looking for a laptop
 

I'm looking for a lap top, what is a good one to pick up for a good price. I've been looking at overstocked.com there seems to be some nice ones. I don't play games and save music, mostly internet use and a word documents program is what im looking for. any help would be appreciated. thanks

best buy / staples are having a sale on the little averatec amd 1600+ laptop for 899-1000 its pretty nice i almost bought one but i didnt since i didnt like staples 15% restock/exchange only fee if you dont like it, a friend knew i wanted one and he got one too, he really likes it. ive heard of people having issues with the wireless connection on it, but then i have problems with all my wireless connections from time to time.

it runs a little hot, its really light, its a nice screen, you can get xp pro with a lot of ram.

the sony vaio 505 is on sale a lot of places for around 1400, frys outpost.com has it i think, i know the stores do, again that was a choice for me, as i was looking for small as i could get with it still being useable.

dell have some good bargains in their refurbished line..

HP have some great deals, i really like my HP ze5185 which i got for 1400 about 6 months ago, which was fab for the 2.6 p4 wiht a large screen.

besy buy/ frys have a lot of the best deals.

a good place to find deals on computers is the hot deal forum at www.fatwallet.com/forums

people will explain how to order, pricematch, and use coupons and rebates to get the best possible deals.

Go to Ebay and search for Dell Latitude LS.
They are an ultra light laptop. They weigh about 3 lbs. and are about 10"x12"x1" thick. One nice feature I like is the top is aluminum, not plastic.

They are slower. Most are P3 400-500 with 128-256 RAM with a 6-40GB HDD. The screen is a 12.1" TFT with a native resolution of 1024. One thing to make sure is to check for a cd-rom and/or a floppy because they are external with this model. For what you plan on using it for, it will be almost ideal.

A good refurbished will run about $500.

My roommate bought one, and he is happy with it.

Toshiba is making some really nice new laptops these days. Jin and I saw one at Fry's Electronics that has a touch-sensitive screen and a flip-around monitor so that it doubles as a tablet PC. You can write on the screen with the little included pen and convert the words to text. Excellent color display, good writing recognition that gets better with use. We were impressed.

http://a816.g.akamai.net/7/816/51/56...m_09162003.jpg

Considering that there is a 3% chance that you are a Mac user, I'm betting my suggestion isn't too helpful. :p

From what I hear though, the Sony Viao's are pretty good.

I couldn't agree more. Apple just beefed up the 15" PowerBook too. Gone from a 1Ghz G4 to a 1.25Ghz, can now max out at 2GB of RAM from 1GB, SuperDrive sped up to 2x from 1x, added the ambient light sensor and backlit keyboard from the 17", and added a FireWire 800 port. All for the same price!!

My dad recently bought an Athlon XP 2400+ laptop from BestBuy with all the trimming: 802.11g, etc. I think it was $1100.

I second the vote for a new 15" PowerBook but they're not cheap.

Say no to Sony
Yes to IBM Thinkpads.

Sony just plain sucks, my mom has it and it crashes everyday with Windows XP Home.
IBM Thinkpad with XP Pro is just amazing, so many futures (infrared port, 2 USBs, a keyboard light built into the screen, so many other functions on the keyboard)

I think that you should really evaluate your need for a laptop at all.

Every feature you could possibly imagine your ideal laptop having is better and cheaper in a desktop system.

Unless you absolutely NEED a laptop, stay away. Repairs and parts are easily two to three times the price.

That's my first piece of advice.

Second, I have a compaq armada m700 (700mhz p3/128mb/dvd/20gig) given to me by my employer. It is small, light, powerful enough for everything you mentioned and even those you excluded, and EXTREMELY durable...believe me, i treat it worse then a rental car :)

They're a few years old now and were almost exclusively business class machines. I suspect you could get one for a song through a liquidator or at auction.

-bear

j8ear makes some good points.

i got my powerbook with the applecare warranty so i've got a few years of safety margin. i suppose i'd buy an extended warranty on any laptop over $1000.

i've always used desktops - the PB is my first laptop. i use it _everywhere_ and is probably the best technology (gadget) product i've ever bought. i can break away from work (i work from home) and get stuff done at the coffee shop or wherever.

to j8ear's point, a desktop is more powerful at less price. i wouldn't expect to do much gaming on a laptop but you could get by or have tons of fun with mame.

anyway, veered way off topic. good luck in you search for the right laptop for you.