I'm asking Santa for a new laptop. Any recommendations? (Besides a Mac...I'd love to have one, but too they are too expensive)
From several articles I've read that the Google laptop is underpowered processor wise. That being said I'd take a look at TigerDirect to see if something there caught your eye. Several of the things you will need to think about is what do you really want it for and what size do you want. Oh and as a personal suggestion I'd steer clear of Windows 8 for now and stick with a laptop with Windows 7 64 bit.
My next Laptop will be a Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro. It's not out yet (the RT is, but I want it to run Windows 8), but when it is, I'll be the first in line (hopefully).
When you are comparing laptops and the features, make sure you look for one that has at least a 7200 RPM drive. You'll notice a definite performance difference. The lower priced models tend to have 5400 RPM drives to keep the cost down, but you give up performance.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-17.3-P...AMD-A6-4400M-Processor-and-Windows-8/21666186 ^^^ this is the one I just got ^^^ Ordered through swagbucks and got extra savings and SB's!!! Whoo! :lol:
It all really depends on what you plan to use it for. I have been in IT for over 12 years and owned at least a dozen laptops in that time. Do you plan to keep it at home mostly? Do you want to travel with it often? Is battery life very important, or will you usually be near a plug? Do you need a DVD drive to watch movies? What do you usually do with your laptop? Email and Internet mostly, or video and photo editing? Do you want a 2 pound laptop or a 7 pound brick? Do you have a maximum budget to stay under? Lots of factors play into buying a laptop. I have helped many, many people purchase laptops. I tend to stick with HP and Lenovo laptops mostly, although the Samsung/Google Chomebooks are pretty nice as well depending on your needs. I personally love my HP Envy Ultrabook It's so light and easy to keep on my lap on the couch.
I've liked my HPs, not so much the Lenovos. Have had awesome customer support from HP. I'm picky about how keyboards feel ... I'd go someplace like Best Buy or Tiger Direct and try some laptops out, see how the size of the laptop feels, test out the keypads. I found the widescreen annoying. Think about all the questions Jesse82nc asked .. all things to consider.
As jesse said very well, you must ask yourself what you want, or intend to do with it. AND be honest with yourself. . . or you are surely to find you're disappointed or discover you wasted money. If you are planning on playing high-poly games or doing any sort of video processing, a laptop under $700 is going to be disappointing. If you want to play the newer games (Assassin's Creed III, HALO 4, Dark Souls, etc.) with healthy frame rates (>60FPS) with most or all the lighting effects on, you'll have to look past $900. However, you want to surf the internet and check email, a "granny station" for three or four hundred bucks will be fine. One newer component I have found to be awesome for laptops that get moved around while on (i.e. nurse or doctor use), but does indeed bump the price a couple hundred or so, is to have only SSDs (solid state drives) in the laptop. SSDs are extremely fast at data transfer, boot incredibly fast, use a fraction the power of HDs (more battery time), but most importantly, are much more durable from laptop drops and bumps, as they have no moving parts or platters to smack against the data reading heads when the laptop is on during the 'accident'.
I definitely think I'd need more of a "granny station." lol. I don't play games or process videos. It's mostly for work, e-mails, shopping.
Another perspective you may or may not be aware of. . . If you are not dead-set on a laptop, you might consider a box, or desktop PC. The price of a home PC, including a reasonable size flat-screen monitor (21") is ~75% for the comparable specs of a laptop. But something tells me you want the mobility.
I love my Dell Inspiron. Wally World has them: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-Diam...um-with-Windows-8-Pro-Upgrade-Option/19721200
