What's the best laptop for a teenager?

Question

A friend of mine (teenager...not a bussiness man) is looking for a laptop and he doesn't know which one to choose. Can you help?

Answer 1

VERY good question.

My answer will be part "consumer" based and the other part will be realistic:

Looking out for the consumer answer: ^_^'
1st thing to consider is the technical support/warranty that the distributor and/or dealer will provide to you. Since laptops on the whole are proprietary and need to be sent back to the manufacturer for hardware fixes, make sure that the build-in warranty offers a good exchange program or repair program - or at least offers/is reputed to have good phone support or what they call "dial-in"/remote access support. I know Dell and Toshiba are good at things like that.
2nd thing to consider is target usage. I'm assuming primarily for school on this first 1/2 of the answer. When you buy laptops, they usually come with either Microsoft Works Suite (a dummed-down version of MS Office that is usually looked down upon by the rest of the computing community when compared to Microsoft Office) or a TRIAL version of MS Office, usually the "Standard" edition. If you do not want to pay another $200 for the full MS Office version, then you may want to look for a laptop that comes bundled with this software.
3rd thing is Memory/Storage space. Most laptops now come with enough memory (amount of RAM) and storage space (hard disk/HDD space) to run programs like MSOffice and a type of internet browser, as well as have enough storage space to hold all of the SCHOOL WORK enough for 4 years (notice i didn't say more than 4 years because when you graduate, you should get a new laptop if not before - your laptop will be old by then and you don't want to enter college, for example, with the laptop your mommy and daddy bought you your freshman year...lol.).
4th thing to consider is if it has your WiFi/Wireless Internet connectivity built in. Not many people use dial-up anymore thank goodness, and most laptops have an Ethernet (wired) port already built in. So the two wireless technologies that you should look for are 1. Wi-Fi and 2. Bluetooth. The first being more important on the whole than the 2nd. Bluetooth in a laptop is cool for sure, but the ability to go to your friends' house (ahem, or library) and just hop on their wireless network is key.
5th, and smallest factor but something new that you may be interested in is that laptops can now be Lo-Jack'd, meaning if some other student steals your computer, you can activate the targeting system and get it BACK. Something that I wish I had when I was in high school... Nothing says "Gimme my stuff back you thieving SOB" than having it recovered by the police and getting whomever took it suspended or expelled.


Ok, my realistic answer, though the above is very realistic:
1st: I was serious about the warranty policy.
2nd: A student/teenager nowadays will not care if Microsoft Office is pre-installed on the laptop because honestly they will get a CD or download it from LimeWire anyway. So software... not a concern when purchasing a new laptop.
3rd: Dead serious about the memory/storage, but I'm going to add something else: Assuming costs are not TOO big of a constraint 1) Get one that has at least 512 MB to a full 1 GB of memory/RAM if not more. The more the merrier, especially since your teenager friend will probably be spending more time playing video games than doing schoolwork on it. (Uh uh, I did say I was going to be realistic.) As far as built-in storage space/the size of the hard drive, get it as big as possible while minimizing cost - find your happy medium. Mp3's, videos, video games, pictures, software - you name it - will take up space. Get a lot of HDD space!
4th: I was serious about the Wi-Fi. It's a good thing to have.
5th: Lo-Jacking your laptop is not only smart, it'll save some money later on if you thing it might get stolen. FAIR WARNING: Do not tell your friends or anyone your laptop is wired to be traced. Although these things are designed to go off if tampered with, I do not and will not underestimate the power of the young mind combined with things you can read off of the internet. You get ONE kid that wants your stuff bad enough - it's gone. It's better to have the stupid punk kid steal your laptop and get caught than the quiet computer-club geek you pissed off in grade school take it and make sure you never see it again.
6th: Sturdy notebooks are good... go to C|NET and look up their durability ratings. You WILL end up dropping it once or thrice, so the fewer times you need to send it back (see item 1) the better.
7th: Get one if possible with dedicated video memory and a fairly good Hardware Video Accellerator... i.e. a good graphics card. 128 megs of dedicated video memory with an nVidia or ATI Radeon Mobility card will do nicely.

So to sum it all up, get a laptop with a good service warranty (buy the extended one if you can - or have Mummy and Daddy do it)... make sure it has ample RAM and HDD space for all the stuff on it... software packages are not TOO big of a consideration (sorry SPA..) .. Wi-Fi is a must... "Lo-Jack" is good (it is probably called soemthing else, FYI)... sturdier=better for you... a good video card will take your experience a long way if you're a gamer. (Plus their friends will probably compare who's video memory is bigger anyway.... ^_^')

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What's the best laptop for a teenager?
A friend of mine (teenager...not a bussiness man) is looking for a laptop and he doesn't know which one to choose. Can you help?

Answer 3

Good Laptops For Teens

Answer 4

y, have plenty of memory, and it's the one i'm using right now! make sure it's not the big one though, unless you're gonna keep it in one place and not take it around. i use the medium one, and it's pretty easy to take around.

Answer 5

All laptops are good. However dell is having some problems right now and would not recommend using them. Call customer service. who ever you can get through to with out hassle is a good bet for a laptop computer.

Good luck

Answer 6

One in which the "battery" doesn't explode. In example, Dell or Apple. Sony's responsible for the batteries in these laptops.

Answer 7

You would choose a laptop based on what tasks you are going to do. A teenager may need a more expensive laptop than a business person if he is playing current games. If its just for school work just get a $500 dell.

Answer 8

Well, I'm not a teenager but I have a Dell Latitude 110L laptop. I've had it since October of 2005 and it is holding up quite nicely. I use it for school and personal use.
If your friend goes through Dell, he will have to build the type of laptop he wants(i.e. MS Office Suite(includes Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher) ; Norton Antivirus; optional A: drive; size of hard drive, etc.

Answer 9

I love Mac laptops but in Puerto Rico it would be very difficult to get one fixed if you had a problem. SO I tell me sons to stick with Dell. (OF course, although I have worked in multimedia and Internet for years, they know more than I do but they do follow that advice.)

Take into consideration what will happen if you have to get your computer fixed. In our case Dell is the best bet, but perhaps you could do well with a Mac which is much cooler and more versatile.

Answer 10

Toshiba satellite i got mine for about 300 dollars.

Answer 11

The Dell E1505 is a great laptop. I have one myself...its been rated as an editor's choice by multiple companies including pcmag.com...It's also, dell's most successful laptop and it is the most chosen by students. Also, it is a great buy because you get a lot for the price. You can get dual processors and everything that you can think of put in it and it will only cost you around 1000 dollars to 1200 dollars if you absoluetly load it.