Purchasing A Laptop

I've learned two things when buying laptops:

1. Research well, do your own study and dont take an impulsive decision. A laptop will stay with you for at least two years, and it will affect your convenience in life throughout this period.

2. The last thing to look at is the specs posted in the laptops offer.

Here are what I first ask about, and I'll also tell you about my preferences:

1. Brand. Its either HP, IBM, Toshiba, Sony VIAO, Dell, or an uncommon brand with a cheap price. My golden rule here is.. dont base your judgement on a brand! Even within the same brand, every model has its differences from other models, its defects, inconveniences, advantages, etc. So, dont compare an IBM to an HP, but rather compare IBM Thinkpad XXX to HP nx83xx (example), or even compare HP nx7400 to HP nx8300. You can ofcourse compare support for these brands based on your location.
My favorite brand though is HP, why I dont know I just love it.

2. Series. Always go for the Professional (or Business) series, forget the Home or Multimedia series, unless you're the family guy. Actually I hate HP's home/multimedia series. What really makes me tick is their Professional series.

3. Screen Resolution. One of the things I hate about laptop offers is that they HARDLY EVER mention the screen resolution. The best resolution to go for is 1280 x 800, nothing more, nothing less. Forget about 1024 x 768, and some new high resolutions really make your eyes burden. If you're attracted to high resolutions, then dont go for more than 1400x1050.

4. Screen Type. Its either TFT, Bright View, or LCD. I prefer Bright View. TFT will get dark by time due to the burning of the TFT cells. Some disadvantages of TFT and LCD is that they become a white screen from a bent angle, some new TFT technologies remedy this problem. And by the way, I've seen companies and people soliciting this problem as a privacy feature. For example, when ur in an internet cafe, people wont see what you're working on from a bent angle. Bright View is very new; it comes by different names, XBRITE for Sony, Bright View for HP, TrueBrite for Toshiba (as far as I can remember). The funny thing is NONE of these companies manufacture these screens, they buy it from a third party and sell it under different names. This really surprised me, specially from SONY.

Some people that tried Bright View at first (specially those used to TFT/LCD) felt that its weird and causes a headache. But trust me, this is only the first week, you'll get used to it, and its also more safer than TFT screens for your eyes.

For me, bright view is the best and it will maintain its quality through the laptop's life time.

5. The sound speakers. Try them out, try a song with a strong base sound and popup the volumne to the max, if you can here rambling inside the speakers, then skip this laptop. This happened to me with the SONY VAIO and some Home Series HP. Also, try to get the laptop where the speakers are on the prolonged edges of the keyboard, or on the front, and do the BASE TEST. Dont let the sales man put for you a Birdy Song while smiling at you.

6. The USB locations. You need two on the left, one on the right, two on the back, or else you'll be leading an inconveninent life. Have the USB ports arranged like that '_ _' and not '=', This is becoz some flash memory sticks will be thick to stumble any extra USB device on the adjacent port.

7. Heat Dissipation. You need good ventilation. There will be heat, but you dont want this heat to be coming out from the Keyboard, or from the left or right bottom corners of the keyboard, or else they will hurt your hand palms really bad.

8. Hard Disk Location. Should be anywhere other than under your mouse touchpad panel. You're bottom palm is heavier than you think and could one day affect your hard disk (happened to FUJITSU SEIMENS users which totally corrupted the hard disk).

9. RAM. For 512, they will write 512MB or 512MB DDR2 in the offer. Ask about the bus speed, and dont go less than 633MHz RAM Bus Speed.

10. Do you want XP Pro, or XP Home. If you dont, then try to find a laptop without them, you'll save about a $100 dollars in price.

11. Mouse, touch pad or rubber? I dont care, I always use an external small mouse. If you care about that then make sure to know what you want.

12. Check the price on the company's website, see a demo, for the model you want, check next and previous item in the same series. For example, my laptop HP nx7400, I checked nx8* and nx6* to see the differences.

13. Try out the keyboard. Make sure to try it out and feel comfortable with it.

14. CD/DVD Writers/Reader. Dont go for less, let it be full writing and reading for DVDs and CDs.

15. Check the microsoft key button, I love this button. "Microsoft Key + D" Minimizes the whole desktop or returns it to its previous state. Really useful.

16. Wifi & Bluetooth. Check that two buttons exist that allow you to disable/enable Wifi or disable/enable bluetooth.

Thats all I can think of.

HP nx7400 for me was super excellent.
ps. I'm a programmer, so keep this in mind.