Looking for a new laptop

So I'm helping my cousin look for a new laptop and I haven't been it the market for one for a while. She lives 4 hours away so this is all going to be done over the internet.

Her main requirements are pretty basic. She wants decent speed, ram, and HDD space (i3/i5 with 4gb RAM and 500+gb HD should work) and that's no biggie. She doesn't want a heavy laptop as she is going to use it for school. It needs good battery life. Perhaps most importantly (and this is where I need most of the help) is she wants it to have good speakers. Gaming isn't important so dedicated graphics aren't needed. In fact, I'd prefer to avoid them to improve battery life and cost.

I'm not having much like finding reviews that go in detail over speaker quality, any help or specific recommendations for a <$1k laptop?

EDIT: My first choice so far is the Acer 4820T-6447 found here:
http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/LX.PSN02.243

All the specs are awesome but I have no clue how well the speakers work.

Good speakers is going to be tough with a laptop. Since she isn't a gamer, I'm guessing she wants this for watching movies? Continuing this train of thought, she'll probably be watching this while @ home or somewhere else other than class.

I'd go with an i3/i5 as well, integrated (non-dedicated) graphics and get her a set of portable speakers (preferably USB powered).

Reasoning: She won't be blaring speakers while in class, so plugging up a set of speakers should be easy. Plus, to get *really* decent speakers in a laptop, you'd need to get a big/heavy laptop. Everything else will have tiny/weak speakers, IMO.

Hope this helps.

-JT

Agreed with JT, an external audio solution is highly recommended if she wants good audio with a laptop. External being either a traditional set of computer speakers, a decent set of headphones, or one of the mobile speaker solutions like the Altec InMotion.

I have an InMotion for review, and it blows the socks off of any laptop sound. It's better than most radios also. Does wired or bluetooth audio, and has a battery built in that recharges quickly and lasts around 8 hours or so. It is closer to $200 than $100 though, so the price tag is out of most people's league in this market - and you can get similar for cheaper. Even a cheap speaker similar to this will crush any built-in laptop sound.

I'd start by focusing on the screen size she wants, she should look at some options in a B&M store to figure out what size she wants to deal with. With the CPU/MEM/HDD/Price you spec'd, thats a mainstream laptop and there will be a lot of options - so your decision should come down to size/form/appearance.

You can't really narrow it down by audio performance because the scale for audio quality from laptops ranges from terrible to sucks less.

EDIT: This isn't an ad for the inmotion, kind of sounds preachy re-reading that. I do really like the inmotion for personal use, but their pricing seems out of whack when there are many products that serve similar needs at a much better price point.

I'd say if she wants good speakers... best bet would be to get any ole' laptop, and then go to Best Buy and pick up some in-ear earbuds for cheap. There's no real such thing as good speakers on a laptop... there's no high end, midrange is overpowering, and low end is non-existent.

Alright I'll talk to her about the speaker thing. Maybe she'll be happy with a cheaper laptop and spending that extra $$$ on some decent sound equipment.

The only good speakers I've heard on a laptop is on the GF's Alienware m11x that we got a few months ago. It can literally fill a room

Well I talked to her about it. The speakers don't have to be "good", just passable. We looked at a few more models (she said she doesn't want an Acer) and decided against Dell (high prices) and decided on 14-15" models.

So what is non Acer, 14-15" with excellent battery life and comparable stats to the Acer above (2nd gen i processor, 4gb+ ram, 500+ GB HD)? I have two Toshibas and like them so I'm currently looking through their models. I haven't found that steal of a deal like the Acer up top yet though.

EDIT: Since she is buying this for school, we were looking at $699 and above for the free Xbox. Her house got broken into about 2 weeks ago and they lost a 360 and her laptop, so two birds one stone and all.

Erm... i don't like Toshiba laptops. At least not the Satellite. The rest are okay from what i've heard.

Look at the HP G42 and G62. They're nice laptops, and they're fairly slim and rugged. The plastic case is pretty thick, and they don't scratch easily. Specs are generally pretty good, and the screens look pretty nice too. Not too heavy either.

satandole666 said:

Well I talked to her about it. The speakers don't have to be "good", just passable. We looked at a few more models (she said she doesn't want an Acer) and decided against Dell (high prices) and decided on 14-15" models.

So what is non Acer, 14-15" with excellent battery life and comparable stats to the Acer above (2nd gen i processor, 4gb+ ram, 500+ GB HD)? I have two Toshibas and like them so I'm currently looking through their models. I haven't found that steal of a deal like the Acer up top yet though.

EDIT: Since she is buying this for school, we were looking at $699 and above for the free Xbox. Her house got broken into about 2 weeks ago and they lost a 360 and her laptop, so two birds one stone and all.

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She really doesn't have any special requirements, so really anything in that price range will suffice. I could randomly pick one out for you, if that's what you want.

Pinky, he probably wants opinions from people on machines they've actually used, or brands which they have experienced to have especially good quality.

Just saying, I'd take an OC members recommendation into account over a random selection any day.

Personally, I really like the thinkpad line. I'm not sure if they have a product with the specs that fit into your budget, but I like thinkpads because they are sturdy and take a beating with travel and transport. In college, its pretty likely to be toated along across campus so being tough is probably a bonus. If I were you, I would look at thinkpads, or maybe see if she's cool with the plain styling.

Other than that, I've tested a system from digital storm around the 1K price point, and it was very nice. It wasn't all that compact, and its more media oriented than every day use, so it may not be what she's looking for - its a 1080P screen larger than 15". But the build quality seems sturdy and they may have something else that fits the budget - their units are custom built, so you'll get a level of customer service you won't find with the bigger laptop brands.

I.M.O.G. said:

Pinky, he probably wants opinions from people on machines they've actually used, or brands which they have experienced to have especially good quality.

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I have experience with hundreds of laptops each year, and I still don't feel qualified to answer the question.

Maybe this will help though -- where I work we stopped selling dells, HP, and Toshiba. Only selling Lenovo (Thinkpads) now. Like IMOG says, they're a tad more $$$, but you get more too. However, you need to spend ~$800 to get into a good i7 with a good looking screen. Many of the lower and even some of the mid range Lenovo laptops have mediocre screens.

Right now there's a sale on the T series laptops:

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/t-series

Speaking of sales...if you're not in a big hurry to get the laptop, then check a few of the sale/discount sites prior to your purchase.

The ones I usually cruise: dealnews.com and digitaldeals.net

-JT

I.M.O.G. said:

Pinky, he probably wants opinions from people on machines they've actually used, or brands which they have experienced to have especially good quality.

Just saying, I'd take an OC members recommendation into account over a random selection any day.

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This X10000000.

I can read reviews and compare price/performance just was well anyone else. I was hoping someone here could say "I have this XXX model and paid $XXX for it and love it or something along those lines.

It seems most of the review sites I find aren't unbiased so it is hard to get good info on things.

I'll tell her about waiting for sales and the like, but she needs this laptop now (within a week or so) because school is going full force for her.

Thanks again for all of the replies.

For thinkpads, I have had a t30, t40, t42, t43, t400 and now on a t410. All through work, and I've worked with additional models like the t41 or t23 and other variants along the T product line.

Personally, I wouldn't look elsewhere currently, as long as they fit within my budget. The t23 and t30 had problems as they aged, bad reinforcement in the chassis lead to flex in the mobo which lead to solder failures. The t4X line never exhibited those widespread issues in my experience through watching them age towards 4-6 years in business usage.

t4xx line is harder to talk about longevity, as those aren't nearly as old yet, but I loved both the t400 and t410 for daily usage. The t410 was provided by my job, but it was around $1000 or so when it was bought.

You can get t410's for around $900 on the egg, or go up to 14-1500 hundred depending on the variation you go with.

This is the one I have:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146729

These are the other options:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...PA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=t410&x=0&y=0

The main difference between that the $1500 model has is the centrino wireless card, fingerprint scanner, secure chip, only 2GB of DDR1066 memory, bluetooth, and 3 year warranty.

The $900 model has regular wireless, no fingerprint scanner, no secure chip, 4GB DDR1333 memory, no bluetooth, a 1 year warranty, and a webcam. The screen, hard drive, CPU, battery, keyboard, mouse, ports, and everything else not mentioned is identical - other than the $600 price difference.

Don't make the decision based only on me however - I'm just talking about what I have the most experience with. I think $900 is a pretty good deal for what you get, and I don't like warranties anyway. The savvy shopper may know how to get the same stuff at a lower price - but I am definitely partial to the sturdiness and solid build quality of the thinkpad T series. They just feel solid in your hands, don't look flashy or fluffy.

Check out Lenovo Z570. I deployed a couple of them recently and it's a very solid machine at $500, especially after you spend the extra to add an Intel 510 SSD. Much better performance that way than any $700 notebook you can find.

Based on her requirements and the $699 price of the Acer you highlighted, I would go with the new Gateway ID47. I picked one up last week. It has an Intel Core i5 (2.3GHz), 500GB HDD, 4GB RAM, HDMI, optical drive, 2x USB2.0, 1x USB3.0, 1.3MP webcam, and a really big touchpad. Best part though is that it has a 14" screen in a 13.3" notebook package due to its almost frameless design. It is lightweight at about 4.6 lbs.

The unit is very think (a little over 1"). From a speaker standpoint, it's better than most I've heard. It also has Dolby Theatre which helps the sound a lot.

My 21-year-old son (senior year in college) is already coveting this unit. I think it hits all of her criteria, plus it is a very slick design package (brushed aluminum). Retail price is $699 (it's only been out for 2 mos, so I don't think you'll find it cheaper anywhere).

I would get her a Dell for a numer of reasons:

1> They have the buy x, get free xbox 360 deal.
2> The price range is fair.
3>You can adjust most, if not all of the hardware to fit your price range.

Most importantly, and the reason why I suggest Dell [though I don't particularly like them over any other distributor]

4> They have VERY forgiving warranties. If you get the 3-year full warranty she could throw the laptop into a swimming pool, in a drunken fit, and have it replaced within a week. For a person who isn't especially computer savvy, this is what sells the laptop to me.