I currently have a Gateway desktop but for optometry school next fall, they require you to have a laptop. I haven't gotten the exact specifications they want you to have, but from students I have talked to, pretty much ANY new to newer laptop will work.
My desktop right now has 230 some GB of hard drive. I am not sure how many GB it has on RAM. And I have a 17-inch flat screen. I'm just saying this because I LOVE my desktop so I want to get something with similar options on a laptop.
Price isn't too much of an issue. Granted, a cheaper one will be easier on the pocketbook, but I plan to spend to get I want to be happy with it.
What are the best brands? What brands should I steer away from?
I do want something with a good amount of space on it because the professors post Powerpoint lectures online that everyone just saves to their laptop. So I need space for LOTS of lectures. Plus I also like to download music and I am hoping to eventually learn how to download movies too.
I found after buying a laptop for school this year was that the biggest problem is the battery life. You'll want to buy a laptop with a 12 cell battery (I'm not sure if there is any better but if there is go with that). Also I hear macbooks are really good for battery life.
Since you have had a good experience with Gateway I'd just buy another gateway.
Since you are interested in more space just pick a model with a larger hard drive.
Other than that unless your doing some major gaming or anything the processor speed and ram doesn't matter all that much with what is available on the market.
If you can wait for the January/New Year sales, you can get either a much cheaper laptop than you would if you bought one now, or get a better laptop for the same price if you bought one now.
As for Operating Systems, if you are buying it with Vista, I suggest 2Gb RAM, althought 1Gb will be fine for nothing serious or demanding on the laptop.
Hard Drives are ever cheaper and larger, although it must be said that laptops generally have smaller hard drives. You could just get a standard sized Hard Drive with the laptop, and then an external hard drive which would be much bigger, for storing things like lecture notes, music, films etc.
My brother just bought a 17-inch Laptop, but that means that it is quite heavy and annoying to carry around. Obviously it is up to you what you want, but do bear in mind that a larger laptop screen means a heavier overall weight.
Finally, as 'nownthen' said before me, battery life will become a real bummer if you use a small battery, and when buying your laptop, it is highly suggested that you buy a spare battery if the option is available from the site.
actually this friday would probably be the best time to buy a laptop if he lives in the states due to all the black friday sales. everything will be on sale.
Yea, I thought places would have really great sales for the day after Thankgiving. However, I really don't have my money saved up to buy one yet and I really don't need it until next fall. So I will definitely be waiting until sometime next spring.
Dell laptops are solidly made. Their only downside is how much rubbish they come pre-installed with. A Core 2 Duo laptop with 1GB RAM wil perform solidly and not cost too much these days. However, laptops have smaller hard drives than desktops so you'll have to see what you can get in that regard.
