[AT] OT - Laptop reccomendations

[pga2 at hot1.net]

Actually, that last statement is not 100% true. Acer's Pan American Tech
Support is located in Temple, Texas and staffed by folks that are English
speaking and sometimes multi-lingual. Tehy are also quite well trained in
the Microsoft operating systems and some of the other MS software.
As far as quality goes, every manufacturer has a few problems, especially
with new models. The life cycle of a laptop model is about 90 days. That's
right, 90 days. After that, the manufacturers move on to a new model.
I don't know much about other manufacturer's product lines, but as far as
Acer is concerned, The Aspire 5000 and Aspire 5670 would be my first
choices. The 5000 is an AMD Turion based system and the 5670 is an Intel
Centrino Duo based system. The main difference is the 5670 has a built in
webcam. Both can be had with several options like more memory and CD/DVD
burners.
If you really want to spend a lot of money on a laptop, there are some
available with very large screens, up to 19". Having seen some of these, I
personally don't like them as they are quite bulky and heavy.
As for the dead pixels, the limit for us is 7 dead or stuck pixels per
unit. Sometimes these can be unstuck using a program to exercise the
pixels. I use DPT, a freeware program downloadable from the web. Just
Google DPT.
You have gotten good info from the list, now all you have to do is put it
to work. :o)

Good luck,
Phil

> I just bought a Dell XPS and it works fine. If you buy a Dell, go online
> and figure exactly what you want, but don't order it online.  If you
> call them, for some reason you will save some money.  I saved over $200
> by calling them over the online price.  My son has bought about 50
> laptops from Dell and he says he sometimes calls two or three times and
> buys the one with the lowest price.   Personally, I hope you don't need
> tech supports with any manufacture, if you do, it will be painful.