retail laptop suggestions

[hacktor2]

Hey all,

So a family friend of mine will have a freshmen in college this fall, so here's my question:

Any suggestions on laptops? Retail would probably be the best route to take due to warranty and technical support. He plans on being a business major, so I'm assuming he doesn't need an all-out gaming rig. Of course less is best, but say a budget of $1000, give or take some.

So basically his needs:
College = music, so a decent hard drive
web browsing
office suite
maybe capable of some games

Any brands that are known for customer service? Any brands to stay away from?

He's also looking at an Apple, which is what I suggested (awesome OS, great hardware, aluminum case, dual boot w/ boot camp)

Suggestions? Thanks

 

[paperwastage]

forum.notebookreview.com ?

Apple's alright, but overpriced IMO, especially if you don't really need OS X

i have a dell xps m1330, with all those "bad" dell hell stories, I've found XPS support to be good... complete care(warranty and accidental damage for 4 years, replaced my keyboard and chasis through water spills/laptop falling on the ground)... of course paying a little more for XPS brand gives me better service...

my advice is that if you don't really game, look for a 13-15" laptop with a decent integrated or dedicated GPU.... if you really game a lot, get a cheap netbook, and a really nice customized desktop

 

[volt01]

Are you sure his college won't provide office suite for free? Most colleges do or give a discount. Can you still get the discount through Microsoft?
Also laptops to me seem fairly hit or miss, in my experience the more expensive ones seem to last longer, I've had two cheap laptops <600 both have had the motherboard go bad leading to over heating, however my friends at school who have more expensive laptops have not had these problems, maybe dell/hp use better parts in the pricier laptops. My roommate has a dell 1401, which has worked very well for over 2 years now. However, I would highly recommend getting the extended warrenty for a laptop, especially at college, because of living arrangements(especially for freshman dorms), you are forced to do everything in your room, including eat, leaving the laptop dangerously open for accidents.

Also if he isn't going to a school to far away from home, i.e. to the point where you can't drive their, I'd recommend a desktop, because in my experience, I find that laptops are poorly made, and a common misconception among incoming college freshmen is that you need one for college (I&#8217;m guilty of this). In reality I've taken my laptop with me to two classes ever, both of which were computer programming classes, so unless you really love the idea of portability or plan on taking a lot of computer centered classes, I would recommend just getting a smaller tower desktop, this gives you the most bang for your buck. From personal experience, most kids who take laptops with them to class, don&#8217;t use them for school work, they instead use them to goof off and browse the internet.

fyi, I had both a compaq cq50-110US and dell 1501. Both broke in the exact same way.

 

[Sly]

If he's not gonna be gaming much, i can recommend a netbook+KB/M+LCD+slimdrive. The set will probably be under $600.00, not sure what the current prices are tho.

No matter the model, laptops really aren't good for typing on for long periods. The ones i know that do, uses USB keyboards. Which kinda negates the portability thing.

Another thing that negates portability is the weight. Professional users i know DON'T carry their laptops at all if they can help it. I've carried them on errands for servicing and they may be relatively lighter than a desktop, but carrying them all day is literally a pain. Which your friend will be doing if he plans on carrying it between classes.

Option 1:
If he's gonna need portability, get a netbook and leave a full sized monitor and KB/M at his dorm room as a docking station.

Option 2:
If he's not gonna be carrying one around, a barebones PC will probably do. Some of them are small enough that they come with a holder that attaches them to the back of the monitor.

Option 3:
If he's concerned about appearances, get a mac. A netbook is only capable of productivity applications, not something you can show off. If he wants to be on the social scene, a mac will help him get in the door. PC=Boring office guy slaving away at a spreadsheet, Mac=Party guy.

 

[Aurelius]

If he goes Apple, he should go for the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

That 7-hour battery life will save his hide if he brings it to class or just wants to work outside of the dorm. Also, the build quality on the MacBook Pro is better than for the plastic MacBook, and the backlit keyboard is great if you're stuck in a dark lecture hall during a slideshow.

You can get Office 2008 for Mac in a student edition with three licenses (so you can install it on a desktop Mac or one at home).

The GeForce 9400M will handle some games well enough. Don't let him expect to play Left 4 Dead at full detail, but it's miles above Intel integrated video.