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[badninja]

I need to pick up a laptop next week, likely from Best Buy. This is to replace my failing laptop Dell. I've had Dells the last three years and none of them have lasted past a year. I'm not buying another Dell laptop under any circumstances. But the problem is, now I don't know what to buy

Comments

[karmic_serenity]

I love Gateway and that's all I'll ever own again. I've had my latest one for a year and a half and it's been dropped twice with nothing breaking. I have a wide screen and while the keyboard is close to the same size as a standard keyboard. I got this as a warranty replacement and I think the retail on it at the time was around $650.

[blondebeaker]

I second the Gateway. I got one in 2008 and never had an issue (what I'm going through with my hard drive is some idiot pc tech who thought he was knew what he was doing actually didn't)

Mine cost me around 900$ Cdn at the time.

[redneckpast]

Thirding a Gateway. Mine is four years old and going strong in spite of it being a display model and being subjected to who-knows-what before I got it. I also hauled it to and from school for three years (commuter student) and it never seemed to harm it. I think it was ~$600 at Costco.

[xo_bumblebee]

Fourthing Gateway! While I've never owned a Gateway laptop, I had a Gateway desktop from 2003-2010 (yep, that's right, it worked for 7 years!). Never had any kinds of major issues with it at all aside from the standard outdatedness of it all by the time it got to be 7 years old in 2010. ;)

[everyoneiknow]

In the summer of 2009 I bought an Acer laptop which I loved. It had a standard size keyboard (but no numeric keypad), it weighed about 5 lbs, and had an 8 hour battery life. It was around $750. I was in grad school, so portability and the long battery life were what sold me on that particular one.

Unfortunately it disappeared during finals week that December, so I didn't have it for long and can't tell you any of the details about it (I'm not a tech person). However, if you can figure out what it was from that description I highly recommend it!

[badninja]

Can I ask, how is the warranty? The Acer I had a few years ago had a really fishy warranty, but I'm wondering if that was just because I bought it from Circuit City when the store was closing from bankruptcy. The warranty said that I would have to send the laptop to a place in Korea to be fixed and they had no responsibility to send it back and could keep it if they wished. >:

[badninja]

I love Acer. One of my old ones is an Acer, but it has the peculiar problem of the power port completely disappearing (...). I do know which you mean, too, I just can't recall the name at the moment (I will on sight).

That is a really good battery life, too, so I'm glad to be aware of it. Thank you!

[artichokes]

With that budget...iPad + portable keyboard?

[artichokes]

Oh, and an external hard drive. I had a 12" Powerbook for years and loved it, by the way.

[badninja]

Oh man, how is the smaller monitors on Powerbooks? I tend to shy away from them but they're also cheaper...

[dreadpiratekurt]

My Toshiba Satellite is tough as hell and almost three years old. I think it cost $455 brand new (from newegg.com)

[formicadinette]

Mine is about 1 1/2 years old, but otherwise, same here--Toshiba Satellite, $450 new, bought from newegg and it's a workhorse.

[badninja]

I had some problems with my Toshiba when I owned one in 2007, but since I see so many good reviews (both on this post and others outside of it), I'm starting to wonder if that was a 'bad egg' situation rather than typical. Mostly the huge problem was my dvd-r and my internet card - it kept killing internet cards over and over. :( We ended up having to get a USB extension.

[thellamaqueen]

This is also what I was going to recommend.

[cinestress]

Buy from Newegg. Sony, Toshiba, Sager, or Asus.

[badninja]

I don't have a credit card so I'm not sure that I can order online? Also, I have never heard of Sager, can I ask about that?

Thank you!

[cinestress]

Ah. I don't know if Newegg offers another method of payment.

Sager might be out of your price range, but they build great quality laptops that are easily upgradable, fixable, and etc. They're mainly a gaming laptop company, but they also have a few low-end models. I recently bought one of their gaming/business models for about $1,000 on xoticpc.com (which has EXTREMELY GOOD customer service, by the way- they also sell other laptops as well). I recommend them.

[badninja]

Easily upgradable is a great feature to me and worth sacrificing a bit more for. I've always had to regard laptops as disposable once they are obsolete, which doesn't work out great. (I have lost so much design data over the years it isn't even funny).