LAPTOP

Hello Married Ladies

I'm going to buy a laptop soon as DH computer crashed and it's just to old to fix. Can you post your suggestions, recommended stores to purchase from, and brands to avoid.

Thanks in advance.

I have a Gateway laptop and looooove it. I bought it from Best Buy 2 years ago.

DH has a Dell laptop that is smaller and a bit older than mine.

I'd recommend either brand.

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Posted by MrsQ-in2007

I have a Gateway laptop and looooove it. I bought it from Best Buy 2 years ago.

DH has a Dell laptop that is smaller and a bit older than mine.

I'd recommend either brand.

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I bought a Gateway from Best Buy in October & I love mine too. I definately recommend it!

I've only had two different brands of laptops so I can only give my opinion on those.
My first laptop was a DELL and I had nothing but problems with it, and their customer service was H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E!!! I swore up and down that I would never get another DELL in my lifetime. (and I haven't) I have friends that have had DELL laptops too, and have had pretty similar experiences. This was probably about 5 years ago though, so I dont know how much they've improved since then.
Ever since then I've had a Mac and I dont know how I ever lived my life using anything other than a Mac. I've literally NEVER had a problem with the two Mac laptops that DH and I have. I did drop one of my laptops on the floor which damaged it, and it ended up needing a new hard drive. They overnighted a box to us, with shipping, so that we could ship it to them and have them repair it for us. They shipped it back to us in 5 days...good as new, free of all charges. And for minor problems, you can just bring it into any Apple store and they'll repair it for you there. I'm telling you, I'm the biggest cheerleader for Macs because they've just been amazing ever since we switched. HTH!

gateway and dell customer service and repairs are complete cr@p. I believe they both made quality products in the past, but in recent years, they are less than impressive IMO. I had a gateway laptop, and the second it was no longer under warranty, the screen would go dark. I had to pay $300 for a repair.... and the repair broke as soon as the repair warranty (about2-3 months-can't recall any longer) expired. They wanted to charge me another $400 to repair it a second time

I've had the less than glorious experience of working on macs at work. There are Mac lovers and Mac haters, and I regretfully am in the latter group. I require a lot of specialized programs for my job, and 2/3 of them aren't available for Macs, and the remaining 1/3 have very awkwardly translated Mac versions... Much more importantly, most computers are PC's, and Macs simply don't communicate well with PCs. I know.. they have that virtual PC set-up... but in real-world applications, it simply doesn't open most files flawlessly. You lose symbols in fonts, embedded pictures, many graphics.... it's pretty ugly.

It has also been my experience that while Macs are less likely to get hit with a virus, they still crash much more frequently than a well maintained (anti-virus/anti-spyware running) PC. After pitching his 4th Mac (each with under a 2 year lifespan), even my very Mac-loyal advisor has now seen the PC light.....

so now for the computer that this finicky person actually is happy to own....

sony vaio laptop

it runs well, doesn't get hot, and hasn't caused any trouble at all. Even more impressive.... every professional I know (travel a lot / abuse computers left and right... use high processor applications) ALL OWN AND LOVE THEIR VAIOS. They simply work like they should.

My advivce? Get a vaio... and get a CUSTOM one on the sony website... one with a high end graphics card and a faster processor. I like the 15 inch size becuase it's not to big to drag around everywhere, but it's still large enough to type amazingly fast, and the screen is just big enough to be able to do graphics work.... It also tends to be much less expensive than the tiny laptops.

And once you get your laptop, immediately install a good firewall / anti-virus / anti-spyware... Along with std anti-virus/spyware programs, I have zonealarm pro, and it blocks all potentially malicious stuff. you will never have a problem, as long as all definition files are kept current

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Posted by JB1122

I switched from PC to Mac 2 years ago and I am IN LOVE. The Mac customer service is phenomenal (blows Dell away - I had them first and they were absolutely AWFUL, FM me for more details) and the computer doesn't get Pop Ups or Viruses!

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I also switched from PC to MAC about 1 year ago. We have an I Mac & Mac Book.

I am in LOVE ALSO!!!!

Apple RULES!!!!!

Ladies you are all so wonderful! Thanks for taking the time to reply and share your recommendations and experience both good and bad.

Anyone else care to share?

How much are you looking to spend?

We just got a really awesome new laptop (it literally arrived yesterday) - HP Pavilion dv9500t. It's widescreen and has the ten key pad, etc. DH used his inner wannabe computer geek to pick it out. It's really nice so far!

I have a Toshiba and I absolutelly love it!!
I got one 3 years ago and never had any issues with it. Then this year after the wedding I got a new one and gave my old one to my dad. He loves my old Toshiba and I love my new one. When DH's desktop died this year we got him a Toshiba as well. I am a big fan.

I had Dell before that and I had a really bad experience. DVD stopped working after 6 months and Dell would not replace it. It was generally bad in all aspects of it. Also at my old job I used to support Dell laptops and I haven't heard anything good about them or had good experienes. I guess everyone is different.

I would recomend Toshiba, they've been the best for the past 6 years. I have Satellite. I got this one from CircuitCity and DH's came from BestBuy.

Good Luck!

I almost forgot...

I never buy major electronics without reading the reviews (especially reader reviews) on cnet.com

happy reading

i'm also a mac convert and its like they say. once u go mac, you never go back

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Posted by Kara and Todd

How much are you looking to spend?

We just got a really awesome new laptop (it literally arrived yesterday) - HP Pavilion dv9500t. It's widescreen and has the ten key pad, etc. DH used his inner wannabe computer geek to pick it out. It's really nice so far!

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This will be a slurge for myself. I've been without a computer of my own for way too long. I finished my undergrad and graduate without one. Now I need one for some side things, read as $$$$$, I'm working on. ETA