Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

[tahnan]

OK. I yield. I am now willing to pay someone $20 if they can tell me what laptop to buy.

I'm serious, but I'm also serious about "what laptop to buy"--I don't mean saying "Get an iBook. Where's my $20?" I mean sitting down with me, helping me navigate all of these stupid webpages, helping me figure out what I need from a laptop and what all these goddamned technical specs mean.

IBM and Apple both seem to sell laptops on the premise that you're one of two people: the person who understands all these tech specs and is able to sort through them and decide what you want, or the person who's willing to shrug and say "Yeah, that's probably about right, I'll just take that one." I'm neither of these people.

And I am really, really frustrated.

Comments

[navrins]

What are your requirements? Unless you plan to do something unusual - and other than installing a new OS, I'm not sure what would qualify - most likely the main things you want to consider are:

- Screen size
- Weight
- Battery life
- Keyboard sensation
- Pointing device type
- Other look & feel issues (does it beep a lot? Screen bright enough for you? Sound adequate for your needs? etc.)
- Price

Don't buy a laptop without having held that model in your hands and typed on it for a while - different laptops have very different feels, and what's great for someone else might be unusable for you (I can't type on a Vaio, period, for example).

Most likely the technical specs are all but irrelevant. Pretty much anything sold today will run anything most people would think to run with acceptable speed. Get a faster processor and bigger hard drive if you want it to handle the apps that come out three years from now too - nobody can tell you how fast and big that requires; pick a nice price point and go with it.