Laptop quickie - toshiba?

Gdiguy

My GF is looking for a laptop for general use (the usual email/web stuff, plus some lab picture editing / large powerpoint kind of stuff); However, she's definitely looking to make one purchase that'll last a good while (I think her current one is at least 4 years old), so a decent headroom in terms of future-proofing would be ideal

She has (and likes) Toshiba, and we were looking at these two that are sold through best buy:

i3 version: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Satellite+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i3+Processor+-+Quantum+Black/9703393.p?id=1218153394199&skuId=9703393

i7 version: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Satellite+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+-+Quantum+Black/9705203.p?skuId=9705203&productCategoryId=pcmcat196200050015&id=1218154377801

They both seem pretty well priced; the i3 is ~$100 cheaper than the equivalent i3 laptop direct from Toshiba (such that pricing a minor upgrade to a mobile i5-430 on Toshiba's store would cost as much as the i7 above from best buy); everything else in both models is basically identical (4gb ram, 500gb 5400rpm hd); I might (now or in the future) try to help her stick an SSD in there instead, but I haven't found an anywhere near equivalent laptop (something in the i5 range with 4gb ram & 16" screen) for $900

Any suggestions would be appreciated - is Toshiba good? Do you know of a good mid-range i3-i5 laptop for ~$700?

lowlylowlycook

Well I haven't shopped for a laptop in a while so I can't really give you great advice in particular I don't really know about laptop CPUs (Intel's naming of their desktop CPUs is hard enough to follow). If you are going to have a laptop for a long time, it's worth while to do a good amount of research to make sure you like the keyboard, display, etc. But just some thoughts.

The Toshiba's you linked have very big but low resolution displays. Doesn't seem really ideal for editing pictures, etc.

As for buying laptop's in general, I'd keep my eye on slickdeals or similar. You often see decent deals for basic laptops there. Examples: 15" Acer 15" Dell 14" Levano. All under $600. I've also had decent luck with coupon codes for Dell so you can customize to your needs.

Anyway, good luck.

Dark Shroud

That Core i7 is a pretty good deal, the battery might need an upgarde but that thing will be usable for a few good years between the chip sets in it.

desdinova

I'm pretty soured on Toshibas lately. I've been seeing a lot of them this month at the shop. Really though

laptop for general use

with an i5? Is this for you or her? ;P
If I was in the market at the moment, I'd rather get last year's highish-end C2D (any mfgr) than this year's cheap Core i. Slickdeals is definitely the place to watch for NOS blowouts, etc.

Scrublet

My mom's Toshiba has been working out great. I've had middling results with my Sony. Personally I would avoid Dell, it seems like my IT life in college was defined by helping friends diagnose and/or fix this or that with their Dell systems. I don't want to sound like a fanboy but personally I think the reliability and quality has been in the apple camp the past year or two (not the value, though). I have money in reserve waiting for the refresh this summer. Oh and I'd stay away from that i7, I can't believe that a laptop with that line of CPU in it would have a good battery life.

Gdiguy

desdinova wrote: »

I'm pretty soured on Toshibas lately. I've been seeing a lot of them this month at the shop. Really though

laptop for general use

with an i5? Is this for you or her? ;P

Heh, I'm going to get a new PC in a few weeks myself, so this is all for her

I wasn't looking at the i7's at all to start out; basically we went looking for Toshibas, and it was as cheap as any of the i5's I've seen; and while she's not doing any kind of gaming / etc, I was thinking that at least the turbo mode on the lower i5's might be helpful (and, knowing the amount of crap she does in parallel, multi cores + more ram than a usual surfing/email laptop wouldn't be a terrible idea)... and while I agree that the battery is going to be pretty bad, it's mobile in the sense that she brings it back and forth to lab every day, but 99% of the time it's on AC power on a desk.

This is basically a desktop replacement for her in lab (biology, with a significant amount of looking at / playing with microscope images, which can get big), so we were looking for something a bit above the usual 'take to class to take notes on' kind of computer; the problem is more that I have zero idea how the C2D's from last year compare to the i#- lines (my knowledge of desktops is decent, mobile chipsets is near zero).

We did a bit more research, thought about a couple of the suggestions mentioned here, went down to Best Buy and looked at what they had, and it still seemed to be the best fit (both in terms of actual usefulness and in terms of making her happy), so she's now the proud owner of a new baby thanks for your suggestions!

SnipeRR

Did you tryed to find something on eBay shop? For $700 I think you will find sometging you like.

DisposableLemur

Just out of curiosity, what did you guys end up getting? Toshiba is the second most reliable name in the industry right now, but nine times out of ten, you can get more bang for your buck out of MSI or Gateway. MSI because while being a household name to desktop builders, are still a relatively new name in laptops. Gateway because Acer is trying to rebuild them as a brand name, and offer a bit more for the money, or the same computer as a competitor for less.

Just stay away from Dell and HP, and you should be good.

Jubal77

DisposableLemur wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, what did you guys end up getting? Toshiba is the second most reliable name in the industry right now, but nine times out of ten, you can get more bang for your buck out of MSI or Gateway. MSI because while being a household name to desktop builders, are still a relatively new name in laptops. Gateway because Acer is trying to rebuild them as a brand name, and offer a bit more for the money, or the same computer as a competitor for less.

Just stay away from Dell and HP, and you should be good.

For instance...

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-A6200-021US-Notebook-PC-Built/dp/B003AU3YNC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1269373055&sr=1-4

Core i5 for a bit cheaper then the Toshiba i3. I like Toshiba machines they are very sturdy and I have seem them last a long time. I also like MSI Laptops as they are well built and have great components for a great price. I havent dealth with them in terms of longevity or the like though.

Gdiguy

DisposableLemur wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, what did you guys end up getting? Toshiba is the second most reliable name in the industry right now, but nine times out of ten, you can get more bang for your buck out of MSI or Gateway. MSI because while being a household name to desktop builders, are still a relatively new name in laptops. Gateway because Acer is trying to rebuild them as a brand name, and offer a bit more for the money, or the same computer as a competitor for less.

Just stay away from Dell and HP, and you should be good.

We wound up going with the Toshiba; it was a balance between bang for buck vs her comfort level with reliability... I wouldn't really have felt comfortable with something like the one from a relatively unknown source linked in the next post

of course, she then managed to break the dvd drive tray in 3 days by being careless, which is probably going to be $100+ to fix... /sigh

desdinova

unless it's a slimline, all laptops pretty much use the same drives. you can swap the bezel out as long as she didn't damage that as well.

Gdiguy

She knocked a metal bracket out of the side of the drive tray, which I could probably fix if I wanted to, but I don't want to void a warranty this early on (plus, for some reason to get at it I think you have to basically take the entire laptop apart, it appears that this model isn't really designed well to replace something like this)

DisposableLemur

Don't worry, the warranty doesn't protect you in any way, it really just makes it so that the manufacturer can't be sued for building complete crap. Unless its an Asus, they actually give a 3 year extended, 2 year accidental damage coverage out of the box.

Jubal77

I called up the vendor or my tower I just bought 4 months ago, I am getting SMART errors, and they pushed me off and told me to wait until the hard drive is failed completely so perhaps it will happen outside of the warranty time. yay!

redfield85

On the topic of Toshiba...

I just bought a laptop of theirs. It seems that the music I listen to in Windows Media Player, the volume fluctuates. Any suggestions?

Mezikus

I can ensure you that the laptops of Toshiba are excellent, fast and technologically developed. My recommendation for about choice of laptop is to buy Toshiba Satellite T135. its technical features are very strong: Pentium Dual-Core SU4100 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 256 GB of HD volume, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The cost of this very good gadget is ~ 600$.
To redfield85: Probably you have problems with loudspeakers and Windows Media Player is not guilty. But nevertheless try to put it on Low channel, change frequency or renew the plugins and drivers.