Laptop Suggestions?

breeshabebe
breeshabebe Posts: 580
in Chit-Chat
I need to buy a new laptop and have no idea what's good anymore. I'm really not a Mac person... And I don't spend tons of time on the computer (besides at work). My old laptop was an HP and wasn't bad--but now its really slow and the battery doesn't hold a charge. I've put so many pictures/music/other things on it that its just had enough.

So heres what I'll be using it for:
Rosetta Stone (probably the primary reason for buying a new laptop)
Music/itunes
*Maybe* School work in the future
Some pictures

I'm not at all a tech savvy person nor do I need something really fancy... I just want something suitable for what I'm needing... Any suggestions?

Replies

  • rak173
    rak173 Posts: 105 Member
    It depends on your budget!

    Shortly after college, my laptop pretty much died. I bought a small Acer Aspire for a little less than $300. The laptop that got me through college was $1000+ dell, so I was hesitant to buy such a cheap one. But, it has worked out! I have had it for a year and a half and started using it for grad school a few months ago. The battery life is 6+ hours, the speakers aren't very loud and no cd drive, but works great. I don't think it has a ton of memory/hard drive (I'm not tech savvy either), but enough.
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  • sweetcurlz67
    sweetcurlz67 Posts: 1,168 Member
    You're not gonna like me, but at first, I wasn't really a Mac person either. I performed a lot of research and it took me a while. But, when it came time where I had no choice but to purchase a new laptop, I finally caved in and purchased a MacBook Pro. It was a VERY TOUGH decision but the BEST DECISION EVER!!!! I will NEVER turn back!!! I use an HP laptop at work as I don't have a choice but my personal laptop will forever more be Mac related.
  • breeshabebe
    breeshabebe Posts: 580
    It depends on your budget!

    Shortly after college, my laptop pretty much died. I bought a small Acer Aspire for a little less than $300. The laptop that got me through college was $1000+ dell, so I was hesitant to buy such a cheap one. But, it has worked out! I have had it for a year and a half and started using it for grad school a few months ago. The battery life is 6+ hours, the speakers aren't very loud and no cd drive, but works great. I don't think it has a ton of memory/hard drive (I'm not tech savvy either), but enough.


    Budget wise, I'm willing to wait a little longer and pay a little more for a good computer-- but I don't need anything extra, ya know? I don't want to pay extra just because I can... I just want something sufficient but not gonna crack out on me in 2 years.
  • RevWirth
    RevWirth Posts: 14 Member
    HP Envy is what I use.
  • donyellemoniquex3
    donyellemoniquex3 Posts: 2,384 Member
    I spent almost $3k on my Asus ROG. I love it.
  • RunWinterGarden
    RunWinterGarden Posts: 428 Member
    If you want something that's not going to crap out in 2 years you need to get a Mac, sorry, but they just last so much longer than Windows machines. I just sold a 3 year old Mac for $500 (and could have gotten more but I sold it to a friend) and it was still in great shape and working faster and better than the brand new Lenovo I got for work.
  • a_stronger_me13
    a_stronger_me13 Posts: 812 Member
    If you want something that's not going to crap out in 2 years you need to get a Mac, sorry, but they just last so much longer than Windows machines. I just sold a 3 year old Mac for $500 (and could have gotten more but I sold it to a friend) and it was still in great shape and working faster and better than the brand new Lenovo I got for work.

    This. I have had horrible luck with HP and Dell in the past so I finally bit the bullet and bought a Mac. I love it mostly because I don't have to worry about hardly anything with it.

    I do have a few friends that are very happy with their Lenovo as well as their Samsung products though. I probably would've gone the Samsung route had I not bought my Mac.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    It depends on your budget!

    Shortly after college, my laptop pretty much died. I bought a small Acer Aspire for a little less than $300. The laptop that got me through college was $1000+ dell, so I was hesitant to buy such a cheap one. But, it has worked out! I have had it for a year and a half and started using it for grad school a few months ago. The battery life is 6+ hours, the speakers aren't very loud and no cd drive, but works great. I don't think it has a ton of memory/hard drive (I'm not tech savvy either), but enough.

    my laptop's an acer and it's lasted really well.... I think it's an acer aspire but the sticker has come off so I can't remember exactly. But I'm planning on getting another acer for my next laptop when the time comes
  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,834 Member
    If you want something that's not going to crap out in 2 years you need to get a Mac, sorry, but they just last so much longer than Windows machines. I just sold a 3 year old Mac for $500 (and could have gotten more but I sold it to a friend) and it was still in great shape and working faster and better than the brand new Lenovo I got for work.

    This. I have had horrible luck with HP and Dell in the past so I finally bit the bullet and bought a Mac. I love it mostly because I don't have to worry about hardly anything with it.

    I do have a few friends that are very happy with their Lenovo as well as their Samsung products though. I probably would've gone the Samsung route had I not bought my Mac.

    I will third a lot of the above.

    Have had HP laptops and they have given me nothing but trouble. I do own Mac myself, and that is always a good bet, but I work in IT for a college and we are doing pretty well with Lenovo, and they run around $1200 with decent specs. Haven't had too many failures either (Edit to add: We have about 500 of them on campus, so that says a lot).

    Just make sure you go hands on with each and get a feel for them. Similar specs can be/feel VERY different in responsiveness.
  • Trueray
    Trueray Posts: 1,189 Member
    Okay looks like you need a laptop with a core i5 or i3 processor which will give you great performance for a great price. You can go with an ultra-book for portability but they might cost more than a regular laptop. Make sure you get a laptop that you can upgrade the ram. helps with performance and makes it future proof.

    Oh, to tell if the laptop has great battery life you can ask to look at the charger for the laptop. If it has a big brick which is part of the charging cable then the battery life is not that great. The smaller the brick on the charger the better the battery life on the laptop.

    I would not but a laptop for less than $500 and anything over $800 is unnecessary for your needs.

    Do not get an Acer because build quality sucks.

    Good Options: Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony
    Hit or Miss options: Hp and Toshiba

    Hope this helps!
  • wolverine66
    wolverine66 Posts: 3,779 Member
    is Rosetta Stone anything more than just the CDs? Is there software involved?

    If not, then it would seem that all you really need to make sure of, is that it has a disk drive. for work, i currently use a Lenovo Thinkpad, and i is just fine.
  • jkowula
    jkowula Posts: 447
    Toshiba all the way. I have used many over the years and they have been beat up and worked perfect until I wanted a new one.
  • breeshabebe
    breeshabebe Posts: 580
    Thanks for the responses everyone! I'll look into the brands that y'all have suggested and maybe go to Best Buy to test them out before I use them.

    I'm pretty sold on not getting a Mac just because I don't see it as a necessity right now and I don't want to learn a whole new system on something I don't plan on using that often.

    I'm pretty sure you can do Rosetta Stone Software or Online/With CD's.
  • breeshabebe
    breeshabebe Posts: 580
    Okay looks like you need a laptop with a core i5 or i3 processor which will give you great performance for a great price. You can go with an ultra-book for portability but they might cost more than a regular laptop. Make sure you get a laptop that you can upgrade the ram. helps with performance and makes it future proof.

    Oh, to tell if the laptop has great battery life you can ask to look at the charger for the laptop. If it has a big brick which is part of the charging cable then the battery life is not that great. The smaller the brick on the charger the better the battery life on the laptop.

    I would not but a laptop for less than $500 and anything over $800 is unnecessary for your needs.

    Do not get an Acer because build quality sucks.

    Good Options: Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony
    Hit or Miss options: Hp and Toshiba

    Hope this helps!

    Thanks, I didn't know that about battery life! The one I have now is definitely a huge brick.

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