laptop recommendations

[ger87410]

I'd recommend against it.

It's smaller, yes. But it has less and less capabilities then a regular laptop.

For starters, no cd or dvd drive. Smaller screen, smaller keyboard.

Instead of going that route, get yourself a good PDA.

 

[demolition_x]

macbook

never gonna go back to pc unless its for work

 

[FyrHazard]

has anyone used those new mini laptop's that verzion + at+t are selling ???
i'm getting to the point that i don't want to carry around my 7lb dell laptop anymore.

thanks

get wet
gorilla

Those do look appealing, especially with built in wireless internet service. I think one of those would still be better than a PDA for general web browsing and basic functions.

 

[ger87410]

Those do look appealing, especially with built in wireless internet service. I think one of those would still be better than a PDA for general web browsing and basic functions.

Don't you HAVE to be signed up and pay for that service in order to even use those mini laptops?

Kinda like the ipod in that regard, right?

 

[SuperJETT]

On the minis, if you're under 10" you might as well just get a good Blackberry/iPhone/etc because the keyboards get really small. For a normal use laptop, 12" is about the smallest I go for people at work now but I do have one guy using an Asus EEE 10"---the keyboard was too small for me to get comfortable on even after about a week of use.

The Verizon mini requires an extra line with unlimited data.

 

[AtomicPunk]

I'd recommend against it.

It's smaller, yes. But it has less and less capabilities then a regular laptop.

For starters, no cd or dvd drive. Smaller screen, smaller keyboard.

Instead of going that route, get yourself a good PDA.

I disagree....
Where is the logic? A PDA has a much smaller screen, much smaller keyboard and no optical drive. :stups:

"Netbooks" have their place.
For surfing the net, typing email and working in Word or light Excel use they are great. If you try to be a gamer on one you will be disappointed. They are not designed fo rmulti-tasking either. Depending upon the program you are running the screen size can be fa little disappointing.
Stick with a 10" or larger. If you have the need, there are some with optical drives (or get an external drive)

 

[AtomicPunk]

macbook

never gonna go back to pc unless its for work

why? what is better about a Mac?

 

[ger87410]

Netbooks don't have optical drives. You're lucky if they come with infrared.

 

[demolition_x]

why? what is better about a Mac?

its just a bunch of stuff. user interface is soo much easier. want to delete a program just click on the program and hit delete. no having to goto control panel to find the uninstall wizard or any of that stuff. nearly a zero chance of getting a virus. they will last forever, i know quite a few people that are using maybe 8 year old macbooks.

go to an apple store and seriously play with a macbook for a while or borrow a friends and you will soon see much simpler every thing is. I have a partitioned drive with a few gigs so i can run xp and use autocad and pro-e and they both run like a champ on it. i have not found one bad thing with it the hardest things to overcome will be no right mouse button and lack of a backspace key.

 

[AtomicPunk]

Netbooks don't have optical drives. You're lucky if they come with infrared.

I stand corrected... I saw that Asus was releasing one but it is not available yet.

 

[AtomicPunk]

its just a bunch of stuff. user interface is soo much easier. want to delete a program just click on the program and hit delete. no having to goto control panel to find the uninstall wizard or any of that stuff. nearly a zero chance of getting a virus. they will last forever, i know quite a few people that are using maybe 8 year old macbooks.

go to an apple store and seriously play with a macbook for a while or borrow a friends and you will soon see much simpler every thing is. I have a partitioned drive with a few gigs so i can run xp and use autocad and pro-e and they both run like a champ on it. i have not found one bad thing with it the hardest things to overcome will be no right mouse button and lack of a backspace key.

Macbooks are definitely built like a brick $hit house.. but cost at least 50% more (for comparable processor, graphics, RAM and HD). You can argue that people keep their macbooks for 8 years, but why (are they still paying for it :jester ? To me, a laptop is good for 5 years, by then, software has changed enough to require some more horsepower.

I only need one operating system on my PC, and it is not named after a "pu$$ycat" :rocketwhore:

I have a contract engineer that uses a macbook pro and I bust his balls all the time when I see him running Windows (which is all the time)...

 

[rasper99]

i have not found one bad thing with it the hardest things to overcome will be no right mouse button and lack of a backspace key.

To right click put two fingers on the touchpad and click. The delete/backspace thing requires holding the function key. There is a PDF file on the driver CD that explains this and much more.

 

[demolition_x]

To right click put two fingers on the touchpad and click. The delete/backspace thing requires holding the function key. There is a PDF file on the driver CD that explains this and much more.

i was saying when first using a mac its the hardest things to pick up on. every one is too used to having those buttons. now its second nature for me at least. mac > pc

 

[SkiNaked]

I have had my Intel Based 17: Macbook Pro for 2 years now. Has never locked up or crashed. I can run any windows program I want do run both Windows and MAC OS X at the same time with Parallels. MAC OS X is based on unix and is very secure compared to the PC. There are very few if no viruses that affect the MACs. I have a High Def screen, 4 gigs of ram and a 2.6 gig processor. My MAC runs windows much better then any windows machine i have owned. That is with both bootcamp and Parallels. OS X spaces and expose are awesome features that I am constantly using. It is much easier and cleaner to install and uninstall software on a MAC where on the windows machine every program leaves crap in your registry.

Thats just the beginning. Not trying to start a MAC vs. Windows war as I have had windows machines for years and have been a fan. Until OS X came out. I installed OS X on my Dell PC. It ran pretty well. I just did not have the graphics drivers and support for all my hardware. So finally I switched to the MAC Book pro. I will never go back to a PC unless they completely redo windows to make is a cleaner less cluttered operating system.

 

[SkiNaked]

i was saying when first using a mac its the hardest things to pick up on. every one is too used to having those buttons. now its second nature for me at least. mac > pc

Plug in a Windows mouse and you are good to go. Right click with right button. Left click with left button. No issues. I use a logitech trackball from a PC and love it. No issues.

 

[gorilla]

i got me an older dell 1100 inspiron p4.
it's like carrying a tank around.
i use a tmobile edge-gprs data plan.
it's not a rate plan they don't sell anymore.
about $31 per month.
it works everywhere tmobile has service.
it's no-where the speed like there broadband service is, but it works fine for me.
i chit canned the home phone # too about 5 year's ago.

good wisdom here THANKS !!!

get wet
gorilla

 

[Woody]

alright...i can easily go to the mac website and read the spec differences between a macbook and a macbook pro...but that would be wayyyy to easy!

what the heck is the difference between the two besides the bigger size? i'm not a gamer or anything...but do often use my computer to create movies, etc. can i go with the regular macbook to save money, space and weight?

 

[AtomicPunk]

you can get a 13.3" Macbook Pro... I would max it out on Processor and RAM (if you can afford it).

 

[itismejoshy]

i have a few refurbs i put together and sell, i would let them go for around $300ish. Dual cores, 2 gigs ram, 200gb hd, usual bells and whistles....or trade for brapp parts...pm if your interested!

 

[andy49510]

My laptop crapped out so Im lookin for a replacement. I had a HP DV5000 I bought in 2006, and I wasnt all that impressed with it, although it did serve me alright.

I dont do much on it, just search the net, some work related stuff in MS Office, and download movies and music. But no gaming, and i sometimes, rarely, make some small videos in moviemaker.

I spent way to much on my HP for it to get outdated too fast so this time I dont want to spend so much, somewhere around $500. I looked at bestbuy and saw a few good looking and seemingly well equipped machines for 500. A few toshibas, dells, and such. I saw a gateway with 4gb ram, athalon dual core processor, and like 320gb drive, for $500. Sounds good to me but iv heard a bad rep about gateway.

So any suggestions? Thanks!

Go for a MacBook Pro all the way. I've owned about 5 of them.

You'll love OS X Snow Leopard and if you need to use Windows still for anything not available for Mac you can always create a separate partition and install Windows in it via bootcamp.