I retire in about 10 days (yea, me!!) and unfortunately will lose my high speed access to the intraweb and the Dope. Due to the piss poor offerings by the phone company and the local cable companies, the only connection option at home is dial up. Fortunately there are a dozen or more places within 5 or 10 miles that offer free wifi while you suck down their coffee. And I like coffee.
So, I need a laptop. And SWMBO says that it needs to have one of those built in cameras so that we can have online chats with our two year old grandson who is in another State. We also plan to take it with us in our 5th wheel travels.
We don’t need the latest, greatest whiz bang model. Something that was new and shiny and the latest, greatest whiz bang model six months or a year ago will work fine.
Any suggestions on what to buy and where to buy it? Remember - fixed income!! Think frugal.
Warning: iChat, Apple’s fancy video-capable chat program, canNOT interoperate with many other chat networks, like ICQ and MSN. It will interoperate with AIM. I use Adium X, which will handle ICQ and MSN.
I didn’t get it, but there is an option for a built in webcam. After various discounts my total came to about $800, and I’m sure I got stuff I don’t really require. They are strong, sturdy, well built machines that should handle all your needs.
I’ve used both the Dell off-lease sales site (cheapest, less choice) and the Dell public reburbished sales site (a little more expensive, more choice) for used desktops and laptops and haven’t had a problem yet.
I’ve had lots of bad hardware experiences with Dell and with Sony, so I avoid them. I also avoid HP just out of principle because of the way their customer service treated me once upon a long while ago. My HP desktop also had issues with USB ports ceasing to function, but I don’t know if that’s their fault.
Sooooo… I tend toward Toshiba, these days. Their displays are top-notch and the prices very good. I haven’t had a single issue with my 3-year-old Satellite laptop, except that it’s so out of date that… today I’m picking up my brand-new Satellite laptop
I came in here to recommend one as well. If you aren’t a power user, then it could be perfect for you. I use mine for surfing the web and photography (yeah, I do photo-editing on the itty-bitty screen). There are three downsides to the EeePC: small keyboard, small screen, and small hard drive. The first two are quickly adapted to for most people. The last one can be an issue depending on what you’re using it for. I have an external hard drive, so it doesn’t really bother me. It may depending on what you’re using your computer for and if you already have external storage.
The upsides are many. It’s inexpensive (mine was $400 for the upper end model at the time of purchase). It runs off Linux and doesn’t come with a bunch of bloat-ware. The OS is super-simple and reminds me a lot of a cell phone operating system. There is an “advanced desktop” that you can easily enable that resembles the Windows OS that many know and tolerate. It has a webcam. It has three USB ports and an SD card slot. It’s fantastically portable on account of its size.
If you have any questions, I’d be glad to answer them. I know that there a few other EeePC users on the board too.
I’ve had two Dell corporate laptops that served me excellently. The first one I actually wore much of the finish off the edges, I used it so heavily. Nothing ever failed on either of them. Then I recently bought a Dell Vostro 1000 laptop for personal use. It came from the business sales side of Dell, not the comsumer side, so there wasn’t a bunch of trialware to clean off the machine and I didn’t get yet another box of speakers to throw unopened into the storage room. I doubled the memory but otherwise took the basic package, for $607 delivered, and it’s a very nice solid machine that seems to work quite well. No camera, but maybe they can sell it with one, or maybe you could plug one in…
I’ve got a Vostro 1700 that I bought refurbished at Dell Outlet for $600. It’s a pretty sweet machine. It’s got a 320GB hard drive, XP Pro, 2GB memory, a R/W DVD drive, and bluetooth. It has no webcam, but I guess you can order one with it.
I’ve also got the ASUS eee, which I love, but it is really tiny. The screen does not work all that well with some websites. The keyboard is miniscule, and the right shift key has a stupid friggin’ up arrow key shoehorned to the left of it. It’s great for hauling around an airport, though.
However, if you are in an RV, I’d go with a conventionally sized notebook. The portablility of the ASUS eee is much less of an issue.
Toshiba’s a good brand. In my experience, they truck along and last for a good while. Dell is actually pretty good, too. Other people have offered plenty of sources, but I’d also consider buying low-end new instead of refurbished. The replacement plans can often pay for themselves, and never having bought refurbished, I’m not sure if they’re available on used models.
I would avoid Acer. They seem to be less expensive, but they run really hot and of the three I know friends and family bought, all of them died a quick death.
