Help choosing basic use laptop

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greenbird

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Jul 6, 2007
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1_What is your budget? $600 max

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 14-15in

3_What screen resolution do you want? Not terribly important.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable

5_How much battery life do you need? 1.5-2 hours

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? No games more intensive than standard flash fare will likely be played.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.) Photo and video storage/viewing, web browsing, office applications (power point, excel, etc)

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? 250gb's should be plenty but the user certainly isn't opposed to more.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I typically make my computer purchases through Newegg but this laptop isn't for me so wherever the best deal is would be best.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? At least 3 years, longer if possible.


11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? A standard dvd +/-rw should be plenty. A media card reader would be a welcome plus.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

Due to poor experiences with HP and a seemingly 50/50 shot of a satisfactory Dell I tend not to suggest those brands. Also, Gateways show up on quite a few "top laptop" lists but old (outdated?) prejudices prevent me from taking the company seriously. I know very little about Asus and Acer offerings beyond their price/performance benefits but ultimately I'm most concerned with longevity and stability.

Toshiba and Sony are the brands I generally tell people to stick to but in this case they'd prefer something cheap (excluding a lot of Vaio's) and thin (excluding a lot of Toshiba's) This is the front runner at the moment but I'm completely open to more experienced suggestions:
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-PSLV6U-028007-Satellite-L505D-LS5005-Q1-2/dp/B0032S2X0W


13_What country do you live in? United States

I've lurked and leeched info from you wonderful people for years and am super grateful for your time and effort.
 
It's not easy to judge which laptops are more reliable. That doesnt stop some people from trying though.
Laptop Reliability Ratings: Which Laptop is Really Most Reliable?
Just note those ratings are for past history, cover ALL the MFGRs models (any one could have a lemon model or a GEM model) and other caveats.

I wanted to check out the Mobility Radeon 4100 graphics of that Satellite L505D and didnt exactly get what I wanted - to find out it was good with HD video decoding. No one seems sure if it has nearly the same ability as the HD 4200 for watching HD movies.
Notebookcheck Satellite 5xx notes

The same model is $50 more @ NewEgg and $80 more @ ToshibaDirect for Satellite L500D-ST55X1 (next higher CPU and HD 4200 graphics).


 

IsabellaWinTeam

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Hi there,

How necessary is the DVD drive? If it is not a big concern, you might like the Toshiba Satellite T135D-S1325WH. It is very slim and light-weight. It also has 4 GB RAM and 320 storage. The only spec not met with this Toshiba is the DVD drive.

What do you think?

Isabella
MSFT Windows Outreach Team
 

greenbird

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WR2-Thanks for the link. I was surprised to see Asus in their but it really adds a lot of options for future purchases too.

Isabella- I think the dvd drive isn't a huge deal but might be missed. However, my friend's Mother just told me she was in the market for a laptop and wouldn't need a dvd drive at all. I'm 100% going to pass it on to her. Never would have found it on my own.
 
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