[Veto!]

Please ping me too if anyone knows a great laptop for a writer. All I need is a large screen, MS Word, and the ability to use email. I want to be able to store and recover files on a CD but don’t give a darn about music, videos, entertainment stuff. I just need a little workhorse. Used would be OK, I think. Or would it?

Thanks,
Ms. Veto

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

My Toshiba Satellite will be 4 years old in a few months. I have had ZERO problems with it.

FWIW.

[SolitaryMan]

I've had excellent luck with my Compaq, but I gotta tell you, unless your running some specialized apps that have to run under Windows, I would seriously look at an Apple for trouble free operation.

[Mr. Blonde]

I would recommend this MacBook Pro

[kdot]

I bought an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC (laptop). It has a 14.1” widescreen, brightscreen display. The widescreen format is really worth its weight because it gives just enough lateral real estate to manage and see multiple windows (plus new Vista gadgets). I don’t understand the technology behind the brightscreen display, but it really is crisp and bright.

My laptop runs Vista and given the chance to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Office 2007 is perfect!

Good luck!

[PajamaTruthMafia]

spend some time at the following reading the latest reviews

http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1874,9,00.asp

http://www.pcworld.com/product/reviewfinder.html?id=6

http://reviews.cnet.com/Notebooks/2001-3121_7-0.html?tag=promo.lt

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

My laptop screen was doing the same thing so I bought one on e-bay. My son did the connections - cost me around $180. The only thing now is the fan runs all the time. (Avaratec)

My son has an HP and he loves it.

[martin_fierro]

VANITY: LAPTOP RECOMMENDATIONS

OK, I'll shut up now

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I’ve used the new Compaq (HP) laptops a few times recently and have been very impressed with the hardware, the fit and finish as well as the price. Check ‘em out.

[ccmay]

If you like genealogy, you simply MUST look at Reunion running on a Mac. Many people think it is the best genealogy program available on any platform.

www.leisterpro.com

It can do all the other stuff you mention, too, even run Windows if that is what you need. But you don't.

-ccm

[ThePythonicCow]

The following is a copy of a post I made a few months ago in In the market for a laptop, and also in COMPUTER HELP-Looking to buy a laptop computer..

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I'd recommend first choosing the retailer, not the laptop. In particular, I recommend DiscountLaptops.com. They have consistently had extremely high ratings from ResellerRatings.com over the years.

The brand that DiscountLaptops sells the most of is Sager, which is little known. They are a major manufacturer of high end gaming laptops under other brand names, such as Alienware.

So I'd go to the DiscountLaptops site and choose based on features and price.

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Dell gets a rating of 4.37 on ResellerRatings.com, on a scale of 10. DiscountLaptops gets a lifetime rating of 9.98. Dell works by driving down their parts and manufacturing costs, and covering for the resulting lower quality with a good replacement warranty. Better to have quality hardware to start with, and still get a good warranty, as Sager Notebook, the primary laptop manufacturer supplying to DiscountLaptops, does.

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Bump on the memory recommendation. Not even 512 Mb is enough. I've got a Toshiba laptop, and its got 768 Mb, and it is barely enough. If I open more than a couple of apps, it gets dog slow, terribly slow. I'd go for 1 Gb for any Windows XP or Mac OS laptop (or desktop for that matter), at a minimum.

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Newegg is the only way to go

Yes - I am a big fan of Newegg.com. Anytime I know what I want, I buy there.

But in cases like this, where I don't know just what I want, a place such as DiscountLaptops.com is better, since it guides one to good choices.

[Tainan]

Check out Samsung...they are making some amazing laptops right now. As well as a lot of other very high quality stuff.

[1rudeboy]

I'll add that I've been in the market for a laptop, and shopping for one using the manufacturers' websites is nearly impossible (or very time-consuming) given the minimum specifications I require, below.

Must run/contain Microsoft Word.
Must have a non-Intel graphics card (min. 128MB)

I mean, how difficult should it be to find one? These websites are impenetrable.