What laptop/notebook would you recommend?

Question

Hi. I'm looking for a new laptop and I know what I want but, I'm at a bit of a loss.

The main things I'm looking for are:

-50 or more GB on the hard drive

-at least 1 GB of virtual ram

-single core processor

-15.4 in screen

-light weight

since I'm an art major and do photography I plan to be using adobe photoshop and illustrator.

And I limited my choices down to these 3 laptops. I posted the links below so, you can get a better look at the them.

1. HP pavilion dv2700 ($800)

http://h20331.www2.hp.com/hho/cache/403455-0-0-225-121.html

2. DELL XPS ($1,536)

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1530?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

3. Macbook ($1099)

http://www.apple.com/macbook/

So, I would really appreciate it if you could help me. Thanks.

Answer 1

I would recommend going to your local Best Buy and having someone help you pick out the best computer for you needs...

Answer 2

what about the new apple laptop, the one that fits into a manilla envelope. it's definitely light weight and is virus resistant.

Answer 3

since you're into art...i'd suggest mac...their computers are better with pictures and editing and stuff...

i personally don't have one...but my boyfriend's into photography and he has one and it's REALLY good with picture editing.

Answer 4

I personally use a MacBook Pro and I believe that they are worth the extra money that you pay for them.  So from the choices that you give there I would choose the slightly lower end MacBook over the others.  Dell Make decent computers and HP I cannot say anything good about... I worked in a Data systems repair shop while I was enlisted in the Navy and I worked on HP/Compaq and Dells fairly regularly if you do go with the HP turn off automatic updates... they will eventually cause your system to become unstable.

I would also avoid HP for the simple reason that their customer service sucks more than a Dyson vac.  The macBook does not have a 15.4 inch screen, you would need to go to the MacBook Pro for that one.  You will be happy with the MacBook because of all the applications that are actually usefull out of the box and Photoshop works beautifully on it.  I run CS3 nearly every day and I also use Aperture for my photography and I can still edit the photos in Photoshop.  Iphoto is great for cataloging your photos, and its included on the system.  

If you really want to get the most out of your system go for the mac... You will not regret it, and if the need to run windows ever pops up you can always do that with Parallels Desktop or VMware fusion from within OS X, or you can use BootCamp to boot into windows and use the Computers native hardware... I do Parallels for internet explorer web site compatibility testing and I do the boot camp thing for PC games... although some older ones will likely work in parallels...