Buying a laptop is a lot like buying a new car. It’s something laptop users expect, but hate at the same time. For one, manufacturers are constantly updating their machines to keep up with competitors and to do what their customers tell them are necessary improvements. Unfortunately, what seems like a good idea to one person may be a turn off for another.
There are many popular laptop manufacturers on the market right now; Dell, Lenovo, Hewlett Packard (HP), Acer, Compaq, Gateway, Sony, Toshiba, and Alienware are among the most commonly available. Each manufacturer mentioned above offers several different models of laptops, some offering entire families of machines categorized by intended purpose.
If you’re looking for a high-end business laptop that offers a small case with a high-speed processor and a high-capacity hard drive, you’re sure to find a model from each manufacturer to meet your requirements. However, if you’re looking for a portable media center or a laptop that’s going to be used for serious gaming, your options are likely to narrow down significantly.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when you’re determining which laptop is the best option for you:
Are you loyal to a specific manufacturer, and if so, what has been your experience with that company in the past?
What software applications will you need to run on your laptop, and what are the system requirements for those packages?
Is size/weight an important consideration for you?
Do you do intensive design work that might require a screen of a specific size or even a widescreen?
What kind of warranty would you like to have with your laptop?
Will you be using a docking station or moving your laptop to different locations frequently?
How long do you plan to keep your laptop? If the answer is two years or more, you’ll want to consider those options with the fastest processors available and the most memory possible.
How much data will be stored on the laptop and what type of files are they? This makes all the difference whether you intend to keep your entire digital music collection on your hard drive or store entire movies. Also, if you plan to have 120GB of data files, you don’t want to buy a laptop that has an 80GB hard drive.
Do you do a lot of graphics work or play graphics-intensive video games (like World of Warcraft) that will require a high-end video card with excellent resolution? There is a price premium associated with this type of video card, so if you don’t need it, you can opt for a lower-end card to keep costs down.
How much money are you willing to spend?
If you’ve gone through the questions above, you probably have a pretty good idea of what you really need in a laptop. The next thing to do is check out Consumer Reports or another consumer review publication that will give you an idea of how each model performs.
Talk to representatives from various retailers or manufacturers with their handy list of questions. This will allow you to get quotes for machines of similar quality from a number of different sources.
Price comparison of the main laptop brands
Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, Nec, IBM, HP/Compaq, Gateway, Fujitsu, Acer and Dell
Toshiba:
Satellite – $800-$1,500
Tecra – $1,200 – $2,000
Qosmium – $2,500-$3,000
sony:
Vaio: $1,500-$2,500
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:
Versa – $800-$1,200
IBM/Lenovo:
ThinkPad – $1,500-$3,000
HP/Compaq:
HP Pavilion – $1,100-$1,400
Compaq Presario – $600-$1,000
Gate:
Gateway Notebook – $700-$1,400
fujitsu:
Life Book – $1,100-$1,400
Acer:
Aspire – $800-$1,600
TravelMate – $1,600-$1,800
