Help with Choosing Laptop For Girliefriend

[Mysteek]

She's looking for an ultraportable notebook that is 13'' with decent battery life and an okay webcam.

Her budget is around $800ish

I advised her to go with Lenovo but she thinks they are ugly. We've been shopping around for a few weeks and have looked at:

The Acer 3810T (I said no due to slow processor, and the C2D version was out of budget)

The MSI X340 (also too slow)

A refurbished Macbook (out of budget, but would have been amazing otherwise)

I'm running out of ideas. Most notebooks I come across that I wouldn't mind are either too large or are way outside her budget.

My last resort is:

This Dell Vostro 1320

For $792
--------------------------------------------------
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz, 3MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
13.3 inch WXGA Anti-Glare Display
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 2 DIMM
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Integrated 1.3MP Webcam and Digital Mic
6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
65W AC Adapter

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What do you think?

I really appreciate any help. =] I've tried doing research before coming to post here.

[pitz]

If you can drop the webcam requirement, for $800 these days, your girlfriend could be in a Dell Latitude E6400. Solid business-class equipment that'll last her 4-5 years without a lot of fuss, with a 3-year NBD warranty and service provided by English-speaking Americans. You might have to buy through eBay, but that's usually considerably cheaper than going through Dell direct.

Lots of docking station options too, and can drive 2 x 30" WQSXGA LCDs (2560x1600) through DisplayPort.

[felixmo]

One option you could consider is getting the white Macbook for $1049 (student discount and not refurb) and get the free iPod Touch. Then sell the iPod Touch for $200+ (I sold mine:D). The laptop comes to $849 + tax!:D

The white Macbook is a great choice, it's very portable and has a great webcam. Plus, you get the option to run Mac OS X and Windows!

[tomtomtom]

BE A MAN!

I would actually recommend you to pick up a refurb MacBook 13.3 for 1099, it is 300 more. Being a responsible boyfriend, you should pay the difference and score HUGE brownie point

http://store.apple.com/ca/product/FB466LL/A?mco=MjE0NDk5Mw

You can think about it.

P.S. Apple refurb is generally very good as anything touchable by the consumer and battery will be replaced and you get same 1 yr warranty.

[Mysteek]

@Pitz: Sounds great in terms of price/performance, perhaps not so much in looks and portability.

felixmo and tomtomtom:

We're both going off to UW. (In other words - no money to spend.) Getting the Macbook + student discount + iPod touch rebate + selling off iPod touch does sound like a great idea, I just don't know where we would get the extra funds to begin with.

[tomtomtom]

@Pitz: Sounds great in terms of price/performance, perhaps not so much in looks and portability.

felixmo and tomtomtom:

We're both going off to UW. (In other words - no money to spend.) Getting the Macbook + student discount + iPod touch rebate + selling off iPod touch does sound like a great idea, I just don't know where we would get the extra funds to begin with.

You gotta think about it, cause a good laptop should last you thru the next 2-3 years. You use it to stream videos on the weekend, type up a paper and group meeting. Don't try to save a couple bucks from a cheap brand. I have had friends losing half semester of work because of hard drive failure.

The loo eh. Here are some tips!

1. Cut back your meals and entertainment (a.k.a. booze and liquor) expense for a few months:D
2. buy used books. http://www.uwtextbooks.ca/

[felixmo]

If the Macbook is not an option and you don't mind using AMD (not that bad) you can easily find a $599 - $799 laptop at Best Buy and Future Shop. All the HP Pavilion laptops have decent webcams, are stylish (fancy designs on the lid), and come in 13", 14" , 15.4", 16", and 17".

Only complaint I have with them is it comes with ALOT of useless software (crapware), but that's the only way the laptops can sell for so little. But, you can easily remove most of it with Add/Remove Programs or Programs or you could use --> http://www.pcdecrapifier.com <-- removes most to all of the "crapware".

[mr_raider]

HP dv3 would seem right up your alley. Battery life can be iffy.

[Mysteek]

@felixmo: Thanks =] Would it also be a good idea to do a complete reformat anyway if it comes with Vista? I think she may prefer XP Pro anyway.

@mr_raider: I'm liking the DV3 so far. Are there any places you recommend that I try looking?

On the hp shopping website it's $1000, and other threads mentioned that it was cheaper at Costco but there aren't any Costco stores nearby.

[Soulsaber]

Lenovo U330/U350? They are the pretty looking ones =D

[Mysteek]

Lenovo U330/U350? They are the pretty looking ones =D

I like them! =D

However, no matter where I look, they're way beyond the $800 range

Edit: I lied, the U330 seems to be 1k+, while the U350 is in the affordable range, sorry

[pitz]

@felixmo: Thanks =] Would it also be a good idea to do a complete reformat anyway if it comes with Vista? I think she may prefer XP Pro anyway.


On a brand new laptop, personally, I'd make sure that it's equipped with Vista64 right from day 1. There's nothing wrong with Vista, and 64-bit is the future. Who knows, she might be doing photoshop next year, and needs to throw 8gb of RAM into it to make it work decently.


On the hp shopping website it's $1000, and other threads mentioned that it was cheaper at Costco but there aren't any Costco stores nearby.

One thing I didn't mention about the E6400 is that spare parts are a dime a dozen, battery life is super-long (5+ hours, and even more with the media bay battery), and its just more rugged than the so-called 'consumer' laptops.

[mr_raider]

@mr_raider: I'm liking the DV3 so far. Are there any places you recommend that I try looking?

Wherever it's cheap. COstco has a good no hassle exchange policy, and automatically will extend your warranty to 2 years. I bought my HP dv2 there. FS and Best Buy have them too at 899$.

The AMD version is cheaper, has a slower CPU, but much better GPU:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10125650&catid=25313

Remember to wipe Vista and do a clean install, or hold off for the free upgrade to WIndows 7.

[felixmo]

@felixmo: Thanks =] Would it also be a good idea to do a complete reformat anyway if it comes with Vista? I think she may prefer XP Pro anyway.

The ideal option would be to reformat and do a clean install with your own copy of Windows Vista, since it doesn't come with all that HP bloat. Windows XP may or may not work depending on the availability of the drivers.

My recent HP laptop (dv6000 series) didn't have XP-compatible sound drivers, XP sound drivers from similar laptops didn't work, contacting HP was useless, I finally gave up and went back to Vista.

[flyz]

Would it also be a good idea to do a complete reformat anyway if it comes with Vista? I think she may prefer XP Pro anyway.


I'd just format it and install Win7 X64 since that's the future and it's free till March 1, 2010 anyway (well longer if you can stand bihourly shutdowns :))