$600 - $650 laptops that catch my eye include the Toshiba Satellite L670-BT2N25, Dell Inspiron 17R-2nd Gen , and the HP dv7t. Discouraging info exists about HP quality and Dell sevice. I wonder what's the story on Toshiba? Are there any others in this range that I should look at?
My opinion: I have used Toshiba laptops before but it was long time ago. Toshiba Tecra 8000 and 8100. No problem with either one. Company-assigned. Only upgraded because of refresh after a couple of years. This satelite you sited may be a gem. The only thing I see is: This Toshiba is using first generation i3 chip while the Dell and HP offers second generation i3 or i5. From a technology stand point the second generation is more desirable. Faster and uses less power - thus your laptop battery should last longer between each recharge. The Passmark score for Intel Core i3 380M @ 2.53GHz is 2336. Which is not that different from Intel Core i3-2310M @ 2.10GHz (second generation), at 2695. If it is up to me a 17.3" screen is better than 14". (But smaller screen size is more convenient some times.)
I got this a while ago - I like it. Caveat: The touch pad is shit. I use a Bluetooth mouse. The laptop has no built in Bluetooth support. I am using this Bluetooth dongle. Happy with the setup. 3GB RAM seems enough - will upgrade later if I need it. Hard to find a 17.3" screen at this price. And about 3 hours of battery life, which is great
I just bought a Toshiba laptop. It's a top shelf machine. I had an Acer before that and the Toshiba puts the Acer to shame. Just the way the machine is built and assembled is impressive. It's solid, solid, solid. Highly recommend.
MSI laptops? This MSI laptop has 2nd gen i3 and USB 3.0 for $700. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152254 Does anyone have experience with MSI laptops?
I haven't used a MSI laptop but I recently bought a desktop motherboard made by MSI. "MSI Big Bang Xpower". I like that motherboard. It looks like a good quality product. Hopeful good quality is on all their products. MSI has a user forum. Perhaps Google on your laptop model and see if there are complaints. If there is a detect those are usually places where notes will pop up. http://forum-en.msi.com/
Because of your notes, I browsed around a bit and found this HP dv7t model: HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Laptop: Core i7-2630QM 2.0GHz http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/487...-1gb-radeon-hd-6490m-bluray-wifi-n-win-7-prem $875, featuring the processor i7-2630QM. Which has a Passmark score of 6327. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2630QM+@+2.00GHz Holy cow! It is as fast as my i7 desktop. And twice faster than my dv8t 1100 laptop! I bought mine 1 year ago and it was north of $1100. The display of dv7t is a little less than my dv8t (17.3" versus 18.4", 1200 x 900 versus 1920 x 1080). But still pretty good. I hope this HP laptop doesn't suffer from the quality problems that I had experienced on other lines of HP laptops.
Thanks, I appreciate it. That's tempting but my requirement is below i3 1st gen so I gotta look away. These Cheap Laptops are returnable for two weeks at a brick and mortar location. They look decent...no? $549.99 HP Pavilion G7-1075DX, AMD Phenom⢠II, 17.3", 4GB, 500GB AMD Phenom II P960 Quad-Core - PassMark = 2223, (i3 380M = 2334) http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pa...18237922&skuId=2285026#tabbed-customerreviews $598.00 Dell i17R-1408MRB, i3-380M, 17.3", 4GB, 640GB, 7 Premium, http://www.walmart.com/browse/Compu...2529393&search_sort=4&selected_items=+&depts=
The best deal if you have access to it is to buy from Costco, Dell or HP, and you get 2 year warranty service and North American support not punjab.
Dell Small Business Vostro. Just got one. They'll overnight it to you. Great machine; no bloatware. Mine is super lightweight. Win7x64 dual core with hyperthreading; four logical cores. DDR3. Great machine. Paid $650.