Picking a free LAPTOP

[Teej750]

At the first of the year, i am getting a laptop thru work, so here it goes. Ive done some researching on my own already but wanted to get some input!

1. What is your budget? $1000-$1400, i realize that more is usually better, but im a man after a bargain. if i save some i can get accessories.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 14"-16"

3. What screen resolution do you want? HIGH DEFINITION, as good as i can get in the price range

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable

5. How much battery life do you need? doesnt matter, my Toshiba has about 45 min of battery so 3hrs + sounds great

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 gaming

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) basic photo editing only, and printing

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? I dont care, theres no way ill ever use 300GB but i realize they come with much more than that

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. AMAZON, BEST BUY, wherever best deal is i guess

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 3 years, anything over that is gravy

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? i dont need

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. sony (reputation), asus (value and improving rep), Toshiba (reliability) Apple(name, reputation, always wanted one)
dont really like gateway, dell, acer bc they seem cheap usually
13. What country do you live in?

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. I browse the internet a lot, facebook, forums, blogs, and watch LOTS of movies/Netflix. I honestly dont need a high power machine, but i realize that the high end screens/resolutions usually come with the higher end laptops. i do some photo editing, touch ups but just for family photos, nothing professional. Id also like to get the best bang for my buck, if i wanted to spend 1800 id get the 15" Macbook Pro.

 

[geofelt]

If your hard drive needs are modest, find a laptop with a SSD. You will be very pleased with the performance, regardless of the cpu.

If you want a bargain, and are willing. buy the ssd separately and change out the hard drive yourself.

Also, look at Lenovo. They acquired many if the IBM engineers that designed the thinktop series.

 

[Teej750]

Sadly, I dont know what SSD is! You guys are probably laughing but ive been out of the PC/geek world for a while!

Can you be more specific? And recommend a specific model. I doubt I can do any work/switching out on my own!

 

[YouSeeElAye]

http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-UX31E-DH52-13-3-Inch-Ultrabook-Aluminum/dp/B005SY32Q2/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1325103135&sr=1-1

128GB SSD
High Def Screen
but a little bit smaller then what you wanted.

 

[geekapproved]

Free...lol...funny post.

 

[Teej750]

http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-UX31E-DH52-13-3-Inch-Ultrabook-Aluminum/dp/B005SY32Q2/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1325103135&sr=1-1

128GB SSD
High Def Screen
but a little bit smaller then what you wanted.

i saw the zenbook already and read some about it. seems to have problems across the board with keyboard, trackpad, etc. I read that this stuff can be fixed sometimes by installing/uninstalling drivers or what not, but to be honest i dont want to have to fix anything. Im not computer savvy and id like to get something out of the box that does what i want and is easy to use!

 

[YouSeeElAye]

i saw the zenbook already and read some about it. seems to have problems across the board with keyboard, trackpad, etc. I read that this stuff can be fixed sometimes by installing/uninstalling drivers or what not, but to be honest i dont want to have to fix anything. Im not computer savvy and id like to get something out of the box that does what i want and is easy to use!

Sounds like you want a Mac.

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBook-MD313LL-13-3-Inch-VERSION/dp/B005CWIVYI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325105202&sr=8-1

 

[geofelt]

Sadly, I dont know what SSD is! You guys are probably laughing but ive been out of the PC/geek world for a while!

Can you be more specific? And recommend a specific model. I doubt I can do any work/switching out on my own!

A SSD is a solid state hard drive. It is 50x faster than any hard drive. It will cost about $1.50 per gigabyte. I highly recommend them.
I replaced the stock hard drive in a couple of laptops, and the difference in quickness is very noticeable.

Here is a link to the thinkpad laptops. You can customize them with what you want. It will cost about $220 extra for a 120gb SSD

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:expandcategory?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=8FA114A7D9FF4F38AE8E19B36EC665A7&menu-id=products&ref-id=products

 

[Teej750]

I do want a Mac sorta, lol. Just dont want to spend 1800 and ive never had a Mac before, was a little concerned bout getting used to the diff platform/software/etc.