Laptop research for a friend

[Dswissmiss]

Hi guys,

Doing some research for a friend who wants a 14.1 screen size and has about 1200 or so to burn (she also wants it to look half decent). So far I have these two.
1) Dell E1405 (http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_e1405?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn)
2) Lenovo 3000 N (http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=E7C796E266D74BF38557DB55784F4EB0)

First off, I know thinkpads are great, but what about the N series? Hp's have caught her eye cause of the nice black finish, but I keep getting mixed signals as to their quality. On this forum and others I hear that people have bad experiences, but they keep scoring well on cnet.com.
So what do you guys think? Would there be any other good choices?

Thank you
Dswissmiss

[glc]

I would take the Dell over a N series. If you can get a T60 for that kind of money equipped satisfactorily, that's even better.

[Dswissmiss]

Thanx!
So definitely no HP, Acer or any of that stuff, right?

[glc]

Acer isn't bad, but I feel Dell and Lenovo are better. I don't care for HP, they don't hold up that well.

[ZeratulsAvenger]

I was looking into laptops for my sister and found the E1405 to be a pretty good laptop by many peoples standards. I have an HP/Compaq nw8440 (a workstation computer) which seems to be holding up reasonably well and my opinion of HP has gone up after using it, but I would still choose Dell/Lenovo over an HP.

[Dswissmiss]

Sorry guys, need to bring this up again...

So now it's actually time to buy the thing, and she has her mind set on a Sony Vaio. (she likes the look of it more)

Any reason to talk her out of it or is it ok?

[glc]

If she wants to spend that kind of money, let her. Sony charges a hefty premium for style. It's very proprietary, loaded with a ton of crapware, and support is lousy. It sure looks sharp though.

[Dswissmiss]

:) sort of what I thought.
By support, do you mean that they mess around when you send it in for repairs?

[glc]

Getting any support of any type out of Sony can be frustrating. You generally can't even get any drivers on their website and they do not supply recovery media. What's in the recovery partition is what you get.

[g48dd]

Just thought that I would through in my two cents, stay away from Dell and HP, defiantly Hp their support is not good but I am a guy who likes making 1 call and all is taken care of. HP falls apart, I have broken two. ( Took two mistakes before I learned) Dell I always have problems working with their support people. What I did was found a home town computer store that builds custom laptops and will stand behind them. I have never been happier. I have a custom built laptop built on a Compal Barebones system HEL80. I am hard on laptops and have broken 3. (2) HP (1) Dell. I found a place in my home town that built me my custom laptop, it is here with me in Iraq going through dust storms riding on camel paths they call roads, it has fallen on the floor several times, runs like a champ! But I have now bought a Pelican case for it lol. Anyway always think about who is going to provide your support because when things go wrong, it pays to have someone who cares that you spent your hard earned money on their product.

Thanks Ken

[Dswissmiss]

loaded with a ton of crapware...

:eek: you weren't kidding!

What the hell is this vaio security center, vaio productivity center, and vaio entertainment center features/adware glued to my desktop. Any way to remove those links?

[Kuch]

Install CCLeaner and remove them with that. It also helps you manage the programs at startup.

[Dswissmiss]

Thanks, I'll try it when I get home.
I removed it from the desktop using msconfig, but didn't know how to erase it completely.

There were at least 50 trial software versions on this thing...I guess I was right to ask her to give it to me for 2 days to set it up before she used it. :)