http://www.frys.com/product/7361704?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG I have bought 2 fujitsu laptops from Fry's with good experiences. The most recent about a year ago which was slightly lower model I think (AH350) for $400. Still runs very crisp and clean. This laptop is not a ultra high-end laptop like some of the others posted here but I can vouch that it will perform very well and highly recommend it. On the other hand, I would avoid Dell at all costs.
Bought a Dell laptop for about $1200. Battery (9-cell) crapped out after a year or so and wasn't covered by warranty. About 2 or 2.5 years in its life the graphics card kept messing up, the screen would flicker randomly. At this point wasn't even using it that much so I never cared to fix it. Then about 3 years into its life motherboard crapped out - not covered by warranty. Not a good experience so I just avoid Dell. I'm sure maybe 8/10 people have no problems with Dell but personally for me I won't use their products.
my lcd on my laptop crapped out, but they quickly replaced it. the service was good. i believe the xps models are better than the inspiron. i have an inspiron.
Honestly, 3-4 years is the typical expected life of a laptop. Batteries are consumables and will go after a year or so of heavy use. Inspirons are Dell's budget line. Latitude, Precision are their business class and are rock solid. If you spend $1500+ on a laptop from dell, get their complete care coverage. You can drop your laptop in water or run over it with a car and they will still replace it (with a current model, too)... I speak from experience.
First off, HP's are the crappiest. Had two DV9000's die on me (intermittent wifi failure on the motherboard). One limped along, the I ended up using a USB wifi adaptor. Never again. I bought Dells for my daughters. I know the Inspiron line is their budget line, and so far one has been decent and the other needed a replacement LCD (I ended up doing since Dell would have charged a few hundred). I really like ASUS, Lenovo, and Toshiba. Generally they use the best parts and offer the best build quality for the dollar. I am currently using a x220 that is light and fast (I opted for the SSD option). While most think it's old fashion-looking with its black plastic (and magnesium frame) body and old-fashion keyboard, the feel of both the laptop and keyboard is high quality and the battery last really long. The display could be a bit brighter and speaker is almost non-existent (underneath and small, in part because of the small size). A bit thicker than most modern small laptops (not quite used to the term "ultrabook"). ASUS makes some really nice light laptops, especially their newer B-line as well as the older Zenbooks. I have an older UL30LT that I really liked (small, light, really long battery) that my wife is now using. Toshibas are generally bulletproof... a bit stodgier and heavier than others but will last forever.
For $600, hard to go wrong. http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/246985/Toshiba-Satellite-S855-S5378-Laptop-Computer/ Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Processor Operating System: Windows 8 Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz memory Display Size: 15.6" widescreen Display Type: HD TruBrite® LED Backlit display Display Resolution: 1366x768 (HD), 16:9 aspect ratio, Supports 720p content Graphics Engine: Mobile Intel® HD Graphics Total Storage: 750GB Hard Drive: 750GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial ATA) Optical Drive: DVD-SuperMulti drive (+/-R double layer) Optical Drives: DVD-SuperMulti drive (+/-R double layer) supporting up to 11 fomats Webcam: HD Webcam and Microphone Wireless: Wi-Fi® Wireless networking (802.11b/g/n)Bluetooth® V4.0 Inputs and Controls: Premium US keyboard with 10-key pad (Black), Touch pad pointing device with multi touch control Security and Protection: HDD Recovery, Multiple-Level Password Utilities, Password Security, Security Cable Lock Slot, TOSHIBA Supervisor Password Utility LAN: 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN Audio: Headphone jack (stereo), Microphone jack (mono), SRS Premium Sound HD™ Built-in stereo speakers AC Adapter: 75W (15V 5.0A) Auto-sensing, 100-240V / 50-60Hz input Battery: Li-Ion (48Wh, 6-Cell) PC Express Slot: No PC Express Slot SmartCard Reader: No SmartCard Reader slot Media: Memory Card Reader USB Ports: 1-USB (2.0) port with Sleep and Charge, 2-USB (3.0) ports HDMI: HDMI® output port RGB: RGB port Software: Hard disc (HDD) recovery, Internet Explorer® 10, Microsoft® Windows™ Essentials 2012 including Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and Skydrive desktop, Microsoft® Office (60-day Trial), Norton Anti-Theft™ (60-day Trial), Norton Internet Security™ 2013 (30-day trial subscription), Norton™ Laptop Checkup, NortonOnline Backup (30-day Trial), SRS Premium Sound HD™ TOSHIBA BookPlace™ TOSHIBA Disc Creator, TOSHIBA HDD Protection, TOSHIBA Maintenance Utility, TOSHIBA Media Player by sMedio Truelink+, TOSHIBA PC Health Monitor, TOSHIBA Recovery Disk Creator, TOSHIBA Resolution+® Upconvert Plug-in for Media Player, TOSHIBA Service Station, TOSHIBA Sleep Utility, TOSHIBA eco Utility™ Toshiba Video Player, WildTangent® Game Console Weight: Starting at 5.5 lbs. Color: Ice Blue Brushed Aluminum Standards: Energy Star Qualified, RoHS Compatible, EPEAT™ Gold
if you're going to spend 1200-1400, why not go for the Apple product? 13-inch: 2.5GHz 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz 4GB 1600MHz memory 500GB 5400-rpm hard drive1 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Built-in battery (7 hours)2 Available to ship: 1-2 business days Free Shipping $1,199.00 13-inch: 2.9GHz 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz 8GB 1600MHz memory 750GB 5400-rpm hard drive1 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Built-in battery (7 hours)2 Available to ship: 1-2 business days Free Shipping $1,499.00
coz Apple sucks! With that kind of configuration listed above, you can get a it for much cheaper (by several hundred) with Lenovo or Asus. Honestly, it's all these Apple fanboys that's been propping up the company the last few years. However, with MS making major comeback with game changers such as Windows 7 and 8, I really see no reason to pay such a high premium for mediocrity. FYI, I have many friends who plunged down $1,200+ on Macs just to have it break within 6 months. Honestly, I'm personally looking at the Thinkpad T430u. It's ultrabook thin, light and has very nice specs for around a little over a $1,000.
I'm going to buy my son a laptop. He's a senior in high school. Should I go with W7 or W8? My big concern is W8 seems like a mess that may never get sorted out and W7 is totally awesome IMO. Thoughts?
A_3PO, is Windows 8 such a radical departure from Windows 7? I haven't paid close attention to what are the new features in Windows 8. I know that there is a desktop-mode and a touchpad-mode you can alternate between. I assumed the desktop-mode more or less operated like Windows 7, but maybe not. I know I could have save hundreds by going with some of the great deals people have suggested in this thread, but ultimately I went ahead and ordered the Thinkpad t530 (specs posted earlier). I also ordered a Crucial m4 mSATA SSD drive (256 GB) and an 8 GB DIMM, so that was an additional $230. Steep price, but I think the end will be a very nice laptop that should last for a long time. I considered an Apple laptop, but frankly for the price I ended up paying I would have gotten an inferior system. The Mac OS sure is nice, though.
FYI, mine has lasted me since 2006. I have seen many friends go through 2 or 3 laptops in that time, if they haven't taken it to Best Buy to get skewered by their Geek Squad to get it fixed. my whole point was- if you are spending more than a grand you might as well upgrade to a big boy laptop and get a brand new macbook pro. and you ARE paying a high premium for mediocrity if you are spending more than a thousand on a PC that will last 2 or 3 years. not trying to get in on the apple fanboy hate right now. edit: sounds like OP made a good choice based on his needs...
How are you liking this laptop? I am mostly a deskptop person. I build and upgrade as needed and it offers the best bang for the $$ but I am currently in the market for a laptop for programming on the go. Would 13-14inch screen size be too small for programming? I have heard from some that the bigger the screen size, the better. however that sort of defeats the light portability purpose. I use Lightroom 4 to edit photos on my desktop. I am wondering if i should spend extra on a laptop with nice screen size and good GPU, so that I can use it for both programming as well as photo editing?! Confused...
The laptop is good. I had a few issues initially with booting into a non-Windows8 drive, but that was rectified by a change in the BIOS settings. The laptop is bulkier than I initially wanted. Not really convenient for "on the go" which would probably be the only real drawback. Personally, I've always had laptops with big screens (15"). I tend to work with a lot of windows on the screen, and I guess that's why I tend to prefer larger screens. If you really want something light and good for programming, maybe a Macbook Air? I'm not a Mac person, but perhaps others can chime in on that.
Always remember to keep your laptop on a hard surface when it's on. On soft surfaces it can block the fan causing the laptop to overheat. Don't fry the motherboard.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/PC-Laptops-...=&_mPrRngCbx=1&_nkw=Toshiba+Satellite&_sop=15 You can upgrade the RAM as it's cheap. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-A53E-I...29571431?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item1e760cd567 Good deal if you spend a little more and want a new one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toshiba-Sat...76041410?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item2c6b235fc2 This is what I would go with.
I agree with this. The mid range sony vaios in my opinion are the best notebooks for the money. If you have around 800......u can't go wrong with a VAIO.
