Is this a good laptop for a college bound student

[lxskllr]

Everyone else's advice has been good, but I'll add throwing in a dedicated numerical keypad. That's the great thing about the huge laptops, and necessary imo for engineering. They're cheap as as hell, and make numerical computing much more enjoyable. That way you won't have to get a huge laptop just for the keypad.

 

[mfenn]

Thanks. Actually I've moved on from the Dell due to feedback here. If you look 4 posts back I am now looking at a smaller laptop, currently a 14" HP - here's a link:

http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...ilion-dm4-1160us-14-Laptop/product_904965_HC2

and checking into a larger Monitor for his use in his dorm room.

That should work OK for a cheap machine. Not good or bad, but OK. The build quality is not going to be very good (no better or worse than Dell) and the keyboard on that model is absolutely horrendous for anything other than just casual web browsing.

 

[Borg20001]

That should work OK for a cheap machine. Not good or bad, but OK. The build quality is not going to be very good (no better or worse than Dell) and the keyboard on that model is absolutely horrendous for anything other than just casual web browsing.

Good to hear about concerns with the keyboard. Though my thought is that if he's going to have a monitor for work when he's at the dorm room, I may as well get a keyboard (probably wired to save on battery issues) which will take care of typing issues and the keypad concerns mentioned above) and an optical mouse.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Spikesoldier]

11.6 is a little cramped. 14" is where its at, as long as its thin.

i really liked the timeline (original) from acer, but i dont know if i would trust their quality or how long it will last. the battery life is the thing that sold me.

 

[mfenn]

Good to hear about concerns with the keyboard. Though my thought is that if he's going to have a monitor for work when he's at the dorm room, I may as well get a keyboard (probably wired to save on battery issues) which will take care of typing issues and the keypad concerns mentioned above) and an optical mouse.

Any other suggestions?

Unfortunately, pretty much every machine in your price range is going to have a crappy keyboard. I'd suggest grabbing a refurbished Latitude from the Dell outlet. They're business-class machines (with the quality components to show for it) and have full 3-year warranties standard. I'd check out the E6410 (14") and E6510 (15") in particular.