15.4" vs 17" laptop

[MadOni0n]

Im buying my Hp laptop today, but i just cant decide which size of monitor to get. The 15" is obviously lighter, smaller, and thus more mobile. It is also $200 cheaper. Is it much harder to carry a 17" then it is to carry a 15"? Also, does having a 17" effect battery life dramatically?

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Use the 200 dollars saved and get a external monitor for use at home. 17in will eat more battery compared to a 15.4 inch monitor.

 

[LouPoir]

I went from a 15.4" to a 17" back to a 15.4" laptop. I found the 17" laptop too big. I use it primarily as a desktop replacement but have done some travelling with it.

Lou

 

[minofifa]

i had the choice of a 15 or 17 inch laptop from my school, and i chose the 17 because i thought it would be easier to see. It turns out thati mostly have my laptop hooked up to an external monitor now though. When i do want to take my computer with me, the thing is a brick. It big and clumsy, and the battery life sucks. In fact, i'm trading it in on monday for a 15.4 inch Toshiba (i have a crappy dell inspiron now).

 

[MadOni0n]

yea i completely forgot, i can just grab a large external monitor for use when im at home, and have a nice portable laptop.. thanks!

 

[corkyg]

I followed that same route - went from 12 to 14 to 17, then back to 14. The 17 was nice, but very heavy to carry and it was really too big for use on an aircraft seat tray - especially if the yo-yo in front of you reclined at all.. I love my 14.1, and am even thinking of going smaller. I travel a lot.

 

[Lonyo]

What are you going to use it for anyway?

 

[MadOni0n]

well its for college. So i'll need to carry it around campus but it'll mostly just be in my room.

 

[corkyg]

For that, I would get a SFF desktop and a pocket PC for in-class note taking. LouPoir's suggestion was very good.

 

[Hans5849]

forget HP, i have one and i hate it. its broken most of the time and goes corrupt for no reason at all. DELL!

 

[Fant]

I am debating between the HP 14" and the HP 15" ....the larger screen would be nice but i'm betting the smaller one will be more convinient to lug around. While the 17" has the wow factor, it would be a pain to lug around. Now those macbook pro's got the 17" down to an inch thick...havent seen a windows laptop that large and that thin...

oh and dell laptops are built very cheaply....hp business line has always made great laptops...hoping their pavilions are the same quality

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Hans5849
forget HP, i have one and i hate it. its broken most of the time and goes corrupt for no reason at all. DELL!

That illustrates the uselessness of anecdotal information. I have had an HP dv1000 now for two years - its traveled all over the US, and to Brazil and Mexico, and hjas NEVER, NEBER even had so much as a hiccup.

Dell's tech support has slipped a lot lately. A lot of how a lapto perofrms is reflected in how well you take care of it. They are not kid's toys, but that's how many are ending up.

 

[bcterps]

17" laptops are really only portable by definition, but not something you'd actually want to use on a regular basis if you have to travel. 15.4" may also be too big as well, the real advantage to a 15.4 vs a 14" laptop would be a better video card in some cases, but if you don't need to do any hardcore gaming, a 14" laptop will probably suit you just fine. The main question to answer is how often you are going to be carrying this around. The more you carry it around, the smaller you want to go.

 

[bcterps]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: Hans5849
forget HP, i have one and i hate it. its broken most of the time and goes corrupt for no reason at all. DELL!

That illustrates the uselessness of anecdotal information. I have had an HP dv1000 now for two years - its traveled all over the US, and to Brazil and Mexico, and hjas NEVER, NEBER even had so much as a hiccup.

Dell's tech support has slipped a lot lately. A lot of how a lapto perofrms is reflected in how well you take care of it. They are not kid's toys, but that's how many are ending up.

IMO, unless you are going for a business style laptop, most any laptop you buy is going to be a crapshoot in terms of reliability when you're looking at consumer models. Overall reliability often varies from model to model, it's very hard to say that 1 brand has better reliability than another because of the big differences in models.

 

[Arcanedeath]

If your planing on carrying it arround at all I'd go w/ the 15.4, the 17" laptops are just to heavy and cumbersome to carry around on a regular basis.

 

[0roo0roo]

go by weight. unless that 15 is a slim its probably not that much smaller.

all laptops are a pain to carry around, its not pda/cellphone..you have to protect them and all that so its like having a slightly smaller brief case, still not going in your pocket, not a big difference.