Buying my laptop-tips. Review on Buying a Laptop / Notebook

I was reading a few reviews and thought since I used three laptops of three different brands it would be a good idea to rite a review on on my three laptops and suggest some ways of buying a laptop.

I have, IBM T42, Dell latitude D610, Compaq Presario 3018TU

Before reviewing any of these laptops I would like to say the first two ones are company laptops and the last one is my personal one.

I assesed my laptop on my own and I would suggest the ppl who are buying the laptop to do it on their own because you are the best judge as to what you want say if your application is only internet brousing then even a celeron mechine will do but when you discuss with others they might suggest other wise and unless you trust the dealer verywell donot lisiten to him and make your own choice based on the analysis you have made.

one more issue is if you are using a laptop for the whole family then buy those which are desktop replacement however laptop is a personal machine and as far as possible keep it for personal use.

The points which I reviewed while buying a laptop.

1. Processer.

   
   




2. Ram

   
   




3. Hard disk

   
   




4. Lcd screen.

   
   




5. Mobility.

   
   




6. Battery life.

   
   




7. Processer: these days lots of processors are available like AMD, Intel, via etc .I went through the reviews on cnet and other websites as to which processer is better and AMD at this point of time came out as winner(more over I was using an AMD as desktop processer and was very comfortable with it)however when I went to buy laptops I came to know that the bottom of the laptop with AMD processors become very hot(confirmed by my friend too who uses an amd 64 based acer laptop) and difficult to use if u r in hot conditions in India.as a result of these drawbacks and the models of AMD available in India were not much evolved in terms of looks so I decided on Intel, secondly the chipset which you are buying if you are buying intel processers say if you are buying 915 chipset then the price of laptop comes down by almost 5 to 6k where as if you are buying 945 chipset they might go by almost 10K.

   
   

2.RAM:I was using 512 in all my laptops used and for all my applications(internet brousing, music, movies, word, excel etc) so I went ahead with 512 and planned to upgrade to 1.5gb within next 60 days if it is required. How ever now that I am using 512 it feels good enough(if you are using antivirus, fire wall and lots of applications in the tray I suggest you go for 1 or 1.5gb as you are also sharing the memory for video).Also insist on SATA HDD as they are faster.

3.LCD screen:I was also interested in watching movies so I decided it should have clear bright view and now-a-days you get DVDs with wide screen format so it makes sense to buy wide secreen .One more good thing of buying wide screen is the lingth of screen becomes lower which helps as it can be kept in smallest of places.however if most of your application is word processing and internet surfing I suggest you should stick to normal format.wide screen format gives 16:9 aspect ratio which is what our eye is capable of viewing where as the normal ones give 4:3.

4.Mobility: it is the most important thing when you are buying a laptop as you will be carrying it .if you require high mobility then buy 12 inch ones however I wanted to watch movies too so I decided to buy 14 inch one.second point is weight of laptop the lesser it is better it is but anything less than 2.3kgs is good.if you can insist on the dealer to sell the laptop with back pack it will be great how ever if he cant do that I suggest donot buy what is given as std as the bag itself will be weighing almost 1kg instead ask him to reduce the price of the laptop. You can purchase the bags from Samsonite which are very good .

5.Battery life:this is also very important if you use laptops in places where electrical plugs are hard to reach and in open areas .secondly if you are giving ppts and you want to quickly set up things without having to worry of power then having good battery life is welcome. I chose for 2.5 hr of backup which I feel is good enough for me.

More over after doing all the research and reading all reviews you might decide on a laptop and when you go to the showroom you might have a whole new range available hence its also good to fix a budget while buying as for the same budget you might get a better pakage .

Coming to reviewing my laptops I feel IBM laptops stand out in terms of features say HDD protection, recovery, lcd, battery backup these features might render your laptop a bit slow so I would suggest if you are planning to buy 1.8 GHz then in IBMs case buy 2.0 GHz. and increase ram too. touch pad too is very good and the laptop is also very light.

Dell(I had heard a lot of good things abt dell)pls forgive me for saying this the IBM machine beats it hands down in all its features be it looks or performance and a thing worth mentioning is dells touch pad in very insensitive(your fingers become numb by end of day if you are using for whole day).

Presario is what I wanted and what I bought what I feel abt it is it delivers what is promised and the touch pad is more sensitive than dell less than IBM .Battery life is pretty good it is giving me around 3hrs which is very good.

I hope my experience with laptops helps you guys for any further queries do mail me or comment.