posted
Ok I need some suggestions, I am looking for a decent, BUT CHEAP, desktop replacement.
Any suggestions?
The laptop will primarilly be for writing, but I'd like to browse and play the occasional movie or tv show.
Any suggestions?
I find myself working long hours (which is normal) but with ZERO access to the net or even notepad, so I am thinking that a laptop would be a good investment so I can cobble out some production when and WHERE I want.
It will also get my children to stop trying to kick me off my network at home so they can play Sims 2.
BTW, do not play around with SIMS games, they are worse than MMORPGS for sucking away your time.
Anyway, looking for a good laptop for word processing and browsing, not too concerned with gaming since that is the bane of the writing process :-)
posted
HuntGod, you might want to check out the Dell Inspiron Notebooks. I recently bought one and I'm quite happy with it. They have some that are VERY reasonably priced and they get high marks from most reviewers. Of course, I don't know how cheap you mean by cheap but you can easily check out the Dell website for prices.
[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited December 05, 2007).]
My personal laptop is an HP Pavillion wide-screen and because of the screen resolution and size it's great for working on two documents at the same time. I love it for watching movies on the road and as an electronic darkroom.
My company give me an IBM Thinkpad T42. It's a simple workhorse, useless for movies and photographs. But the battery goes for three hours or more (unlike the HP's useless 90 minutes or so), great for writing in airports, coffee bars and pubs.
I'd suggest getting one that can write data to CD in DVD format because that makes it easy to backup information in 4Gb chunks.
posted
I don't have one, but I have thought about it...but I'd probably go with a higher-end model with all the bells and whistles, say a thousand dollars or over. I can afford it...or I can wait until I can. (I don't know if I'd take it with me on trips: I do take a typewriter but hardly ever use it anymore.)
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my niece was trying to score (or at least scope out) some sale laptops that were retailing for $299. I don't know the brand...haven't seen her since then so I don't know whether she got one or not, or whether it's any good. I did say that something that low would probably be bottom-of-the-barrel product, whoever made it.
quote:Anyway, looking for a good laptop for word processing and browsing, not too concerned with gaming since that is the bane of the writing process
I'll be the local Mac addict and suggest that I think this is a call for a Macbook. You can get one for just over a grand (or less, if you go for the education discounts or refurb models). It'll do just about anything on the go that you could do sitting at a desk, with the exception of good 3D-game performance.
Really, spending less than a grand on a laptop doesn't get you a whole lot. You CAN get a laptop for less than a grand, but you'll notice the subpar specs (slower precessor speeds or older generation processors entirely, insufficient ram, etc.) will hold you back long before a well spec'd midrange laptop will.
posted
HP Pavilion wide screen here as well. I have no complaints except for battery life, I only get a couple of hours usually. I didn't realize until I'd had it for a while that battery life would be such a concern.
Get something that lasts for 5 hours or more, then you can write anywhere.
posted
Mac and Win debate aside if you are just using it (90%) to write then I'd go for whatever is cheapest. I have an IBM thinkpad from 97 that would do the trick. This would do the trick just fine.
My gateway is an older version of this and has lasted me just fine.
Warranty is a big deal though. If you see a laptop for $1000 that includes warranty (real warranty) then it is a deal. I've brought my gateway in 3 times for repairs, mostly because I'm a slob, and it hasn't cost me a dime. I paid an extra $250 for the warranty, bringing the price (it was on sale) to $650.
I've been impressed with BestBuy's warranty so far. They've been quick to make replacements. My major fear of buying a laptop online is not having a company to back it up (unless I bought it from a company online... like bestbuy.com). On the flipside, that Dell D600 sounds like a hell of a good deal, I don't even see why you should put warranty on that, just use dell's 1 year warranty and buy a whole new laptop if it craps out.
I have never found the benefit in buying state-of-the-art for laptops unless you are using it for something pretty hard core.
Buy a $600 laptop and replace it every two-years, give the used one to a kid or family member for Christmas. If a $600 laptop lasts two years (mine has lasted 2 1/2) then you are spending $300 a year. With that math, a decent ($2500) laptop should last you 8 years. Which it wont.
[This message has been edited by halogen (edited December 05, 2007).]
posted
That is right on target for me Halogen, thanks.
I'd obviously like a desktop replacement, but it makes far more sense to spend $3-500 on a laptop, use it for 2 years, since I am primarilly going to use it for browsing and writing. Then game on my desktop which is still working admirably 4 years after I bought it.
My biggest concern was that the budget laptops were complete POS's.
I like that Dell and will look at the Best Buy offerings.
posted
I've heard that it's possible to get a laptop that runs Linux at Walmart for around $100. One of these days I'll have to go in and see if that's really true. Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
Has there been a laptop specifically designed for writers? On my desktop I have a Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard that's the perfect mix between an ergonomic keyboard and a standard so it's comfortable and easy to use. It would be the perfect design for a laptop as it's flat and comfortable. A writer's dream. A nice selection of WPs would be nice too...
There's a big market for it, I'm sure. Writers love to write wherever they would like to and it's not always at their desk. Laptops are a good thing to have, but the keyboards are always just flat rectangles. Blegh.
posted
Yeah, an ergonomic keyboard is one feature I'd like to have on a laptop. I keyed easy on my first computer keyboard, the one that came with my first computer...then switched to a new computer with a new keyboard and found my hands and wrists started to ache really bad after a little while...then, after I started hanging here, I got an ergonomic keyboard and the aches went away. (I've got a lingering repetitive motion problem in one hand, from something I did at work involving keying almost twenty years ago now, that still aches from it.)
I haven't actually seen a laptop with an ergonomic keyboard, but am given to understand a few models exist.
[edited 'cause I forgot to put in that last paragraph]
[This message has been edited by Robert Nowall (edited December 06, 2007).]
The higher-end Dana model is actually about as fully featured as a Palm Pilot. These things are all the rave around NaNoWriMo. Cheap, run forever (Neo runs for 700 hours on 3 AA's) and near indestructable.
And HuntGod, as a rule, budget laptops are POS's. But that all depends on your perspective, essentially - they are underpowered and underspeced compared to new machines, and will not have the capability that a new fully decked out laptop or desktop will. But then again - you're writing, not editing HD video, so a POS should do just fine. Think about the Alphasmart, though.
Jayson Merryfield
[This message has been edited by Wolfe_boy (edited December 06, 2007).]
posted
Well for me they seemed overpriced for what they do. For a little more I can at least check my emails and look up stuff on the internet if I need to. The upside to them is the great runtime. Something isn't a PoS if it does what you need to do. What is a good value varies depending on what you're looking for.
[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited December 06, 2007).]
quote:I've heard that it's possible to get a laptop that runs Linux at Walmart for around $100. One of these days I'll have to go in and see if that's really true.
posted
I put together my own budget portable writing solution (I have a laptop, but it's HEAVY, and bulky, and a battery hog, and...)
I got a Palm Pilot z22 on clearance because it was open-stock (it had everything but the box.) It was maybe $75. It does not do email, but it does calendars and all the typical organizer things, and I can put freeware games on it that my kids can play when we're out and about waiting for something.
Then I got a Palm Pilot Infrared wireless keyboard on ebay for about $29.99 (I think they retail for 59.99, and there are bluetooth ones for 69+)
I couldn't find any definitive answer to whether the Palm z22 worked with the infrared keyboard (FYI - it does NOT work with the bluetooth one, this palm is not bluetooth enabled) but I found at least a few mentions, including one photo a writer took of writing with his palm and wireless keyboard, so I got it and took the risk.
It was a great $105 investment. I took that set EVERYWHERE in November. I wrote 1500 words during my son's 45 minute Tae Kwon Do class (everyone there was agape, "Is that a computer?" was the question I'd always get.) I wrote for 2 hours at Starbucks most days. I changed the wireless keyboard batteries once (2 AAs.) I would transfer my output to my laptop (but you could do this with a desktop as well) via USB cable every night, and then I had an automatic backup - one copy on the palm, one on the laptop.
I estimate at least 35k of my 53k nano project were written on the Palm.
Just another thought, though there are plenty of excellent ideas here in this thread.
Oh - one random benefit I found w/the palm. The small screen meant I could only see a few lines of text at a time. This kept my internal editor in the "off" position for the whole month. It also minimized distractions, no websites to look at or email to procrastinate with. Meant no research to do while out, but I wrote mostly in places without free wifi, so research would have been hard to do anyway.
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It also minimized distractions, no websites to look at or email to procrastinate with. Meant no research to do while out, but I wrote mostly in places without free wifi, so research would have been hard to do anyway.
