How to buy a laptop
How I did it: After surfing the net for the one laptop that suites me the most, after reading sooo much reviews about how good or bad are the models, after revising my top 3 choices and revising my budget for a ton of times. i finally did it. i bought a toshiba sattelite M300 - A 432 and I'm vevery happy about it. I'm using it right now and so far, no dead pixels, no damages, everything is working and I can't get over how great this notebook looks!
Lessons & tips: 1. Set a budget and stick to it. Know what you can and can't afford. It doesn't matter if you buy the most expensive or the cheapest one because next month or tomorrow or next year, all of the new models today are going to depreciate.
2. Know what you're going to use the laptop for. There are a lot of models with really really amazing capabilities. Knowing what features are really important to you will help you choose the best one that suits you. Dont forget that no matter how amazing you're laptop is today, several months from today, it's going to be old because new models are going to be released.
3. Read reviews and pick your top 3 - 5 choices. Then as you go by, eliminate one each until you find what best suits you, what's available, and what fits in your budget.
4. Go to stores and ask what freebies they can give you. I got a free 2gb ram upgrade, an optical mouse and a usb drive. There are a lot of stores that offer much much more freebies but I'm contented with these.
5. Dont close out your doors to brands you've never tested before. Get feedback from friends, family, and reviews. My top 3 brand choices where HP, Lenovo and Dell. I went to the stores and didn't find the HP model I liked. I did find a Dell and Lenovo model I liked but they both exceeded my budget limiti which is P45K. Dell was P47K and Lenovo was P49. I spent more time in the mall to find a third model to complete my top 3, and found this Toshiba which fits my budget, my needs, and my style. The only thing that was off was that it only has 160GB hard disk which is too small for me. But since I'm going to buy a 320G seagate portable HD regardless, I finally settled to it. What's funny is that my BF whom I asked to buy the portable HD for me bought a 500Gb HD instead and said the upgrade was free from him. Yey! So I didn't have that problem anymore.
Resources: 1. Best Buy and JR websites - it's got reviews and prices and specs and everything you could need to decide.. except that of course if you're not buying from these stores then the models you'll be seeing are limited to what's available in these stores.
3. Villman, TCA, CoolToys websites - these sites will give you an idea as to what are the price ranges for the laptops you like.
