<p>My daughter is going to be a freshman. Any recommendations for purchasing a laptop? Any bargains out there?</p>
<p>I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 which works perfectly for me. It's not super small/lite so that it doesnt have a powerful processor/huge memory but it's also not huge so you can carry it around if needed. It also has a pentium M processor so it's outfitted with intel centrino technology which can be useful for college b/c it allows wireless connectivity.</p>
<p>IBM laptops are also VERY good but they are a bit more expensive. </p>
<p>APPLE laptops are also very nice however expect to pay more for an apple than a p.c. apple laptops are very "aesthetically pleasing" and are very strong in graphics presentation.</p>
<p>I'd go with Apple. That's what I have. They run better than a P.C. and are much less apt to get viruses and spyware/adware. </p>
<p>Anybody know about wireless at NYU? Are most dorms/classrooms wireless ready, is Washington Square (that would totallly rock)?</p>
<p>Keep in mind the laptop has to last for 4 years. I have seen too many horror stories as far as Dell is concerned - also many of them are very bulky making it almost stupid to get a laptop in the first place since students are less likely to bring them around due to size. </p>
<p>Apples are very overpriced. </p>
<p>I would suggest looking into either Sony or Fujitsu (Fujitsu if you are looking for more of a bargain.)</p>
<p>Whatever you do, don't get Hewlett Packard. All their customer service techical questions are routed to India. I was kept on the phone with India for 2 HOURS trying to describe a problem with my sons new HP Laptop. The India customer service people are polite beyond words but they are hard to understand the accent and they really can't help you - except be polite and hope you will go away . Most importantly THEY HAVE NO IDEA what you are trying to describe with a problem. Unless you are completely computer saavy (not me) if you call India you will have 2 computer non geniuses talking to each other, hence the 2 hours dealing with them. Finally I started to rant to the India people asking for an American. After a 15 minute rant they gave me a US number. I described my issue for One minute, and the HP American knew what I was talking about...</p>
<p>For the curious - my issue was I ordered the Laptop for my son with Office included. But when I got it there was no Office in it and I couln't figure why.</p>
<p>i bought a samsung one (im korean if you havent realised from this statement ^^) and i really like it.</p>
<p>the customer service is super nice here, but im kinda worried about what to do if my laptop breaks in the us.</p>
<p>go with a domestic brand if you live in the us</p>
<p>I love my Dell Inspiron 8600. You can find awesome refurbished laptops on dell.com and they're always having deals like free shipping, $___ off, etc. I brought my laptop to Harvard Summer School and it worked perfectly fine (my roommates were jealous =P ). It has built-in wireless which I absolutely loved. I really hope NYU has a lot of wireless places! (I agree ABirch, it would totally rock if WSP had wireless)</p>
<p>i got a gateway laptop this year and i'm planning on it lasting me until the end of college...i would definitely not recommend apple for the obvious reason that some things you may want on it might not be available for mac, since a large majority of the world is on PCs</p>
<p>-katrina-</p>
<p>not trying to hijack this thread, but how do u clean the junk beteen ur keyboard on ur laptop? i have things like cookie crumbs etc in there and i dont like it ><</p>
<p>get one of those canisters of air. I believe staples, office max, costco, etc... all see canisters of air for keyboard cleaning.</p>
<p>better than getting a canister of air, get a new keyboard. It's not so much more expensive these days.
but, yeh, if you don't want a new keyboard, get some air in a can</p>
<p>get a new keyboard on a laptop? o_0</p>
<p>oh lol yeh... get a can of air. :)</p>
<p>NYU's computer store has pretty good discounts on Dells and Apples and such. They know what configurations and back up systems, etc., the students might need. They also sell the software and other stuff at a discount.</p>
<p>NYU's wireless system is fairly large. My high school is about 4-5 blocks from any nyu building and i can get a pretty strong wi-fi signal from most places in my school.</p>