Basic Laptop Recommendations?

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corianderstem

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I'm considering buying a laptop solely for writing. Can anyone recommend a good, basic laptop?

I waffle between wanting a "fully loaded" laptop that has wireless and a big-ass hard drive and whatever, but considering I just dropped about $800 a few years ago on a desktop system, that's not really practical right now.

I think the only requirement I would need is that it have a USB port so I could load my writing onto a zip drive and transfer it onto my desktop. I would assume in this day and age, they all come with USB ports and a CD player and some of those basic things.

I love the idea of being able to sit and type anywhere - my computer desk is very uncomfortable for writing, and the way my apartment is configured, getting a different desk isn't a great option right now either.

Finally, while the Macs are pretty and cool and all that, I'm sticking with PCs, so don't even try and push a Mac on me. :wink:

Thanks!
 
I would get the cheapest HP pavilion. I cannot stand Dell and in one week have had two horrific experiences with Dell customer service (and I'm a laptop technician, not some idiot!!) so I will never consider one. For your budget and what you want, you could even go used, but then you don't have a warranty. You won't find anything new that doesn't have USB 2.0, wireless, and at least a CD-RW (likely a DVD-R or even DVD-RW).

Do you have wireless at your home? You could network your computers (store documents in shared folders) so you don't have to physically transfer your writing back and forth.
 
Thanks, Liesje! I figured you'd be the first one to pipe up. :wink:

I don't have wireless at home, and I figure if I don't use the internet on the laptop, I'll actually get more writing done, so that's a plus.

I have a Dell as my desktop and (knock on wood) I've never had to call customer service, so haven't had any bad experiences.

But I'll definitely look into an HP. I did poke around a bit on Craigslist yesterday and saw quite a few laptops, but I think I'd rather have the security of getting a new one.
 
The thing with laptops is you really get what you pay for. If you want nice customer service, great form factor, great operating system and hardware specs - get a Mac. Yeah it will cost twice as much but a lot of times it's worth twice as much.

As much as I'm into computers, I don't consider myself a "power user". I don't do a lot of large graphics, video rendering, audio editing, etc. I mess around online and I do use web and graphic software, but they are relatively small files and processes that aren't to heavy on the CPU. So I got a mid-range HP and I'm perfectly happy with it and was happy with customer support when I needed it. Yeah it came with a crappy piece of hardware, but I paid less than half of what I could have paid for a Mac. It happens. I was able to send it back and have it fixed and returned to me in less than 48 hours. Oh and I never had to call to India and spend 2 hours on the phone with someone I can't understand (and that's not a slam on the phone techs themselves, they need a job just like I do).
 
I think next time I get a laptop, if I'm getting a Windows system, I'll go with an LG. Few people have them and know about them, but they are absolutely fantastic machines and have some really innovative features (the models sold in Japan do, anyway).

They are a bit pricier though.
 
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