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My budget is $900-$1200. I've decided to go with Centrino technology and I also want a "Cristal clear" technology 15" screen. Don't need top performance, but want at least 1.5GHz Pentium M or better. Reliability, weight and battery life are obviously important. Please recomment me a laptop. I've been researching it for weeks but still cannot make a pick. Please help.
Are you debating between a few?
I love my Dell 8600. My dad loves his HP. I know people that swear by IBMs and others that won't buy anything but Toshibas. There are a ton of good laptops out there.
What features / laptops are you considering?
The "crystal clear" type screen limits what will be available in your price range.
The two best screens (in my opinion) are Fujitsu's "Crystal View" and HP's "Brightview."
Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to find a Crystal View Fujitsu in your price range. A C2300 series lifebook is going to be the closest, and it comes in at $1400, which is a full 2 bills over your budget :( (I did see it for $1199 at ecost.com but they get hammered on reseller ratings, with lots of people claiming that they advertise items as in stock, and then have them backordered... with a rating that low, I wouldn't buy from them.)
That leaves the HP Brightview. You can customize a DV4000 series on the HP website and squeak in just under 1200. (centrino 730 (1.6 ghz), 512 ram, 60 gb hdd, etc...)
I haven't personally owned a HP laptop, but have heard they are reliable.
Another choice might be Dell with their new "UltraSharp" screens. I haven't seen one of those screens so I can't comment on how they would compare to the Crystal View or Brightview. Assuming that the screen is comparable, it would probably be a good choice as well. You can put together a nice inspirion 6000 within your budget (even after adding the extra cash on for the Ultrasharp screen), and I have owned two Dell laptops in the past and both performed extremely well. The only question here is if the screen would be on par with what I think you're looking for based on your post.
Thanks for responding. Special thanks to Sangiovese for a very informative reply, I really appreciate you taking time and going through all the options. Unfortunately, I think you are right saying that "crystal clear" type screen limits what will be available in my price range. So, after another week of searching I decided to increase the budget to $1400. Several on-line reviews and reliability reports from "Consumer Reports" convinced me to go with Toshiba. Unfortunately, I could not find a preassembled Toshiba from an on-line retailer that would have all the features that I wanted. So, I ordered one from Toshiba website and now I'm thinking that I overpaid quite a bit by doing so. Here is what I ordered:
Tecra A4, 15.4" Wide "True bright" screen, Centrino, 1.6GHz, 512Mb RAM (1 Stick), 40 Gb HDD, 12-cell Li battery
after taxes and shipping charges I paid $1400 for it. Am I getting screwed? I don't get Toshiba pricing, models with practically identical characteristics including weight and size can be up to $200 apart.
Toshiba makes a great laptop and if you got what you wanted in your budget, then you didn't get screwed. That said, they are a premium laptop meaning they aren't the least expensive. If I wasn't such a tight SOB, I'd have a toshiba instead of a Dell. :)