HP Laptops

A lot of colleges sell Windows XP Pro for $10-$12 with the Microsoft education discount. That really isn't that big of a deal.

3 of my friends bought HP/Compaq laptops before they went to school last fall (Early/Mid August). All 3 of them were completely different models/designs. Around March, all 3 of their exhaust fans burnt out, within about a week of each other. One of them actually lost their processor fan shortly after too because it had to work harder to make up for the lack of an exhaust fan. Although the original manufacturers warranty covered the fan, HP/Compaq refused to let them replace the fans themselves, and they each had to mail their laptops back for about 10 days to 2 weeks while they replaced it and then shipped it back.

Even if the laptop is for general use and homework, I'd still avoid the celeron processor just because of the crummy battery life. It is definitely worth upgrading to a Mobile Pentium or Centrino (except I don't think Intel calls them that anymore...they were just a Mobile Pentium with a wireless card) to get that improved battery life. A friend of mine has an HP pavilion with a "centrino" processor and gets about 6-7 hrs off of a charge. I've never owned an AMD processor in a laptop, so I honestly wouldn't be able to give you any battery life information about that.

After the honor stories I witnessed my friends go through, I'm never buying an HP laptop (once I can get the money, a Mac Book sounds more like it). But don't let my bad opinion sway your decision.

[sciguy125]

My general recommendations about laptops:
- Don't get a Celeron, the extra ~$150 for a Pentium M is worth it. You'll get better performance and better battery life. The Pentium M has throttling, so it can slow itself down if it's under low load and subsequently use less power.
- Even if you don't think so now, size will be important to you. If you want, go to a store and check out the laptops they have to see what size you like.
- The screen is also important. I love widescreen. I can open up a bunch of windows and have plenty of room to work. Of course, your usage might be different from mine, so it might not be of much use to you. As for "truebright" (different manufacturers have different names for it), it's a preference. I'll admit that it makes the screen look better, but I don't like the reflections. Without it, however, you get general glare (like a haze) instead.
- You should also decide if performance or construction is more important to you. For computers in the same price range, you generally have a choice between better performance or better construction. IBM Thinkpads are rock solid. You can drop them and not have too much damage. Dell's on the other hand are garbage. I've had my Inspiron 630m for a little over two months and it's already suffered some cosmetic damage. I also opened it up earlier today to tighten some loose screws. Performance-wise, however, you just can't beat it.

[Beth Sweet]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I went to CompUSA today and got a new laptop. I got the Pentium thing and pretty much everything else that was on the other list

I only got the 6 battery, but I'll probably go back and get the 12 once I get my refund (I get $50 just for buying a computer! yay!)

Thanks again!

[technoL]

I just got an HP Laptop today from CompUSA also...AWESOME sale. So far, it seems great, except for the fact that I still have to transfer about 40 gigs of stuff from my old emachines desktop (it was seriously about time for something new). I tried out the built-in webcam and it seems okay, not excellent, but it'll do. I'm loving the size also.