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OT:Good general purpose laptop

H

hews500d

Charter Member 2011
THe wife's laptop is getting real tired and I don't think it's going to last too much longer. She's looking for a good reliable one (if there is such a thing) under $600.00 with a webcam built in. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm leaning towards an Acer since I've had bad experiences in the past with Toshiba and Dell (her current one). It seems like all of them have very good and very bad reviews which is even more confusing :help: She doesn't game or anything like that so it doesn't need to be the fastest thing on the block.

Darrell
 
I've got a cheapie Dell B1200 that I bought for $399.00 two years ago. It has worked flawlessly all that time. I did add additional RAM to it.

Jim
 
I bought a netbook two months ago - it's rather small, very light and with a very widescreen display at 1024 by 600. The battery's rather good with a life of around 4 hours with moderate use, and it runs everything from OpenOffice, Outlook, PostGRESQL to CFS2. Boot up time is very good, and the keyboard may be a bit smaller than a normal laptop but it's very useful and keeps up with my typing. A Samsung NC10 for a fraction over £300; probably a much better price in the US,
regs,
Ro
:kilroy:
 
I nearly tempted myself with a samsung NC10 because they're such nice little things but in the end I got another camera =D

I got my sister a samsung laptop last year, it's very nice. It came with 2GB of RAM and a little 128 graphics card. Best thing about it though was the keyboard - very nice.
 
I love my ASUS EEE PC 1000H. It is really solid. You might be able to find them for 330 dollars. They are getting hard to find because they are "old". Doesn't look like BB has them anymore...

If you're willing to spend a little more the 1000HE has a faster processor and has longer battery life. It is 380 dollars IIRC. You could find one of these on Amazon.com.

Neither one would disappoint for general use. You aren't going to play any 3D games with it.
 
The basic Mac Notebooks are good. Not powerful, but if she only uses it for web stuff and paying the bills, they are brilliant. (The Mac Book Pros are expensive, but powerful).

Their is one Macbook (not the pro) that is all white (plastic casing) that the ladies love.

And.. you can load Windows on these.

But, if she is using it for web and bills, the software that Macs come with are brilliant, like iLife and iWork. iLife comes with it. She might end up keeping only the Mac software.. (if she went with one.. )
 
I wouldn't recommend a netbook if it's the only machine she's going to use, web browsing on a 9" screen gets old real fast and I find doing a lot of typing on them gets a bit cramped. When my sister was shopping for a laptop I made her spend half an hour in the shop doing stuff with a netbook to get over the 'cute' factor and realise she was going to get a migrane if she used it for an hour or so a day, so it may be worth doing the same with your wife!
I'm trying to remember what we got her as so far it seems to be working fine after 8 months or so of use (well she hasn't called me to ask how to get it to do something so I'm guessing it's working fine!). I have a feeling it was an Advent though, which is PC World (UK)'s own brand so probably not much help to you!
To be honest if she's not a power user/gamer pretty much any laptop at the upper end of your price range should be more than adequate, although if I was you I would try and wait until you can get them with Windows 7 pre-installed rather than Vista.
Although a Mac Book might fit the bill, Steve Jobs is on record as saying Apple don't know how to make a computer under $500 that isn't a piece of crap!
 
hews500d said:
Is this one something you need to type a special promo code or something? I clicked on it and it comes up at the regular $629.00 price when it brings it up. It does look like a good deal.
Darrell
Click to expand...



I do believe when you click on BUY...The discount is applied..It usually works like that on the NewEgg deals...Make sure the free shipping gets applied there too...





Or not....I just tried and it did not apply the discount....hang on a minute...
 
harleyman said:
I do believe when you click on BUY...The discount is applied..It usually works like that on the NewEgg deals...Make sure the free shipping gets applied there too...





Or not....I just tried and it did not apply the discount....hang on a minute...
Click to expand...

I've went as far as putting the actual credit card info in there and it's still showing regular price. I'm afraid to go any farther :icon_lol:

Darrell
 
SkippyBing said:
I wouldn't recommend a netbook if it's the only machine she's going to use, web browsing on a 9" screen gets old real fast and I find doing a lot of typing on them gets a bit cramped. When my sister was shopping for a laptop I made her spend half an hour in the shop doing stuff with a netbook to get over the 'cute' factor and realise she was going to get a migrane if she used it for an hour or so a day, so it may be worth doing the same with your wife!
Click to expand...

IDK, I can use my EEE for several hours with no problems. I guess it varies from person to person.
 
IDK, I can use my EEE for several hours with no problems. I guess it varies from person to person.
Click to expand...

Oh totally, you're a good decade younger than my sister so your eyes are probably able to stand the small screen for longer, and because I touch type I find the smaller keyboards annoying as hell!
 
harleyman said:
YUP,,,Looks like as good a choice as any...How and where do you upgrade the mem? Do you do it or have it done? never touched the insides of a laptop myself...
Click to expand...


Hmmm, I never thought about how LOL... I'm pretty sure it's done inside, Newegg has the 2 Gb DDR2 667 memory "sticks" for around $25.00. I've had the keyboard off her Dell laptop before when I had to replace it and then I also had to replace the CPU fan several months back. Just a smaller version of a desktop :jump:

Darrell
 
I have heard that opening some laptops will viod the warrenty..Just heard it is all..No facts here.....

They are both good...

One has Home .one has home premium

One has Intel CPU the other has a AMD sempron

Both have the same memory,,HDD...One has 1 inch bigger screen...LOL


Good luck deciding.....:faint:
 
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