Laptop Questions

I want a lap­top. I think I need a lap­top, but I hes­i­tate to say that I *need* most things. So I want a lap­top, and I think it would make life eas­i­er for me, espe­cial­ly as a student.

The only brand­ed com­put­er I’ve ever bought was my very first, a Gate­way. I’ve worked on many a brand­ed computer—lots and lots of Dells, some HPs, IBMs, Com­paqs and Win­Ma­chines in par­tic­u­lar, then a lot of mis­cel­lany. I’ve nev­er noticed any huge ben­e­fit to the name brands, to be honest—not enough to off­set the price dif­fer­ences between them and gener­ic­s/­self-built PCs.

But it can be eas­i­er to get dri­vers and infor­ma­tion and so on, and that is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant with lap­tops since it’s so much hard­er to ser­vice those your­self. And you can get ser­vice on brand­ed com­put­ers. So I’ve actu­al­ly looked at the prices on some brand­ed lap­tops. Woof! Lots of money!

What’s your expe­ri­ence with lap­tops? What do you have and how hap­py are you with it? Any lessons you’d share with me? I am all about learn­ing from oth­ers’ accu­mu­lat­ed experience!

What I know:
1) I’m wary of Dells because of their heat issues. If that has been resolved, I’ll look at them again.
2) If any com­pa­ny is will­ing to give me a stu­dent dis­count, or an edu­ca­tor’s dis­count because I’m a home­school­er (I’ve man­aged that with lots of oth­er stuff), they’ll get a bit of an edge.
3) I want to go ahead and get as much com­put­er as I pos­si­bly can, since I don’t count on being able to upgrade a lap­top. That means a good dis­play, lots of RAM and hard dri­ve space, CD/DVD writer, and fax/modem/network card or built-in.
4) I want some­thing rea­son­ably light, but since I have that incred­i­bly love­ly rolling bag thanks to Sam, weight isn’t as vital as usability.
5) Stur­di­ness is impor­tant. I’ve nev­er dropped one, but the way my hands some­times just stop work­ing sud­den­ly, I fear doing so.
6) It has to have a decent key­board. I don’t like the machines that have vast amounts of dead space before you get to the keys. They just don’t feel right.

Oh—if we can man­age to get a com­put­er for Katie’s edu­ca­tion­al use, we’ll do it. She wants a lap­top, too.

Oh yeah—I seem to have heard MANY a hor­ror sto­ry about peo­ple buy­ing lap­tops through eBay and get­ting ripped off. Have any of you had a good expe­ri­ence, or do you know some­one first-hand who has?

Thank you!

Cyn is Rick's wife, Katie's Mom, and Esther & Oliver's Mémé. She's also a professional geek, avid reader, fledgling coder, enthusiastic gamer (TTRPGs), occasional singer, and devoted stitcher.
Posts created 4255

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Posts

Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel.

Back To Top