First time buying a Laptop please Help.?

Question

I'm planning on buying my very first laptop and was just wondering if I'm the right track.
Here are the Specs about it:

Studio 14 Studio 14 Notebook
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Processor NEW 2010 Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)
Memory 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
Keyboard Back-lit Keyboard
LCD Panel 14.0” High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera and Facial Recognition
Video Card ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450 1GB
Hard Drive 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
System Color Midnight Blue
Network Integrated 10/100 Network Card
Adobe Reader Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
Combo or DVD+RW Drive 8X CD/DVD Burner + Roxio Easy CD & DVD Burning - Enhanced Burn/Authoring
Sound High Definition Audio 2.0
Wireless Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft® Office Starter 2010
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee SecurityCenter, 30-Day Trial
Battery 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Hardware Support Services 3 Year Advanced Service Plan
Datasafe Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Entertainment and Editing Software Adobe PhotoShop Elements
Bluetooth Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Internal (2.1)

Answer 1

You are certainly on the right track. The i7 in that one is quite powerful, and 6GB of DDR3 is more than enough for most situations. A 720 screen isn't the best resolution you can get, with performance stats like that I'd look for a Full HD one. The video card is strong enough for most games, and a 7,200RPM drive is excellent. A 10/100 port is slow though, find something with gigabit ethernet if you even suspect you are going to use cabled networking at any time.



For that money you should be getting a blu-ray drive, while you may not ever use it, with those other specs you should have one. Get rid of most of that software (everything except Adobe PS) as soon as you get it though, utterly useless and just slows your system down.



Another two computers you might want to consider would be the HP Envy 14, and depending on what you want to do, a 2.8GHz 15" MacBook Pro.

Answer 2

If you want a good laptop which will work every time you switch it on, a laptop that will be reliable and keep it's resale value I would get a macbook. For a similar price you could get the macbook which will be faster because it runs Mac OS X 10.6. Mac OS X never gets viruses unlike windows. It's also very rare for a mac computer to seize or "crash". You can get a macbook for £845 which will work far better than the DELL. Don't get the older macbook (2008) because it had problems with overheating and cracking - I use to have one. Then apple made an aluminium macbook in 2009 which is great but they don't make that one anymore but you could find one off ebay which will work just as good as the newer one (2009).



Mac is also easy to use! There are loads of great programs that work for mac and if you have a program that only works for windows you can use "BootCamp" so you can duel boot in windows!



A Mac can run Mac AND windows. You could just emulate windows using VMware or Parallels.



Hope you chose the best!

J

Answer 3

Dell sucks, I've owned and have worked with Dells and I will never get another one. If you want something really good, get a Lotus laptop. http://www.lotuspc.net



They have the Solstice 13 and 15 which are not the cheapest, but they give you great bang for the buck. I have a Solstice 15 as of a few weeks ago and it's the best laptop I've ever owned. I don't work for them or anything, I just love their computers and the service is fantastic!



The only thing is they don't sell online, so if you want to buy from them or want more info, you need to email or call them. they are super friendly, quick and helpful though and I'm sure they will answer your questions better than here. They really know their products.

Answer 4

I highly recommend

Dell Studio s1557-1148CBK 1557 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black Chainlink)

*1.6GHz Intel Core i7 720QM Processor

*6GB System Memory

*500GB Hard Drive; Dual Layer DVD Burner

*15.6" Display; ATI RadeonHD 5470 Graphics

*Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System (64-bit)

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Studio-s1557-1148CBK-15-6-Inch-Chainlink/dp/B0030T17HI/?tag=sdhrhiaiaa-20

Answer 5

I just say, this laptop specification is great, you can do everything more than expected on this laptop.