Which brand laptop to get? EDIT: how is the MacBook Pro?

z0mb13

Lifer
May 19, 2002
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I am planning to buy a new laptop, and currently toshiba caught my eye (good price, good built). What other brands should I consider? How is HP? Lenovo?

I am staying away from Dell and Acer since I had bad experiences in the past.

Also the Toshiba model that I saw came with windows vista home (I assume this is home basic right?) OEM version. I know I can upgrade this to home premium, but if I decide to reformat my computer in the future, will I have problems? or do I have to buy the retail version?

TIA

EDIT: ok now I added a new contender for my future laptop, which is the macbook pro. I know it costs $2000 which is double what I plan to spend. But if I get a comparable PC laptop for the same specs, it probably would cost around $1500. So there is about a $500 premium for getting the macbook pro.

Do you guys think it is worth it to get the macbook pro? I plan to wait until Leopard comes out (in october) and since it comes with dualboot, I plan to install windows as well.

Any reasons WHY I shouldn't get the mac? is it worth the premium?
 
Dec 10, 2005
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How much are you looking to spend? What do you plan on doing with this laptop? What size are you interested in?

Asus and Lenovo are good brands to look at. HP is about on par with Dell as far as quality and price go.
 

z0mb13

Lifer
May 19, 2002
18,106
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I am looking to spend around $1000 ish. I plan to do light stuff like browsing, word processing, light gaming. I want to get a big screen size (also good quality screen) since I will be watching movies on it a lot.

How is Lenovo compared to toshiba? on par? How about Asus?
 
Dec 10, 2005
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A new Asus or Lenovo is probably out of your budget, but anything that you find interesting should suffice for your needs.
 

z0mb13

Lifer
May 19, 2002
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When you say lenovo, is it the old IBM thinkpads?

When I was in china i see a lot of lenovos, and they are not a premium brand.
 
Dec 10, 2005
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Originally posted by: z0mb13
When you say lenovo, is it the old IBM thinkpads?

When I was in china i see a lot of lenovos, and they are not a premium brand.

When I say Lenovo, I mean Thinkpads (which were made by Lenovo for IBM). The Lenovo non-Thinkpad line is not that good.
 

Gibson486

Lifer
Aug 9, 2000
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Originally posted by: Brainonska511
A new Asus or Lenovo is probably out of your budget, but anything that you find interesting should suffice for your needs.

Lenovo is actually in his budget. My gf bought her t60 for $900.
 

Gibson486

Lifer
Aug 9, 2000
18,378
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Originally posted by: z0mb13
I am looking to spend around $1000 ish. I plan to do light stuff like browsing, word processing, light gaming. I want to get a big screen size (also good quality screen) since I will be watching movies on it a lot.

How is Lenovo compared to toshiba? on par? How about Asus?

I have toshiba. It's not bad. My only complaint is that my latch that keeps my laptop shut has broke. It stays shut, but it just does not lock.

My gf has a T60 thinkpad. The thing I love about it is how it is never noisy. The one thing I hate about it is how you add RAM.

Quality wise, neither feel cheap.
 

VinDSL

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2006
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www.lenon.com
I'm in the process of buying a Notebook.

I don't know that much about them yet - not enough to have formed any biases, but...

You might want to check out the Toshiba Satellite P205. Sounds like it might be right up your alley! :D

The HP equivelent would be the Pavilion DV9000T...
 

dnuggett

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2003
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If you can part with the extra coin, I'd go Macbook. Fantastic service, excellent build quality, OSX etc. Well worth it IMO.
 

ubercaffeinated

Platinum Member
Dec 1, 2002
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i'm gonna second the mbp. if you don't mind the money, it's nice. i'm looking at as well for when my current macbook no longer suits my purposes.
 

z0mb13

Lifer
May 19, 2002
18,106
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Originally posted by: Astaroth33
I have a new 17" (hi-rez 1920x1200 display) MBP, and love it.

how hard is it to lug that thing around?

Did you get the glossy or the mattee screen?