Need a laptop for college, light yet full-featured

[cmp1223]

I need a laptop for college. I think having it light and having a good battery life is key. Gaming would be fun but then your talking about a heavy desktop replacement laptop, and in three years it won't play many games and just be heavy. Anything out there have: large keyboard/screen, DVD burner, good size HD (50gb+), good bat life? any recomendations? i thinking good battery life probably means a pentium M, maybe a vaio?

thanks
-c

 

[twitchee2]

mac if you can live w/o gaming

 

[imported_itr]

Originally posted by: twitchee2
mac if you can live w/o gaming

you can only game on heavy laptops anyway.

 

[imported_itr]

what's your budget?

 

[wisdomtooth]

Originally posted by: cmp1223
I need a laptop for college. I think having it light and having a good battery life is key. Gaming would be fun but then your talking about a heavy desktop replacement laptop, and in three years it won't play many games and just be heavy. Anything out there have: large keyboard/screen, DVD burner, good size HD (50gb+), good bat life? any recomendations? i thinking good battery life probably means a pentium M, maybe a vaio?

thanks
-c

Depending on the school, you might be able to get a good deal on a laptop. Some school have crappy educational discounts, some have good ones.

My school had a good one. Saved $400 when I bought my Thinkpad T41.

Check out what your school has to offer first before you buy.

HTH!

 

[DaveSimmons]

Thinkpads are excellent for non-gaming use but a little bit expensive if you can't get a nice discount

Dell Latitude D600 is nice, we've bought a couple recently for work. 14.1" screen (but nice, at least the 1024x768 one), and it's light.

 

[tren001]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Thinkpads are excellent for non-gaming use but a little bit expensive if you can't get a nice discount

Dell Latitude D600 is nice, we've bought a couple recently for work. 14.1" screen (but nice, at least the 1024x768 one), and it's light.

I'm still using a clunky ThinkPad A31 I got from school, and I like it, but only because my school's deal included a warranty. My ThinkPad is on its second motherboard, and my friend's A31 is on it's FOURTH motherboard! And with the upcoming shift of IBM ownership to Lenovo, who knows what more might happen to quality (not trying to be racist or anything here, I'm actually chinese myself)?

One thing a thinkpad's got over just about any other laptop is that most ThinkPads come with a touchpad AND the little red pointing stick thing. Once you get used to it, the pointing stick is like five times better/faster/more accurate than a touchpad, plus it lets you keep your hands on the keyboard at all times. Everyone else is touchpad only (except some Dells maybe?). For me, that means all my future laptop purchases will probably be IBM only.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Isn't the A series the "bargain" one? The T series are well-built, at least for now. Once the takeover is complete, who knows?

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Isn't the A series the "bargain" one? The T series are well-built, at least for now. Once the takeover is complete, who knows?

I believe bargain = R series.

 

[Gibson12345]

My Dell Inspiron 600m (bought back during the famous $750 off coupon) has been absolutely great for me (I'm studying abroad right now). It's small, light, and, hell, even plays HL2 smoothly.

Added: I should clarify. The screen is 14.1 inches and it weighs about 5 pounds. You can get it with a DVD burner and a large hard drive, and the battery life is around 4 hours for normal use, maybe 2.5 if you're gaming.

 

[tren001]

Another thing about laptops: long battery life is nice, but don't expect it to last. Mine pooped out after about a year and a half, going from 2.5 hours to just over 1 hour now. Expect to having to buy a replacement if you plan to keep the laptop for the whole 4 years.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Toshiba, Dell or my choice Sager

 

[cmp1223]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Budget is around $1500. I was looking at the Dell Inspiron 9300 and it looks awesome (17", dvd-burner, 60gb), but its a beast. I am hoping to get something around 5 pounds with a DVD burner. Also, what is a good screen size? I use a 17" LCD on my desktop and these ultralights with 12" screens seem unmanagable. I would guess 15" is a nice size, or can one survive with less?

 

[mooncancook]

a friend of mine just got a Sony laptop (forgot the model). very stylish, thin and light. It's a centrino 1.7 with a 13" wide screen. Best of all it comes with Mobility 9700 with 64MB. Rare to see a 9700 on small notebooks. It's much nicer than my coworker's Dell 700m. If you are looking for thin and light then i think 13" is the perfect screen size (12" is a bit small)