Solved! $300-$400, Internet and Word Processing Laptop for College

[Salt-City_Slasher]

Well my sister decided to screw me over, and in a nutshell she is indian giving.

So pretty much I have(had) a Dell XPS M1210 which for Internet and Word Processing for College is very nice. It actually is better than most 12.1" and most netbooks.

Anyways I am looking for anything, but pretty much I am looking for something that is ultra portable, and has a long battery, and is maybe 300 or 400$.
My desktop is super decked out and is super fast and powerful, so I don't need that in a laptop, so things like dvd burning and photoshop isn't important on a laptop.

All I need is something I can take to school(5-10 minutes away) and maybe use in class( 1 at school, 3 online) and be able to go to the math lab and writing lab and use the internet to log in to class, and to write papers for english and political science and philosophy.

So I have looked though many netbooks and they all seem pretty decent for being intel atoms w/ion and what not.
So which netbook would you recommend, or laptop?

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

I forgot to add,
I don't mind if its windows starter, i would like 2gb, but 1 is ok. 8.9 or 12.1 screen it doesn't matter.
It doesn't have to be anything special but I would prefer it to have a nice keyboard, but don't care about the mouse pad.
So Good Keys, Price, and good internals is what I want.

 

[skaz]

Hello,

Depending on the actual amount of typing you plan on doing a netbook may or may not be the way to go. Keep in mind those keyboards are much smaller then on most normal size laptops. After a while a netbook keyboard can feel kind of cramped if you plan on typing for long amounts of time. But, this is really preference. I have big hands with long fingers so netbooks tend to feel much more cramped to me. On the plus size your going to get great battery life and portability out of a netbook.

As for the the laptop route. I'd recommend keeping an eye out on lower end toshiba laptops. For going on the internet and doing basic computer task really anything is going to work for you. I just feel that the lower end toshibas have a better build quality then some of the dells and gateways. keep in mind at your price range your not going to find great battery life unfortunately. You'll find mostly ratings between 3-5 hours and realistically only get a couple hours out of them =(. Plus side to the laptop is the full size keyboard =).

I like the hp mini netbook and the asus eee netbooks. you can find them in your price range. And for the laptop I'd say toshiba. Make sure you take a trip to your local electronic store and test out the "feeling" of the netbooks if you plan on buying online.

Good luck to you.

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

I have started listing processors and there ranks according to cpubenchmark.net, and have put down my current XPS m1210 specs, and comparing them.
I also have been writing down the GPU's and comparing them and ranking them based off of the notebookcheck.net.

So pretty much I have these:
Inspirion 15 for 391$ w/ pentium t4500 and 4500mHD graphics 2gb(1333) and 250gb 5400

Then a few hp'S:
g62M for 439$ w/ celeron T3300 and 4500m graphics, 3gb(uncertain if 1333) and 250gb 7200


Then I have a long list of possilbe netbooks, pretty much its like this:

around 300$=Lower CPU, 1gb, 10.1 screen, windows starter and 150-250gb HD 5400rpm
around 400$=higher atoms/neos, 2gb, sometimes windows home, up to 320gb 5400rpm
Upper 400$=Hige atoms, and lower regular cpus, up to 4gb, windows home, and upto 500gb

Then around 500$ were talking about something like the:
G62x for 512$ w/ i3-350, intel graphics HD, 4gb ddr3 and 500gb or
Gg2t for 512$ w/Pentium P6100, 5470 GPU, 4gb ddr3 and 250gb and both 5.5 hours rated battery

 

[stingstang]

You should go for an integrated graphics card for extended battery life. That's what I have now, and I'm getting a good 1.5-2 more hours of use out of it compared to other laptops.

 

[jaguarskx]

I think a netbook is the way to go, however, I recommend you go to a store and actually try one out by typing on it. If it doesn't feel too cramp then I see no reason not to go for a netbook. If it does feel cramped then a small 12" or 13" notebook might be good.

I've tried typing on a netbook and I found it was a bit too cramped for me.

 

[WR2]

I'm with jaguarskx on checking before buying a 'Netbook. I could never use a 10" model for extended periods or serious work. I'd only consider one to supplement a full sized laptop/notebook or desktop system.
The 12" 'Netbooks or 13" sub-notebooks start to be something you can think about as a stand-alone computer.
Any resolution below 1366x768 or 1280x800 would be a non-starter for me.
A 'Netbook with single or dual core Atom and 1GB RAM is not suitable for multi-tasking with standard educational or office suite type applications. Like using MS Word and MS Powerpoint together. With 2GB RAM and a dual core Atom you can multi-task (a bit) but you'll probably tear your hair out in frustration with all the waiting.

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

Well, its one of those things were, if I am going to spend 300, I might as well drop 400 and same to 500$, to get something worth while.
The Intel HD Graphics and 4500M and 4500MHD are both good for basic stuff, but the 5470 or what ever seems to make it more of a laptop.

Well here is the real deal, I got about 892$ which I could spend all on a laptop, but there are several things I would like to get for my desktop build, such as ssd, extra space, higher gb, 2nd graphics card, fan controller, UPS, fans and so on.

My plan was to keep my current laptop and go ahead with upgrading its battery and spending the rest on my desktop.
But my sister decided to be an Indian giver, with the laptop she gave me over 2 years ago, so now it is out of my custody. She says she is going to give another 200$ for a laptop, but its like a 50/50 chance cause she is always broke.


So, In school for the most part, i do all my work on my desktop, cause I usually do 50%+ online but trendly 75%.
So I didn't really use the laptop a lot, but then I ended up getting lower grades than I wanted and almost risked my
probation and almost lost FA and scholarships, so I want to spend more time in the writing center and math labs.

WITHOUT LAPTOP:
WIth writing labs, I could go to the computer rooms, same building, type stuff up(if needed) and take it to the writing center, and do revision by hand and write down key elements to revise later at home.

Math online, is very cool with a lot of helpers like videos and animations, and I can keep trying the question a thousand times till I get it right. But there is the option to print out the questions, which I could take to the math lab, and get help working on them. Or I could just do the work at home, and take questions I have a hard time with, and get help.

WITH LAPTOP:
However, being able to write in the writing lab on MS word and getting live help to make it better would be nice.
and the same goes to math, that way someone could help me with the questions and we could work on them and so on.

But 400-500$ could get me a decent laptop, but then that leaves me like 400$ for upgrades, which is a 2nd monitor and a SSD.
So I am thinking, either I go big and get a XPS 15 w/backlit keys and cool stuff for 904$, or not get a laptop at all!

 

[skaz]

Well, its one of those things were, if I am going to spend 300, I might as well drop 400 and same to 500$, to get something worth while.
The Intel HD Graphics and 4500M and 4500MHD are both good for basic stuff, but the 5470 or what ever seems to make it more of a laptop.

Well here is the real deal, I got about 892$ which I could spend all on a laptop, but there are several things I would like to get for my desktop build, such as ssd, extra space, higher gb, 2nd graphics card, fan controller, UPS, fans and so on.

My plan was to keep my current laptop and go ahead with upgrading its battery and spending the rest on my desktop.
But my sister decided to be an Indian giver, with the laptop she gave me over 2 years ago, so now it is out of my custody. She says she is going to give another 200$ for a laptop, but its like a 50/50 chance cause she is always broke.


So, In school for the most part, i do all my work on my desktop, cause I usually do 50%+ online but trendly 75%.
So I didn't really use the laptop a lot, but then I ended up getting lower grades than I wanted and almost risked my
probation and almost lost FA and scholarships, so I want to spend more time in the writing center and math labs.

WITHOUT LAPTOP:
WIth writing labs, I could go to the computer rooms, same building, type stuff up(if needed) and take it to the writing center, and do revision by hand and write down key elements to revise later at home.

Math online, is very cool with a lot of helpers like videos and animations, and I can keep trying the question a thousand times till I get it right. But there is the option to print out the questions, which I could take to the math lab, and get help working on them. Or I could just do the work at home, and take questions I have a hard time with, and get help.

WITH LAPTOP:
However, being able to write in the writing lab on MS word and getting live help to make it better would be nice.
and the same goes to math, that way someone could help me with the questions and we could work on them and so on.

But 400-500$ could get me a decent laptop, but then that leaves me like 400$ for upgrades, which is a 2nd monitor and a SSD.
So I am thinking, either I go big and get a XPS 15 w/backlit keys and cool stuff for 904$, or not get a laptop at all!

Okay now that the real deal is out of the bag =). You could check out the Asus UL30 laptops, and toshibas portege r705. Not sure if I can post links. But a quick amazon search will bring up specs.

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

Asus has nice laptops, the UL, are there "Ultra Portable" models that usually get very good battery time.
I haven't really seen any of the Protege, mainly the satellites.

Yeah I will check them out, I just want one of them easy buttons, that can see into future and see what would be best! lol