I need suggestions for a laptop (school, work and more)

[someuser190826]

I am once again in the market for another laptop -- I have been searching through the various "help me find a laptop" threads posted in the Chit Chat and thought I'd try my hand at asking the broad viewers of these forum for their personal input.

What I will be using my computer for:
- Taking notes in class
- Photo editing, personal movie editing, and other artwork design
- Entertainment

Basic needs based on above:
- Battery life must be good (to endure those long lectures every day)
- An ok graphics card
- A DVD-/+RW / CDRW Combo
- A nice screen (if it is not glossy that's a plus)
- LIGHT & Small (I need a very light laptop since I am a mobile individual)

Price range: $0 - $2,500 CDN
(Exactly as of July 7/06: 2,246.79 USD, 1,213.76 GBP, 103,037 INR)

[ManagerJosh]

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l...84&modelmenu=1

[Joe Page]

http://www.dell.com/content/products...=19&l=en&s=dhs

[Reeve of Shinra]

Apple ibooks are good so I hear

[someuser190826]

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l...84&modelmenu=1

That really looks good

http://www.dell.com/content/products...=19&l=en&s=dhs

The 17" might be a bit heavy...my notebook right now is 17 and is fully loaded like some beast!

Apple ibooks are good so I hear

Do you mean the new macbooks? They don't have a built in graphics card.

[TheComputerGuy]

I would go with either a 13 inch mac book or maybe a 15 inch Mac Book Pro if you can stand the cost.

[Cromulent]

Yep I'd recommend a Mac Book Pro too, after playing around with a Mac Mini for a while I think the new Intel Macs are great.

Plus you can run Windows XP on them, what more do you want?

[MikeJ]

IBM thinkpads are pretty much the standard for quality laptops, they're durable, portable, powerful, and have excellent battery life. They're also slim and light

[someuser190826]

I would go with either a 13 inch mac book or maybe a 15 inch Mac Book Pro if you can stand the cost.

I went into the Apple Store and fell in love with the MacBook but if it only had a nice Graphics Card to compliment it. The MacBook Pro...I love it...but I'd rather get more bang for my buck.

[filburt1]

I just bought a Dell XPS M1210 system for $1000.30 (actual price $1493, but behold the power of Dell coupons). It has a 12.1" WXGA screen (yes, glossy, but I like how it makes the colors look rich), 1.66 GHz Core Duo (667 MHz FSB), 1 GB DDR 667 dual-channel memory, Geforce 7400 with 256 MB memory (64 MB dedicated, up to 192 MB shared on demand), and a DVD/CD-RW drive. I'm psyched to get it when it arrives tomorrow, especially because I sold my tablet PC for $1000 so for once I didn't take a loss when upgrading systems.

For $2200 USD, you can get a hella nice system. I would get a Dell Precision laptop that can be configured with a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) 15" screen. That's fricking awesome.

If taking notes in class is important, you could consider a Toshiba Portege M400. The only downside is the lame Intel Integrated graphics versus the Geforce 5200 Go that was in the previous generation M200.

edit: A MacBook Pro would be nice, but as with all Intel-based Macs now, they're too expensive for what you get and the screen resolution is too low compared to the screen size. Why Apple can't offer WUXGA in a 17" display is beyond me.

[Sergio68]

I would go with either a 13 inch mac book or maybe a 15 inch Mac Book Pro if you can stand the cost.

I'm writing from an Apple Mac Book Pro, in my opinion there is nothing globally like that, remember to add Ram, best from 1 giga to 2

[someuser190826]

I just bought a Dell XPS M1210 system for $1000.30 (actual price $1493, but behold the power of Dell coupons). It has a 12.1" WXGA screen (yes, glossy, but I like how it makes the colors look rich), 1.66 GHz Core Duo (667 MHz FSB), 1 GB DDR 667 dual-channel memory, Geforce 7400 with 256 MB memory (64 MB dedicated, up to 192 MB shared on demand), and a DVD/CD-RW drive. I'm psyched to get it when it arrives tomorrow, especially because I sold my tablet PC for $1000 so for once I didn't take a loss when upgrading systems.

For $2200 USD, you can get a hella nice system. I would get a Dell Precision laptop that can be configured with a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) 15" screen. That's fricking awesome.

If taking notes in class is important, you could consider a Toshiba Portege M400. The only downside is the lame Intel Integrated graphics versus the Geforce 5200 Go that was in the previous generation M200.

edit: A MacBook Pro would be nice, but as with all Intel-based Macs now, they're too expensive for what you get and the screen resolution is too low compared to the screen size. Why Apple can't offer WUXGA in a 17" display is beyond me.

Thanks for that great post. You think you could pm me the insider secrets of finding coupons :P I only know of a few, but more would be helpful -- for Canada, if possible

[tgillespie]

I second filburt's recommendation. When people come to me asking for notebook advice, I always take them straight to Dell.com to customize a notebook. Ever since they started releasing 12 inch notebooks, I've been a huge fan. Their coupon system makes it very affordable to grab a decent system. Someone in the Dell marketing department deserves a huge pat on the back. They've been able to keep a decent reputation amongst the enthusiast community by providing very affordable system. Keeping enthusiasts happy leads to enthusiasts refering customers and friends to Dell.

[ManagerJosh]

Are you looking for ultraportables Arunan or more in the "thin and light" category?

[Floris]

The laptops from apple.com are amazing I love them, and they work very fine with windows files too. And they come with build in wireless and webcam and all the things you're looking for, hardware and software wise.

An alternative would be dell.com for example, they have some nice looking laptops too and the most recent ones give you the option to opt-out the glossy screen.