What is the best Brand of Laptop for a college student?

Question

I am into Music, Photos, Photo editing, and use iTunes alot.... On top of school work and not wanting a slow computer! What Brand would work the best?

Answer 1

I love Dell- so far, we have 5 Dell's and never a problem. We have had so many because my two daughters needed them for college. My youngest went to Penn state u and she was clueless when she got infected with a virus - their tech support was great with her- they talked her through and they fixed her problem! You can't beat their prices, you order directly online or on the phone and January is the best month to purchase computers because the new models come out and you will get the best buy on them now--- I think my Sunday paper just quoted a notebook for $649!

Answer 2

If you're into photos and editing, definitely go Mac. It's a little more expensive, but you're really paying for quality. I had an iBook in high school (the old clamshell colorful kind), and figured it was old and useless at school. Freshman year I bought a Dell and it crashed right after the warranty ran out my sophomore year right in the middle of finals. It ran slow because of all my music and pictures, etc. The hard drive was totally wiped and would have to be replaced ($300+). I had about 3 other friends who had Dells lose their computers around the same time...Anyway, so instead of replacing the hard drive and dealing with it all again, I just added memory and whatnot to the old iBook and it has never given me any problems (which is remarkable as its 6 year old computer). It's still completely functional. I just recently bought a new MacBookPro because I'm graduating in may and just wanted an update - it's an unbelievable computer. I also do a lot of PhotoShop stuff and it all is better on Mac (it's all we used in my one class). iPhoto & iTunes are cake on any new mac. Also, because of system stuff, the Mac OS rarely is exposed to viruses/pop-ups/etc. All in all, it'll be a fine machine, great for college & after.

Answer 3

It ultimately only depends on how much money you are willing to spend. I purchased a customized Toshiba Satellite A100 with 2.0 GHz Pentium core duo, 2 GB ram, 100 GB HDD, DVD multifunction drive, premium harman kardon sound, and a bunch of minor extras. The total cost of the laptop alone was around $2000 and so far it was money well spent.

The Toshiba A105 is the same except its mass produced with much less to offer.

My second option I was pursuing was an apple laptop, which would have been my first apple computer. The only reason I didn't get one is because they were in the middle of changing which processor they now use in all their laptops. Not all the bugs get worked out immediately in those situations and a lot of its stuff isn't fully compatible with my ample supply of existing windows software.

If you are into photo editing you should pursue a laptop that has two HDDs so that your scratch or swap drive can be independent of the OS drive where your editing software is working off of. Also, get at least 1GB of Ram and the fastest HDD rotation speed available (7200 vs 5?00 rpm).

My suggestion is not to go with a compaq since it features inferior components.

Answer 4

Go for a Dell with a dual core processor. They are probably the most affordable.

By the way ( I can't help myself) :
The "Music, Photos, Photo editing, and use iTunes" are what will bump up the cost of the PC .... not the "student" part.

regards,
Philip T

Answer 5

Maybe not somuch as brand but OS(Operating system). Anything that runs windows vista is going to have alot of speed. If you get one with Home premium or VIsta Ultimate it has Media center on it wich is great for music and showing off pics. If your still thinking brand I probably go with a toshiba. They had a comercial for one with a fingerprint scanner for extra security.Just make sure it has more than 2 gigs of ram and a dual core proccesor with at least a 100 gig harddrive.

PS Vista doesn't come out for consumers till Januarry 30th but most computer companies are offering a free upgrade for when it does come out if your in a hurry to buy your new computer.

Answer 6

you could not bypass incorrect with an HP. I surely have been using them for the previous 3-4 years in the two laptops and computers. they are low priced and furnish mind-blowing products. you could personalize your individual on their web site and get in basic terms the additions you have an activity in. it somewhat is obtainable as with every computing products which you will run into some issues. even however, their shopper provider is great and that they pays for transport in case you should deliver on your workstation for maintenance interior the 1st 12 months. circumvent Compaq, even however, which HP now owns. they are like the low-end, "low priced" branch of HP, however the products are very unreliable and spoil frequently. I observed a guideline for Dells too. I hear they have been getting way better presently, truly the XPS, yet this is in all probability no longer on your funds. My adventure with Dell laptops is they have all been lemons. we've had approximately 3 in my kin. So my suggestion is unquestionably HP. satisfied procuring!

Answer 7

The brand and performance will all depend on your budget. But I highly recommend getting a tablet pc instead. It's just like a laptop but you can actually write on the screen with a stylus. It's great for taking notes or recording lectures so you never have to deal with a paper notebook again. You should look into it.

Answer 8

There are so many differnt brands and manufacturers out there it is hard to really label them all. I myself am and AMD person, so of course I would look for one of those. I am also an HP person. What you really need to look for is Plenty of RAM - no less than 1GB, a good graphics card, hopefully one with dedicated RAM (at least 128MB), and at least a 120GB hard drive because you can always by a portable to expand your storage capabilities. I have a HP, AMD Turion X2 2.0GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 256MB Ded. Video card and 120GB hard drive and it will do ANYTHING I want - including playing some pretty graphic intensive games. Hope this helps...

Answer 9

I use Dell and Compaq. No complain whatsoever. You may wish to try. Actually it depends on the type of configuration you have and the softwares you use - nothing to do with the brand.

Answer 10

if ur willing to shell out a bit more go for the MAC. it's great for ur multimedia stuff and it's fast amongst its competitors. it's very easy to use.

btw...i'm a PC user and own a DELL but also have used MAC for 7 years