choosing a notebook

i know its real general but i'm starting to look at getting a laptop. I have a desktop and it has served me well but with grad school coming up and such a notebook will prove more useful for me. it will mostly be used for word processing, probably power point and excel, taking photos off my camera, and web surfing (a lot).

these are the brands i'm considering
-Mac
-Sony
-IBM (guess its now Lenovo??)
-Toshiba
- MAYBE Dell

one big thing i'm running into is the fact that i REALLY don't want Vista on it. Can you even get XP on a computer now? I used to have a CD with a key to install xp pro but can't find it (which frustrates me).

I'm extremely used to using a PC and it would take a while for me to get used to a mac, but i have heard a lot of good things about them.

Anything good/bad to be said about the ones i'm considering?? also, any suggestions are greatly appreciated. i don't need an ultimate gaming machine or anything like that, but something that will run fast and not cause me a lot of problems will be nice.

http://www.techfresh.net/gadgets/computers/laptops/hp-2133-ultra-mobile-pc-asus-eee-pc-competitor/
http://h40059.www4.hp.com/hp2133/

Hey There! Got a Dell about a year ago and I have to tell you, for the price it is a damn good computer. I treat it like crap but it still works like the day it did when I took it out of the box. My parents bought a Sony notebook and it has been nothing but problems. One of the slowest computers I have ever used! It feels like every time they turn the computer on something new goes wrong! The Sony is a couple years old so I don't know if they have worked the bugs out yet but their's is completely worthless! All I know is the Sony was almost double the price and works only half the time!

I have 5 laptops and the only two worth a shit are the Toshibas. What ever notebook you get I suggest you format it and do a raw XP install to get rid of all the preinstalled trial programs and other nagware that really tie up the system resources. I tried for 3 days to clean up my latest laptop that came with Vista before throwing in the towel, formating and installing only the programs I actually use.

Laptop Food Chain...

Mac - Best of both worlds. Worth the money! You can run both Mac OS and Vista or XP on it. Best quality on the market.
IBM. All the same reasons without the whole mac OS.

The next three are all about the same.
Sony
HP/Compaq
Dell

Only buy a sony on sale. Other then that your paying WAY too much.

Toshiba

DONT BUY A ACER, GATEWAY, or EMACHINE


I work on laptops on a daily basis. I have seen thousands of computers just in the last few weeks, seriously no joke. I'm starting to put toshiba in the dont buy group unless your spending at least 700-800 on it. Toshiba once was the best in laptops but has become more of a budget comptuer. They have serious compatibility problems and are cheaply built. They fall apart eaisly. I would never buy one, but I have seen some good ones but it is rare.

Stick with anything above that and you'll be fine. Expect to pay at least 700 for a good laptop. Reinstall it as soon as you get it and build the system with only the programs you want. It's worth it unless it comes with a hard drive image.

Good luck!

I have 3 Dell Vostro (business model) notebooks. For the money, they're worth it. I got 2 of them with XP and one with Vista. No bloatware, just plain OS installs, so you'll need to buy or already have the other software that you want.

I agree about Sony. Overpriced, even on sale. I'd go with HP over Compaq, even though it's basically the same company. IBM is still a great machine. I have an old 365XD Thinkpad that's still cranking along just fine with Win98SE.

I also picked up an ASUS 701 EEEpc just for grins. I thought I'd have trouble seeing the small 7inch screen, but the res is great and it's quite usable. Not a bad machine for portability and utility. It works just fine for surfing, email, and IM on the road.

Everyone has preferences, but the gear I have gives me good service.

Definately have to agree about the Dells. Mine was cheaper than any other computer I looked at, at the time. Yet it is the best notebook I have owned to date. It gets used all day long, every single day of the year and it still runs brand new!

There is nothing better than DELL :) I bought my Inspiron9400 , 3 years ago and didn't have any problems at all with it during that long time ... and I'm using it every day :smile: