Laptop for college freshman: looking for ideas

[D.Pham00]

you know, it's weird, i had a Dell laptop for about 3 years, after 2 or so, the battery started to barely hold 30 minutes charge. then i let it drain naturally for a month or two, charged it up, and now it holds a lot more charge. in any event, here's another one:

$499.98 - $50 rebate = $449.98

* Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Mobile Processor T4200
* 3GB installed memory
* 320GB hard drive
* LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVDñR/RW with Double Layer Support
* 16.0" Diagonal High Definition HP BrightView Display
* Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN
* 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader
* Microsoft Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1
* 1 year warranty

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...=#post19127927

[bunnydojo]

Assuming your daughter isn't taking any classes that involve the computer doing heavy-lifting (like video editing), I'd say you should go for something small with a high battery life.

Most classroom desks are going to small, and a 17" notebook is going to be very clunky. You also don't want something that's going to be heavy to lift around or that's going to be large in a dorm room. If she's going to be watching DVDs or TV on there, you can probably buy a large monitor for cheaper than it would be to 'upgrade' the laptop.

The next important thing is battery life. If she's going to a library or outside or has several classes in a row, having to bring a charger is a burden. Even if some classrooms make outlets open, nobody wants to be that person with the cord that people have to step over, etc.

Assuming this is just to write papers and use the Internet, pretty much any computer from the last two or three years should be more than enough.

[fumanstan]

I'm not a big fan of netbooks for college use. I think it would be nice to carry to class and take notes on or something, but actually sitting down and using it to surf the net, writer papers, or whatever make it a bit more difficult due to the smaller screen. Moving up to a 13" laptop or a 15" would be better, but that's just me.

Of course, I carry a 17" laptop for work and don't have a big problem with the size and weight. A college bound girl might, I guess

[D.Pham00]

imo, buy this if you want to lug around to take notes in classroom or whatever. plus, if it's dropped or lost, then not much $$$ otd.

Asus eee 900A 8.9" Netbook $144 Best Buy B&M

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...readid=1340225

then you can buy a decent desktop (or laptop if space is tight) for the room.

[12thmonkey]

Mr. Procrastinator... Still haven't picked up a laptop for my daughter yet. HA!

Took a peek at Best Buy today (07/03), and was looking at a couple of Dells and an HP.

Received a flyer in the mail today from Dell, and they have some decent sales going on, but my concern is the whole mail-order service angle? Or at least my perceived concerns.

Any advance word on Sunday sales at BB?

[SDSU92]

Originally Posted by ugabuga

Hell grab a nice netbook which is what many college students are wanting right now. Small, portable, light, fantastic battery life, priced well. I recommend a 10inch one, like the Asus 1000HE.

I would be cautious on going with a netbook as they are not built to handle the Microsoft Office Suite. These are primarily used for internet, e-mail and as a complementary device to your laptop. They are great PC companions and for people just wanting to do basic internet and e-mail, but for the activities she'll be doing, I would recomment a laptop.

A couple things to consider . . . How long are you looking to have the laptop? How rough is she with her electonics? There area a lot of great systems out there. I would recommend something with an Intel Core 2 Duo or Centrino 2 as they tend to have longer battery life (you can find this information at Best Buy). If she is rough on her stuff, you may want to invest in a solid state drive for the hard drive. Less moving parts are always good.

Overall, her laptop is somewhat a personal device as much as productivity tool. Design can have a major impact and there are some really nice systems out there from Asus and Acer that are much thinner and lighter as well as optimizing the battery life.

If you are looking for some options check out the Microcenter website and look under the Intel brand or go to Best Buy's webite and search for Asus UX50V-RX05.

[sracer]

Originally Posted by SDSU92

I would be cautious on going with a netbook as they are not built to handle the Microsoft Office Suite. These are primarily used for internet, e-mail and as a complementary device to your laptop. They are great PC companions and for people just wanting to do basic internet and e-mail, but for the activities she'll be doing, I would recomment a laptop.

Where are you getting your information? I have 2 netbooks, an Asus EeePC 701 4G and EeePC 1002HA. Both running ShittyP. Both run Office 2003 quite well.

All of the current crop of 10" netbooks equipped with XP can run Office.

[BartleyR7]

Originally Posted by SDSU92

I would be cautious on going with a netbook as they are not built to handle the Microsoft Office Suite. These are primarily used for internet, e-mail and as a complementary device to your laptop. They are great PC companions and for people just wanting to do basic internet and e-mail, but for the activities she'll be doing, I would recomment a laptop.

I would also disagree with the part about Microsoft Office. I have the new Asus 1005HA, and I've been using Office 2007 without any issues. Sure, you can't multi-task as much as you might want, but if you're just typing a paper or doing a simple spreadsheet, I haven't noticed any problems at all.

Where I would caution you on buying a netbook is just for usability. The screen is relatively small, and this causes some minor annoyances. For example, there are certain applications that pop-up windows that you cannot click in (since they are off the screen and scrolling doesn't seem to work). You can maneuver around this if you are familiar with keyboard shortcuts, but it is a little bit annoying. Depending on how involved the curriculum is, a netbook may not be able to suitably run all of the required applications. For example, I have Miktex (a version of LaTeX) running fine on my computer, and I also use Mathematica and Matlab some. Although they all technically run fine, there is an obvious slow-down when using them (particularly Mathematica).

I would think it would just make more sense to get a laptop if for no other reason than the screen and desktop real estate. Yes, I can plug my netbook into an external monitor (VGA port), but it won't power a huge monitor at any kind of "usable" resolution.

If it's simple portability you're interested in, then the netbook is an obvious choice. However, in my education career (undergrad and graduate) and in my current career as a college professor, I've always found that a good multi-tasker and general computer is a much better bet than a machine that specializes in one thing. This changes when you go into certain majors (graphic design, engineering, etc.), but for the general student, a mid-range laptop should suffice nicely and sustain them for their undergraduate careers.

[SDSU92]

In response to my comments on Office. If you are doing simple word processing and e-mail. It runs great. If you start working with presentations, animations, photos, etc. these systems are not designed to handle the multimedia content creation that you see as part of what many people do today with their PCs.

Also, in my experience, not many college students are just focused on doing one thing at a time with their PC. They are chatting, e-mail, working and listening to music all at the same time. So the points that BartleyR7 make are just as valid.

[al_bundy]

Max out in ram which is cheap and a netboom can run office with no problems. If my 5 year old Dell with vista and 2 gb ram can run office then a netbook can

[Michael Corvin]

Originally Posted by ATX

i think alot college students not trying to hear about a desktop and they may have space issues

Spoiler:

Mac Mini: $500