Buying a Work Laptop

usefullidiot · 03-11-2007, 03:42 AM

My mother is looking to buy a laptop that she can work on because I'm never letting her have any time on the Desktop. She went to the store by herself and was told to buy a $1000 laptop by the salesman, the laptop will be used for writting, movies, powerpoints, making posters and image work. To me $1000 seems prety pricy and I assume Macintosh is better suited for her specifications.

What I would like to know is if anyone can tell me what would be the best choice for her, she is willing to spend $1000 but I'm sure there is something out there for atleast $600 that would be just as good.

MatrixEVO · 03-12-2007, 03:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by usefullidiot

My mother is looking to buy a laptop that she can work on because I'm never letting her have any time on the Desktop. She went to the store by herself and was told to buy a $1000 laptop by the salesman, the laptop will be used for writting, movies, powerpoints, making posters and image work. To me $1000 seems prety pricy and I assume Macintosh is better suited for her specifications.

What I would like to know is if anyone can tell me what would be the best choice for her, she is willing to spend $1000 but I'm sure there is something out there for atleast $600 that would be just as good.

Does she need it to be fairly portable? Does she know how to use basic functions of Windows XP? If she already uses Windows then she should not get a Mac laptop. Why do you think that Mac would be better for her?

Styrak · 03-12-2007, 09:20 AM

MatrixEVO has a valid question.
Also, you will not get a Mac for $1000.

PabloTeK · 03-12-2007, 09:41 AM

My dad has a 12" Sony Vaio work gave him, it's great because it's small but packs a fair amount of whack. Although Sony's are expensive they're very nice pieces of kit. When he's in the office or at home he just connects it to his main monitor or docking station and he's away.

macnoob · 03-12-2007, 01:01 PM

i lie mac, but for under 1000? i dont think you can get one for that. i would go depending on what she needs with something fairly basic. a 14 or 15inch maybe? running xp, idk how big hddd 80gig? but yes it will defietly be less than 1000 600range http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115300

500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834146186
700 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834147354 the hp is what i would guess is best overall, i dont know as much about acer and lenovo.(this is if you can order online, i know you said there was a salesman)

soccerdude · 03-12-2007, 11:33 PM

I would get this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834114236

tlarkin · 03-13-2007, 12:09 AM

lots and lots of misinformation here...

1) Macbooks start at $1,000 (1,099 actually but apple offers a 10% student discount if that applies)

2) Macbooks are intel based and can run windows both virtually and natively, which pretty much kills any application barrier

3) Welcome to land of the open source - lots of free softwares that can be at her dispense. She will have to take the time to learn them just like any other platform (ie adobe) but they are there.

Now let me list the plethora of benefits you get out of the box for 1,000 dollars over a PC

1) There are NO known viruses for OS X. The proof of concept ones are flawed, and NO ONE has yet to produce anything that is self propagaing - hands down its more secure out the box

2) FW800, FW isight camera, gigabit ethernet, built in wifi and bluetooth, and it comes with a remote control, ambient light sensor and back lit keyboard- thjose a lot of times come extra, or with an extra price

3) iDvd, iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb, iComic, etc would cost you several hundreds of dollars in software on the PC side, if not more.

4) Their laptops are covered by an international warranty. Meaning if you bought it in the US, and something broke in Hong Kong, you could still get it serviced. If you had to ship it, it gets shipped overnight express to the repair center and then back to you. Average down time in my experience is 3 to 4 business days, and that is a lot faster for repair over anyone else I have ever experienced. They have AASPs world wide http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304398

Those services, software, and security easily make up for any price difference. I used to work for a huge reseller company on their tech side a few years back and I would repair every single manufacturer we carried (HP/Compaq, Gateway, Sony, Acer, eMachines, Apple, etc). I can tell you right now sony has always had pretty bad service in general. HP/Compaq isn't bad but it doesn't beat Apple's. Here were the average turn around times when we shipped laptops off. Sony = 1 month, HP/Compaq/Gateway/Acer = 2 weeks (more like 2.5 weeks), Apple 1 week

Of course I am taking into consideration here that everyone works on a 5 day week instead of 7. Some laptops we could do warranty service on, and other ones had to go back to the manufacturer. So, you make a claim with them and request a box, they ship you a box, you box it up and ship it back. That is the standard process for everyone including the end users. So if you had to ship out your Sony Laptop you probably got it back 3 to 4 weeks later. All the other ones about 2 to 3 weeks, and with Apple you'd get it back in 4 days to a week. Of course there are exceptions (parts out of stock, etc) that may make these results vary. However, this has been my experience while working for this company for 6 years.

Now, Apple has its flaws, I am well aware of that. However, considering everything you get when you purchase an Apple I would say they are fairly priced and in some cases they are a steal compared to some PCs.

03-11-2007, 03:42 AM	#1 (permalink)
usefullidiot Bronze Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 28	Buying a Work Laptop My mother is looking to buy a laptop that she can work on because I'm never letting her have any time on the Desktop. She went to the store by herself and was told to buy a $1000 laptop by the salesman, the laptop will be used for writting, movies, powerpoints, making posters and image work. To me $1000 seems prety pricy and I assume Macintosh is better suited for her specifications. What I would like to know is if anyone can tell me what would be the best choice for her, she is willing to spend $1000 but I'm sure there is something out there for atleast $600 that would be just as good.

03-12-2007, 09:20 AM	#3 (permalink)
Styrak Platinum Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 517	MatrixEVO has a valid question. Also, you will not get a Mac for $1000. __________________ Athlon X2 4200+ S939 1GB RAM Radeon X1950 XT 256MB 1x160GB HD 1x320GB HD Antec TPII 550W PSU 20" WS BenQ LCD WinXP

03-12-2007, 01:01 PM	#5 (permalink)
macnoob Silver Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: uh somewhere over the rainbow Age: 15 Posts: 232	i lie mac, but for under 1000? i dont think you can get one for that. i would go depending on what she needs with something fairly basic. a 14 or 15inch maybe? running xp, idk how big hddd 80gig? but yes it will defietly be less than 1000 600range http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115300 500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834146186 700 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834147354 the hp is what i would guess is best overall, i dont know as much about acer and lenovo.(this is if you can order online, i know you said there was a salesman) __________________ emac :( and my un-named pc

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03-12-2007, 11:33 PM	#6 (permalink)
soccerdude Platinum Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 821	I would get this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834114236

03-13-2007, 12:09 AM	#7 (permalink)
tlarkin VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 6,945	lots and lots of misinformation here... 1) Macbooks start at $1,000 (1,099 actually but apple offers a 10% student discount if that applies) 2) Macbooks are intel based and can run windows both virtually and natively, which pretty much kills any application barrier 3) Welcome to land of the open source - lots of free softwares that can be at her dispense. She will have to take the time to learn them just like any other platform (ie adobe) but they are there. Now let me list the plethora of benefits you get out of the box for 1,000 dollars over a PC 1) There are NO known viruses for OS X. The proof of concept ones are flawed, and NO ONE has yet to produce anything that is self propagaing - hands down its more secure out the box 2) FW800, FW isight camera, gigabit ethernet, built in wifi and bluetooth, and it comes with a remote control, ambient light sensor and back lit keyboard- thjose a lot of times come extra, or with an extra price 3) iDvd, iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb, iComic, etc would cost you several hundreds of dollars in software on the PC side, if not more. 4) Their laptops are covered by an international warranty. Meaning if you bought it in the US, and something broke in Hong Kong, you could still get it serviced. If you had to ship it, it gets shipped overnight express to the repair center and then back to you. Average down time in my experience is 3 to 4 business days, and that is a lot faster for repair over anyone else I have ever experienced. They have AASPs world wide http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304398 Those services, software, and security easily make up for any price difference. I used to work for a huge reseller company on their tech side a few years back and I would repair every single manufacturer we carried (HP/Compaq, Gateway, Sony, Acer, eMachines, Apple, etc). I can tell you right now sony has always had pretty bad service in general. HP/Compaq isn't bad but it doesn't beat Apple's. Here were the average turn around times when we shipped laptops off. Sony = 1 month, HP/Compaq/Gateway/Acer = 2 weeks (more like 2.5 weeks), Apple 1 week Of course I am taking into consideration here that everyone works on a 5 day week instead of 7. Some laptops we could do warranty service on, and other ones had to go back to the manufacturer. So, you make a claim with them and request a box, they ship you a box, you box it up and ship it back. That is the standard process for everyone including the end users. So if you had to ship out your Sony Laptop you probably got it back 3 to 4 weeks later. All the other ones about 2 to 3 weeks, and with Apple you'd get it back in 4 days to a week. Of course there are exceptions (parts out of stock, etc) that may make these results vary. However, this has been my experience while working for this company for 6 years. Now, Apple has its flaws, I am well aware of that. However, considering everything you get when you purchase an Apple I would say they are fairly priced and in some cases they are a steal compared to some PCs.