laptop recomendations

[adavem]

i cant afford a mac..any other recomendations?i have about $800.00 to spend

[antelope19]

I have had my Dell Inspiron for about 4 years now and haven't had any issues so far.  Although, I will say I need to upgrade the RAM.  But that's because I was a cheapskate and didn't get what I should have when I bought the thing.  My roomate just went to Best Buy and got himself a very nice Toshiba laptop.  The thing is super fast.  I will say that you should take a trip to your local office depot only because they always have "open box" items and other computers that they are trying to get rid of at reduced prices.  Good Luck in your search. 

EDIT:  I am no computer expert.  I am sure some of the other guys can tell you more.  I like what I have, but my needs from a computer are very minimal. Word processing, spreadsheets, music DL, and surfing the 'paug.  :-)

[mattstick]

I like these Lenovo Thinkpad laptops, if you have to buy a Windows machine.

http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/landing_pages/promotions/ecoupon?cid=ca|semd|ggl|ca_brand_general_ec_en|t6|s&&s_kwcid=lenovo|1446879632

While it's not a laptop you can get a Mac Mini for under $800, and you use your current keyboard/mouse/monitor.

[Caravan2001]

I'd say scrape it togtether for an i-book.  If you are a student (or know one), you can get a decent discount, plus they give you an ipod, which you can sell. 

If not, I paid $800 for my Dell Inspiron two years ago, and it is nice and small (12 or 13"), and the only problem I have ever had with it is that it runs windows, not OSX  :-P

[jephrey]

yeah, what's another $300?  Consider some of the benefits of 2 OSes.  Being that $1100 is nearly 40% greater than the $800 you have, it is asking a lot to save that much more.  The student discount is a great idea too.  Otherwise, wait 6 months but put $12 per week away and you'll be there.  I just think that the extra $300 is worth being able to use 2 OSes on the same machine...  And macs are rated to play windows pretty nicely.

Plus, you'll help my shares go up in value.

[Mr Minor]

I have to agree with everyone on the mac thing.  It is really worth it to go the extra mile.  I am facing the same issue, and my wife talked me into saving a bit more and waiting to buy an imac.  We love our G5 and I really don't see myself going back to a PC, so I wouldn't want to do the same thing for a laptop.

[adavem]

ok,tell me why i should by a mac.not the tv commercial stuff,you guys own them,use them,so give me the whole story,why should i get one?

[mattstick]

Form, design, style, ease-of-use, but the best reason is Leopard.

[jedifunk]

yes, leopard is a superior OS.. vista is just playing catchup...

besides, if you really want to run windows, why not use the fastest windows computer you can get, which just happens to be a mac...

a few things i really like about leopard.
- easy network setup... its self aware, and very easy to maintain
- quick look... easily my favorite new feature.... say your looking for a particular file, but you don't remember what its called, but you know what the info inside looks like... from the finder you can select any file and simply hit the space bar, quick look will open the file and you can scroll the entire document... all without having to launch the application it was created in!
- speed... its blazing fast and very responsive.
- integration with apple apps (and many 3rd party ones too).
- neat things like the built in dictionary... simply hover the mouse over the word you want a definition on and hold cntrl+cmd+d and it gives you the definition of the word... works in any app (i believe)
- cover flow in the finder... if you're familiar with iTunes then you know about cover flow... well apple added it to the finder so you can browse your HD using cover flow.. i don't use it too much, but its great eye candy and can be very useful.
- time machine... built in automated backup of your entire HD... and its incremental, so after the initial archive, it only updates itself if and when the contents of your HD or the files it holds changes... you can go back by version, by date, whatever... and it looks cool.
- spotlight... full HD searching... and its blazing fast, it updates the results as you type... and its great as an application launcher!
- 5% market share... thats important cuz that means NO VIRUSES... seriously.  i don't even have to have norton or spybots or anything!
- expose... handy little widgets like calendar, calc, weather, notes, etc... all available by hitting f12, and they disappear just as easily... i use expose all day long, both at my job and at home.
- spaces... great for organizing the different ways you use your computer... have one for web and email... one for torrents... one for word processing... whatever..  if you're anal about your desktop being clean, its great.
- screen sharing... built in remote desktop... access another mac, and control it from across the room or across the world.. its sweet!  i use it alot to access my desktop at work when i work from home... say i forgot a file, or need to print something for someone at the office, but i'm at home... i just log into my work mac through my mac here at home, and i can use my work mac just like if i was there.. and it looks just like any other application on my home mac... really slick.

couple other mac things that i like and use...
- .mac... now this is a bit controversial but i use it and think its worth it.  for $100/yr i get an email account and 10GB of online storage... but i also can host my own websites through it, it integrates with iWeb for easy, cool personal website creation... and its got "back to my mac" which allows you to keep 2 or more macs in sync with each other... all your preferences, safari bookmarks, etc.  it also has a nice backup feature (for those that don't use time machine).
- they look fucking cool... yeah its a lame reason, but seriously, my black macbook is the best looking laptop you can buy (IMO)...


ok, so i could keep going, but seriously... buy a mac, you wont regret it.

oh and look here...
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/

[tet]

^^^^^^^^^

what he said

[Caravan2001]

yes, leopard is a superior OS.. vista is just playing catchup...

besides, if you really want to run windows, why not use the fastest windows computer you can get, which just happens to be a mac...

a few things i really like about leopard.
- easy network setup... its self aware, and very easy to maintain
- quick look... easily my favorite new feature.... say your looking for a particular file, but you don't remember what its called, but you know what the info inside looks like... from the finder you can select any file and simply hit the space bar, quick look will open the file and you can scroll the entire document... all without having to launch the application it was created in!
- speed... its blazing fast and very responsive.
- integration with apple apps (and many 3rd party ones too).
- neat things like the built in dictionary... simply hover the mouse over the word you want a definition on and hold cntrl+cmd+d and it gives you the definition of the word... works in any app (i believe)
- cover flow in the finder... if you're familiar with iTunes then you know about cover flow... well apple added it to the finder so you can browse your HD using cover flow.. i don't use it too much, but its great eye candy and can be very useful.
- time machine... built in automated backup of your entire HD... and its incremental, so after the initial archive, it only updates itself if and when the contents of your HD or the files it holds changes... you can go back by version, by date, whatever... and it looks cool.
- spotlight... full HD searching... and its blazing fast, it updates the results as you type... and its great as an application launcher!
- 5% market share... thats important cuz that means NO VIRUSES... seriously.  i don't even have to have norton or spybots or anything!
- expose... handy little widgets like calendar, calc, weather, notes, etc... all available by hitting f12, and they disappear just as easily... i use expose all day long, both at my job and at home.
- spaces... great for organizing the different ways you use your computer... have one for web and email... one for torrents... one for word processing... whatever..  if you're anal about your desktop being clean, its great.
- screen sharing... built in remote desktop... access another mac, and control it from across the room or across the world.. its sweet!  i use it alot to access my desktop at work when i work from home... say i forgot a file, or need to print something for someone at the office, but i'm at home... i just log into my work mac through my mac here at home, and i can use my work mac just like if i was there.. and it looks just like any other application on my home mac... really slick.

couple other mac things that i like and use...
- .mac... now this is a bit controversial but i use it and think its worth it.  for $100/yr i get an email account and 10GB of online storage... but i also can host my own websites through it, it integrates with iWeb for easy, cool personal website creation... and its got "back to my mac" which allows you to keep 2 or more macs in sync with each other... all your preferences, safari bookmarks, etc.  it also has a nice backup feature (for those that don't use time machine).
- they look fucking cool... yeah its a lame reason, but seriously, my black macbook is the best looking laptop you can buy (IMO)...


ok, so i could keep going, but seriously... buy a mac, you wont regret it.

oh and look here...
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/

QFT

[jephrey]

I concur...

I could do specifics also...  I play on a good windows machine all day long.  No major freezes or problems caused by the OS or hardware as of a year.  It's fine.  But that's all it is, fine.  When I get to my mac, even typing an email is fun.  Inexplicable, but somehow I just enjoy doing computer work.  I'm a logic guy too.  When you want something on a mac, you think, where would that logically be - and lo and behold, it's there.  If I used a mac at work, the major 2 things are quicklook as jedi says...  Best computer feature in a LONG time.  I don't use it all the time, but when I do, it's unreal.  I don't use the coverflow, but column view is like explorer times 10. (also spring-loaded folders are extremely convenient although you may be used to cut-paste to move files).  The second thing is Spotlight, which although you can add the google search and maybe vista has something, but spotlight rips - and you can put mathematical equations in it too.  Oh, there's a third...  I can use shift printscreen to get a copy of the screen in my clipboard (ctrl-cmd-shift-3 on a mac), but there's more.  take out ctrl and it makes a png on your desktop.  If you use 4 instead of 3, you can drag a box around any part of the screen and take a picture of just that, no cropping needed.  Finally, if you use [ctrl] cmd shift 4, you can hit the spacebar and then you can take a picture of ANY open window or desktop entity - even partially behind another window.  I use cmd-shft-4 daily.

Then there's the intangibles.  Not just the look of the physical box, but of the desktop, the way the dock looks and how your HD looks on your desktop, the nice single menu bar at the top that is good for whatever app is running.  And because I can honestly say that it just works.

I don't like to sound like a total fanboy, but I really don't care if I am.  I enjoy using a mac and that's the bottom line.