Laptops Arena

Christmas is a time for gifting. Aside from all the religious and spiritual feelings, this holiday is tons of fun when you think about all the gifts you can receive from your loved ones. Personally, I love giving gifts more than receiving them because I like to see my dear ones happy. And since I am writing this article for a laptop website, it’s fair to talk about laptops as a good gift for Christmas. I have browsed the internet to see if I could find sales on laptops since the holiday also bring some nice promotions and discounts for different electronics.
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First of all, you should know that there are website which offer discounts to certain groups of people all year long. For example, www.usanotebook.com offers 5%discount for the education and the military system and also for the senior citizens. They also have resellers discount and corporate discount. Corporate discounts are actually quite popular because big companies buy a large number of units and it is in the manufacturers and retailers best interest to lower the price if many units are sold to same company. It seems that all the laptops on this website are refurbished but they do offer some excellent prices even for these so called “second hand computers”.  On the left side of this web page there is column “Shop by Brand”. You will see that the list of brands is quite small as it only includes Acer, Dell, eMachines, Gateway, HP, IBM, Lenovo and Toshiba laptops. The prices are awesome and the most expensive laptop I saw a red Dell Inspiron 1525 available at a price of $650. Unfortunately, this model is all sold out so the next expensive laptop would be a red Gateway M7356U for $550.

Now, if you want a good website that offers tons of models to choose from and that can also give you a list of all the shops where that specific model is, try http://shopper.cnet.com. Shopping for laptops is now very easy since you have filter that allow you to refine and choices and narrow them down to the units you are particularly interested in. you can shop by price, by manufacturer, by the notebook type (budget or gaming laptop are some examples) and if you still a list too big for you to check out, you can choose the product line, screen size, weight, processor, RAM size, operating system, hard drive size, graphics card series and environmental standards.



For example, we have chosen Acer as the manufacturer. The website generated a list with 174 results for Acer laptops. For each of this laptop we get a picture, the model’s full name, the CNET Editor rating, the user rating, the quick specs and some brief information about the products and we get a list of websites that sell this product plus the price tags for each of these stores. The second name on our list was the Acer Aspire One D250 with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM, 160 of available disk space and preinstalled Windows XP Home Edition operating system. We are shown that this laptop is available on the B&H Photo Video website and on Amazon.com. The first website sells this unit at a price of $289 and the second has a price tag of $315.



After you choose the manufacturer, you are still left with all the other options in case you want an Acer with a specific price or from a certain product line. I selected the $600 - $700 price interval. If I choose to filter my options further, I can choose the product line and the screen size. Let’s say I want a desktop replacement and I chick 16 – 17 inches. I know have 8 laptop results that are priced between 600 and 700 dollars and that have a screen size of approximately 16 or 17 inches. This is how you can also buy the perfect laptop to gift. You first have to establish the budget and try to find out what that person would use a laptop for. The possibilities are numerous.



www.laptopcloseout.com has some very attractive sales on laptops as well. If you access the website now, the first 3 things that are going to attract your looks are the $329, $339 and $429 price tags for 3 laptop models that are on sale. The $329 laptop which is on sale is a Lenovo ThinkPad T42 with a 15 inch display. It has a 1.73 GHz Intel Pentium M Centrino processor combined with 1 GB of RAM. The size of the hard disk is 40 GB. Other features are the CD writer and DVD reader, the built in microphone and the stereo speakers. As you can see, this laptop is pretty basic. The components plus the fact that it is refurbished are the 2 factors that contribute to the low price of this unit.



Even if it is refurbished, you still get the Windows XP Professional operating system preinstalled plus a 3 months warranty period. This is why I keep telling you that refurbished laptops are not equal to damaged or junk. For an extra fee of $39, you can extend the warranty period from 90 days to a full year. In my opinion, you should always take advantage of these warranty extension packaged because you never know when your laptop might crush down on you.  You can still add some extra features, just as you can in the case of a brand new laptop. Here, for instance, you can pay $29 and get a port replicator and for $19 you get a standard nylon case. Options are everywhere.

So, if you want to gift a laptop this Christmas or just one for yourself but your budget is limited, there are laptop promotions available this holiday so hurry up before retailers empty their stocks. And if you want a certain laptop which you believe is too expensive, do not be afraid to go refurbished. The warranty period will guarantee that you did not make a bad choice.

The other day, we spoke a bit about the best rated laptops, naming the Lenovo ThinkPad T400, the Acer Aspire One and the Apple MacBook Pro. We wrote about why these laptops are the best rated ones around and as I recall we had a couple of more names on that list. It’s time to continue with the best laptop ratings.
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The HP Pavilion tx2500z is not only a useful tablet PC but it also looks nice and we are just crazy about that display that you can rotate around as if it was some toy. We believe it’s a great laptop for students because it makes taking notes in class really easy. It has a solid design and very good features, all that for a reasonable price. The processor is an AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology which can be combined with a maximum 4 GB of RAM memory. The 12.1 inch display is a beauty for ultra portables. Students and anyone who uses this laptop should be able to play some nice games, mainstream ones of course. Unfortunately, the battery will only last about 2 hours and 30 minutes so be prepared and equip yourself with the charger wherever you take your laptop. It is a highly ranked laptop because it’s the cheapest tablet notebook on the market. It has the best speed compared to all the laptop in the same category and the touch screen and the active digitizer are a couple of features that the users love. It also has some nice entertainment features considering the low price.

Next in line for best laptop ratings is the Dell Studio 15. It is a combination between a portable laptop and a multimedia notebook. It has a 15.4 inch display which is backed up by LED light and has a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels. It has some cool features that will eventually come in handy like an Express Card slot, a couple of touch sensitive media control buttons and a HDMI output. It is one great choice and in one of our past article we even recommended it as one excellent choice for college students. The battery life is ok and it is also easy to upgrade if you even feel the need for more space, speed or power. The sad part is that the only option for a better graphics card is the ATI Radeon HD 3450 when Dell could have done much better. There are 23 expert reviews that give the Dell Studio some very high ratings. 205 out of 447 real users have given a 5 star rating to the Dell Studio 15 and it is ranked 3^rd as far as customer support service goes.



In a certain manner, I feel responsible to promote Toshiba since it is one of the brands I use every day. Except for some speed and battery issues, I love my Toshiba laptop. But it is not as cool as the Toshiba Portege M700. It has a Centrino Pro processor and combined with the 12.1 inch display you get all the power and portability you need from this beautiful laptop. This is a business tablet but that does not mean students can’t use it as well. The beautiful display has a 1280 x 800 resolution and some multi touch capabilities which are not only easy to use but they are also fun once you learn how to get along with the touch screen. The screen is easy to rotate and you can switch between landscape and portrait modes. You even have a built-in webcam right above the display which may come in handy for Skype conference calls or just for chatting with your friends on the internet. There is also a fingerprint reading which offers security and speed for logging on to Windows.



The hinge keeps the display steady in place. The stylus pen will come really in handy when the PC is in tablet mode. The speakers are weak but I guess this is quite a common feature for ultra portables. The battery life is not impressive either and this is one big minus for a laptop which has the right size to be carried around anywhere. However, Toshiba spoils its customers with a 3 year warranty which is three times the period of normal warranty.  We gave to say that the Toshiba Portege M700 offers some nice performance for a tablet PC. The display is easy to read under different light conditions and even if you plan on using this laptop outside. This means that students can now write projects in the school’s yard even on a sunny day.  There is also a number of 24 reviews that have rated this laptop with greats marks (Laptop Magazine and Good Gear Guide are just a couple of names).



Why is the Dell Mini 9 one of the best rated laptops? Well, it is small and portable and it has a very nice design. For an 8.9 inch mini laptop it is extremely functional. You can upgrade to a maximum 1 GB of RAM. The price of $400 is excellent and the battery life can reach almost 4 hours. The nasty part is that all the free storage space you get is provided thanks to the flash drive so you can only have a maximum of 16 GB of free disk space. The expert ratings for this netbook were very high, reaching even the impressive score of 97 out of a possible 100. CNet Editor Rating says this mini laptop is excellent. It is easier to configure than most similar subnotebooks and you can choose between Windows XP and Linux operating systems. The design is incredibly solid considering the very low price of this unit.

With these 4 models, we now have a total of 7 best rated laptops. We may come back and continue this list in the future but only if you readers found any of this information useful. We can assure you that you will find more models to write about in the future.

Christmas is knocking at our door. And each of us is welcoming it in our own way. Some start baking cakes, other buy them from the bakery.  Some make cookies and buy milk for Santa, other believe there is no Santa. Some of us listen to “Rudoph the Red Nose Reindeer”, other listen to “Ring Christmas Bells”. Some buy natural Christmas trees and decorate them in as many colors as possible, others have an artificial tree which they decorate in only two colors. Some people like to gather around the fire and tell Christmas stories while drinking hot chocolate, others like to have fun by browsing though some Facebook applications.

Let’s talk a bit about that last category, the “internaut” that loves Christmas so much, that he wants to celebrate it online and offline as well. “Giftreez” is an application brought by the guys at GreenPixel and it is Facebook’s way of reminding us that one of the joys of Christmas is that of giving and receiving gifts.  When you first launch the application, you get to choose between 6 different Christmas trees. Some are bigger,  some are smaller, and some are even decorated with a red garland. After you have chosen your favorite gift tree, it’s time to start giving. The application will always let know how many gifts you have given and how many you have received.

Underneath your tree there are 3 options. The first one will let you upgrade the tree. You can upgrade to medium or large size, but in order to do that, you have to achieve 750 or 1500 points. How does it work? Well, you get 10 points for every gift that you send to your friends and 5 points for every gift that your receive from others. When someone visits you tree, they can say if they like it or not. For every person that likes your tree, you get 2 points and 1 point for every tree that you like.

The second option allows to customize the produce. In other words, you can redecorate the tree anytime you like by moving the decorations around the tree. This option will not make any sense until you have gathered some Christmas decorations, so you would better start inviting some friends.

The third option lets you view all the gifts you have received. From here you can choose to put  some new decorations in the tree. The main idea is: the more gifts you receive, the better your Christmas tree will look and you can decorate it every day just the way you like without having to worry that you are going to break any tree decorations. It’s time to let your imagine run wild! Go ahead and invite your Facebook friends (careful, only 35 at a time) so you can start the gifting process.

Let’s give a special “Thank you” to the application developers at GreenPixel for letting us feel that Christmas is not only on the streets and under the tree, it is also in our computer.

Finding the best laptop computer has never been easier with a market that is flooded by so many laptop models from really cheap to extremely expensive. If you are wondering how to find the best laptop computer, we are going to give you some tips as to what your laptops needs and where you can buy it from.
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Like I said in a previous article, the best laptop for you depends on what you are going to use it for. If you plan on doing some basic computer tasking, it’s easy to find a cheap laptop. Any model can suit you just fine if you want to surf the internet, write e-mails and work on some documents. If you plan on travelling a lot and you need a laptop that will help you stay in touch using the internet or need to keep up with some office work, a netbook may be a really good choice for you.  Netbooks are a category of subnotebooks that have weaker components. Strong parts have been sacrificed for the sake of size. These thin and light mini laptops are easier to carry around as you can squeeze them into any bag, backpack or purse.  They usually have good battery life (a good netbook should provide about 4 hours of computer usage) and no optical drives for obvious space reasons.

You should be really careful and not waste any money on features you are never going to use. Don’t buy laptop with fancy video cards if you are not a heavy game player and unless you need a business laptop which you are going to use in an office, it’s probably useless to buy a unit with a fingerprint reader.  If you believe that a laptop is worth a fortune, think again. You can even find laptops for $400 which are not cheap junk as most of you may think. Of course, the more you are willing to pay for a laptop, the better specs and performance you will get.



The most delicate category of laptop users are the gamers. Gamers need expensive laptops with dual processors and dual graphics cards if possible. Alienware is a company owned by Dell that produces top of the line gaming laptops which are also very expensive. Other gaming laptops belong to Dell XPS series or the Toshiba Qosmio series. These laptops have short battery life because they are very heavy and they are not meant to be carried around. They are used as desktop replacement and since you mostly use them at home, just keep them connected to a power outlet and battery will not be a concern any more. Good gaming laptops have more than 2 speakers and in some cases there is even an integrated subwoofer to provide excellent sound quality without you needing to attach any external speakers. The usual length of the diagonal is 17 inches so you can see perfectly all the details of shooters like F.E.A.R. or Left 4 Dead.  They have cool features like back lit keyboard and all kinds of LEDs spread around the entire unit to produce cool effects is the dark. These laptops are famous for their powerful and good looking design but they also are the most expensive king of laptop that money can buy. A good gaming laptop can be worth even $4500.



Another special laptop category is the business laptop. I believe there are 2 main manufacturers that own the biggest such market niche: HP and Lenovo. The HP ProBook and EliteBook are 2 series of laptops which have features that are useful for companies. HP has all sorts of security measures like integrated fingerprint readers and all sorts of password recovery programs. These laptops are famous for their durability as their chassis is made of strong plastic and it is reinforced my magnesium or aluminum alloy. This means that these units will be able to resist a couple of shocks if you accidentally drop them on the floor or the bag you are carrying them in happens to hit a couple of furniture pieces. They usually come with preinstalled security software that helps you and your employees recover lost password with the help of some predefined questions. When you configure this features, you give answers to questions like “What was your mother’s maiden name?” and with the help of a set of 3 such questions that only you can answer, you can log on your laptop if you forget the password.



The Lenovo ThinkPad series has a really unique feature which is excellent for people that work in the design business and need to use graphic programs like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. This manufacturer offers a laptop that has a smaller screen which pops out of the big one and it is very useful for storing those annoying toolbars that keep getting in the way. The small window is also used for chat programs and other windows that you need to access but that keep getting in the way.



Now that we eliminated the question “how to buy the best laptop” by showing you that the best laptop for you depends on what you are going to use it for, these is one more mystery to solve. Where do you buy these laptops from? One preferred method is to order them directly from the manufacturer’s web site. For example, HP or Dell have a basic starting price for a laptop model and if you want any additional features or want to add better components like more RAM or faster processor, then you have to pay extra. Another mean for buying laptops online are the authorized dealers like CompUSA or New Egg. They have lots of models you can choose from. You can also visit a store in your city and this is a nice method because you get to see the laptop live before you buy it. On some stores you can even test features like the keyboard or touchpad.  All that being said, I wish you good luck and remember to spend your money wisely.

Compared to the other articles that we have written today, this one is a bit more general and may be of use to those that don’t have much knowledge in the IT field. We are going to tell you how to make the right decision when you want to buy a laptop.
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The first question that you have to ask yourself is what do I need a laptop for? You may even discover that you don’t need a laptop and a desktop computer is way better for you. For the sake of this article, let’s assume you need a laptop. The more basic you computing needs are, the less money you will have to spend for a laptop. For about $500 you can buy a good laptop that will help you complete all your internet surfing and e-mail sending tasks. These laptops are also good for editing documents and word processing so they will cover most basic tasks. Their processors are not very powerful so don’t expect any super speed.

Let me explain the basics of laptops specs. The memory installed is very important. Lots of memory helps run many applications. The nasty part is that if you want to upgrade, laptop components are more expensive that computer ones.  To run applications in our days (demanding ones, I mean), you need to have about 2 GB of RAM.  The processor helps improve the speed of the laptop. The best choices for processor are the Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs. The explanation is simple, dual processors means twice the speed. Another important part is the size of the screen.  At one extreme we have netbooks. Netbooks are actually smaller notebooks which are ultraportable and the size of the screen varies from 8.9 inches to about 12 inches. Since they are smaller, they have weaker components like Intel Atom processors and integrated graphic cards. The bigger the screen of the laptop is, the easier it will be to read big documents and scroll through large web pages. It will also be nice if you watched a good movie on a larger screen because small screens don’t have the same effect.



The size of the hard drive is important in case the laptop you are going to buy will be used as a main computer.  Hard drives with lots of space are meant for people that need to store a lot of files or for gaming computers. It is well known that today’s top of the line games occupy at least 4 GB of hard disk space. In case you buy a laptop with a small disk capacity, you can always use the integrated DVD drive (if any) to make copies of all your files if you want to free some disk space. The most delicate part is the graphics memory. This is what makes the difference between a gaming laptop and other laptops.  There are 2 different types of video cards. There is the dedicated graphics card which is a separate component and integrated cards that are part of the motherboard. The best dedicated video chips are made by nVidia but the ATI graphics cards are also ok. Integrated graphics are usually made by Intel (the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator). For those that need a laptop to play games, you need advanced graphics chips that have at least 512 MB of video memory.



If you want a laptop that you can constantly carry around with you to school, to work or when you are travelling, then battery life is a very important aspect that requires special attention. As a general consideration, we can say that the more cells a battery has the longer life it can provide for your laptop.  But that is not always the case. You have to remember that big batteries also make the laptop heavier.  Operating systems like Windows Vista have different power management profiles that can help you save the battery life. By reducing the brightness of the screen and keeping the wireless switched off, you can increase the life of your battery. The stronger the components inside a laptop are, the less battery life you will get. This is why netbooks provide the best performance in terms of battery life. It’s really important to read online reviews about laptop when you find interest in a certain models. Good reviews will provide details about the battery life which are really accurate.

We recommend you try out the keyboard of the laptop before you buy it. Since the keyboard is very important for a laptop because you probably won’t carry an external one around with you all the time, make sure the keys offer positive response when you type and that there is no flex. Touchpads are ok but you still have to see if the texture does not bother your fingertips after a while of usage. We do recommend an external mouse especially since manufacturers like A-Tech make small mice which are easy to carry around.if you don’t want any cables to bother you, these always are wireless mice which are not expensive and they have this small stick that is attached into a USB port and wirelessly communicates with the mouse.



No matter how low your budget for a laptop is, laptops are becoming cheaper by the minute because new models are constantly appearing on the market. Yesterday’s super cool laptop is tomorrow’s old and worn out one. If you want to buy a laptop but you don’t have enough money to pay for a brand new one, you can find the same model refurbished which is hundreds of dollars cheaper. Refurbished laptops are brand new computer that were sold to a customer which returned them for various reasons. Some of them may not have even been turned on. These laptops are returned to the manufacturer which performs some tests to see if the unit is damaged in any way. After every problem is solved, these laptops are resolved for a cheaper price. They still have warranty certificates which are regularly half the period of the original model. These laptops are a very good choice for people that are on a really low budget.