Toshiba is pretty good for their price. Do not go for anything like Apple computer. They are expensive and suck ass.
How is Toshiba's and Sony's customer service? Dell's is pretty good, but I doubt Sony and Toshiba can match Dell in that dept.
I own a Dell Latitude D800 I bought last year. 1.6 ghz centrino, 15.8 inch widescreen, etc. I'm really happy with it. The only thing i would caution future buyers on is the tendency of higher end dells to overheat.
Dell support sucks! I don't personally have one but everyone tells me they can't hold a good conversation with any tech they have
Do you want something ultra-portable? If that's the case then Sony is the best since it's the lightest. Dells are heavier and they only have the Inspiron 600m and 700m. Nice computers, but ehh. Toshibas are nice, but heavy. I'm just about to get the Sony S150. In fact I ordered it last week but cancelled the order when the shady electronic e-store from Brooklyn tried to sell me a $500 rebate after I repeatedly said no and then they said it was out of stock. It was the cheapest price I found ont he internet. I didn't want to go through Circuit City or Sony direct since they overcharge (in my opinion) and then when you add tax to that... So now I'm thinking it's a sign that I'm not supposed to get this computer. But if you go to www.SonyStyle.com they have the customizable version, the S170 where you can add on bluetooth and a DVD Burner. That gets into the $2500 range though. And if you're going to get a Vaio, keep in mind the V505 series is being discontinued soon. It's not a big deal, but the S series is the 'replacement'. Basically Sony took the Z series and the V505 and came up with the S. Good luck.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38122&item=6701962085&rd=1 Is this a good deal?
Yeah it's a great computer, but a few things: It's ebay, and personally I would never buy a computer off ebay. That's just me; I'll buy a camera or software from ebay, but never a computer. It's just one of those things that I think ebay isn't great at. The second thing is that it's a P4 processor. If you're going wireless, you want Pentium M. I will, personally, never buy P4 on a laptop. It burns up the battery too quickly and doesn't work as well mobility-wise. Now keep in mind that a Pentium M 1.5 is not the same as a Pentium 4 1.5. For some reason Intel doesn't advertise this anywhere and it's nearly impossible to find comparable processor charts. According to the folks at Circuit City, a Pentium M 1.5 works 'like' a Pentium 4 2.8 or around that. I'm sure the guys here can explain it more.
I wondered about the processing speeds of the M chips when I started seeing computers with them advertised and thinking they were awfully high priced for what you were apparently getting. At some point, someone needs to standardize the whole speed thing in computers.
Oh, let me get in on this advice taking. My sister is going off to college this fall and needs to get a laptop. She absolutely only needs it for word processing, internet, and cds/dvds. So we are looking for a low end system. I checked out Dell and configured system with everything she needs for about $1,000. Seemed like a good deal to me, but I would love to get a second opinion. Also she lives in Hawaii and they don't have Best Buys, only Circuit City and CompUSA.
I just got my Dell- I got the Latitude D600 through the McCombs School. It's pretty lightweight (4.7 lbs), and is a fantastic machine. The built in wireless is awesome, and I upgraded to 1 GB of RAM and a 60 GB hard drive. One thing, I'd recommend checking out the computer before you buy it. I really like the keyboard on the Dell; for some reason, I didn't feel as comfortable on the Sony or especially the Toshiba. The Speakers on the Dell I have aren't very good which is a consideration if you like to listen to music, but I took the Harmon Kardons from my desktop and they plug right in when I'm at my desk.
DO NOT GET A DELL! I just bought a latitude d600 for around 2Gs and it is not even no where near as reliable as the IBM thinkpad a friend just bought. I'd go for IBM here, you'll thank me later. Look into the T series. Dells are known for cheap made computers and bad tech support.
Does anyone really need that much memory?!?! I seriously believe the only reason for more than 512 is for those goons who need to play Doom3 on high quality (no offense to you goons). I hear it's a good game, but I don't plan on ever getting aroudn to playing it. We've got a Dell C640, or better known as the Dell Piece of ****. At least we didn't buy it. Anyway, the keyboard on that thing is kind of flat so I checked out the Vaio and loved it. Dell offers something through Miami, but I just don't plan on getting one. At this rate, looks like I'll end up getting the Vaio S150 through Best Buy or Circuit City in a few weeks since I don't think I'll have any papers the first few weeks of class. I keep asking myself if I really need an expensive (but nice) laptop or if I should just save a good $500 and go with a real nice desktop. But then the whole reason for a computer in college was to be mobile.
I do. It's what I have in my work PC, my PC at home, and my laptop. And I have no games installed on any of those machines.
^I SECOND THAT I have worked for a major university computer science dept. and let me tell you I have never seen so many problems with laptops...I am also typing this on a Dell laptop...ITS JUNK...you get what you pay for, spend some more and get an IBM...I will, next time this crap breaks
We lease out laptops to semi-computer illiterate people and they are abused, negleted and mistreated. The ones (we've had hundreds of Stinkpads, Dells, Sonys, Panasonics, Toshibas) we have the fewest problems with are Panasonics by far with Toshibas second. I know Panasonic is not exactly a name you think about when you are buying a laptop, but those things just won't go away. Edit: We haven't used any Macs but I hear and read that they are better than any we've tried.
The upgrades through UT were fairly cheap (iirc, upgrading from the standard 512 to 1 GB, and the 30 GB to 60 GB hard drive came out to around $80 total)- whole system came out to around $1750 including the 3 yr CompleteCare warranty. I like keeping my music collection on my computer, and it's about 7 GB right now- around 100 CDs worth. (Yes, all of it is actually mine). I pretty much maxed out my desktop hard drive, which when I got it 4 years ago, never thought I would do. So I figured it'd be nice to bump up the hard drive. Maybe that was WizzyWig's problem?
