you the 6+ hours your looking for. Even online, in that price range your looking at a netbook.

The Acer Timelines (or anything similar, ulv Core 2) will provide a little more performance but I believe HD flash is still out until some hardware acceleration comes along or you spring for the dual core.
 
Id recommend an e5400 or e6400 from dell outlet (go go 3 year warranty), a decent config gets that low and is an amazing deal.

Nothing in that price range is going to hit 6 hours of battery life without at least an extended battery if not two batteries.
 
Thanks for inputs guys.I went to BB today and came across this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9382535&type=product&id=1218095770804 It claims to have a 7 hour battery life.

Im not 100% sure I'm going to buy a laptop/notebook/netbook/whatever, any time soon though. What can you guys tell me about Macs, other than they are incredibly expensive. I came across their 13.3 version. I also checked out that Dell Vostro; am going to take this into consideration. To be frank I am putting this search on hold until either black Friday, a sweet deal, or Xmas. I'm saving up for surgery, so for right now I can make do with my current laptop.

Thanks, One
 
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