Laptop Advice

[tugrik]

I've not researched or bought a windows laptop in, oh, 4 years or more. I've no idea what good prices are or what to look for.

My dad needs a computer upgrade pretty bad, and a laptop wouldn't be a terrible idea as long as it has a full keyboard + numeric keypad (he hates keyboards without them). So that means if I were to get him one sometime, it'd have to be a 17".

Today on W00t they're selling a 17" refurb HP for $550. Is that a good deal? And more importantly, is that a good parental laptop? He'd just use it for email/web, basic word processing, and all those little Popcap-style games he loves.

Being w00t, if it was a good deal I'd have to move on it soon. If not, I'd just have to build him a desktop instead later on this summer.

Comments

[tug-the-dragon.livejournal.com]

When I was working at office depot I would have sold something like that too Parents and Freshmen.

[cjthomas.livejournal.com]

I'd worry about battery life on a refurbished laptop, but that's about the extent of the advice I can offer =^.^=.

New notebooks I've been looking at are in the $500 Cdn range, but I'm going for ones that are 15" and smaller. New desktops are $200-$300 for a "bare bones" system that's still better than just about anything else I have. Your mileage may vary =^.^=.

-Deuce

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

I absolutely HATE my HP laptop. It has Vista (ptooie) and it keeps turning itself on whenever it feel like it. And when you turn it off, sometimes it just hangs and restarts itself half an hour later. So you can shut your computer off to cold iron, get on the plane, pull out your laptop so you can watch a movie, and find it stone cold dead.

I prefer Dell and IBM laptops, and if this is for the non computer literate, get the extended warranty. The wife spilled wine on her Dell and we had it back, fixed like new, in less than 5 days. This versus HP that wouldn't give me a real Vista DVD so I could repair a damaged MBR and believes that reformatting and reinstalling everything is the answer to every computer problem, no matter how big or how small.

[sakuranym-kit.livejournal.com]

The HP desktop I just got myself this past December is really great, and I love it, no problems so far! Though Vista can be a real pain in the ass at times.

I've had my Dell laptop for 4+ years and abused the hell out of it, and it still works. Though most of my friends got the same model laptop I did and I think mine is the only one still going...so who knows ^_^;

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

HP laptops are extremely hit-and-miss. Given that this one's on woot as a refurb, I'd give it a miss.

[nemetfox.livejournal.com]

I would get this for myself, for sure.
If my reply would not be far too late to actually order one, I'd recommend jumping on it.

[kiohl.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer Dell myself. No one I know personally has had any problems with their HP, but I've heard things about them. ;) Also, Vista sucks. :P

$550 isn't bad for a laptop though. Still, desktops are cheaper.

[ralesk.livejournal.com]

MSI have an obsession of putting full keyboards on 15.4″ and above, I’d be wary of them though: the punctuation keys are squished and the shift & arrows region cluttered. NEC also make similar keyboards, but they chose to make the right shift almost as short as a regular key.

Dell have some 17″ machines with full keyboards, you may want to look into those — they also put the left Ctrl key on the outside (and Fn on the inside) which is very handy for people used to normal keyboards. I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 (15.4″, normal laptop keyboard, no squeezed keys, there is even a gap between return and the home-pgup-pgdn keys) and I really like it — it’s been very reliable in the last 4–5 months, here’s for hoping it’ll continue doing that. Dell also tend to give 3 years warranty by default, which is a really nice thing to have, especially compared to how much you have to pay for warranty extensions by other brands. My only grief with this thing is that the labels are already getting worn on my keycaps and there appears to be some wear on the case where only the display’s frame could ever touch it, so no idea what’s actually causing it. Windows 7 flies on this thing like a charm, Vista was fine, although took a while to get all the hardware installed.

[the-resa.livejournal.com]

My Desktop XP does that. On occasion, I just pull out the power plug to make sure it's off.

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

I've heard through the Consumerist that HP's tech support is not worth it. Their main site also makes pulling full specs out like performing a root canal on a hungry bear.

I'd go with Dell instead.

[bluedeer.livejournal.com]

There's definitely a gamut of decent laptops all over the place these days, many of which have some really high powered features but aren't really necessary for everyday computing. I'd recommend taking him to Best Buy and looking around at the units there and see if there's any he might happen to really like, for the price. Then, using that you can either see about getting him that one, or the refurb, though you can probably buy a new one with a warranty for the same price that would be more current. Otherwise, buying a Windows Laptop is almost the same as buying a Mac Laptop these days, except that if something goes wrong, they're easier to fix and tend to be cheaper for comperable components.

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good deal to me! I have a Dell refurb Studio 17 with an HD3650 in it that cost more.

[kistaro]

Go into Advanced Power Settings and make sure "wake for scheduled events" is off for your preferred power plan. That should stop all the unexpected booting behavior, even if it is a pile of HP.

[thewerewolf.livejournal.com]

As a rule, please don't get refurbs. You can generally get new ones almost as cheaply and they won't have gone through the kind of hell PC users tend to put their laptops through.

Does he really need 17" just for those things?

[darkwolven.livejournal.com]

$550 is a fair price. You can get new ones cheaper, but they are very stripped down, so it depends on what is actually IN this one as for memory, hard drive size, CD/DVD burner, etc. You can get really nice ones like that on sale NEW for around that price. Be sure to check out Best Buy. I know what I worked at Staples a few years ago you could get fairly decent new ones at around that price when good sales were running. Be patient and keep your eyes open.