What laptop to buy?

[FreeBonger]

Im a senior this year, hoping to graduate and become a photographer. Sometime in the next year im planning on going to college to get a photography degree, and this summer im taking a trip to africa (hopefully) to work in an orphan elephant facility. I need a laptop that i can work on and store all of my photos with, and edit them and that sort of thing. My price range only goes up to about 800-1000 dollars sadly, but id like to know what you guys think are some good options? Thanks for the help.
By the way, im not sure which section to put this in, so im sorry if its in the wrong spot.

[That_Fox]

Are you looking to go with a Mac or a PC? If a Mac, your only choice is the base MacBook. With the student discount it would be $899.

[Markitos]

Why can't you become a photographer before you graduate? What is keeping you from taking photographs now?

More seriously (and on topic)--there are so many choices, especially for PCs, in that range. I would look for something with a large hard drive, 4gb of memory, decent battery life, and a fairly durable shell--maybe something like a Sony Vaio, but they ain't cheap. You might want to look at business machines from the likes of Lenovo or HP--they are generally built to a tougher standard than their "home use" cousins.

If you plan on shooting a lot, plan on taking a USB powered external harddrive, as well, either for backup (smart) or extra space.

[43 North]

I won't suggest brands but I am a PC guy. I would get one of the newer ones that has the i3 processor or if you can one of the i5 processors. Intel's new line and great. The biggest thing about these processors is that they use DDR3 RAM memory which is much faster than the DDR2. I just bought a new desktop with the i5 and 8gigs of DDR3 memory. I am blown away at it's speed and performance. my 2 cents.

[PhotoMatte]

If you're looking for a laptop with great resolution, and one that will NEVER suffer from a virus, you can't go wrong with the 17" MacBook Pro with the anti-glare screen. I've just gotten mine in the mail and it's awesome. My old laptop, the 17" MacBook G4, lasted me for 6 years but I finally had to get a new one so I could take advantage of the 8GB of ram offered in the new dual-core model. The color and screen quality are so good I can actually do post-processing directly on my laptop. It is quite spendy, however, over $3000 (even with the education discount) but it's worth it, since you won't need a new machine every two years...and you'll never have to worry about Windows 7 or Vista:)

[PubUltraStar]

I've got a Dell M6400 laptop, which is a beast, a Macbook Pro 13.3" for Travel, and a HP netbook which I gave to my wife. Honestly, the Dell running Windows 7 Ultimate is the one I use the most for photography because it has the power to run Adobe CS4 and Lightroom, along with a few other programs I like to use. It's nice because using a Dell DisplayPort adapter cable, I can get HDMI output, which is nice for connecting to a TV/LCD for slideshows and presentations. I have had a difficult time switching back to Macs, as I just ended up putting Windows 7 Ultimate on my Macbook pro and never use the Mac partition. With an adapter, I can get a VGA output, but I only use it when I need something not as heavy.

My advise for you is to ensure that you get the OS that you're comfortable with, but I'd personally only buy laptops with Solid State Drives, HDMI ports, external eSata ports for easy attachment of external hard drives and blue-ray. Oh, and my dell has a docking station while I'm at work, which is essential because I use dual monitors. Good Luck.

[crimsonblack]

Check out the HP's and the Compac laptops. Not the greatest, but they are loaded and you can get a 17" display, hard drive, 3 to 4gb of ram, and whatever else for under $1000. It's the best buy for your money.

Mine is an 18" Toshiba Qosmio, that weighs a tone. 2.0 Intel duo-core with 4gb, 500gb hard drive and so on. Got it on sale at fry's last year for $1100.oo. The deals are there and sometimes you can score online or at Walmart, Sam's club, Costco and even best buy. Got to be cautious at Best Buy though.

Good luck. LCD size (17" at least), Ram (no less than 3), and duo core (2.0 should be dime a dozen anymore) is what you should be most concerned about.

Usually with a 17" or larger you get a full keyboard. My wife's 15" Toshiba does not have a full keyboard (no numbers pad).

good luck

[Markitos]

I would pass on the HP laptops, personally... we have two, and while they are very good bang for the buck and reasonably fast, the LCD, even calibrated, is horrible for photo editing (I can't trust it at all), and the body shell is not very sturdy feeling plastic. They're also relatively heavy.

And I'm not hating on HP or anything--of the four computers in my house right now (two laptops, two desktops), 3 are HPs and 1 is a Compaq.