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Advice on buying a new laptop? Thinking about getting a sony vaio...


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Hey guys,

I am planning on buying a laptop with my tax return... I'm pretty set on getting a sony vaio unless someone really wants to convince me otherwise. So some things I have been thinking about are...

What kind of specs should I be looking for? I want to use the laptop for excellent fast web surfing, web page development, and high level video editing software. Basically I don't care how heavy it is or anything like that, as long as its fast, has a decent video card (moreso for video editing rather than gaming) and decent sized memory. Multitasking without lagging!! I don't think I need a CD/DVD drive even.

I'm hoping to spend around 800 dollars max, is that reasonable for what I'm looking for?

Also, any input on where I should buy it? I am leaning towards going to Best Buy, or just ordering from the Sony website.

Any advice whatsoever is appreciated.

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You can buy a pretty buff laptop for $800. My only advice would be: In addition to the normal stuff like RAM and CPU and screen size, pay attention to the screen resolution. The bigger the better. Web development isn't very processor-heavy (even in Photoshop a website layout is a much smaller file than say a printed poster layout).

And hell, HTML/Javascript/CSS is just text. No processor needed there.

But you're going to want lots of room (screen-wise) to work, especially since this laptop will be your primary workstation. A big screen is meaningless if it doesn't have the pixel resolution to take advantage of it, because the resolution is the number of pixels on the screen...resolution, not screen-size, defines how much stuff you can have on the screen at once. So if you have an 34" HD LCD at 1024 X 768 resolution, and a 17" laptop with 1280 X 1024, you'll actually be able to fit more menus and Photoshop pallets on the laptop screen.

Try not to settle for less than 1280 X 1024 (SXGA), and definitely get higher if you can. My personal favorite resolution is 1600 X 1200 (UXGA), because if you're designing a website for 800 X 600 you can fit two full layouts side-by-side in Photoshop (800px times 2 = 1600). But that's for desktop screens. For a laptop just get 1280 wide or higher and you'll be good.

This also matters with video editing. How many frames of your timeline do you want to be able to see without scrolling? Answer: As many as I possibly can.

Sorry, I'm a total resolution geek. It takes me a month to pick out a new monitor. But I also never feel cramped when working on stuff, so that's something. B)

Check with Sony for the specs. If all else fails, I know fullsize (15.4"+) Dell laptops will usually go up to 1600 X 1200.

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