<p>Which is better - a Toshiba Satellite or a Dell 700m. I want something light, pretty, and not too heavy. I'm upgrading them to have the same specs. I need to know which is of better quality. Does anyone own one or the other?</p>
<p>The Dell Inspirons aren't very well made, I'd say go for the Toshiba.</p>
<p>Toshiba Satellites are not light by standards. Check out the Tecra or Portege lines if you want a light notebook.</p>
<p>The Dell Latitude d410 is very similar to the Inspiron 700m, only it is of better quality, better made, and has better support. You can take a look at that as well.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure someone is going to pipe in and say "go IBM", so I'll do it. IBM's are expensive, but they are worth the money. They may not be pretty by your standards, but they are certainly built-to-last. The X series ThinkPads would probably be your best bet, and possibly the T42 or T43 as well.</p>
<p>toshiba > dell
IBM > dell</p>
<p>go for an apple! powerbook!</p>
<p>i tell this to a lot of people lol. cnet.com is the place to go for questions like this. they lay out all of the positives and negatives of all of these laptops, and give lists of lets say, which one is lightest...most popular...that type of thing...very useful in my opinion.</p>
<p>If weight isn't a huge issue for you, the Toshiba Satellite are wonderful.</p>
<p>The only thing is that cnet isn't really a good place to go if you want to know about the reliability of a product, as their professional reviews, as well as most of the customer reviews, are based on short-term experience.</p>
<p>Their professionaly reviews are very skewed towards certain brands at certain times. I guess it all depends on what the company they are reviewing offers them. I will chime in and say IBM if you have the money, you won't be sorry. You dont buy a laptop for looks if you want reliablity. You buy it because it is reliable</p>
<p>Instead of cnet, try <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com%5B/url%5D">www.notebookreview.com</a>. It has better, more detailed reviews (all written by ordinary people like you and me), and it certainly doesn't have the rumored bias of Cnet.</p>
<p>hey what do u guys know about hp's????? I want a reliable computer thats not really expensive (less than $1200) and is lightweight. i dont need anything for gamimg or anything like that though</p>
<p>If you want a good deal, go for a dell. I got a fantastic deal on mine.</p>
<p>i second cavalier, dell is regarded as having better quality than hp and gives good deals.my family has bought a few dell computers over the years and they've both been good deals and good quality.</p>
<p>ok what about i-books. i havent used an apple for years, but i heard that they are better than a dell.</p>
<p>Be aware that the entire Apple line of desktops and laptops are switching over from IBM to Intel processors beginning in 2006 and should be completed by 2007. The I-Book/PowerBook models that you purchase for the upcoming fall term will be replaced sometime next year with entirely new models. </p>
<p>Apple claims that the current notebooks will not be obsolete for years to come... And that hardware and software support for the discontinuted G4/G5 lines will continue for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>You'll need to do some research on the Apple line to see if the current models will suit your needs...</p>
<p>Toshiba laptops are great machines. Office Depot lists the new Toshiba R15 Tablet PC @ $1449 after rebates.</p>
<p>get a Vaio! They're THE BEST :)</p>
<p>vaio's r expensive.</p>
<p>So if i buy and i-book now will they replace mine in 2 years????</p>
<p>what about gateways laptops.</p>
<p>sry about all the questions but i really just want a computer that wont get on my nerves.</p>
<p>I have a vaio. They are good solidly built laptops, but one flaw in yours can be catastrophic. I doubt their tech support agents graduated from high school...they are that stupid. And worse is that aftermarket parts (like batteries and memory) are expensive. And I know, I just ordered a new battery and RAM for mine last week; although I ordered 3rd party, they are still pricey for me!</p>
<p>Apple's not going to replace your ibook for free in 2 years just because of new technology; nobody does that. I agree with michuncle that the models now may not be such a good idea. You can, of course, buy one now and when the new ones come, get a new one and sell the old one on ebay.</p>
<p>Gateways are ok, I think much better than hp. But not as good as Dell or IBM.</p>
<p>If you want a computer that doesn't get on your nerves, then I'd go with IBM/Lenovo. I'm very sure you'll be happy with a thinkpad.</p>
<p>Re I-Books/PowerBook laptops</p>
<p>Apple made the announcement last week about their switching over to Intel processors. They have not said which product lines will be first though some Mac commentators think the laptop line will be the first since they are the most vulnerable against faster Windows based laptops.</p>
<p>"Neither Jobs nor Otellini revealed which chips Apple was expected to use initially, nor in which computers they would first appear, though experts expect them to first show up in laptops.</p>
<p>Bill Davies, secretary of Mac-Nexus, the Sacramento-area Macintosh users group, said the Apple desktop G5 is a powerful machine, but he can't say the same for Apple's laptops.</p>
<p>"Mac laptops are underpowered, and as the trend is for people to expect 'desktop' performance from a laptop, Apple needs to fix that," he wrote in an e-mail." (MacNewsWorld)</p>
<p>If this opinion hold true, it may be early to mid 2006 when the change goes through. So if you buy the current I-Book, you most likely will have owned it for a year or less before the new models come out. </p>
<p>This isn't to say that your I-Book will be obsolete. For your basic school needs, the current models should be fine. After a year or so, things may change. It's still too early to say what direction Apple is headed with the switch to Intel...</p>
<p>If you but a mac now, it will work just fine. Apple has actually experianced an architecture switch before (68k to ppc) and they know fairly well what they are doing and have been planning this for a wihle (OSX was ready to go right away).</p>
<p>It gives anti-mac people a lot of ammunition but it is really not that big of a deal. It will be just as obsolete as any other 2 year old computer. It wont be as fast and it wont always be able to do the newest thigns but it will still be supported and developed for and work just fine for most uses.</p>