Laptop Shopping

I have decided that it’s time to move on from my 17″ dinosaur of an HP laptop and get something sporty and light. I have already spent many hours surfing the net and looking through office supply and tech stores to find the perfect laptop, and I think I have narrowed down the enormous field. Here are my priorities:

*Long Battery Life
*Light enough to carry comfortably (3-7 lbs.)
*Stylish design
*Pink if possible

Okay, so I know that it seems ridiculous to list style and color preferences as a priority, but isn’t the way a laptop looks and feels just as important as what it does? Maybe not equally, but it has to be close, for me at least. The cuter and more “fun” my laptop feels, the more I will want to take it out and show it off or play with it, which translates into more work time for me. Maybe it is shallow, but I think it’s just me being honest.

I have found several laptops that meet my needs, but I haven’t quite made a decision.
Here are the contenders:

Fujitsu Lifebook P7230 – This is a super cute computer, but the problem comes with the processor and the price. It uses a Core Solo U1400 and costs close to $2000. The battery life is supposed to be amazing though, and it only weighs 2.6 lbs, by far the smallest and lightest laptop I have looked at. I think you can get a faster processor, but the price is going to shoot up, and I’m just not sure this one has what I want in a complete package.

Dell Inspiron 1420 – I really love this color of pink, which is called “flamingo pink”. I have looked at countless reviews of this laptop, and although some tech snobs say this is just a budget class notebook for students, I am honestly leaning towards buying it. It simply seems to have everything I want. I can get a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 3 Gigs of RAM, a battery that is said to last 3-4 hours, along with a backup battery for less than $1500. Now, this computer is by no means the lightest, and that is where the one drawback sees to come in for me. It weighs 5.5 lbs. which is considerably heavier than the Lifebook. On the other hand, 5.5 lbs is still pretty freaking light compared to the 10+ pound beast I have been carrying around.

Dell XPS M1330 – This is Dell’s newer, sleeker, lighter laptop and it s packed with power. I think I could actually play games on this even though it is super light at 3.97 lbs. It’s awesome that you could actually get a 64 GB Solid State hard drive, but the price sky rockets, and I’m just not sure that I need that, even if it is cool. Also, as you can easily see, it is not pink. Red, though, looks great on this laptop, and also the red version of this laptop means that Dell donates money to helping with the AIDS epidemic in Africa, so the socially conscious red makes up for the lack of pink. Oh, and I LOVE the slot-load CD/DVD drive. I always think my flimsey pull-out version is going to break off. So where are the cons? I can’t quite put my finger on it. This laptop looks great, is very small and light, and seems to have a great battery life. But for some reason, I just don’t feel like it’s the one I want. It’s probably because it isn’t pink…

Sony Vaio CR Series – I saw one of these at an Office Depot and I love the way it looks and feels. The 14″ screen is exactly what I’m looking for, and it weighs just around 4 lbs. Customizing my own laptop on the sony website, my laptop comes up to $1409.98, but is backordered and would be weeks before it shipped. 🙁 The cons for me are that the backup battery is kind of expensive and also the service plan is non-existent. On the Dell computers, at least a 1 year service plan is included and the extra battery is much less expensive. A neat feature of the Sony, though, is that you can have your name engraved on the keyboard for free. I really start to lean towards this computer until I read some reviews online where many people say that the battery rattles and is very loud. I think maybe I should go back to Office Depot and see if they still have one I could look at. Of course, they will probably have it chained up with no battery in it at all. /sigh.

So, those are my four options for a new laptop. Of course, there is a Hello Kitty laptop, but it’s almost $3000 and is not that well equipped. I am going to think about it for maybe another week before I make a final decision. I think I am really leaning towards either the Sony or the Dell 1420. I wish I could just have them right here in front of me to touch and play on for a bit, but that’s not going to happen. I’ll let you know what I choose.