Smart Buying
Back-to-School Notebooks
You'll face a lot of choices when shopping for a laptop computer for your high school or college-bound student. We tell you what features to consider and give you our top notebook picks.
July 29, 2005
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Unfortunately the days of three-ring binders or flashy spirals with vinyl pockets and pen holders are gone. When today's high school and college-bound students talk about a new notebook, they're likely referring to the portable computer variety.
The bad news is that the price tag on a quality laptop can be $1,800 or so more than the lower tech versions from Mead -- the equivalent of about 51 pairs of Levis or 47 pairs of Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars. But for the money you can get a light, powerful machine that your student could stack up against any desktop, carry off to the library for an evening study session or onto the Quad to send a few e-mails home (for more money, no doubt).
Technological advances have finally put notebooks toe-to-toe with desktops, without costing a whole lot more. A year ago, you'd pay about a 50% premium for a notebook with features like a desktop; that price difference continues to shrink. And with the prevalence of wireless networks at campuses and coffee shops, your kids can really make the most of the laptop's portability.
Today's notebook buyers also have a lot more choices -- whether it's weight, hard-drive space, number of ports or built-in wireless capability. Keep in mind that this isn't your father's computer -- literally. The features that are important to your kids may be very different from the ones you'd choose for yourself. Will they be using it to store a lot of music and photos? Then hard-drive space is important. Will they be carrying it every day in a backpack? Then size is a key concern. And does their campus have a wireless network? Then you need to make sure their notebook's connection is compatible.
Shopping list
Here are the main ingredients to consider:
Size. Begin your hunt for your perfect notebook by choosing a size. Choices range from ultraportables, which usually weigh four pounds or less, to desktop replacements, which can weigh as much as ten pounds. For those in between the road warrior and home body, there are thin-and-lights, topping out at about seven pounds.
Processors. The Intel Pentium M is the premier computer brain for notebooks, given its speed and battery life. You won't notice a difference between it an and Intel Pentium 4 processor -- commonly used now in desktops -- for tasks such as word processing, building spreadsheets, surfing the Internet, photo editing and playing music.
Some desktop replacements come with a Pentium 4 or other heavy-duty desktop processor, which helps perform processor-straining jobs, such as video editing or advanced 3-D gaming.
Hard-drive space. For desktop replacements and thin-and-lights, go with at least 40 gigabytes, but consider more if you store many digital music, photo and video files -- which most students will want to do. An upgrade from 40 GB to 80 GB will generally add $100 to $200 to the price. Some ultraportables have hard drives starting at 20 GB, which is fine for basic tasks, such as word processing.
Memory. Get at least 512 megabytes of random-access memory (RAM) so you can easily run several programs at once. You can generally increase RAM later, but each computer has a RAM limit.
Display. Notebooks use liquid-crystal display (LCD), thin-film transistor (TFT) screens. Resolution has evolved to the point that watching a movie on a 17-inch diagonal notebook screen has everything the multiplex does except popcorn and sticky floors. But the typical 14-inch or 15-inch screens on desktop replacements and thin-and-lights won't disappoint. You may find that reading becomes a strain on an ultraportable screen smaller than 12 inches.