I am considering buying a laptop. I don’t have unlimited money to spend and I am unfortunately rather ignorant when it comes to the various features of laptop computers.
I will use it both for work and play. Do they make laptops that you can insert camera memory cards into to download pictures?
I also play games - not really high graphic WoW stuff, but I am addicted to Farmville.
Brands? System requirements to look for? Anything to specifically avoid?
Any advice will be appreciated.
Sounds like even a basic sub $400 laptop would be just fine for you. I’m going to PM you with a special offer that I think might interest you. Check your inbox soon.
Yes, my Acer has a slot for a memory card 
I use it for ‘everything’, I watch DVDs on it, surf the 'net, play games on Facebook (as long as shockwave flash doesn’t crash!) I’ve not played many CD:ROM games on it as it has Vista and none of my games will run on it, aside from The Sims 2 but I had to download a patch for it, it plays nicely enough on the laptop. The speakers are fine and the picture quality is great.
The only problem I’m having is it refuses to accept that I have a wi-fi hub thing in the house, and I have to use a cable when I’m online, but otherwise it picks up wi-fi no bother.
Cost me less than €400 a few years back. Haven’t priced them lately as I don’t see the need to upgrade.
How much do you intend to carry it? If you carry it much at all, smaller is mostly better. My first laptop was pretty big, because I was wowed by the big sexy 17" screen. Thing was like carrying an anvil around. Kevbabe wanted a laptop, so I advised she get no larger than 15" size and smaller would be better. She was skeptical but took my advise, and we found her a nice 14.1" (I think it is) on ebay for a good price. She hadn’t had it long before she was wishing it was smaller and lighter. Eventually I got tired of lugging my beast around and bought an Acer Aspire One netbook. I did bulk it up a little with a huge battery that gives me like 10 hours of run time, but it is still much handier than the old beast. The only time I have performance issues is if I have iTunes running and anything else. (ITunes is resource sucking bloatware from hell, IMO!)
Anyway, take a look at the netbooks. They are handy sized, economical, and from your discription will do what you need. Mine is a little small for when I need to do Excel spreadsheet stuff, but I get by with it. I ran Solidworks CAD software on the 17"…I think that would bring the netbook to it’s knees though.
One thing to be wary of with laptops is the numeric keypad. If you are accustomed to desktop computers, you probably take for granted that you have that numeric keypad off to the right. But some laptops have them, some don’t. If you do a lot of numeric work, make sure you get one that has it.
Prices have come down dramatically.
I just bought a new laptop about 6 months ago for $550 that is far superior to my previous laptop that cost $1700 seven years ago.
So the good news for you is that there really is a lot out there, and you should be able to get quite a bang for your buck!
Yeah, this might be your first choice to make. For my kids, who takes theirs to school, I got them 14 inch screens. For my wife and I, who mostly use them in the family room, but don’t take them out of the house, 15.5 inch works well.
Wireless mice are awesome. Logitech M305, or M315 are often only $15 on sale, and work great. A recliner or couch’s wide arm rests make a fine mouse pad, or use a throw pillow.
Even a good netbook should be enough, as long as you can accept the smaller screen. I’m not aware of any laptops that don’t have card slots. (Netbooks won’t have DVD/CD drives, though, but you can buy an external one for when you absolutely need it.)
These days, I wouldn’t buy anything over five pounds for your needs.
What Kevbo and Big T in particular said. I had talked myself into hating laptops, but I generally use one all the time now as it is so fast compared to my old clunker of a desktop. Prices won’t mean much as we are miles apart, but originally I bought an Asus with a 17 inch screen. As Kevbo said- wrong move. Too big to use on aircraft. I now have a smaller Toshiba Satellite- it is more powerful and has 3D vision. Which I have never used! And I will never use!
I don’t know of any modern laptops without card slots. As Big T says notepads are slightly different- I was gifted an Asus Shell and it has no DVD drive an barely enough memory to fart.
It is a nice toy though.
My MacBook doesn’t have a card slot. Of course, it is nearly six years old, but I don’t think the newer ones have one either.
If the OP is willing to spend a bit more (at least $1000 for new) and buy an external card reader and possibly learn a new OS, a used MacBook or MacBook Air might work for her. However, I’d go with the recommendations for a cheap laptop or even a netbook running Windows.
As far as which brand to go with, I posted a poll here several months ago asking this same question.
The Good People of the Dope steered me toward a Lenovo, and I honestly could not be happier with it. It feels like - and is - a solid, well-built machine; nothing about it feels cheap or flimsy.
mmm
I missed Mean Mr. Mustard’s poll, but I’m very happy with my Toshiba.
I don’t know if this is universal with Toshiba laptops, but mine does have a built-in memory card reader, which was important for me, being a photographer.
All the hardware is first rate, with the exception of the built-in web camera, but I have not really had any use for that.
Interestingly, Toshiba and Lenovo were neck-and-neck for me.
mmm
Less than I week ago I decided to buy a Lenovo laptop from woot.com, partly due to input from this thread. I placed the order and tried to be patient. (Hard to do when one is awaiting a new laptop.) Today I checked my account and the order didn’t show up anywhere. So I checked my credit card account and the charge from woot had vanished.
I forwarded my confirmation email to woot and asked the status of the order. Their reply:
I replied back, asking why they didn’t notify me that there were suspicious elements about the order, and why they didn’t notify me that the order had been cancelled. No response yet.
I’m really disappointed and steamed. Don’t think I’ll hit woot again any time soon.