Help me choose a laptop

[ExplicitUrSelf]

This is for a for a friend whom is looking for a laptop​

I found the Black friday specials.. I was hoping you could tell me which ones sound good. I really need it just for school work and music and internet. Its a few of them. If you can tell me what you think.

Wal-mart

Acer Black 17.3" Aspire AS7714Z-4643 Laptop PC with Intel Pentium P6100 Processor, Windows 7 Home Premium
: $498.00

HP G56-129WM 15.6" Laptop w/ Intel Celeron 900 Processor, 3GB Memory, 250GB Hard Drive and Windows 7 Home Premium $298.00

HP G72-227WM 17.3" Dual Core Laptop w/ Intel Pentium 2.3GHz, 3GB Memory, 320GB HDD and Windows 7 Home Premium $398.00

and then at
Best Buy

Toshiba 15.6" Laptop w/ AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor, 3GB RAM and 320GB HD $349.00

Toshiba 15.6" Laptop w/AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, HP Wireless Printer $449.00

Sony Vaio Intel Pentium Dual-Core Processor 15.5" Laptop with Blu-Ray and Memory Upgrade $449

HP Laptop - 15.6", Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD $499

 

[richnrockville]

It looks like your looking in the <$500 range.
I personally have Toshiba laptops since the 286 days and have never had a bad one.

But, then I normally buy the high end machines.

Guessing that your friend who wants to buy a laptop for just portable operations like email web and
such. I would buy the one with the most memory and hard disk space.
If they really wanted to watch DVD movies then the larger screen would be nicer.

There are so many variables that would help anyone if we knew what they were going
to do with the laptop.

as they say Inquiring minds

Rich

 

[essenbe]

Without knowing the inquiring minds answer that Rich just talked about, I was talking with a friend of mine recently who sells laptops. He does the service on them. I asked which one was the best. He said withot hesitation that I should not consider anything but a Toshiba. Now, you can take that FWIW, which may not be much. Good luck.

 

[whs]

The last HP with the i3 would be my choice. But the second Toshiba looks good too. And DO NOT BUY at Walmart. They produce special low cost junk for them. And no Pentium or Celeron processors - too old.

 

[Petey7]

Personally, I would go with one of the second Toshiba. A printer alone can cost as much as $100. Your getting that plus more RAM and and HDD space for that amount. I also try to avoid HP and acer computers, but thats just me.

 

[The Howling Wolves]

I have had HP computers for the last 10 years and have no issue's with them.
So it boils down to your friend who is buying it. Have him go and shop and get a feel for what is that he wants.

Follow Rich's advice..

 

[whs]

I have had HP computers for the last 10 years and have no issue's with them.
So it boils down to your friend who is buying it. Have him go and shop and get a feel for what is that he wants.

Follow Rich's advice..

Same here. I have an HP laptop and a desktop - both from 2007. Never had any problems. But I have also heard a lot of good things about Toshiba.

 

[essenbe]

You can sometimes get some good deals at Newegg and Amazon.com. you may try them too.

 

[Pyrogt]

The second toshiba sounds like a good deal. I have a toshiba laptop that I am using right now and I love it, I havent run into any problems either.

 

[wb4bbc]

Its not listed but I would recommend a Lenovo Thinkpad, I have the SL410 and I love it. Check out Lenovo's Website they always have deals. Hope that helped

 

[Petey7]

I have had HP computers for the last 10 years and have no issue's with them.
So it boils down to your friend who is buying it. Have him go and shop and get a feel for what is that he wants.

Follow Rich's advice..

Same here. I have an HP laptop and a desktop - both from 2007. Never had any problems. But I have also heard a lot of good things about Toshiba.

I see a lot of low-end HP laptops that develop hardware problems shortly after the warranty has run out (and sometimes before). I've worked on a couple that had problems where the connectors for most of the cables were so loose that they would become disconnected without warning. I mean, who cares if the FAN STOPS RUNNING!

 

[ExplicitUrSelf]

my friend isn't a gamer or anything, she just needs something that can handle multiple tasks without freezing... but i'll pass on this link so she can check it out, so if you have a laptop you can recommend it'd be appreciated... =) thanks!!!

 

[unifex]

Indeed, everyone has their own preference. I am waiting for my new laptop to come (ordered online). I am buying Sony Vaio for as long as I can remember. The only two problems I've had appeared after at least 5 years of use - in my oldest laptop (bought in 2000) the Toshiba hard drive died last year, and in the next one (bought in 2004) the hinge went bad after I've dropped it a couple of times . So naturally the one that's coming my way is also a Sony.

But ... I totally agree with everyone saying that first you have to look at what you are going to do, then choose the specs that are necessary for that, then see which brand cost what for your config and then make an informed decision.