looking to buy new laptop

Hi,

I would like to buy a new laptop and would appreciate any tips you could provide. I don't need anything too fancy and would like to limit the price to $1100.  I would like an Intel Duo becuase I often run many programs at once. I know many people who have Toshibas, but I've been looking at the Gateway Intel Core Duo T2050 1.6GHz Tablet and was wondering what you think about it.

Thanks

Gateway is pretty good.  And Core Duo is a great choice as well.  So you're definitely on the right track.  When I have time later tonight I'll do some more research and write up a full recommendation.

And I can assume that this laptop is going to be for more casual use?  E-mail, Internet, movie watching, that kind of thing.  You're not a hardcore gamer or graphic designer ya?

As of yet I'm not a hardcore gamer but I've recently become a lot more interested in the industry. Would you recommend against the laptop if I expanded my interests beyond movie watching and msn-ing?

It depends on how far you want to expand.  The biggest difference between a casual laptop and something intended for gamers is the video card.  Casual laptops come with an integrated Intel graphics chip that doesn't handle 3D graphics that well.  Whereas the beefier more expensive laptops come with a dedicated graphics card that is intended to play games.

Alright, looking at the CX2724 which is the laptop you're describing, it definitely doesn't look like a bad deal on paper.  Tablets are cool.  The specs are definitely up to snuff for everything you want.  And the price is right.

The one thing that's making me hesitate on a recommendation is that I'm not sure about Gateway's quality.  I don't know anybody with a Gateway laptop so I have no reference points, and the information I found online is that Gateway isn't the greatest, but that was also from 2 years ago.  Who knows how they've changed since then.  I have to say this is quite frustrating.

It makes you wonder, who's actually BUYING these laptops.  Anyway, from everything I've read, I put Gateway in the same class as Dell and HP, which is not very good for laptops.  The quality is second tier, and the customer service is even worse.

I still recommend Toshiba the most, Asus is also at the top.  I'm not saying that you should NOT go with Gateway, because as I mentioned it certainly looks like a good deal.  I just recommend that if you decide to purchase that brand that you take special care in backing up your files, and buy an extended warranty.

Oh, and I'd also like to take this moment to plug Apple laptops, which are just too sweet.

Here's a good Toshiba Laptop I found on BestBuy's website: click.

You won't be able to beat Dell in terms of price, though I don't believe they have any tablets and you don't get to try their laptops out before buying them.

I'd second Omar's suggestion of Toshiba or Asus. Toshiba is especially good at making well engineered tablet PC's.

Also, you may want to note that a dedicated graphics card chews up more power than an integrated chip and can take alot out of your battery life.

Ahh, good point about the power requirements, that's something I totally forgot about.

Maybe you know more about this than I do GG, but I've read recently that Dell's customer service has taken a complete nose dive over the past couple of years.  I had a Dell many moons ago, and when we had a problem the service was fine, but lately I've been reading a lot of horror stories.  I guess something has to be sacrificed when you're competing entirely on price.