Dad wants to get a laptop, and I know NOTHING about lagtops.

[AlphaIVT]

What are the features that I should look for when choosing a lagptop? My dad plans to type and do spreadsheets mostly, and he'll be moving around alot, so maybe a light one would suffice. I've seen laptosp with different ways to move the cursor, which one is more effective and are there problems with them in the future?

 

[chiwawa626]

just spread sheets and typing? well i dont know a lot about laptops eather but sounds like a job for the Celeron

 

[Yzzim]

CNET has a nifty little program called Laptop Decision Maker where you can decide which laptop is right for you. I've never used it so I don't know how good it is...might give you an idea about what to look for in a laptop though.

 

[beat mania]

If you know nothing about laptops, then let your dad ask someone else for advice. You have to accept the fact that you can't be useful for EVERYTHING.

 

[Yzzim]

Uhh...that's probably why he's asking us for advice...

 

[yuckck]

i can't deal with those little red thing that for example ibm has, touchpad are less painful to deal with for me. though mouse is the best.

 

[Conroy9]

you can't ask other people waht the best pointing device is! if everybody agreed, there would only be one choice left

i hate the touch pad - it keeps thinking my palm wants to move the cursor
i don't like the knobby thing much either but it's better than the touch pad
to me

if he just wants to type and spreadsheet and move around a lot, a small light one would be better
if it's in his price range, i like the tiny sony vaios

 

[Tripleshot]

Alot depends on how much spreadsheet and how mobil he will be. My favorite to recommend for support and for duty and utility is Dell inspiron series. Large screens,touchpad,long battery life,durable(a little heavy) and support. If Dad is doing alot of processor intensive or graphics intensive work such as spreadsheets, I would not recommend celeron. I would not recommend celeron for much of anything now that Duron is out.Go with a PIII 600 or better and 128 ram. Dell makes a docking station for most of its Inspiron series laptops that makes the laptop into a very nice desktop solution that travels when he travels.

Just my $.02.

Details are at thier website.

 

[mmnatas]

Make sure to get an Intel based laptop, they are much better at saving battery life. My AMD 380 k62 laptop maxes out around 2 hours battery life, but can go dead in under an hour on a full charge, and my battery is pretty new.

Built-in mice suck, but I think the eraser-head is good if you aren't using your mouse for long periods at once. I strongly suggest you get a USB Optical Mouse. I got an MS Intellimouse because I can use it on just about any surface, flat or not. It is great for portability because of this. Of course there are cheaper and smaller optical mice.

Since you are getting something that doesn't sound like it needs a lot of processing power, if you have a choice between an extra 100 or 150 mhz of CPU or 64 megs of ram, get the ram. Ram saves battery life, because it reduces the use of the swapfile and other hard drive stuff.

Also, since you'll just be doing basic office aplications, you probably won't need a bunch of drives to lug around. If you can get something with modular drives instead of built-in, go for it. You can take out your cd-rom or floppy if you're not going to use them to save weight and battery life.

Consider getting an extra battery (or two) if you'll be going out away from power outlets for more than an hour or two frequently.

Get a TFT screen if at all possible, they're much easier on the eyes. They're only found on the cheapest laptops anymore.

Check the keyboard, usually you can find out what percentage of normal the keys or spacing is of normal keyboards. I think I remember reading 90% or higher is what you should look for.

If your dad will be doing a lot of number crunching in the spread sheets, getting an external numeric keypad would be very helpful.

I've learned this stuff from research and personal experience. I've had to use a somewhat underpowered laptop for quite a while, but it gets just about everything done.

 

[PCAddict]

Get a TFT screen if at all possible, they're much easier on the eyes. They're only found on the cheapest laptops anymore.

Say what?

 

[mmnatas]

Oops, meant non-TFT screens are found only on the cheapest laptops now. Sorry, my bad.

 

[beat mania]

<< Uhh...that's probably why he's asking us for advice...

>>



What I mean is that it's not good to ask for second hand advice. If his dad wants a laptop, then HE should ask for advice, not ask his son to ask for advice, by then the information would probably be distorted and inaccurate.

 

[ilancas]

Tell him to go for an IBM Thinkpad. They are the business.

 

[Pete]

Yeah, I think IBM builds the most solid laptops. Dell might present a better value, but I've read a few stories of poor build quality--still, fora few hundred $$$s in savings, you could probably deal with a few squeaks. Just make sure you get Win2K bundled (read one of the many open threads on Dells in the Hot Deals forum for details), as WinME seems to be the culprit for myriad problems. And if you go Dell, opt for the 3-yr warranty. For spreadsheets, you probably won't need more than a P3-600, which comes with SpeedStep for power saving, and draws less power than the its SpeedStep brethren. Go for an active-matrix (TFT) screen. Get as little RAM included as possible, then buy more cheaply online (at Crucial.com)--128MB total minimum, the more the better (and the less you'll access the HD, good for extending battery life).

First, go to a local store with your dad to see what screen size/pointing device he's comfortable with, then start price shopping once you've got a basic idea of what you want. I myself consider the IBM and Sony laptops the most desirable, but I don't have great experience with either, and uness you buy online, you'll probably incur a hefty penalty with state tax. That's why Dell (the Inspiron 4000) may end up being your best bet.

And read the reviews on CNet, ZDNet, and PCWorld for a general idea of laptop faults/quirks/desirables.

 

[rmblam]

I have the 1685 Compaq Presario. I snagged it for $950 brand New last year. It has a 350mhz AMD k6-2 and DVD. It is awesome when traveling. I have a power inverter so my wife or I can watch movies while the other drives. Very cool. For a little processor it does very well. Something on that order would be more than sufficient for him.

As mentioned though, battery life is not the best. An Intel based system is the way to go if you want to watch a whole movie on the battery. Mine only makes it about 45 minutes at full volume. Hence, the power inverter.

IMO Sony makes the best multimedia laptop, then DELL makes the best business laptop, and Toshiba makes the best all around general purpose for the $$$.

How much is he looking to spend is probably the first question. Go from there.

 

[OneEng]

Our company uses exclusively Dell laptops. I can say from that personal experience that they have questionable quality. Sure, Dell is more than adequate at getting someone over to fix issues when they arrise, but the percentage of problems is pretty scary. I have a group of about 10 engineers that work for me. Of that 10, 4-5 of them have had to have their mother boards replaced AT LEAST once. 1-2 of them have had the mb replaced more than one time. The LCD has gone flakey on 2, and the video drivers on my own machine have never worked correctly.

I also have heard good things about the quality of the IBM's. We purchased 2 for delivery to a customer for a engineering contract. Not only were they faster than the Dell's by a notible margin, they were more robust.

If you can hold off for about 2 months, AMD and Intel will be batteling it out in the laptop arena. You may well find a great monitary gain as well as speed and features gain when this happens.

Good luck in your decision.

 

[Pete]

So there you go. Another cost-saving feature of the Dell/other direct-buy laptops is Office is usually much cheaper when included. If you already own a copy, or if you'll use Corel/StarOffice/etc, then that's not an issue.

 

[Zenmervolt]

I'm biased towards IBM, just because their ThinkPads are incredibly durable, and their keyboards are incredible. I prefer the IBM style &quot;eraser head&quot; mouse to a touchpad because when I use a touchpad, the buttons never fall under my thumb, but on the IBM, everything is right where I need it, bear in mind that this differs greatly among people. Take a look at the IBM ThinkPad i series, they're nice little notebooks with IBM's famous durability and a nice feature set for a not-to-exorbitant(sp?) price.

Zenmervolt

 

[Pete]

If you're willing to spend the money, go for the new Apple G4 PowerBook . You could probably recoup the extra money by charging people to look at it.

 

[chiwawa626]

commmon now Pete, Id expect better from a senior member, you know promoting macs is not allowed in General Hardware

 

[HaVoC]

The NUMBER ONE recommendation I can make to your Dad is to buy a BUSINESS-LINE laptop, not the crappy home/small office laptops many companies have these days. Dell's are good. I have good experience with Compaq's Armada series, but STAY AWAY from those crappy Presarios. Cheap components and bad engineering lead to horrible reliability.