Tips for buying a laptop?

[devlina2u]

I plan to buy a laptop soon but I have never bought one or researced about it. Can someone give me tips on what I should look for when I buy one and any other suggestions are more than welcome Thanks

[LocaChica]

just buy any one you want, mail it to me and I'll let you know what I think.

muahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[sydnie]

Originally posted by devlina2u
I plan to buy a laptop soon but I have never bought one or researced about it. Can someone give me tips on what I should look for when I buy one and any other suggestions are more than welcome Thanks

First you need to know (figure out) what you are going to do with the laptop. Do you travel a lot, so are concerned about best battery life and lightest weight/smallest profile? Are you a gamer and need great graphics/sound? Do you burn a lot of CDs or want to watch DVD movies? Will this laptop be networked to other computers in your household?

Or, like a lot of us, do you just do basic word processing, use CDs but don't create them, want to do Web surfing through a dial-up connection, maybe make some simple graphics for birthday cards etc. All this information determines what kind of laptop is best for you.

Here's a link that may help:

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It's an interactive laptop buying guide -- you answer some questions about your usage needs and they list models which fit the bill. That ZDNet site has lots of good information, reviews, pricing, etc.

When you decide which model(s) to shop for, shop around online. When I bought my Toshiba, I was able to find the lowest price online from a company that offers Ebates -- so I got another $50 back after purchase. But sometimes you'll find lowest price from a company that's not part of any reward program, so you need to decide if paying XX more is worth the reward points you'll get.