Wife is shopping for a new laptop...

[jfreels]

you might look at some of the netbooks. They are smaller less expensive and are great for the average web surfer and Facebook player.

She wants something with a very big screen. A netbook would be perfect for what she wants to do, in fact I was trying to talk her into an iPad. She wants an iPad for my netbook replacement, but I won't get one for myself until the new one comes out in April.

If compromises are possible I've seen a Toshiba at BB that's a 17" with 4gb Ram and 500gb storage for $600. No Blu Ray and no backlit keyboard.
They also have a Dell with a 17" and 640gb storage 6gb memory and i5 processor and Blu ray along with 4G Wimax capabilities for $880 which is pretty good considering specs.

I'm sure we'll have another look at BB. Pretty sure we saw that Toshiba. I wish she didn't have these silly requirements. After talking with her yesterday, she's pretty much made up her mind on the Toshiba and Asus models linked above. Any advice on Gateway that you can give me?

Thankfully, we're waiting until after the holidays to make this purchase so we have a little time. Hopefully we'll be able to catch a sale too.

[waltah!]

As for Gateway, my gf uses a Gateway laptop and has had zero issues with it in everyday use. I will say that the battery was pretty useless after about 6 months, but it doesn't travel so it's not a big deal. By useless I mean it lasts about 25 min. Performance wise other than the battery it's been solid with no hardware or software issues.
The Toshiba you listed is sweet, but after playing with one it weighs as much as a Honda. lol
The speakers are pretty awesome on those for video playback and stuff so if she wants one that large it's a solid choice.

[onna_shinigami]

I know Toshiba laptops are in the top 3 of quality laptops that hardly have any issues. The Gateway we had, kept killing the motherboard plug to charge after the 2nd time we said screw it and switched to the Toshiba 17in full keyboard, haven't had an issue out of it yet.

[Swingline0.0.1]

I know Toshiba laptops are in the top 3 of quality laptops that hardly have any issues. The Gateway we had, kept killing the motherboard plug to charge after the 2nd time we said screw it and switched to the Toshiba 17in full keyboard, haven't had an issue out of it yet.

Make sure with Toshiba you do not get one of the models with wireless card issues. I get lots of calls of people having problems. Don't get me wrong, my laptop is a Toshiba. Gateway is just junk.

[piper]

IMO, Toshiba laptops overheat and shutoff.. I have had one in the past and I know a lot of people who have them, and they simply overheat and turn off. These were lower end models.. But I think the newer higher priced models are the absolute ugliest computers I have ever seen. Big shiny plastic everywhere.. Your wife may want a blu-ray player, if that's the case, I would go with Sony Vaio. They are priced a little higher, but I previously had one with a blu-ray player(which ended up being used twice) and I really liked the Vaio to be honest. I now have a macbook pro, but I never had a problem with the Vaio I had. I wouldn't say gateway is a lower end model, it's just not popular. I know a few years ago I knew some people that had one, that's not the case now though.. but between all of the big names out there now, I don't know how they are keeping their heads above water! I have had most of the big brands of computers.. HP, Dell, Vaio, Toshiba, Apple.. I would seriously consider a Vaio. Haven't heard much about the Asus computer, so I'm just basing it on what I have had and what I personally thought was the best.
Thanks

[jfreels]

A Vaio isn't an option. I had a Vaio before my Alienware and the Vaio just sucked. This was right before Vista came out and they gave me a free upgrade. When I got my upgrade disk and upgraded, some drivers were not supported yet. I also had the DVD drive go out. I sent it in under warranty, they ended up giving me a new drive and mobo. Two months later the drive went out again and sent it in and they mysteriously replaced my HD. I raised hell about that because there was nothing wrong with the HD and I had to reinstall all my crap again. The wost of it was my VMs which I don't back up. Anyway, I got it back and again the drive went out after it was out of warranty. I sold that to a college student for a couple bills and got the Alienware.

The Alienware was awesome, except for the weight. I ended up selling that and getting a Toshiba. I sold the Toshiba last year and have been doing all my development on a Dell Precision with the Intel Zeon in it. The more and more I am looking into the i7 laptops, the more I want to get one for myself. It would be nice to work where ever I want again. Maybe I'll do that this afternoon. Lol, wife will love that.

[Camarokidz28]

As far as the Bluray, tell her you'll buy a seperate blu ray player for the house and buy yourself a PS3 lol.

[jfreels]

We already have a blu-ray player in our bedroom as well as a PS3 in the living room. That's why she wants the blu-ray in her laptop, because she (we) have invested so much into the movies, unfortunately.

[Swingline0.0.1]

Please remember, if you have not used win7 before, when you do get a new pc, several things are not compatible with win7. Make sure that your printer is not incompatible, not all things can have drivers d/l. Oh, and no win7 pc comes with a full version of Microsoft office, so make sure you plan to buy it if you want more than a trial version.

[jfreels]

I have been using Win 7 before it even came out. I had driver issues with my ATI cards and couldn't run some of my old favorite games, but never had a problem with software that wasn't really old. I find the compatibility modes to be very nice in Win 7. Still can't play Total Annihilation though on my netbook but that's because of the Intel GMA video driver.


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