New laptop question

The netbook market is wasting away quickly due to the iPad, so finding a not-terrible notebook with built-in virus protection and a good warranty is actually a little tougher than it used to be.

What school-related tasks does she use her notebook for? Knowing precisely what she needs to do will help us help you.

 

Toshiba is a good brand. I have had mine for the past 4 years and it works fine. If she is only using her laptop for the web and Microsoft Office.. I really don't see a problem.

And the iPad isn't going to send the notebook market into oblivion. There are too many people who aren't going to buy overpriced Apple products. Over the next 2 years, I am willing to bet notebooks become thinner, lighter, and more powerful.

 

I'm assuming you mean she's just doing normal stuff like writing essays (and not complicated, notated/collaborative documents), slideshow presentations, spreadsheets, and so on. $500 might not be a realistic budget considering she wants/needs Office, but it might be doable. Is size/weight important to her? Thinner and lighter notebooks are going to cost more than $500.

But as GIK says, Toshiba is a decent brand. How about this?

The iPad isn't trying to send the notebook market into oblivion, nor is it overpriced.

 

Did they go down in price in the past year? It looks like they did.

I wasn't saying they are trying to send the notebook market in oblivion, but that some people feel that they will. And I really disagree with that.

 

Apple discounted the price of the iPad 1 after introducing the iPad 2. They do the same thing in the iPhone line: the iPhone 3GS is $99.

Those people didn't pay attention to the Stevenote introducing the iPad, then. It's targeted at netbooks, not notebooks. And netbook sales have fallen off a cliff since its introduction.

 

I got what I felt was a half-decent (if not Sandy Bridge) notebook for my wife yesterday for $399 plus tax at Dell. Now she says she's just going to take mine, so it's all the sweeter.

I slightly mourn the death of the netbook. I have a 9" and a 10" that I really love, and they're actual productive devices unlike the iPad2. The iPad2 is the greatest Internet consumption device I have ever touched, but creating things on it (other than perhaps video editing -- I hear that's good) just doesn't seem plausible to me. Nobody is writing an essay on iPad.

The only problem I have had with Toshiba is battery-related. I'd stay well away from Compaq based on my recent experiences. I personally prefer Dell.

 

Stay the hell away from HP.

I feel real bad for the folks who bought the Pavilion 9000's.....

IPads are a waste of money BTW.... Bought one and broke one on purpose....... Trash.

 

Oh, yes, they are. They're writing them in Pages and getting along just fine. And there are several excellent text composer apps, in addition to standard blogging tools.

 

You'll get an Office trial.

I treat my computers pretty rough but I got an Acer PC. Swapped out the mobo only once..
Product obsolescence is bigger than ever.

 

The 320 GB hard drive is storage. That machine has 4 GB of RAM. Low end processor but perfect for the normal user.

 

Go cheap and get a good battery.

 

if it doesnt come with office, she can get a super sweet deal on office ultimate for like 60 bucks. all you need is a .edu email address.

 

scratch that. 2007 is gone and 2010 is 99.95. still a great deal.

any other of you tools out there can get windows 7 upgrade for 29.95, with a .edu address as well.

http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/us/office/default.aspx

 

I ended up getting this Toshiba a few months back and have loved it. I basically wanted a laptop that could stream netflix well and store music/pictures, and this has held up well

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GEOZVQ

its just over 500 on amazon, not sure what it's priced at on different sites.

 

The notebook I linked and the one you found at Best Buy aren't the same. Beyond the difference in hard drive size, the Toshiba notebook on Amazon has a CPU roughly 3 generations ahead of the one you're looking at on Best Buy. The 2.0 GHz Pentium CPU on the Best Buy notebook is basically a mobile iteration of the old Pentium 4 CPU, which was retired years ago. Intel doesn't even use the Pentium brand name anymore. The Core series replaced the Pentium, and the Core i3 is basically the best low-end CPU you can get right now.

This is a real and noteworthy difference. Do not get the Best Buy notebook if you have a choice. And speaking of differences, don't forget to factor in the cost of Office, since notebooks in this price range generally do not come with Office pre-installed. (That's one way they slash prices: there's less pre-installed software to bake into the retail price.) And also consider notebook dimensions and weight when making your decision. If this thing is going to get hauled around all day every day, obviously you'll want to look for something lighter.

Lastly, this list might help you out. The Dell Inspiron 14R is slightly above your desired price range but seems like a good value.

 

I guess it's also true some people are still typing their essays or writing them longhand, too. I don't get using an iPad like this at all, but more power to anybody tapping it out on the on screen keyboard.

My new Dell comes with the free Office. I'll play around with it and might end up not replacing it. We'll see.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net

That site is important if you ask me. Find exactly the processor in the system you're looking at, and see how it scores. My dad (who works in the industry) bought a seriously low end Acer with a processor benchmark that was scandalous to me (like the 400s). My wife's current machine is in the 800s. My current machine is in the 1100s. My new machine will be in the 2300s.

I know I looked at Walmart briefly before buying. I think I would have paid more for a machine with my current specs than I got my system for from Dell. You really have to watch what you're buying, and Intel (and AMD) have made figuring out processors just from their names nearly impossible.

 

The first-generation Dell Inspiron 14R can be had for $399, but it's not Sandy Bridge. For the layperson, that means the old 14R is last year's model and does not have USB3.0 like the new 14R. It also means not as good a keyboard because Dell redesigned it between iterations and that the top part doesn't swap like it does on the second gen 14R.

 

The iPad a. has an external dock keyboard, and b. support for Bluetooth wireless keyboards.

There's a reason why it has so many word processing and authoring apps.

 

The mind just boggles. More power to these people.

 

Not sure what's boggling your mind about people writing stuff on an iPad.

What boggles my mind is the medical profession using the iPad for everything from replacing charts to accessing x-rays. Who knew a 9.7'' 1024x768 touchscreen would make this sort of impact into so many industries?

Now, let's get back to the topic of notebooks.

 

Native printing support much?

 

Happened last year. You can do it from your iPhone, too.

Come on, you guys can't read some product pages?

 

Oh I looked into this when I tried to setup my friend's Wireless network + 2 laptops (printing) + WiFi enabled tv + WiFi printer (Dell btw, not airPrint compatible) + ...the iPad(d'oh!)

 

Yeah, the printer has to support AirPrint. There are enough iPads out there now that printer manufacturers will have to take notice at some point… but they'd prefer you buy a new printer in the process.

There are ways around it, though.

 

If you are just word processing and surfing the Internet an iPad could easily suffice.

 

There's also a photo storage requirement that's likely beyond the iPad's storage capacity.

 

Serves me right for not reading the entire thread. I'm sure there is/will be a cloud based solution however.

 

For the pricetag you could save some and do the same with any tablet.

Plus, the iPad is also limited with the solid-state capacity.

Biggest part of my disappointment in the iPad has been the lack of the OS X instead of the iPodesque iOS.


OS X > iOS

 

iCloud's 5GB storage space wouldn't be enough.

 

Solid^

 

i dont care since there are only two websites i ever go to online.


www.thephins.com.

in that order.

 

I'd click on the first link... but I'm not sure what it is I'm going to run into.

 

We also learned something from this thread........ Desides is obviously an iPad salesman.