Laptop for College. Entertainment + Power + Decent Price?

Question

I am going to be a senior in high school and will be turning 18 in a month. I want to get a laptop for my 18th brithday to use my senior year as well as college. I want to buy a laptop that has good processing power and also great multimedia/entertainment capabilities. I would also *prefer* a screen larger than 16 inches. My price range probably shouldn't stretch beyond 1500. Again, I'd prefer more like 1100. I have looked at HP laptops as they have always treated my family's desktops well. Below is one that I looked at. Is it a deal? Any other recommendations??

HP Pavilion dv9930us

Answer 1

HP, compaq, is waste of money. IBM, SONY is the best choice if oyu have a budget around 1500.

Dell is my personal fav for these reasons,

Dell has better price/performance ratio,

They have best warranty program, everything gets replaced no questions asked.

Most of the colleges have tie ups with dell to give discounts. Make sure your college has one too and then go through those people you will get a good deal.

Answer 2

You might consider a Dell XPS M1530. 15.4 inch screen, but for your budget you won't be able to get a 17 inch screen with good hardware (17 inch is usually reserved for desktop replacements, with more expensive parts and cooling).

1530 can handle all of your entertainment needs, is still light, and can play most games at decent settings.  

Answer 3

Get a Dell XPS M1330. I love the large keyboard.  

Answer 4

I would definitely get a Dell with Ubuntu. Not only does getting Ubuntu lower the price, it also lets your hardware run faster. You can get a really great quality system for less and have it run faster. I'd start by looking here;

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segto...

Dell has really been getting better lately, and with Ubuntu you know it's going to be powerful and compatible where windows might not. I'd definitely check it out.

Answer 5

I know you said a PC, but the Apple Macbook is a great choice for college students. It's got a widescreen 13.3" LCD,  when you are lugging it around everyday in college i think a smaller one would be better.

It starts at $1.099!!!

Even the basic model comes with a Core 2 Duo 2.1ghz, 1gb of ram, (you can upgrade to 4gb), and Apples suite of media creation and entertainment. (iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, Garageband, etc)

And if you select your college in the education section of Apple, you get a reasonable discount. (Up to $200 off)

Say you are a pc user, you can still have windows on the mac as well using boot camp. When you start up the computer you can select either the Mac OS X, or the windows you have installed, (any version).

However on September 23rd, Apple is upgrading its entire laptop line, (faster processors, better graphics, etc).

So you might consider waiting until then.

The Apple Macbook: http://www.apple.com/macbook/

Macbook with Windows Vista Premium pre-installed:

http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/deta...

College selector:  http://store.apple.com/1-800-780-5009/We...