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I am considering moving to a laptop. I really do not game and mainly use my computer for office work, email, movies, and business. I currently have a shuttle and thinking about putting this one on the living room TV. I already have a second shuttle on the game room tv.

Well ... what is a good laptop with a reasonable screen size. I currently have a 20" widescreen on the desktop. I would like for the computer to be fast and have plenty of ram. I do play with family photos often.

I am thinking about the laptop for mobility. We moved into a new house and I would like to be able to work on office and quicken at the dinning table when I need to spread out. I need a good keyboard for fast typing.

I would like to stay under $1,000 other then that ... what do you guys suggest??

thanks,

I found an Asus N53JQ that seems to have good specs for $800

How about the Dell XPS 15 or 17.
I would love the 17... but is it too damn big?

I bought my wife last year an eMachine laptop. Came with windows 7 and 4 gigs of ram. Got it for $299 at Walfart. Never had any issue with it.

Nothing wrong with a 17". Just keep in mind it's a desktop replacement. Too heavy to lug around an airport twice a week.

Get a powerful enough laptop to do the job for you since these things aren't upgradable. Even if you don't game, get a laptop with an AMD or NVidia video chip, not the crappy Intel video.

I like Dells, Acer & Asus. Not a big fan of HP or Compaq although the HP laptops can be hit or miss.

If you have a Sams Club or Costo card I'd look there first. They have a much more liberal return policy.

Check the weekly Dell deals here:
http://gotapex.com

While you can find some decent laptops in the $500 range or even less, if you're looking for a desktop replacement expect to spend $700+

Biggest problem with laptops is the keyboard. It would be best to try it out at the store. Some laptop keyboards are horrible.

Decent deal here just add an SSD Drive clone over the image from the pre-configured HDD and you got a speedy machine. I LOVE Thinkpad keyboards for getting real work done:

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/48159/lenovo.com-lenovo-thinkpad-x201-laptop-core-i7620m-2.66ghz-12.1-wxga-led-panel-1280x800-4gb-ddr3-320gb-hdd-6cell-batt-wifin-win-7-prem

I agree, I'll never use a laptop as a main computer due to keyboard issues. Can't find a single one that I could live with. But there are better ones.

The larger sized laptops have decent keyboards IMO. I'd suggest going to a BestBuy or Office Depot just to try them out.

Another good deals site:

http://dealnews.com/Computers/PC-Comput ... ls-49.html

Beware of underpowered laptops. Lots of $500 specials out there running antiquated tech like Dual Core Pentiums. You want Intel Core 2 Duo or better yet Intel i3 or i5.

AMD gives you a lot less choices. Most AMD laptops are Athlon X2 which is roughly comparable to Core 2 Duo. High end AMD Phenom II laptops are almost impossible to find except in specialty gaming systems.

You said it right ... I would not settle for less then i5 or i7 and good graphics. I am really liking the XPS and do not want anything smaller then 15". I dont know if 17" is too big. I do not travel often so this would only be used to travel from room to room in the house. It is hard to find a place that sells dell around here to try out although I would prefer to get my hands on one before I drop some coin.

Looking at the XPS with blueray and SSD I am getting in the $1500 range. I would prefer $1000

Dell does not sell the XPS lines through retail stores.

You're paying a premium for the XPS branding, not to mention that the internal BluRay on a laptop adds $250+

You might want to look at the Dell Vostro 3700, but there's no BluRay option: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/vostr ... bsd&~ck=mn

Not sure if you like HP but here is a coupon code for their laptops featured on this page:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/series_can.do;HHOJSID=fKh0N9YL4YqsjZD7YJN418TChvySglfFLM19dnkWpydcmz9ThXSW!437960421?storeName=computer_store&landing=notebooks&a1=Category&v1=High+performance&jumpid=in_R329_prodexp/hhoslp/psg/notebooks/High_performance#defaultAnchor

Coupon code: "NB6798"

I would go look at the HP ProBook line.

Been running the ProBook 4520s with i5 2.53 4gb ram and 320gb hdd for 6 months. I like it..

NOT a cheap HP.. it's metal case.. clean.. and runs great. running 7 pro 64bit for work.

Good size screen and full 10 key.

I have an HP dv7-1261wm It's got a 17" screen, 4GB of RAM, 500GB HD, came with a blu-ray drive, Radeon 3650 Video Card, mini remote (Just a novelty really) built in webcam. Battery life was about 45 minutes or so when doing anything noteworthy. But this thing gets HOT! You HAVE to use a laptop cooler with it or it will overheat when watching movies or anything withing 15 minutes.. I don't remember it being that bad when I first got it though. I used to be able to use it anywhere for any length of time and no issues.. I'm thinking I just need to take it apart and re-grease the GPU/CPU and make sure the fan is clean.. My next laptop (some time this year) will be a Sager. But, I really hardly ever use the laptop like I used to. I have seriously been debating getting an iPad as it would meet all of my basic needs. Most of the time I just sit at the table in the kitchen browsing car forums and watching youtube.. haha

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