I need some quick laptop recommendations please!

[Mitsu3000gt]

I was having a look at a co-worker's laptop and it appears the hard drive is dead. It's a few years old and he wants a new one anyways.

Anyways, why I need some help is that he needs to get a new laptop for his kid before he leaves on Wednesday so he wants to buy one tomorrow. He will basically buy whatever I tell him to. I haven't researched laptops lately so I want to make sure I recommend something good.

Here is what you need to know:

Price range $400-$600

It won't be used for gaming, just watching videos, streaming media, internet, e-mail, etc. etc. So I'm thinking something with good integrated graphics or a mediocre stand alone graphics card would be fine, decent processor, windows 7, and 2GB or more of ram.

15.6" is probably the ideal size.

I am going to be looking too, but any suggestions would be appreciated if any good deals have caught anyone's eye lately.

Thanks in advance!

[arian_ma]

A friend of mine just bought a Gateway one from Futureshop, everything you listed, 4GB of ram, I think 500GB HDD, Intel i3 processor and the works. It was $599 I believe. It also came with a printer for an extra $20 or something.

I can't seem to find it on their website, but I remember at the time of looking (last weekend) I thought to myself that it was the best bang for buck laptop that Bestbuy/Futureshop offered. (I checked both stores at Northland)

[Mitsu3000gt]

This one looks pretty good to me, any thoughts? I assume the "intel HD graphics" is enough to stream video content and such.

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...45f31c5ab7en02

[Disoblige]

Mitsu, I can get you a brand new Toshiba for 50 bucks more than the acer, same specs. Or 499 for similar Toshiba with slower intel dual core. PM if interested. Too hard to type on iTouch lol. And yes the onboard graphics is fine.

Edit: regular price on the i3 is 749.99 and regular price of the T4500 intel dual core is 629.99. Good prices for the Toshiba.

[TimH]

Sorry for the slight thread highjacking. What are your guy's thoughts on Acer's quality? I've had a couple of people recommend that I pick up an Asus laptop instead after mentioning that I'm looking at picking up an Acer.

[Cody D]

Originally posted by TimH
Sorry for the slight thread highjacking. What are your guy's thoughts on Acer's quality? I've had a couple of people recommend that I pick up an Asus laptop instead after mentioning that I'm looking at picking up an Acer.

I've had my Acer for a year now and I still love it. I bought it from Memory Express.

[msommers]

How does the i3 processor compare to the core duo processor? I have a 1.8 on my laptop at home and this one is 2.2 but with 3 more gb of ram! Cheap upgrade it seems like for the meantime I guess.

Just want to run Crysis because my laptop can't at the lowest settings.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Can anyone think of a reason why I shouldn't recommend this one? It seems to be the best bang for the buck given my limited time to research:

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...45f31c5ab7en02

[HyperZell]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Can anyone think of a reason why I shouldn't recommend this one? It seems to be the best bang for the buck given my limited time to research:

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...45f31c5ab7en02

Bought this for a student about 2 months ago. No real reason why you shouldn't get it, but keep in mind that you shouldn't expect a lot. Simple materials, bloatware, very basic. It's all about managing expectations, you know?

[Lex350]

Stay away from acer. My company has bought 5 of these at various price points and they are garbage. Always having trouble with them.

[eblend]

Heard nad things about the Acers as well in terms of reliability. Asus seems to be the highest rated, however, Asus manufactures laptops for HP and others (including Apple, not sure if still do or not), so what does that really say...hard to tell.

Here is a funky graph.



If it is something basic than the acer will be fine. I would take a look at screen quality as I originally bought a basic laptop for my wife for $500 and it had a terrible screen (can see sections of pixels) and a horrible whine (apparently from processor speed stepping), I returned it and bought a sony vaio for twice the price, but it has a beautiful screen and doesn't make a sound. Was it not for the screen on the HP and the buzzing whine, I would have kept it as it was a nice looking laptop. I have an HP myself (an 18.4" monster) and it has a beautiful screen as well, so it really depends. I wouldn't recommend a laptop without seeing it first hand personally. Some of the Acers and Gateways look very cheap. My wifes laptop is almost the same spec as the Acer you put up (but $400 more expensive..stupid sony and their nice designs that attract my wife..), and can handle anything I throw at it, including 1080p video (using Windows media player classic, didn't try anything else) using just standard Intel HD.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Yeah I am probably going to get him the Acer if there is no glaring reason not to. The most work this computer will ever see is streaming Youtube HD or similar, but mostly just internet and such.

The failure rate chart is interesting, but over 2 years Acer is only 5% worse than Asus. He is coming from an HP which seems to be the worst LOL, so this should be an improvement.

I'll take all the bloatware crap off of it and put on Avast for antivirus before I turn it over to him.

Thanks for all the input!

[dawwgy]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
This one looks pretty good to me, any thoughts? I assume the "intel HD graphics" is enough to stream video content and such.

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...45f31c5ab7en02

I bought this one a month or so ago for $529 at best buy, I am very pleased with it so far

I do pretty much everything on it except gaming and it has not dissapointed

I believe it to be the best bang for buck (within your price range)

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by dawwgy


I bought this one a month or so ago for $529 at best buy, I am very pleased with it so far

I do pretty much everything on it except gaming and it has not dissapointed

I believe it to be the best bang for buck (within your price range)

Good to hear - thanks. I guess I should also check it's price at Best Buy because it's $20 more at FS.

EDIT: Same computer is $599 at Best Buy right now it looks like, only difference being a 500 GB HD rather than 320.

[phrozen]

Asus all the way! Get one you won't be disappointed.

[rx7boi]

I work in the computers department @ FS.

Go with the Acer i3 that the other member posted (5979 model). It's 549.99 right now and a great machine.

If you want to spend a little bit more and have something that looks a bit nicer as well, I'd go with the Toshiba-07V, it's regular 799.99 but on sale right now for 679.99.

Don't buy Gateway, they have garbage laptops but if you're looking for a desktop they're not bad.

The above two both have 4gb of DDR3 RAM as well as plenty of hdd space (500 for the Toshiba). They also have HDMI ports so you can hook it up to a LCD tv.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by rx7boi
I work in the computers department @ FS.

Go with the Acer i3 that the other member posted (5979 model). It's 549.99 right now and a great machine.

If you want to spend a little bit more and have something that looks a bit nicer as well, I'd go with the Toshiba-07V, it's regular 799.99 but on sale right now for 679.99.

Don't buy Gateway, they have garbage laptops but if you're looking for a desktop they're not bad.

The above two both have 4gb of DDR3 RAM as well as plenty of hdd space (500 for the Toshiba). They also have HDMI ports so you can hook it up to a LCD tv.

I told him to go buy the Acer 5979, I'm pretty sure he has it already. Good to know you think that was the best choice for the price