<p>I'm looking to get a good laptop for college. I have never gotten a laptop before so, I'm not sure what is "good". I have done some research and talked to friends who have bought laptops and have narrowed down my choices to HP and Toshiba. Which are better? Or is there another brand to consider? Thank you!</p>
<p>Generally ASUS and Toshiba are ranked the most reliable, followed closely by Sony, Apple and Lenovo. Samsung is very new in laptops, but the initial reports are very positive, with Samsung needing the least number of repairs, of any laptop.</p>
<p>Apple ranks way higher than any other laptop company in customer satisfaction at about 80%, their nearest competitor is at about 50% satisfaction. Apple’s reliability has slipped a little in the last couple yrs, but their customer satisfaction has not - probably because of the service available at their stores.</p>
<p>Gateway, Dell and Compaq rate the worst on reliability and customer satisfaction. HP’s consumer lines do poorly, their business lines do better.</p>
<p>DylanK-This website is perfect! I have been looking at laptops and wondering what makes them so special, and this website tells me! </p>
<p>gojack-My older brother goes to Hiram College in Ohio and they made him buy a certain Dell It turned out to be a piece of crap. I have heard a lot of good things about Apple, but they are much more expensive than other brands.</p>
<p>Out of those HP models you selected the Probook is the most sturdiest.
Honestly, all those models are nearly the same internally.</p>
<p>Watch out. Many times you get what you pay for. I recommend going to Best Buy and testing them out. Don’t buy cheap plastic laptops. They may work for home use but not in college where you have a thousand crazy students.</p>
<p>FYI. I remember seeing all those Toshiba’s and HP’s (except the probook) at my BB.</p>
<p>I went to my local BB and tried a few laptops but they didn’t have many in stock when I went. I’m hoping to go back this week and try some of the ones I found. A sturdy laptop would probably be better for me, just as a precaution.</p>
<p>I finally got to go back to the local BB. They had way more selection then the last time I was there. They had the laptops I was looking at but none of them really impressed me. One of the sales associates showed me a Lenovo Ideapad V570. It has 6GB memory, 640GB hard drive and Intel i5 processor. It has a metal outer coat like the HP ProBook. It’s $599. Would it be better or as good as the HPs and Toshibas?</p>
<p>Which i5 is it.
Either way, 600 is a decent price for those specs, especially if it is a sandy bridge i5.</p>
<p>Still, if you have no need for power, you can go cheaper.</p>
<p>I’m not sure which i5 processor it is. I will include a link to it in this post. I don’t mind the price as long as it works well and will last me through college.</p>
<p>Its not a bad price.
It is a sandy bridge processor. You can tell by the 4 digit model number.
I’m not completely sure on sandy bridge’s naming convention, but
Most consumer CPUs start with a 2, except for really highend desktop CPUs which are prefixed by 3.
Most server CPUs start with 1.
The next number differentiates major features. The desktop line turns quadcore at 2400, and achieves hyperthreading at 2600. The mobile CPUs are a little weirder, but they turn quad iin the mid 2600s.
The last two numbers are for minor tweaks like minor clockrate changes.
The i3/5/7/9 label doesn’t amount to much.</p>
<p>If you don’t need power, you won’t notice any difference between an i5 and a cheaper i3. The extra money you spend won’t go towards reliability. Most laptops will last 4 years if you treat it right, however it is much better to go with a 2 cheap laptops than buying one expensive one and hoping it will last.
Because it won’t. It will fall behind to the rapidly growing technology.</p>
<p>That looks like a good choice. And it has 4.8 star rating on the BB website.</p>
<p>If you like it and it fits your budget then go for it!</p>
<p>Well, I got the Lenovo. It is great! I am very happy with it so far. It works very quickly and it is really sturdy. I can definitely see this laptop lasting me at least 4 years. Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!</p>