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Laptops - Sturdy Ones; I'm Shopping
Topic Started: Sep 27 2007, 06:13 AM (451 Views)
DairyQueen2049
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DRAGON BREATH. DRAGGIN' BUTT
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And need advice. What would you have as a sturdy, user friendly, laptop?

What are your must-haves??

When I got my desk top in '99 I got good advice from others - please share cuz I know you all are loaded with info.

Thanks!
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little pepper
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I Visited Candy Mountain and All I Got Was This Lousy Incision
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My MacBook and I are inseparable. After years of using Windows-based laptops, I decided to try out Apple. My MacBook is small, only 13.1", so it is really portable and is a joy to have on airplanes. On my last 2.5 hour trip, I was able to watch a movie the whole time with battery life to spare.

I researched the Sony Vaio line as well. Those computers are really nice too, if you want a PC. Plus, some of the models come in pretty colors. :) You could get pink or blue or red.

cnet is my favorite site for researching electronics. They have lots of editorial and user reviews on laptops.

Good luck!
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Due's Mom
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Shunnnnn the unbeliever. Shunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
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Little Pepper
How was it switching from Windows OS to the Mac? Did you have any problems?
What about compatibilty with your PC data? I have been thinking about getting a MAC for my new desktop and keeping my notebook(PC)

BTW
I have Gateway laptop that can do everything that my desktop can do and I have been quite happy with it
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jn4jenny
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Is the meadow on fire?
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Due's Mom
Sep 27 2007, 01:02 PM
Little Pepper
How was it switching from Windows OS to the Mac? Did you have any problems?
What about compatibilty with your PC data? I have been thinking about getting a MAC for my new desktop and keeping my notebook(PC)

BTW
I have  Gateway laptop that can do everything that my desktop can do and I have been quite happy with it

Try not to worry about compatibility. Apple solved these problems about 8-10 years ago. I work on a four-year-old Apple Powerbook at home and have a PC at work, and I move seamlessly between them in Powerpoint, Word, Excel, etc.

As for DairyQueen's question, can you define "Durable" for us? Do you mean "I want to be able to spill coffee on it and nothing happens" or "I want to be able to drop it on the ground and nothing happens" or do you mean "I want it to last a really long time without crashing"?

If you mean the first two, they do make laptops that are designed to be durable. The Panasonic ToughBook is an example: http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughboo...p-computers.asp

If you meant the latter, meaning a laptop that will last a very long time without crashing, I have bad news: All laptops are prone to crashing thanks to the jostling they take. That jostling makes it difficult for the extremely thin, flexible needle inside your hard drive to keep itself working, or for the very thinly-cased motherboard to avoid sustaining damage to the circuitry over time. There are certainly brands that are better made than others and are less likely to break *quickly*, but really all laptops are susceptible, and I don't know anyone who's had a laptop longer than three years without needing some kind of repair work.

My best advice? Whether you go Mac or PC, buy from a brand with a reputation for quality AND a great warranty plan juuuuuuust in case. If you can't be without your computer for more than a few days without going insane, choose one that will either come to your home and work on it or direct you to a local service center for warranty repair. My only gripe with Apple is that their AppleCare program requires you to send your laptop away for service to far-flung parts of the U.S., and you can be without it for as long as two weeks if it's a really big repair. It sucks, but I put up with it since the Mac interface is so much more intuitive. I literally have no idea how I lived with PC's for all those years, and my work PC continues to drive me up the wall.

Final pieces of wisdom: Shop carefully as not all laptops within one brand are created equal. The Toshiba Satellite ABC might be the best computer on the market, but the Toshiba Satellite XYZ might be a total POS. Use www.notebookreview.com to tell the difference. They find out the stuff that you can't find out by playing with it in the store, like "This computer's speakers whine loudly when you try to max out the volume" or "This computer's keyboard is a real pain to use unless you have little hands" or "This computer is lightweight in poundage but very awkwardly shaped and therefore feels heavier when you're carrying it."

Finally, DON'T OVERPAY. There's not much you can do about the prices on Apple products besides cruise the deals section at www.lowendmac.com, but I want to :spew: when I hear how much some people pay for PC Laptops. Unless you are a power user who is doing movie or graphics work or something else really hardcore, a $500-$600 machine will more than do the job for you and still feel fast. www.slickdeals.net is a great site to keep your eye on if you are not picky and want to pick up a Dell for a song. I also like this site: http://dealspl.us/Laptop_deals
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AlbaLuna
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Weanling
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I have a Dell Insprion, I like it. It works for me. I've dropped it before (tripped over the cord which was on the floor, laptop fell down) and it was fine. I don't exactly take good care of it, and it still works well enough. One of my friends has a MacBook that she loves, but when I try to use it it's always kind of weird for me.
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guiiamarie
We're on a bridge, Chaaaaaaaaarlie!
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GET A MACBOOK!

I had an HP that lasted literally 6 months that I paid 1600 for. The slot that you plug the cord into damaged the motherboard somehow. Macbook's are magnetic and suck right in on their own so you will never have that problem. I felt a little lost at first when I got my Mac but within a few hours I had it down perfectly. Now, I feel weird using a PC. It is the best thing I have done in a long time!
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gracetw22
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Off visiting Candy Cave, be right back.
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Tee hee, I have the pink viao and lurve it. And, it's pink.
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little pepper
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I Visited Candy Mountain and All I Got Was This Lousy Incision
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Dues Mom, I was surprised by how quickly I got used to the Mac O/S. It is pretty straightforward. Within 30 minutes of taking it out of the box, I was online, hooked up to my email and ready to go. I bought Windows Office for Mac; it has Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Entourage, the email client, which is similar to Outlook Express. I can take Word docs and Excel Spreadsheets back and forth between the MacBook and PCs at work. My only issue is that the transportation modeling software I use for work isn't compatible with the Mac O/S, so I still have to use my PC for that.

My sis got a pretty smokin' deal on a refurbished MacBook from Apple.com. She has a refurb ipod too and hasn't had any problems with either item.

The Vaios are nice too. I went to Best Buy to purchase a red one that was on sale. The salesperson began to give me a long spiel about virus protection and whatnot. He was laying it on pretty thick, trying to get me to pay extra for the Geek Squad to remove all the bloatware that came packaged with the machine and install anti-virus software. I interrupted him and said, "So what about the MacBooks? Do I get this spiel is I buy one of those?" And he told me that they didn't come with any bloatware, and an anti-virus software isn't necessary. I ended up walking out of the store with a shiny white MacBook. :)
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Boston
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It'll be an adventure! We're going on an adventure!
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I love my Macbook! <3 <3 <3
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horseless no more
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Magical Leopluridon
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mmm when I read the word 'sturdy' I had other thoughts completly..
Like will it survive should I chooses to throw it out of my window on to the road in front of a on comming truck?( the one with 4 wheels and a frame)
Or if it falls from my couch and a dog bounces off of it will it suffer no perminate side effects...
Or it someone leaves it on top of a car and it pours down rain all day and it survives a 15 miles trip in 2 directions after it dries out it will still come to life and work perfectly...
Or will it survive the 5th floor of a certian on the base closure and relignment list military hospital in the NW quad of DC...Where they do some rather unusual testing that do not involve large electro magnetic machines...
Along with going through what ever the TSA and the military security puts it through while handeling it..
Best not to ask why those particular thoughts popped through my brain :unsure:

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Renn/aissance
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Hakuna matata!
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"Sturdy" as in "I will survive?" IBM/Lenovo. When the computer detects a swift change in gravitational pull, the hard drive shuts off. This allowed my laptop to survive a fall off of a bike, wherein it then received about 200+ lbs. of girl and bike on top of it. Doin' just fine.

I have had Dells, Toshibas, and IBMs, and my sister has a Vaio. Also have experience with MacBooks.

Dell: Inexpensive, lots of options, popular. Have unfortunate tendency to screw up- it's almost a guarantee that your motherboard WILL go up and your hard drive might need to be replaced, so get the three year warranty. You'll probably need to use it at least twice. These laptops are also heavy compared to other things on the market and they also get very hot. The Latitudes tend to last longer than the Inspirons. Customer service and tech support both suck and if you do your own repairs, good luck getting parts.

Toshiba: More expensive, lots of options, powerhouses, good customer service, lightweight. They are notoriously finicky, however, and do not like certain brands of external data storage. Can be a bit on the fragile side. In order to get repairs covered under warranty, you need to take it to a Toshiba-authorized repair center, and make sure you make note of where they are so that you don't end up driving an hour and a half each way (like I did.) That said, I had to upgrade for school and I have one for sale. :lol: I really like them.

IBM/Lenovo: More expensive, absolute BEASTS under the plastic. I have a T61 and it is blazing fast with a ton of RAM and hard drive space. Does not heat up. Has all sorts of nifty options (like that hard-drive shut down.) I think there are four USB ports on mine. User-friendly and pretty easy while allowing we geeks lots of leeway. They do not get very hot. You can get them with XP instead of Vista!

Sony Vaio: More expensive, but you're paying for quality. The exteriors are very snazzy. I haven't really played with them much other than setting up Katie's, but if it can survive her, it's a good machine in my book.

MacBook: I'm not a Mac person, but I've got to give credit where it's due. These are very nice machines. Not as customizable as Toshiba or IBM, but certainly very good at what they do, and Mac OS is more stable than Windows.

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Ontherun
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Shunnnnn the unbeliever. Shunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
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Love my MacBook! :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: Switched from PC to Mac 4 years ago and couldn't be happier. The Mac's are so easy to use and if you want to do photos, movies, and or iTunes, the Apple is the way to go.
You can also get a nice acrylic snap-on case for your MacBook in a variety of colors. :) Mine isn't heavy either.
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DairyQueen2049
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DRAGON BREATH. DRAGGIN' BUTT
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Sturdy as in I tend to drop my camera down glacier ice :pissed: Oh yes, I did too fish it out of the glacier water it landed in (BRRR!)

The one before that got bounced off my horse. Before that got smooshed flying off the seat of the car....

I drop, spill, thump, bump everything. I'm hard on stuff. (NOT my horses or vehicles, but stuff like cell tell, radios, computers, DVD player, CD players....)
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smorse
Shunnnnn the unbeliever. Shunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
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well, I also have a Dell and I can attest to its' sturdiness because it was delivered and the UPS man left in in the driveway because the gate was locked (exactly what I expected him to do and he does all the time) and the horse herd that roams the farm went up the driveway and played football with it. When I got home, as I drove up to the gate, I saw this box in the middle of the drive partway down and I thought - what the Tom? - when I reached it, it had a few bite holes in it and I was hoping it would be working because how do you explain that to Dell. anyway, it works fine, however, I did get some crumbs in the keyboard and a couple of the keys stuck for a while, but I guess the crumbs have disintegrated because the keyboard works fine now.
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Onelanerode
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Off visiting Candy Cave, be right back.
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Another MacBook owner here. I love mine -- the only issue I had with it was a faulty logic board about a month after purchase. I took it in to the local Apple store, they fiddled with it for 10 minutes and determined they couldn't fix it there. It got shipped back to Apple, got a new logic board, and I had it back w/in about 10 days. No problems since.

I think getting extended warranties on laptops is a wise idea; I wouldn't do it for a desktop, but because laptops get moved around and "abused" a lot more, I went with the Apple Care plan for mine. My husband works in IT for the National Cooperative eXtension Initiative, and he runs an all-Mac shop AFAIK. He hates Windows machines and gives me the evil eye when I beg him for tech support on behalf of a Windows-using friend. <_<
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