What's your best suggestion for purchasing a new laptop?

Question

We've had two Compaq Presario laptops. Other than a power problem where the power cord plugs in the back, we've not had any other problems.

I plan to buy a new laptop in January. I would like to stay around $1200 to $1500 as my max spending limit, but that is negotiable...if the right laptop is found.

What I am looking for in a laptop?
Speed
Built in Wireless Modem
Longevity (I'm tired of having to buy a new one so frequently)
Well-Known Name
Prefer something along the lines of Compaq, Sony, HP, etc.
Not "too foreign" made.

What is your suggestions and experiences with laptops?
Do you have a really good one that has really "been there" for you?

Thanx
Best answer will get the 10 pts.

Answer 1

i would treasure the dell xps m1210

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1210?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs



http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DYCWLS1&s=dhs

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)

Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005

Express Upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium from XP Media Center Edition

1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)

120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability

256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7400 TurboCache™

Integrated Audio

FREE Dell Color Ink Jet Printer 725

Promo,90Day Ltd. Warranty,90Day HW Warranty Support,90Day Advance Exchange

53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g

Includes Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD

Norton Internet Security™ 2006 Edition 15-months

Trial pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo

1Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service

6 Months of America Online Membership Included

Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem

Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0

Award Winning Service, Support

Windows Vista™ Capable



>> $ 1568



fast t7200 processor, 2.0 ghz with an awesome 4 mb l2 cache

fast 1 gb ram, ddr2 667 mhz

256 mb graphics, 120 gb sata hard drive & 8x dvd writer

completes a great awesome system !

os: win xp media centre 2005 complements an overall experience, at under 4.4 pounds & truely portable

Answer 2

my experience has been that laptops are just fragile .. baby them and they last ... if u want speed get a fast harddrive thats where they usually are slow ...anything late model should be ok for speed with the right harddrive .. then i would worry about screen quality and brightness and a normal ratio screen not a widescreen theyre stupid imo... then personally i would want a good graphics card ... i would want 1g or more of ddr2 memory ... most likely a core-duo or pentium M ...then i would would think about keyboard layout that suits me .. then i would see what the battery life is like and make sure it has a high capacity battery.. it would be hard to find one without builtin wireless but check to be sure anyway and then i would maybe give a passing glance at the name on it ...

Answer 3

if you purposed at entertainment, you need to emphasize the soft&hard wares in this aspects, bcs entertainment damages a lot to computer, especially for laptops.