I've seen a Dell advertised on T.V. for $499. after rebates, is this a decent unit for a student or should I look elsewhere? Any opinions as to what's the best deal on a laptop currently available. My daughters birthdays the 18th of this month and I thought a laptop would be a nice idea. But I have no idea what she'll need.

 

Laptops are nice for convience, but for the money you will get a lot more through a desktop and harder to steal while in college.
The Dell deal is just alright, nothing really special. Seeing that she will be in school. See if the college has any kind of deals through a company. A number of schools now do and it can save you a lot of money. If she has issues they probably have an IT person there who can help her.
If this is not the case and you want convience, for the money, Dell is hard to beat unless you build a computer yourself.

 

www.fatwallet.com

do a search for laptops for the best deals

 

I second the school idea. They usually give a good discount and its supported by the school too.

 

I don't think Price should be the first consideration in selecting a laptop. There are many variables that you need to consider first. The most important is to first consider how 'mobile' the laptop will be. For instance will it be carried everyday on public transportation or long walks thru a campus, or will it only be rarely carried for long periods of time. The variation in weight and size between units is great. My son bought a Dell laptop and it weighed 9 lbs. He kept it for 6 months, sold it and bought a more expensive but lighter unit. Lugging around almost 10 lbs every day got to him.

To give you an idea of the variation, I have a unit that undocks from the cd drive for travelling and weighs just over 1lb. It is more expensive, but I mention it as an example of the variation.

I would say the net is, if the unit will be staionary almost all of the time, a desktop will provide the best value and features. If space is a consideration or only occasional mobility is important then a heavy laptop should be ok. But if portability outside of going from one room to another is important, then you really need to consider the weight.

For security you can get cable locks.

Also if she is reg. in school, many manuf. (like Dell) offer educational discounts.

 

 

as well.....

I had a nice compact sony that was extreamly light and small... 12.5 inch screen. I loved it took it to class everyday. Before I got it my notes were more than crapy. After I started taking mine to class, I had awesome notes, and all I had to do was print them out and I had an awesome study guide.

One thing about the one I got it had a built in docking station. (You can also buy docking stations or port replicators for ones that dont come intagrated) I loved having the docking station, cause I was able to plug my printer, power supply (make sure to get one that has a battery life of AT LEAST 4-6 hours) ethernet (now i would go wireless), and I even, used my old monitor, key board and mouse through my docking station, so it was like I had a regular desk top in my room.

I loved my sony vaio, and my mom loves hers. Dell makes great laptops as well. But like many have said, dont just get one cause its cheap.... Its worth the extra to get what she will need and will use. Other wise it might just end up sitting on her desk and you could have saved even more if you had just bought her a desktop to start off.