Buying a laptop

[aliasaid]

no its not.

i do like sony vaios, but try to avoid celeron. for your needs, its probably more than sufficient, but you'd do much better with a centrino.. better battery life, and more powerful.. will last a lot longer than the celeron (technology wise..). if you have $900 to spend, get a nice new laptop thats thin, light, and good on batteries.. don't go the p3 route.

i don't really know of any good places for laptops.. but i'll check newegg...

ok well here are 3 good choices. in terms of weight they're all about the same.. 6.5pounds (a bit heavy...) but they have different advertised battery life.. i'll rank them highest to lowest..

1) ASUS A3Ac w/Combo NoteBook Intel Pentium M 740(1.73GHz) 15.0" XGA 512MB DDR2 533 60GB 4200rpm DVD/CD-RW Combo Intel GMA900 - Retail $939.00
($839.00 after $100.00 Mail-In Rebate)

this notebook has an advertised battery life of 4 hours! not too shabby. (you'll prolly get close to that since you don't do any gaming..) sufficient ram, speed, and HD space for you (HD a bit slow.. but no big deal..). if you like widescreen, you might not like this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834220070

2) well actually there are 3 tied for #2. they're all acer. same battery life. differ a bit in performance and price. these notebooks however only have an advertised battery life of 2 hours! if you're willing to live with that, then they're fine choices as well.

Acer Aspire 1640 AS1641WLMI-XPH-CMT NoteBook Intel Pentium M 725(1.6GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 512MB DDR2 533 80GB DVD±R/RW Intel GMA900 - Retail $874.99
($774.99 after $100.00 Mail-In Rebate)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115327

Acer Aspire 1640 AS1642WLMi NoteBook Intel Pentium M 740(1.73GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 512MB DDR2 533 100GB DVD±R/RW Intel GMA900 - Retail $899.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115321

Acer TravelMate 4062WLCi NoteBook Intel Pentium M 740(1.73GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 512MB DDR2 533 80GB DVD/CD-RW Combo Intel GMA900 - Retail $819.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115325


of the three i listed.. probably the first one is best...

good luck.

 

[mayaseattle]

wow..this seems like a nice list. thanks for all the info since idont know a thing about laptops ..so i am really relying on this...

i am thinking of going for this one, that you suggested...is the batteryy life good enough??.....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115327

 

[mayaseattle]

just to add..

whats this "7 pixel warranty thing on all these computers"..should i care about that??

 

[mayaseattle]

also it says Newegg -laptops are non refundable...

 

[aliasaid]

i am thinking of going for this one, that you suggested...is the batteryy life good enough??.....

well thats your call! they say 2 hours. is that good enough for you? if you use this usually where there's an outlet, then it should be no problem. but if you're out and about w/ your laptop, then maybe consider the asus one with 4 hour battery life. anyone you choose would be a good choice.

just to add..

whats this "7 pixel warranty thing on all these computers"..should i care about that??

one of hte downsides of buying lcd monitors (or in this case, lcd screen on a laptop..) is the chance of getting some dead pixels. those little tiny squares that make up the screen, sometimes, one or two or more may not work, or they may be stuck at one colour. usually hardly noticeable. but some companies offer certain warranties agaisnt these... in this case, if you get 7 dead pixels or more, they'll replace it for you. so if you get 6 dead pixels, you're screwed! hehe.. it isn't that bad tho, since its rare that you would get that high, and if you get 1 or 2.. should barely be noticeable. the lcd screen i have didn't have a dead pixel so i don't know how bad it is to have one.

also it says Newegg -laptops are non refundable...

ya that sucks. if you would like to have the ability to refund.. maybe try bestbuy? i think a big company like that would refund.. although i have no idea..

 

[mayaseattle]

ah. i see...i found the same computer on Walmart. for me that seems the way to go since i can easily return it if i want.
vhttp://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=4527618

(once again, very much appreciate your help-and the battery life is good for me i guess...)