Labtop suggestions for a prospective college student?

[Philly C]

Well, simply put, my parents aren't going to let me bring my main comp to college. Why? Because they think I'll play CS all day and flunk. They're probably right.
So...they'll let me bring a labtop instead. What features (and brand) should I look for? Should I go for size and weight over raw performance? I know Sony makes some nice and thin labtops but I've heard rumors that they break down alot. Is this true? Who makes labtops with really long battery lives? I don't think I'll be considering how this labtop will perform in games, but speed is still nice when opening Word. Oh yea, I don't wanna Mac either. Any suggestions?

Oh yes, and I DID search for labtops on ALL forums and didn't find much.

 

[Playitagainsam]

Frankly, since the issue is preventing you from playing, my bet would be an older laptop... a Pentium 133, maybe? nothing fancy, but it's a workhorse and very reliable for what you're suppose to do in college (i.e. study). You can get those in any private store, and they run for about $200-$300.

Otherwise, you're simply defeating the whole reason of not getting the desktop. If you have money to spend, that's your choice, but between paying $1,000 for a laptop and building myself a kickass destop system for the same amount, I'd take the latter any day.

Also... isn't "laptop" the correct way of spelling?

 

[mindiris]

Weeellll, you won't find much on "labtops," but I'm sure if you searched for laptops or notebooks you'd get better results

Unfortunately for your parents, I've seen some pretty damn good laptops with decent 3D acceleration good enough to run some older or new games that don't need extremely fast video and globs of texture memory. I don't know what to recommend, but the ones I have around at work are kind of expensive, they are the IBM T21 series. Very nice screens, but expensive.

I don't think HD performance is going to be high. The HD and screen sucks the battery dry faster than anything else on a notebook.

Anycase, you didn't specify the budget, and what you would be studying. For any purpose, I'd recommend no less than 128MB ram, and more only if you have good reason.

 

[potz]

look for one with the ati radeon mobility (dunno if it's out yet) or the nvidia geforce2go. either should provide acceptable 3d acceleration. i think the gf2g is currently sold with toshibas. dunno about the rad.

 

[Philly C]

Oh...laptops...jeez, must be too sleep deprived or something.

 

[borealiss]

what's your price limit?

 

[Looney]

Bah, that's too bad you can't bring your desktop... i'm in college too, and have a desktop and a notebook. Love the notebook, a Toshiba Protege 3110CT that weighs only 3lbs that i carry to class with me and use for most of my lectures.

My advice, get something light.. i had a P133 notebook that was 8lbs, and that's just way too heavy to carry around all the time. With the Protege, i can pick up and go.

 

[Lord Gwynz]

If you think you'll be carrying it everywhere you go, size and weight is certainly an important consideration. 6-7 lbs may not sound like much but you'll definitely notice it after carrying it for awhile so I suggest looking at some of those lightweight slim models. Being a big fan of Thinkpads, have a look at something like the X20 - 1" thin, 3lbs, 4-5 hrs. battery life, network port, compactflash port, and the keyboard even lights up in the dark.

 

[cavingjan]

Personally I would go the cheap route and figure on buying two laptops before you finally graduate. Laptops are stolen too easily unless you are always watching it.
Before I will go too much further, what are you going to school to study? Engineering will require a more powerful computer than say an education major.
Battery life is usually inversely proportional to specs. I've used Dell's in the past and will probably get another one in a couple months. (cheap approach allows me to buy a new one every two years for less money than the rest of the guys here at work) I use mine for office, light visual basic and some older games.

 

[Buddha Bart]

See if you can head to a circut city or compusa to check out some modles in person. If you're going to be bringing it to classes make sure it has a very quiet keyboard.

Frankly, almost none of the kids at my school who have a laptop use its portability at all. They only advantage they get is at the end of the semester they can pack faster. I only know one kid who brings it to class, or takes it off his desk regularly.

bart

 

[wyvrn]

My wife loves her laptop because she is in rotations, and has to move around constantly. I would not recommend a Compaq though, they are a bit more difficult to troubleshoot than most. Thinkpads are excellent, however usually expensive. A p200 would likely last you until you graduated, and then you could sell it and make a little back.

And why not get a part time job and build youself a desktop once you get to school. What the rants dont know won't hurt em

 

[BaDaBooM]

Get one with the Geforce2 GO video and you can play what ever games you want . Toshiba has one out already (Satellite 2805-402, I think) and Dell will have an even better one by the end of the month.

 

[Kindjal]

I bought a laptop last year for law school. Its a Dell Latitude with a 500mhz Celeron and I have had pretty good luck with it. My advice is that whatever laptop you get...GET THE MAXIMUM WARRANTY! Laptops are a fickle beast and it is best to have 24hr turn around when your machine goes south. Some other students who purchased these machines had lots of problems and it paid to have a comprehensive warranty.