need new Laptop, would love suggestions.

[sandro9mm]

Okay, its time to get rid of my old Dell XPS, served me good. after 4 years of use and few lost buttons on the keyboard, it's time to retire!

I adhere to no apple policy, I'm not into fashion - and I don't intend to pay more for less just because of a brand name.

I'm mostly interested in a good monitor, so any suggestions, any brand would be appreciated.

I have around 800$ to spend on this.

thx.

[Moppie]

Finding a good laptop monitor is going to be hard, as they are virtually all TN panels.

Lenovo apprently use some good monitors on thier high end W series, but they maybe out of your price range.

[SuzyView]

Well, my Dell 1720 cost me $2200 two years ago and now I can get the same specs for around $900. You can get a lot more today with the bad economy than 2 years ago. For $800 you can definitely find a good model from Toshiba or Dell or HP. But a good monitor, 1200x900 or similar is tough at that price. I have the glossy 1920x something and it's wonderful.

[MaxxuM]

Okay, its time to get rid of my old Dell XPS, served me good. after 4 years of use and few lost buttons on the keyboard, it's time to retire!

I adhere to no apple policy, I'm not into fashion - and I don't intend to pay more for less just because of a brand name.

I'm mostly interested in a good monitor, so any suggestions, any brand would be appreciated.

I have around 800$ to spend on this.

thx.

Well, that leaves out Sony, Toshiba, Alienware and a few others. If this is going to be for photo editing (batch processing as well) and you need a 'good' monitor... I've looked around myself for something that can match my MBP and the lowest price I've found is around $1600 or so. If you don't care about the screen quality and video that could be kicked down to around $1200 or so. Could you maybe save for another couple of months?

Otherwise, a $800 laptop will likely get you an OK budget machine. Under $1000 you're probably looking at around 2.2GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, intigraded Intel graphics, moderately OK screen, 350GB HDD. You could bump one of these items up, but any more than that and it probably will go over 1K. Your best bet is probably referbished or discontinued systems. You have to remember, laptops are going to cost more than desktops for less power.

I have plenty of recomendations if you could lift your minimum amount around $1400. If this is just going to be for typing and surfing the net with a movie here or there then any ol' Dell or eMachine would be fine.

[basroil]

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/laptop-studio-14z/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-14z&s=dhs&cs=19

Only thing i know of, but without the monitor. Does it really have to be a laptop though? You can get decent desktops (with good monitors) for that much, and get something like a netbook for on-the-go stuff later.

[sandro9mm]

Well, that leaves out Sony, Toshiba, Alienware and a few others. If this is going to be for photo editing (batch processing as well) and you need a 'good' monitor... I've looked around myself for something that can match my MBP and the lowest price I've found is around $1600 or so. If you don't care about the screen quality and video that could be kicked down to around $1200 or so. Could you maybe save for another couple of months?

Otherwise, a $800 laptop will likely get you an OK budget machine. Under $1000 you're probably looking at around 2.2GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, intigraded Intel graphics, moderately OK screen, 350GB HDD. You could bump one of these items up, but any more than that and it probably will go over 1K. Your best bet is probably referbished or discontinued systems. You have to remember, laptops are going to cost more than desktops for less power.

I have plenty of recomendations if you could lift your minimum amount around $1400. If this is just going to be for typing and surfing the net with a movie here or there then any ol' Dell or eMachine would be fine.

well, a laptop is a MUST, I travel allot and have no permanent residence...

Right now I have DELL XPS laptop, which cost me around 2200$ in U.S. 4 years ago. It's a huge 17 UWA, with all the cool features. But it's centrino, very old, just the screen is awesome... plus its huge, and I can use it as a desktop.

I need something light for travelling and editing on the go... as for processing power, any core duo will give me more power then current laptop.

I'm gonna check out discontinued models today, and maybe talk with the staff.


thanks guyz!

[Roy Webber]

A top spec Dell XPS 1330 does well for me

[sandro9mm]

okay, so I bought dell studio 1555, and I hated the screen it had purple and blue cast, very sharp but color reproduction was basically ****ty.

so I decided to add money and get HP pavilion dv6 which is not too leaps ahead of dell studio, in fact worth video card, but monitor looks more color neutral.

thinking to get an external monitor in a while...

thx, topic closed.