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Hardware Purchase

student discounts - specifications - laptops - netbooks - tablets

Laptops

There are so many options, it's difficult to know what to recommend without knowing what you need/want/can afford/have to accomplish. There are lots of sites with good advice online:

• The fine folks at Notebookreview.com have put together a nice resource to help you decide which your best option might be.
• HP and Dell offer a "Help Me Choose" option, which steers you to one of their products based on the criteria you input.
• howtodothings.com poses some basic but important questions to ask yourself before you go to the store and eHow.com has a checklist you can take to the with you to make sure you ask the right questions.
• About.com unravels the tech vocabulary to help you understand the options.

Some basic areas to think about:

Specs - see the recommended minimum specifications page for what we consider the basic bottom line in this area. Consider your main uses - do you need to store a lot of data? Look for a bigger hard drive. Use complex software? However, when thinking about purchasing add-ons and upgrades, remember that buying from a second-party vendor is usually cheaper than upgrading through the computer's manufacturer.
Screen size - will you be using this for graphic applications? Do you have trouble reading small print? How much do you want to compromise portability in order to have a larger working surface?
Keyboard size - sometimes a smaller screen is OK, but the related tiny keyboard will make life very difficult. Netbooks offer maximum portability, but their keyboard size can be a challenge to all but the most nimble fingered.
Battery Life - will you be using it in areas you can plug in? Some batteries have a maximum span of only a few hours, and bigger batteries often mean heavier laptops.
Weight - portability is a big component of laptop purchase. Screen size, battery life and price are all interwoven into the weight question.

The eternal question - PC or Mac?

Find out which laptops the Learning Commons crew uses - and whether or not we'd buy that model again.