Hey You Prospective Laptop Buyers Out There,
BEWARE: NEVER GO FOR NETBOOKS, THEY ARE NIL VALUE FOR MONEY!
The very first thing you need to do is LOOK, SEARCH, HUNT, FORAGE, GRAPPLE, VISIT. Not everybody likes a particular spec. So it's best you start popping in-and-out of multiple retail outlets to fix the model/make/manufacturer you like. Check out the display, pixel resolution, screen size, webcam clarity (go for in-built webcam) etc. Don't stop if you find a WOWer, continue hunting for one full month or two. You now start dreaming what your future laptop will look like.
Next question to ask yourself is, what will you be doing with it? Personally I was crystal clear that I will be playing games and only playing games with my lappie. That helped me zero-in on my 17" ACER ASPIRE 9301 AwSMI much quicker than I'd myself expected. Mind you, my HDD capacity was pathetic but still because of my focus and clarity I went for it because everything else it had was a super hit. My advice to you folks would be, forget about Hard Disk capacity (even Graphics Card to a certain extent) and RAM... because they WILL DEFINITELY BE outdated very soon. So concentrate on your actual needs. Bullet points:
Built-in webcam HAS TO BE THERE; folks don't settle for something without this!
Go for 15" or 14.5" display, don't go for 17" it becomes a pain afterwards yaar!
Check sound decibel and quality - I'd suggest you buy the loudest laptop you come across!
Check out the graphics card - I would suggest AMD/ASUS but don't buy ASUS brand laptop
Check whether decent HDD and RAM are there - its purely your call mate!
Check whether BluRay/DVDRW feature present - this is the reason I advised against netbooks
Check FireWire, Bluetooth, Serial, Parallel, CardReader, 3G, Mouse/KBD ports all there
Check h/w and o/s warranty whether intl available (don't fall for antivirus promos!)
Ask around for service centres, reliability, promptness, after-sales service, etc (S**y sucks at this)
Happy laptopping folks!
