First you should consider what type of laptop you would like. Is it going to be for daily carry around? or you would like one that is fairly powerful and sturdy but not going to be lugging around.
If you want thin and light so you can carry around to do projects, watch occasional videos, or write reports, look for major brand names such as HP, Dell, Acer, or Asus. have a look out for their 12'', 13.3/13.1'' or 14.1'' laptops. Their weight ranges between light 4 lbs to 5lbs. The screen size are ample and often enough to complete tasks.
On the processor note: you might want to look for an Intel core 2 duo or AMD Turion X2 processors. These are the main stream processors and will handle pretty much all tasks you throw at them. Intel processors are on the more expensive side so if you want to save some money going AMD may be a good choice. Their speed are roughly the same just look out for the ghz part. On the ram side, you should get at least 2 gb for windows vista and it'll be fine. Some laptops come with discrete graphics card so you can play high definition movies (blu-ray). Its not necessary, but great addition if you play games (does tend to draw more battery power).
If you have money to spend and want a great laptop that'll last you long, consider Sony, or Apple (if you like mac). These are more expensive but their laptops are built sturdy, stylish, and durable. They offer great internal specs for these laptops and you shouldn't need to worry too much about them.
For these laptops (PC only) they do have these things called docks. HP has one universal dock for all their laptops, and sony has a different dock for every single one of their laptops. These docks allows you to plug an external monitor, power, internet lan all in one ... dock. So you do not need to unplug and replug a few gazillion plugs everytime. You just do it once and everythings connected or disconnected. Very convenient.
For big laptops, consider 15'' to 17''. They offer a huge wide screen and they offer more usb ports and "usually" more powerful specs that allow you to do more. Though cheap ones will still be poor on the performance side, but if you spend around 800+, you will have a fairly good pc.
On the side note. My personal pc experience buying HP has been rather poor. I bought 6 laptops (myself and my sisters) and I had 3 of them had major problems (motherboard frying, graphics card melted, monitor broke). Although the ones that had problem were the ones that I customed ordered from HP online store, I think the ones you buy from store may have better quality.
The deal with Mac and PC. If you like Mac, go with a mac. If you like PC go with a PC. They do the same thing. PCs often come cheaper as they have more selection. However if you find a comparable PC laptop to an Apple laptop, their price tend to be similiar as Apple's laptop have really high end processors, graphics cards and memory inside. About the operating system, Windows allows wider possibility just because more software are for windows as compared to mac based softwares. Most major softwares you may need however should have both versions available for use. Regarding the virus misconception, yes at one point in time PCs do get a lot of virus (because guys like to surf pr0n websites a lot j/k). With Vista however, you are likely to not get a single one throughout the life of the laptop. Also with the "apple can never get virus claim", that is completely false as Apples do have apple's virus and with the lack of antivirus softwares, mac computers do tend to get infected and go unnoticed. But again, people in general with safe browsing habbits (not visit some questionable site like
www.ihax0r.you.cr.blah blah (random example), you are likely to have a virus-free computer without question.
To the more pertinent aspect of both of these operating systems, both have their faults and both have their pluses. Which ever you are more comfortable should be your main choice. Switching to use either is not hard, but may be uncomfortable and an annoying process.
So, go out, look for a hot and sexy laptop that fits your purpose and budget. If you are going pc, i'd wait to get the new microsoft operating system Windows 7 thats coming out supposely in July. It is really awesome.
🙂 🙂
