Need advise purchasing a Laptop computer

[Gomboman]

I need to buy a laptop for home use. We don't need anything hardcore. It will be primarily used for surfing the internet, email, paying bills, photos, etc. I would like something bundled with Microsoft Office if possible.

Anyway, I've never bought a laptop before. I was thinking about a Dell Inspiron E1705 for around $1,000. What do you think? Should I look at some other models?

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_e1705?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

[galen]

Gomboman, that is what I have and use it everyday. We have Dells at home and at work and are very satisfied. I'm sure there are other good makers out there, but can't bet the service.  

[03fxdwg]

the only laptops I have ever owned have been dell's. not to say they are the best, or the only ones out there, but have never really had any issues with them. (had a screen go bad in one, but it was still under warranty.)

i can tell you this, the inspiron line is more the home line, were the lattitude is the more the corporate line. have only ever dealt with the lattitudes.

i dont really care for dell support since they started farming that out to india, but hey, almost all us companies do that now.

good luck.

[mattNY]

That's a pretty nice laptop, and Dell has fairly reasonable prices with good support in general.  Core/Core2 Duo are very quick and good on power.  A couple of things to note, it's pretty heavy at almost 8 pounds, so it'll be fine for around the house but difficult to "take on the road" very often.  Also, if you have kids or think it's prone to spills, drops, etc., you can opt for CompleteCare which will give you accident coverage.  My brother has the 17" screen with TrueLife, it's good looking, but there's no way it's worth the $150 upgrade.

I usually check Techbargains.com for deals, you can often find discounts.  Example, see: http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/78426  They can expire quickly though (2-3 days) if a lot of people are purchasing.

Also note, with Media Center you get a free upgrade to Vista Home Premium, which will have the slick new Aero interface (3D Desktop, think Mac OSX).  Vista Home Basic will not have Aero or a couple of other key features, which many people do not yet realize.

MS Office is usually pretty pricey through Dell.  You may be able to find a better deal online, or give OpenOffice a try (http://www.openoffice.org), it's free, open source and quite a good alternative.  I recommended it to some friends who were skeptical, but they tried it and found it met their needs just fine.  And hey, if it doesn't, you can still buy Office.

[Tman122]

Thats the machine I have for home use, with a few minor upgrades. I opted for a smaller HD60 Gig but 7200 RPM 1024 Meg Ram and a proccessor upgrade to a Core Duo 2.0 Gig. I have Media Center Windows because we use the machine camping for TV and Movies. It is almost a year old now and still works great. I believe it was about 1400 though.

It is a big heavy machine though, so if your thinking laptop this may not be your machine. For work I use a Lattitude D520 which is a laptop. And my son has an XPS which is also a laptop. But this machine is more of a desk machine you can move around the house. I would also reccommend the battery upgrade and maybe an extra as this thing eats batterys.

[wmccall]

I have that model and I use it to moderate this forum all the time. I've even posted messages from the hot tub with it.  One big piece of advise since you are going to use it at home.   I hate extended warrantys, but absolutely buy the accidental damage protection.  Dell will charge you 6-700 dollars to replace a broken screen, which happens the first time you leave it on the couch or floor.  Recently my cat destroyed my keyboard and they sent me a new one overnight.

[wmccall]

i dont really care for dell support since they started farming that out to india, but hey, almost all us companies do that now.

I've made at least $1000 this year charging people to repair their Dell's because it was easier than trying to call those people

[svspa]

Gombo,

I would just add that one of the weakest links in laptops are the sloooow hard drives. If you could I would upgrade to the 7200 rpm drive. Looks like th 80GB 7200 rpm drive is another $100.

If you are looking for alternatives I have bought my kids HP laptops for college and haven't had any problems with them. Surprisingly their support has been pretty good. They were able to find and fix a problem with his sound driver pretty quickly when an application he installed hosed the driver.

At work we use both HP and Fujitsu laptops. The Fujitsus are pretty strong. Recently I pulled my backpack out of the car not realizing it was open and my laptop flew about 10ft across the driveway. The only thing that happened was the bezel around the screen came loose in one corner. Popped it back into place and all is well. The model on that is the thin and light, S2110 would be the current equivalent model.    

Steve

[Brewman]

From what I've read, the only PC company that gets kudos for customer service is Apple.  I've never owned any of their machines, though.
 I've had both Dell and Gateway, never had to call customer support with either company- but I've heard bad things about dealing with both companies.

[Tatooed_Lady]

I've got a Toshiba (older model) and an Acer....I must've spent about $1,000 on the Toshiba, and the only issue I've got (other than porn bugs, thanks to my son) is the power cord fried out, and I haven't bought a new one yet (in the range of $70). It's also heavy, at around 7 or 8 pounds. The Acer I picked up around a year ago, I think, for maybe $400, on one of those huge sales at Circuit City, but the battery life is around 1/2 hour (which doesn't matter if you're going to be plugged in all the time), and I feel it's got a 'weaker' system....probably due to being just a cheapo version.

I'm currently looking to reinstall most of the programs on my Acer...they just don't work like they should (even playing CDs is a pain now)...

[Brewman]

(other than porn bugs, thanks to my son)

Been there, done that.  Danged kids.

[vlady]

I've had excellent customer service and support from Dell.  I own 6 servers, 2 laptops, 6 desktops - all Dell.  Some of them are even refurbished units that I purchased from Dell.  

When I have problems, I just call and if it is still under warranty, they send a repair guy the next day.  If it isn't under warranty, any parts that I need are shipped over night.

[Bill75]

I have a Dell laptop for work:  it is a very solid and dependable unit.  I have used Dell desktops for 8 years at work, and had several at home.  I have had to use Dell service twice:  one time it was good, one time it was marginal.  I have a compaq (HP) laptop at home, and I would NOT recommend it to anyone.  I have had to have the power cord jack replaced twice.  (it is a poor design and subject to damage if you actually use it on your lap.)  My recommendation for a laptop would be a Dell.  I still prefer to build my own desktop units for home.  My next home laptop will be a Dell.  

Assuming you are using Windows, you need to think about Vista (the new new version of Windows that will be out soon).  If you want to use it with all the bells and whistles you will need some horsepower and memory. From what I have read I would plan on 2 GB or RAM, a Core Duo processor, and a separate video memory (don't go for shared memory).  That will enable you to use all the bells and whistles of the new interface.  If you plan on sticking to windows XP, you could get by with 1 GB of memory and the shared video.  

Good luck!

Bill

[Gomboman]

Thanks for all the great advise. I wasn't aware that the E1705 was so heavy. I may have to re-evaluate my purchase.  

It seems like the CompeteCare option is the way to go even though I don't typically buy extended warranties. Would the E1705 be under powered to run Vista in the future?

[svspa]

Gombo,

To use all of the new cool features of the Vista gui you'll need a pretty healthy machine.

Here's an MS page on the requirements.

[link]http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx[/link]

You can bet that for best performance you're gonna need something much better than the 'minimum requirements'. Which will run the cost up particularly in a laptop.

Seems like good performing Vista laptops will be the high end for awhile.

Everyone in the PC business (like AMD where I work) is pretty jazzed about Vista triggering the next big PC upgrade cycle. Which for early adopters will cost some $$.

Steve