Do not buy emachines. This is said just on standard principle.
Do not buy HP/Compaq. Everything from this company sucks.
Do not buy Dell. I used to work for Dell, so I can tell you for a fact that their laptops suck. Actually, you don't have to be an "insider" to know that -- spend a few minutes with a recent Dell, you'll discover it's not really that great a machine. They're too plasticy, not very well put together. Also, where I currently work has a few Dells that are a couple years old -- they don't hold up very well, although this can be said for most PC laptops. Plastic bits break off, screens get loose, latches break, batteries get lost, etc.
My personal picks:
1) Apple: Cannot beat these machines, period. Yes, things do get more expensive in Mac-land, but you will really get a better feeling about it all than you do on the PC side -- Apple's stuff is quality. It's like eating cheesecake made at a small local bakery, as opposed to the Sara Lee frozen stuff from the grocery store. I recommend a Powerbook over an iBook, but even the lower-end plastic chassis models are nice. Running MacOS is not as bad as you might think -- there are tons of applications that match PC functionality, and yes, alot of them are free like the PC side of things (like Bit Torrent
). I would not trade my 15" widescreen aluminum Powerbook for anything on the market right now. Also,
support freaking ROCKS. Shell out for Applecare, it's worth it.
2) IBM: Bought a second-hand refurbished T23 Thinkpad PIII ~1GHz for some guy at work. Solid as a rock while still being portable. The outsides of these machines have a sort of faux-rubber coating on the chassis (not sure what it is, try to find someone with a Thinkpad to see what I mean), which provides a good grip and lessens the chance for denting, chipping plastic, etc.
3) Fujitsu: My dad has a second-hand PII 233Mhz Fujitsu. This thing is a tank. Yes, we've taken care of it, but it's got to be at least 4 years old now, I can't remember exactly. I've seen the new models at Fry's, and they seem to still have that tank-sturdiness.
Also-rans:
- Toshiba: Haven't seen any bad units from them.
-
Sager: Some of their models are the same as Alienware's, and for alot less money.
Research them.
If you're going to spend $700 on a laptop, you might as well save up some money for another month or two and buy a $1200 laptop to ensure you're getting
QUALITY. It's just like anything else - that extra bit spent on a better laptop means it will last longer and have a higher resale value.
One other note: If you're a student or know a student, by all means EXPLOIT IT! You can get a good chunk knocked off machines from some companies just by saying you're a student. Apple's good about this -- they cater to education and even have an education support department. I'm not even in school anymore, but since I bought my Powerbook while I was in school, they still have me down as eligible for education discounts. Pretty cool stuff.
