Tony
I think that I would want a touch screen laptop, but is it needed? I don't play games, but for Windows 8 it seems like I would need it. Also, is hp a good quality laptop company?
Answer
All laptops or desktops have the pretty much the same CPU, GPU, ram, hard drive and screen. Most people do not know that the brand of the hard drive can make all the differences in the world. Intel and AMD make the best CPU. AMD and Nividia make the best GPU. What makes a good laptop or desktop is the manufacturing process and the sub components used in them. After that is the software included with them. Some manufactures modify Windows and the drivers severely and cripple the system into being locked to them. Some manufactures so load the system up with bloat software that it takes an hour or more just to get it off the hard drive. You will find those who do not know much about PC and laptops claiming brand do not matter. That they all have the same components in them. The brands makes all the difference. It would be like saying the brand of car, or television does not matter.
As far as touch screen on a laptop is a waste of money. Touch screens on a smart phone or other small devices make since, but on a laptop, desktop is not a wise choice. There are after market software that makes Windows 8 bearable. If you want you can upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro and ask M$ for downgrades rights to Windows 7. You will need to know someone who can make it work.
Two HP that can be customized to what you need
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C9W57AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-ENVY-15z-j000-Notebook-PC Starting at $530
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/D1H55AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-Pavilion-17z-e000-Notebook-PC Starting at $450 Your choice of 4 colors
These are not customizable
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2K91UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-Sleekbook-6-1110us
HP SleekBook AMD Quad-Core A8-4555M APU AMD Radeon HD 7600G 4 GB DDR3 500 GB SATA (5400 rpm) $700
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2N66UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-dv7-7230us-Notebook-PC
17" DV7-7230US laptop AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M APU AMD
Brand buying advice
You get what you pay for. Systems with high end parts with low prices are to be viewed with suspicion. They have to cut corners somewhere to get the price down.
Apple makes a good quality laptop. The problem comes when it requires service or minor upgrades. It is near impossible to do anything with them. They even glue the battery and hard drive down so you can not change it. They solder the ram to the logic board so you can not increase it. They lock up most of the software so your stuck with what they approve.
Lenovo has serious stand behind their product problems. They bought IBM PC division and proceeded to drive the quality of the system into the ground. Their customer service is well below par. They even makes Dell customer service look good. The last and final thing to remember about them is they are a Chinese Government own company. It is up to you if you want to trust them.
Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony should be avoided because of their heavy modification of Windows and the drivers. If you remove some of the bloat they install, you can cripple the system.
Acer, Gateway, and eMachines should be avoided period. Low end system that are driving the race to the bottom.
Dell once made a good system and fell from grace. They are now struggling to regain their place in the market. Customer service is one of many problems with this company.
Alienware are glorified Dells and are more name then product. Priced extremely high for what you get. They do perform but you can get the same for less by looking around, just not packaged to be eye candy to the gamers.
Samsung has a history of using cheap parts in critical areas. Capacitors has been one area Samsung has a known history of going cheap, causing units to fail early. For that reason I would avoid them.
ASUS and HP do not modify Windows as bad as the other manufacturers. They have excellent build quality. They might add a lot of bloat but they also makes it easy to get rid of it.
Choose wisely.
All laptops or desktops have the pretty much the same CPU, GPU, ram, hard drive and screen. Most people do not know that the brand of the hard drive can make all the differences in the world. Intel and AMD make the best CPU. AMD and Nividia make the best GPU. What makes a good laptop or desktop is the manufacturing process and the sub components used in them. After that is the software included with them. Some manufactures modify Windows and the drivers severely and cripple the system into being locked to them. Some manufactures so load the system up with bloat software that it takes an hour or more just to get it off the hard drive. You will find those who do not know much about PC and laptops claiming brand do not matter. That they all have the same components in them. The brands makes all the difference. It would be like saying the brand of car, or television does not matter.
As far as touch screen on a laptop is a waste of money. Touch screens on a smart phone or other small devices make since, but on a laptop, desktop is not a wise choice. There are after market software that makes Windows 8 bearable. If you want you can upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro and ask M$ for downgrades rights to Windows 7. You will need to know someone who can make it work.
Two HP that can be customized to what you need
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C9W57AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-ENVY-15z-j000-Notebook-PC Starting at $530
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/D1H55AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000fb8mNv9y;sid=NID2W1inOb6JXwkRbh2qz4GoAJwzDmy78dUe8LW2AJwzDtPc7Kuhl6jI?HP-Pavilion-17z-e000-Notebook-PC Starting at $450 Your choice of 4 colors
These are not customizable
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2K91UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-Sleekbook-6-1110us
HP SleekBook AMD Quad-Core A8-4555M APU AMD Radeon HD 7600G 4 GB DDR3 500 GB SATA (5400 rpm) $700
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2N66UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-dv7-7230us-Notebook-PC
17" DV7-7230US laptop AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M APU AMD
Brand buying advice
You get what you pay for. Systems with high end parts with low prices are to be viewed with suspicion. They have to cut corners somewhere to get the price down.
Apple makes a good quality laptop. The problem comes when it requires service or minor upgrades. It is near impossible to do anything with them. They even glue the battery and hard drive down so you can not change it. They solder the ram to the logic board so you can not increase it. They lock up most of the software so your stuck with what they approve.
Lenovo has serious stand behind their product problems. They bought IBM PC division and proceeded to drive the quality of the system into the ground. Their customer service is well below par. They even makes Dell customer service look good. The last and final thing to remember about them is they are a Chinese Government own company. It is up to you if you want to trust them.
Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony should be avoided because of their heavy modification of Windows and the drivers. If you remove some of the bloat they install, you can cripple the system.
Acer, Gateway, and eMachines should be avoided period. Low end system that are driving the race to the bottom.
Dell once made a good system and fell from grace. They are now struggling to regain their place in the market. Customer service is one of many problems with this company.
Alienware are glorified Dells and are more name then product. Priced extremely high for what you get. They do perform but you can get the same for less by looking around, just not packaged to be eye candy to the gamers.
Samsung has a history of using cheap parts in critical areas. Capacitors has been one area Samsung has a known history of going cheap, causing units to fail early. For that reason I would avoid them.
ASUS and HP do not modify Windows as bad as the other manufacturers. They have excellent build quality. They might add a lot of bloat but they also makes it easy to get rid of it.
Choose wisely.
Asus, Lenovo, or Toshiba laptop for college?
Johnathan
I am going off to college next year and will be getting a new laptop. I will primarily be using it for homework, streaming movies and shows, web browsing, email, etc...I also play games once in awhile, but not to the point where I absolutely cannot live with out a dedicated graphics card found in the lenovo. I am deciding between:
An Asus U56E
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+15.6%22+Laptop+-+6GB+Memory+-+750GB+Hard+Drive+-+Platinum/4566353.p?skuId=4566353&productCategoryId=pcmcat247400050000&id=1218492344573
A Lenovo Z570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246327
Or a Toshiba p755
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+15.6%22+Satellite+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+750GB+Hard+Drive+-+Platinum/4693106.p?skuId=4693106&productCategoryId=pcmcat247400050000&id=1218509073324
They all got good reviews from reputable brands. And they all fall into my budget. I just need help deciding
Answer
Id wait a week or 2 for the Ivy Bridge laptops to come out. Their on die video chip potential is 50% or so better than Sandy Bridge and will theoretically play newer games on low settings with just the on die graphics
Otherwise, Id just go for the Toshiba, but thats just me. The 2670QM is a much better processor, and playing games is better on a desktop anyways
There is a Lenovo on Newegg with an i7 2670QM and a Nvidia 555m GT for around $775-800 though which would be better than both
Id wait a week or 2 for the Ivy Bridge laptops to come out. Their on die video chip potential is 50% or so better than Sandy Bridge and will theoretically play newer games on low settings with just the on die graphics
Otherwise, Id just go for the Toshiba, but thats just me. The 2670QM is a much better processor, and playing games is better on a desktop anyways
There is a Lenovo on Newegg with an i7 2670QM and a Nvidia 555m GT for around $775-800 though which would be better than both
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