buying a laptop

[Salome]

I saw that the last thread on this topic was over a year old
and since I'm going to buy one myself I was wondering what the lot of you would advise since you're a clever bunch

 

[one4u2]

Sony Vaio, huge screen

 

[tpsglick2424]

Get what the pro's get! Macs!

 

[Liesje]

What's your budget, what will you use it for, and will it travel a lot?

 

[tpsglick2424]

Yeah, do you do graphics?

 

[Laura M]

Reasonable price range. A lot of them are between £400 - £800 here.

Using it for keeping in touch with folk, doing work, internet.

It won't travel at all, it'll just stay in the house.

 

[Salome]

oops, wan't logged in as myself there ^

 

[Liesje]

No point in dropping over $1000 on a Mac then. I love the Toshiba Sattelite line. You can get a perfectly good laptop that will work flawlessly for Internet, word processing, and music for less than $600/467 euro. Then you could spend a few hundred extra on a good warranty (I'd never buy a laptop without some form of three year warranty).

 

[Laura M]

No point in dropping over $1000 on a Mac then. I love the Toshiba Sattelite line. You can get a perfectly good laptop that will work flawlessly for Internet, word processing, and music for less than $600/467 euro. Then you could spend a few hundred extra on a good warranty (I'd never buy a laptop without some form of three year warranty).

I heard a lot of good things about Toshiba. I don't want to get something very flashy, just something reliable but not overly expensive as we're living in a student area so I would hate to have it stolen and the insurance gets a lot more expensive with even a cheap laptop on it.

 

[Salome]

the Toshiba Sattelite Line also scored highest on the other internet sites i checked

so we might have a winner here

 

[Liesje]

I heard a lot of good things about Toshiba. I don't want to get something very flashy, just something reliable but not overly expensive as we're living in a student area so I would hate to have it stolen and the insurance gets a lot more expensive with even a cheap laptop on it.

Do you have a car? I'm not sure how it works in Europe and I'm betting far fewer students have their own cars, but just an aside for students in the US, most companies allow you to add renters insurance to your auto insurance for less than $10 a month. For students like me who have lived in 3-4 different rental houses full of expensive stuff (you figure 4-8 people each have their own computer, bike, ipod, etc), it's way worth it. Of course I never had a car so I couldn't, but lots of friends did.

Also, get a laptop lock for it. Then you can always keep it locked down to a desk or table at home.

 

[anitram]

I had a Toshiba Satellite for 4 years - never a problem with it. I once had to format the hard drive because of a virus problem but that wasn't Toshiba's fault. I did pay for the extra warranty.

I now have a Toshiba Tecra, which are more expensive, business end machines. It's great so far. They come with 3 year warranties but I think I may upgrade the $250 to have next day on-site Toshiba service if anything happens. Doesn't seem like a lot of money for that kind of service.

Anyway, if you're worried about theft, get a lock (although that only goes so far) but more importantly if you plan on taking it places buy a bag that doesn't look like a laptop bag. That's the most obvious telltale sign. You can get pretty cool backpacks and messenger bags from companies like Crumpler that completely disguise the fact you're lugging around a computer.