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My Head Hurts - Which Laptop???????

I've done SO much research without much luck, that I'm ready to throw the laptop that I don't have yet, out of the window. Can someone with some laptop knowledge, help? I've looked at Vaio's, Toshiba's, Dells, Gateways, Alienware, HP and on and on. I'd like 2G of RAM and 160G hard drive. Screen size doesn't matter. It's not a replacement desktop. I'd like one that's well-rounded, does a little of everything, preferably have Word, good wireless card and good battery life, standard drives, DVD, CDRW etc. The price hasn't been set at this point, although Alienware is a little too pricey after adding the bells and whistles. I've looked at all the top PC Mags, whose views seem to differ from the publics'...more confusion. So don't send me to those please. I'd rather someone with knowledge and someone who has owned a few and can share their experiences can help. If you can, you'll definitely have earned the10 points! Thanks!

Public Comments

I have owned a Dell Inspiron, a IBM ThinkPad and a Sony Viao laptop. I now own a MacBook Pro and it is hands down the best I have ever used. You can easily install Word and other Microsoftt Windows programs.

Honestly.. with what you suggested, I recommend a Sony VAIO or a Toshiba Satellite. I recommend the Satellites now more that I think about it.. those laptops are real good for every use. The Toshiba Satellites have a technology to them that makes processing easy, everything is nice to look at on the screen, and they are EASILY repairable. Toshiba Satellite has my vote.
As far as Word.. your going to have to buy that seperately. The full version of Office will not come with a laptop or a PC.

the first question are you a gamer, If you are I would definatly go for the XPS or the Alienware.
But if your no and just using it for a little bit of everything I would go with the Lenovo T61 or the Dell Latitude
.
The Lenovo (formaly IBM) Thinkpad is a great laptop I have a T42 from work I love it. I have dropped it, Its gotten wet, can handle different temps. Its a great laptop but now its lenovo not IBM and I have heard It hasnt changed.
The Latitude good laptops I have a D610 aswell its been a great laptop but I have gone threw alotof hard drives. It also thicker and heavier than the Thinkpad. But they can handle a lot as well.
Hope this helps

if you have the money go for the macbook pro. an alternative are thinkpads or dell latitudes.

Go to www.consumerreports.com and read the August issue. It'll cost you a buck or two. They surveyed 100,000 laptop users and checked the latest laptops. It's an unbiased opinion on what is best.

Toshiba Satellite A200-18M (if you like AMD)
Toshiba Satellite A210-11P (if you like Intel)
1.8Ghz CPU (Dual Core)
2GB RAM, 200GB Hard Drive, HDDVD
256MB Dedicated VRAM ATI HD2600
2gig of ram is very nice to have and most laptops let you upgrade to 4gig as and when you like.
It's the VGA you have to concentrate on, shared memory seems to get bad reviews, and so imho I don't even consider them when buying...
oh on Toshiba... Satellite is good, Satellite Pro is not.. and avoid the ones with the onboard Intel 900 graphics cards, and Nvidia 7300's are slooow...
tomshardware.com is good for comparing mobile CPU and VGA speeds and is worth checking before you buy.

I would recommend the Lenovo T series.
Never mind the cost of the laptop. How important to you is the information on it?
Do not try this at home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw78gcU713g
While few people crash their laptops into walls, they do get dropped an awful lot. Buying a cheap laptop can get very expensive in the long run.

The Dell 1520 is very popular and has been getting good reviews. You can customise it with most of the top options. I specially like the durable alloy case. 15.4 is your mainstream size.