Laptops

[Susan]

I keep toying with the idea but I want one.

I can't afford apple nor do I want to start from scratch with software I use.
I don't watch HP because i've had crappy stuff from them in the past.

With that said, what's your personal EXPERIENCE with various brands? I don't want a replacement for my desktop, just something I can float around with. But I'm willing to spend the extra money to get something worthy.

Dell has a new look - and catch a sale they are a good price. But crappy? Toshiba? Call me silly but I wish all brands would come out with more designer models, like cars! Colors and styles.

I want lightweight, ideally a good lasting battery that doesn't boil and get hot (memories of my old one come flooding back)

I also aspire to get one with XP, not VISTA..else i'm gonna have to remove it myself

[CheezeFlixz]

I have a Dell Inspiron E1705 I using right now, and a Panasonic Toughbook I use in on job sites, the Dell is a great all around laptop, DVD-RW burner, plenty of RAM and Video for gaming and movies, decent sound for a laptop. USB ports on the side, card readers and a decent 17" Widescreen. Although I have noticed some rouge pixels after 2 years of use, and it stay on near all the time. There not dead just something a few of them are off at times then it's different ones later. nothing I'm going to sweat the load over, it's like 5 or 6 of 1000's of them.
The Toughbook, likely not your cup of tea, great if you bang them around, not flashy and I've dropped it, got it dusty, wet, etc quite a few time without a problem. It has a 180 spin screen. It's a tablet PC.

Both have built in WiFi and Bluetooth.

I have a couple of older laptop, both Dell's both still running fine.

All are running XP Pro. I can't stand Vista.

Check out Dell Outlet you can save $100's there buying a refurb, scratch & dent, return etc. they have the same support as new without the new price.

Hope this helps.

[Ash]

After I was flooded out of my home last month I began staying with a friend and she would bring a Dell laptop home on the weekends for me to use.
It wasn't anything fancy...just a plain old black Dell and I found myself liking it quite a bit.
It didn't seem cheap at all, was very easy to use and relatively fast.
Thoughts of buying a laptop at some point ran through my head and if I do eventually buy one, it'll probably be a Dell.

[Susan]

I have a Dell Inspiron E1705 I using right now, and a Panasonic Toughbook I use in on job sites, the Dell is a great all around laptop, DVD-RW burner, plenty of RAM and Video for gaming and movies, decent sound for a laptop. USB ports on the side, card readers and a decent 17" Widescreen. Although I have noticed some rouge pixels after 2 years of use, and it stay on near all the time. There not dead just something a few of them are off at times then it's different ones later. nothing I'm going to sweat the load over, it's like 5 or 6 of 1000's of them.
The Toughbook, likely not your cup of tea, great if you bang them around, not flashy and I've dropped it, got it dusty, wet, etc quite a few time without a problem. It has a 180 spin screen. It's a tablet PC.

Both have built in WiFi and Bluetooth.

I have a couple of older laptop, both Dell's both still running fine.

All are running XP Pro. I can't stand Vista.

Check out Dell Outlet you can save $100's there buying a refurb, scratch & dent, return etc. they have the same support as new without the new price.

Hope this helps.

have you delt with Dell' customer service, and how's that? No system freezes, as I always hear dell users say that's an issue? I thought more people were moving toward 14" screens..17" eh? lol

Yeah I don't need anything heavy duty, I just want something for portable use but also enough storage space in case i want to do other stuff on it. Not for work, just for personal use. And I don't "get" the whole wireless thing. My PC is DSL so i would hope it would be a snap setting up. What is bluetooth? lol Yes, entire ignorance

Thanks for the input - i haven't tried vista but i LIKE xp and that says a lot. I'm an old dog and i don't like new tricks when it comes to windows. ;-)

[Ash]

How Bluetooth Works

[CheezeFlixz]

have you delt with Dell' customer service, and how's that? No system freezes, as I always hear dell users say that's an issue? I thought more people were moving toward 14" screens..17" eh? lol

Yeah I don't need anything heavy duty, I just want something for portable use but also enough storage space in case i want to do other stuff on it. Not for work, just for personal use. And I don't "get" the whole wireless thing. My PC is DSL so i would hope it would be a snap setting up. What is bluetooth? lol Yes, entire ignorance

Thanks for the input - i haven't tried vista but i LIKE xp and that says a lot. I'm an old dog and i don't like new tricks when it comes to windows. ;-)

99.9% of computer problems I can fix without CS, I have a business account so I get to talk to real Americans, so I can't say how the consumer Indian service is, I only call for RMA's which are mainly on desktops.
The big screen laptop is huge and pretty much never moves from the side table in the den ... watch TV, surf, watch TV, surf, watch TV, surf, etc.
I Panasonic is a 9" small light and tough. it's the pack around model.

[Derf]

I've used Dells, Toshibas and Gateways. I mostly use a cheapie Gateway from Best Buy now, though I've always liked the Toshibas I've used; they seem to give you more bang for the buck, though the quality is sometimes a little bit spotty. I still have a Toshiba 486 laptop that works fine, but a (slightly) newer one died after freaking out a few times. The Dells I've used are nice, middle-of-the-road machines. I can't speak for their individual customer service, but I rarely need to call CS, so it's usually not an issue with me. My Gateway isn't the fastest thing around, but it's fine for internet surfing and some light graphics work. It hasn't given me any problems in the year or so I've owned it. And it's even running Vista since I'm too lazy to wipe the drive and install XP. If it will run Vista, XP should fly on it.

[sprite75]

I'm currently on a MacBook that I got back in April.  Prior to that I was on a HP laptop that still works and that I still keep around in case I need to do Windows stuff, which isn't all that often anymore.  I really like Mac OS X compared to Windows, it runs much smoother, is much faster, and a much more stable operating system.

[Susan]

usually mac owners are die hard fanatics, my sister in law for example. But for me i just want something portable and because Apple insists on keeping their prices insanely high they are really limiting their customer base. Plus i'd have to start all over with mac compatible software i'd want to install that i have on this one.

I think there should be a third pary to come out and be like apple but affordable

[CheezeFlixz]

usually mac owners are die hard fanatics, my sister in law for example.

Read this ...One thing PC users can do that Mac users can't:

[Derf]

I think there should be a third pary to come out and be like apple but affordable

Several companies have tried to build Apple-compatible machines, and Apple has sued them out of existence. Now that Apples run on the same hardware as Windows, it is possible to install OSX on cheaper hardware, though it can be a little complex. And then, under OSX, there are Windows emulators available to run Windows software, though they tend to be slow. I played around with OSX Jaguar (I think it was that one, anyway) and really wasn't overly impressed. I picked it up fast enough, but I really didn't see that it was so much more stable than XP. It wasn't faster, either, but the iMac I was using was dead slow anyway (300Mhz, anyone?). I personally think that Apple really dropped the ball with the ][es. They were in many, many schools, so that kids were growing up using them (and therefore likely to buy them after graduating), but then, rather than further developing that platform, Apple just dumped them, cut off support, and threw everything into the Mac. They've done well for themselves since then, granted, but I think they'd be doing a whole lot better had they not just dumped a huge customer base and left them high and dry.

Sorry for the history; I'm old and apparently still live in the past. We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion...

[Susan]

usually mac owners are die hard fanatics, my sister in law for example.

Read this ...One thing PC users can do that Mac users can't:

nice..lol and true. My in law is against the mainstream society as a whole, opinionated about government and corporate america and that sorta fits the criteria. Always thought mac was more of a cult than another computer system.

Mac owners always tout how their pc is not just better than you, but that they are better than you for picking one. It's a giant ego trip for those who want to feel like they are in an elite club.

suck it..lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CrQjfgvqJQ
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[CheezeFlixz]

We're going to upset DERF ... no offense Derf nothing personal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk8hxjpnUiw&feature=related
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[Patient7]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Id_kGL3M5Cg
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[Derf]

We're going to upset DERF ... no offense Derf nothing personal.

Upset me? How so? I liked the ][e. Macs have never really impressed me. I've been using PCs since 1990, about the time Apple showed it has no particular regard for its customers. I actually quite enjoyed the posts so far. Patient7's post pretty much hit it on the head: All OSs suck. They will all crash at some point, usually at a critical point when you've forgotten to save your work. However, quill pens and typewriters just aren't as good for surfing pron. Wait, um, I mean surfing library websites for research material. Yeah, library sites.