Help me choose a laptop

[harley93w]

Well My dad decided that he wanted to get me a laptop for Christmas this year . So I started Looking and I have seen a couple, but I don't understand some of the techno mumbo jumbo that is in them. My necessary things would be:

Between 500-900 us dollars
write
play and edit music
emulation
fallout 3
picture editing
Misc. Entertainment
having enough memory
between a 13-15 in screen
Good battery life
and be able to last at least for 4 years +

 

[hang-the-9]

There is a big difference between a 500 and a 900 dollar laptop.

About lasting 4+ years, nothing is guaranteed, the thing could fry a day after warranty expires, but a laptop in the 900 dollar range will still be pretty powerful in several years.

Lenovo makes a very strurdy case and there is a special going on now for one of the home models

IdeaPad Y560p Laptop - 439724U - Black: Limited Time Offer
Price: $999.00*
Web Price:
$699.00*
You save:$300.00*

 

[harley93w]

Looks good, but what do you think of the samsung qx411-w01?

 

[hang-the-9]

Looks like video is not too good on that, and neither is the fact that the battery is sealed. Batteries tend to take a nose-dive in performance after a few years. It's a nice design though.

 

[jaguarskx]

The Samsung has a pretty weak video card; nVidia GT 525. Therefore, you will probably be disappoint by it performance in games. Also, be aware that playing games on a laptop is limited compared to a desktop PC because you generally cannot upgrade the video card for at least 98% of the laptop sold. That remaining 2% of laptops that can allow you to upgrade the video card are rather expensive. Google search Falcon Northwest as an example. Getting 4+ years of gaming is possible as long as you live with either low or medium quality graphics depending on the video card's performance and how demanding the game is.

The IdeaPad Y560p as suggested by hang-the-9 has a Radeon HD 6570M which is considered a moderate mid-range video card for laptops. Weak compared to it's desktop counterpart, but we are talking about a laptop here so you need to make sacrifices. It should do well in most games. However, it only has a Core i3 CPU compared to the Core i5 in the Samsung. But if gaming is the priority than you will get better performance with the Lenovo.

Here's a link to all Lenovo Y560p laptops:

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=11F9D0DAE522E3F69D3905B1E8A9C1A1

I ordered a 14" IdeaPad 470 last week. It is currently in the process of being shipped from China. I really hope they do not install the Chinese version of Windows 7 by accident. A 15.6" laptop was a bit too big and heavy for my preference. This particular model (085523U) is currently selling for $749 and come with a Core i5 and a nVidia GT 550M video card which is even faster than the Radeon HD 6570. I managed to snag this laptop for about $674 with a 10% discount (expired now); don't forget to add tax though.

Here's a link to the entire line of IdeaPad Y470:

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=DDF9ECA3EE7295319F81388519B2B09A

I'll probably play some games on my Y470, but I bought it 'cause I wanted a new toy to play around with. I got my desktop for games.

 

[jaguarskx]

The nVidia GT 550M is considered to be a "low end" performance level card. Laptop cards can basically be categorized as follows from fastest to slowest:

High Performance
Performance
Mid-Range
Value
Crap

 

[nebun]

if you really want a good laptop just get and apple mackbook pro and install windows on it via bootcamp....my macbook pro has been runing windows on it for about 2 year without any problems.....i like boot camp because there are some programs that work very well in OS x and others work better in Windows......if i were you i would use Windows as your main operating system and OS x for a back-up sys.....like i said never had any issues.....almost forgot to mention that the laptop is being used for at least 12 hours a day 7 days a week....and has been abused (she actually has stepped and jumped on the it a few times with the lid closed and the screen did not crack) by my 2 1/2 year old daughter and still works like new.....

 

[techguy9575]

I just bought a laptop for 450 last month and it works like a charm. It's a hp, 4 gigs of ddr3 ram, i3 processor(2.10 gigz) and the video card is more than decent for only 450. I play starcraft 2 on it with medium settings so it can't be too bad. Check it out here for more info http/best-desktop-reviews.blogspot.com/ .

 

[harley93w]

Well guys I still haven't decided, but I do plan on looking at the ones listed and also the sager np5160. well thanks again everybody.

 

[harley93w]

Best answer selected by harley93w.