Wireless, good laptops, and other buying tips

[raeanna74]

I am in the market for a laptop. I used to be a computer geek but I'm so out of things now that I have no clue what to look for. I am wanting a computer that I can use to get online from nearly anywhere. Is it possible to get a computer with a wireless server package? I realize it would be a cellular sort of deal probably. What can I get and what would be the best deal. What do I look for in wireless cards? etc. I realize this sounds incredibly naive and it really is. Please give me some tips. I am looking at computers through Dell, to begin with, as I get a student discount from there. Any tips specific to Dell? I don't need a computer with great graphics. I want one with a reasonably standard sized keyboard and a good large screen as I am reading a LOT of online articles. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

[Martian]

Big question is the budget.

I'm not really sure what you mean by a 'wireless server package.' Pretty much every laptop ships with wifi capability, which will allow you to access the internet anywhere you can find an access point (either in coffee shops and libraries and their ilk, or if you're less scrupulous any unsecured AP will do). If you want something more flexible, cell carriers are all offering wireless HSPA/HSDPA connectivity; at a glance, it looks like Dell is offering adapters built in on their Studio and XPS line-ups, but given that the carrier will generally provide you with a USB adapter free of charge (albeit on a 2 year contract), that doesn't seem like a compelling reason to spend the extra money for the higher end model.

If all you want to do is browse, pretty much any laptop is going to do the job. I'd actually recommend a netbook if it weren't for the fact that you've specified that screen size is a concern; as it is, you'll do just fine with an Inspirion from the sounds of it. The 15" model is very usable.

If you want to be up on the latest standards, I'd recommend springing for the draft N wireless adapter. It might cost a bit more, but given that wireless adapters in laptops are not easily replaced, it seems like you might as well get the latest and greatest now. It's not entirely essential, though -- even 802.11g will give you (theoretically) 54 mbps of throughput, which is more than enough for any sort of internet connectivity.

You haven't mentioned any other requirements, so I don't know what else to say really. If it's not for gaming, the graphics card isn't critical. Video streaming should be fine on any model out of the Inspirion lineup, as well as audio/mp3 playback and online applications aren't too hard to handle as a rule. It'll do Hulu and whatever else you might want in terms of multimedia playback without any issues.

They're offering a 160GB hard drive and 2 GB of RAM as the base on the Inspirion 15 laptops. The hard drive could probably do with an upgrade; the RAM's a bit low if you want to do any gaming or multimedia work (photo/video/audio editing) or gaming but otherwise ought to be okay. I built one with the 250 GB hard drive and a 6 cell battery (for longer battery life), and included a messenger bag for portability. Subtotal was $486, so probably around $550 after shipping and tax, before your student discounts.

If cost is a concern, don't over-enigneer it. This is especially true if all you're doing is reading documents and browsing online.

A quick note regarding the internet:

As a rule, the cellular HS(D)PA services will provide you with internet anywhere. I'm not 100% sure how they work stateside, but up here you're looking at $30-$35 per month to start on a 2 year term. It'll allow you to browse online, but they usually have extremely low transfer caps with high overage charges, so it's not going to be something you'll want to use for a lot of heavy downloading or streaming video. As a rule you'll want to use whatever connection you have at home (get a wireless router if you don't have one already) for anything like that, and just use the mobile connection for internet on the go.

Hope that helps.

[Lasereth]

Buy a Dell Vostro. You can get them for $350 through Dell small business (which sells to anybody, not just small businesses). Get 2 GB of ram and the rest doesn't matter.

For wireless Internet, we use Verizon PCMCIA cards here and they work really great. The download speeds are similar to low-end broadband (75-100 KBps downloads). I think we pay around $40 a month for it with our discount. You can get them in USB format, and even internal format if you want (the internal cards are fucking great).

[raeanna74]

Thanks for the tips. I'm waiting now for Dell Inspirion 17. I didn't bother signing up with anyone for Wireless Internet but as I understand, Verizon is the best for where I'm located. AT&T doesn't even offer wireless internet service (HSPA/HSDPA connectivity) up here. I know there is ONE unsecured wireless server in my vicinity but as far as I know it's not very close. I'm going to wait to see if I find any hotspots up here before I sign up for any contract.
As for other perks. My primary use will be Microsoft Home and Office - Word, Powerpoint, etc. I may use it for some photo editing but that's about all. I will use very little video, or streaming video, DVD, or games. It will be a school computer primarily. I'm so ITCHING to get it. It's been 6 days In Production so far. I'm expecting probably a few more.