Help! I'm buying a laptop!

[baveux]

First time to the forums! Hi everyone!

I've been going to Bestbuy and other stores both online and in-store, helping my girlfriend look for a laptop, but am having trouble helping her choose.

As far as specs goes, she's not looking for anything in particular, but 4MB RAM, P8400 Intel chip or equivalent, 300ish GB of space seems within her price range. Also, she wants it to be light, have the longest battery life possible(+4hours), and not a beast to lug around.(14.1" screen seems to be a perfect size). Looking to spend anywhere between $1k-$1.5K with taxes. Laptop will be used for writing her thesis on the go while doing her masters, hold music, internet and maybe running a few low load programs like Excel, SPSS, Acrobat Reader and the sort. Oh, it can NOT be pink or white.

I also have no idea what company is seen to make good laptops. I've seen Dell, Toshiba, Sony, ect ect. Not looking for personal preferences, but tangible reasons as to why one brand is bad.

I guess I'm looking for someone to either help me choose between these two:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/prodde ... 452&catid=

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetai ... atid=20354

or point me in the direction of a laptop or store/site that might have something better.

Thanks a lot to anyone who helps in advance. Really appreciate it.

[stopthekilling77]

Hey baveux, and welcome to LR! I would personally recommend Lenovo ThinkPad laptops for you, your girlfriend, or anyone else you know looking for a quality product. The T400 should do her just fine sitting at ~$1,500 maxed out http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... 24ECD09BA7

Take a look at the SLxxx and Txxx series ThinkPads, they are rock solid in both construction and reliability. A coworker of mine just sold his old ThinkPad he's been using almost 8 years. The reason he sold it you ask? "It works fine still, but I got tired of not having a wide-screen laptop"

Good luck, and ask as many questions as you need to!

[geokilla]

Weeee. Canadian. Welcome to Legit Reviews.

First, you want 4GB RAM, not 4MB .

Second, RAM is easily upgradable. Having said that, search around RedFlagDeals.com. Just a couple weeks ago, some deals were posted for very good "gaming" grade laptops that were around $700 or something of that sort. The specs were of something like the following.

Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB RAM
250GB Hard drive or something like that
8600M GS/ 8600M GT/ 9500M GS/ 9600M GT
15.4 and 14"

Now there were many deals posted on laptops, but I'm just giving you an idea. And for your use, it sounds like spending just $800ish will be more than enough.

I would advise not to buy Sony because their products are simply not worth it in terms of bang for buck in my opinion.

And finally, I would avoid paying regular price for a laptop from any retailer such as Best Buy and Future Shop and Staples. Always get the ones that are on sale is my philosophy since I find them to tend to mark the prices up. If you're in the GTA, look into Canada Computers and PCVOnline. Both are great stores. Also, don't forget the NotebookOutlet in Pacific Mall. Some pretty good deals there too every once in a while, but RFD has better deals, if there are deals around.

Hope my post helps...kinda over the place, but as long as it helps. =)