Buying a Laptop (in the US)/Any Head-fiers in Taiwan?

[jpburton5150]

I rarely post much anymore (I lurk

) but I'm feeling really perplexed so I figured I would start a thread.

August 18th I am leaving to be an exchange student in Taiwan. I need to find a laptop.

I've looked into the new 12" iBook and the Dell Inspiron 700m. Now, if Apple wasn't switching architectures I would go for the iBook in a second, however, I will be taking this to college with me too so I don't want something that will be obsolete.

My main activities with this laptop would most-likely be coding, photo editing, web browsing, and other miscellanious creative things, no graphics intensive games though. So I'm looking for at least 512mb of ram, a long battery life, and portability. Ideally I'd like to pay around one grand (US).

I've debated waiting till I get to Taiwan but I think educational discounts would save me any money (if not more) than the local production factor would.

So essentially it comes down to...
1. Would it be logical to buy a laptop with an architecture on the verge of becoming obsolete? (iBook)
2. Does anyone live in Taiwan (and have any suggestions)?

3. Does anyone have any strong feelings for or against any specific model?



Thanks guys

 

[D-EJ915]

While the Dell 700M is a quick laptop, it's battery life is horrible, just absolutely pathetic.

If you want a laptop like that, get a Sony S (13.3") or T (10.5") series one, they're a lot better.

I have a T250 and it's a very nice laptop, maybe I'm just weird, but I can't stand huge laptops, even the S series is big to me...and I can type just fine with this thing, no problems ever.

 

[jpburton5150]

wow, those things are sexy... but also super expensive....

 

[D-EJ915]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpburton5150 wow, those things are sexy... but also super expensive....

Haha, yeah the T series is. I got mine with the first-ever rebate for one, it was like 150 and there was a 10% military discount so I got mine for like 1800 or something instead of 2300.

 

[DanG]

I hope you don't mind me jumping in to this thread, but I have a similar need. I'm looking for a laptop, also for about $1000, and also with 512MB RAM. But I'd like to get one with a widescreen 15.4" monitor. I'd be using mine for word processing, photo editing, web browsing, and watching movies. And I am not an Apple person (yes, I use a new G5 every day at work so I am familiar with them). Most important thing for me is reliability -- portability is not too important and battery life is secondary.

 

[D-EJ915]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanG I hope you don't mind me jumping in to this thread, but I have a similar need. I'm looking for a laptop, also for about $1000, and also with 512MB RAM. But I'd like to get one with a widescreen 15.4" monitor. I'd be using mine for word processing, photo editing, web browsing, and watching movies. And I am not an Apple person (yes, I use a new G5 every day at work so I am familiar with them). Most important thing for me is reliability -- portability is not too important and battery life is secondary.

My sister's Acer laptop has a nice 15.4" inch screen and it wasn't very expensive at all, I don't know how much it was but they were really cheap in the last Acer ad I looked at.

 

[DanG]

I'd like to stay away from the small(er) companies -- my younger brother and cousin made that mistake and have had countless problems with their laptops. Again, reliability is a top concern for me as I don't want to ship my laptop off for repair. But then again, I don't know much about Acer. How is their reliability? Have many customers reported problems with their notebooks?

 

[D-EJ915]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanG I'd like to stay away from the small(er) companies -- my younger brother and cousin made that mistake and have had countless problems with their laptops. Again, reliability is a top concern for me as I don't want to ship my laptop off for repair. But then again, I don't know much about Acer. How is their reliability? Have many customers reported problems with their notebooks?

PC Magazine's always had good guides and reviews imo. So I'd check out their site: http://www.pcmagazine.com/category2/0,1738,9,00.asp

However, I do recommend staying away from Gateway as I've read many customer service nightmares.

 

[Jmmmmm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanG I hope you don't mind me jumping in to this thread, but I have a similar need. I'm looking for a laptop, also for about $1000, and also with 512MB RAM. But I'd like to get one with a widescreen 15.4" monitor. I'd be using mine for word processing, photo editing, web browsing, and watching movies. And I am not an Apple person (yes, I use a new G5 every day at work so I am familiar with them). Most important thing for me is reliability -- portability is not too important and battery life is secondary.

I can confidently recommend dell to you and jp. I've had two dell laptops, and both lasted me a long time with virtually no problems. Dan, you could look at the inspiron 6000, or the latitude d810 (which is just the business version of the 6000).
And the screen on the 700m is amazing. If I could deal with a 12" screen, that is what I would want. I think the sony xbrite and toshiba shiny screen are similar. I don't know about the battery life, but I never heard anyone complain about it. You can get the extended battery, which should get you at least over 4 hours.

I just (as of yesterday) got an ibm t43, which is definitely a more solidly built computer. However, you pay for it. The best thing about dell is that they have huge sales all the time...never pay retail at dell. I don't have much experience with sony's. They look cool, but some people say you pay more for the name than the product. I would stay away from hp/compaq, and probably gateway too. You should check out www.notebookforums.com, they have a lot of good info there. There are a lot of gamers, though, so people tend to think 80000000mb video cards are mandatory.

 

[DanG]

I was looking at Dells and at newegg.com and newegg has some Toshibas with similar features to Dell for much less money. I'm wondering if maybe that's the way I should go?

Also, how important is FSB? Will the chips with 533MHz be noticeably better than those with 400MHz? I don't play computer games but I do watch movies.

 

[fogia.4]

You cant go wrong with Sony, Dell or HP laptops, theyre all pretty good brands and are sure to work for years. Just find the models in your price range and compare specs, buy the one you think is more satisfying for you.