Laptop shopping for my gf - need advice

Ouch, being from Lansing the girlfriend going to the UofM must be hard. Sorry to hear that!

The 600m would be a great choice, I think, though perhaps look at the 8600 too with it's longer battery life. It is possible to get both of those machines in that price range. The 1150 would be cheaper, but as I've been encouraging all of my friends who need to get a laptop, paying the few extra bucks for the P-M's is it worth it 10 fold in the productivity you get out of the machine.

Also, have her check with the school. A lot of universites offer discounted Microsoft products that would cheaper than buying them from Dell (for instance, I got Office 2003 Pro and Windows XP pro for $20 each at my school).

Just my 2 cents. Good luck!
Tim

i would suggest an IBM R or T series.

>edit: oops, just noticed this was the dell forum. that's okay, i still recommend IBM.

us cs students get anything but office and games for free. Not sure if i can get a discount on office though or not through the school itself, not the cs department.

oh well im graduating next month, not much sense in asking now.

I agree the pentium M hands down for batt. I just ordered a 9100 cause im not planning on using it much on the batt.

Later
Jon

Look for a refurb 600m.

I concure with above poster a Refurbished 600m hits the spot nicely with the ladies since they are appealing and light but the 1400-1600 price tag WITH office is asking quite a bit.

Can she (or you) get MS Office from school for free (or a marginal price)? If so that will make your life a lot easier inside that budget.

stu

Refurbs are generally very good, and you can get the same warrenties on them as you can on new machines I believe. The standard is 1 year.
One thing to note is the "trial period", or time you have to send it back for a refund is 14 days instead of the 21 offered for new systems, not a major hassle though, plenty of time to scope it out.
stu

Most universities give discounts for new computer purchases through a manufacturer's (like Dell's) "education" or "academic" programs. Depending on the computer maker, the discounted student price can be pretty significant.

In addition, for software, most university stores will sell software that comes with an "academic" license far below the cost of a normal retail licensed version. In terms of what the difference between "academic" and full "retail" license is? Nothing besides the fact that with the academic version you are agreeing not to use a product for commercial purposes and i also believe that it will limit you to one laptop and one desktop install (i.e. microsoft office professional 2003 academic) whereas full retail allows you to install on two machines regardless of laptop/desktop? not sure. Beyond that, it is the same exact program as the full retail version, with the exact functionality.

argghhhhh, dell's refund period for new systems in the US is still 30 DAYS!!!!!

i believe this was covered in a previous forum, and the 21 day period applied to non US purchases.

My apologies, I did not read that other thread all the way through to conclusion.
stu

ok i just bought an 8600 for myself (i'm undergrad right now at W&M, headed to richmond this summer for grad school, and i'm a girl)
specs: 1.4, WXGA (sounded like the best bet for me) 512 1 dimm (saved 100 bucks on it), 60 gb hd (free upgrade), 64 mb vid card, XP pro plus, mem key, intel prowireless 2100, 4 year warranty (got it for the price of two yr) CD-rw/dvd, and of course for the girly side of me...a quicksnap in graphite for $1700, and free shipping/no tax
i love it. the battery life can't be beat, 4+ hours on wireless internet, web surfing, word, etc.
the screen size is great, love the widescreen, and the XGA is just fine for my purposes.
and i agree with above posts, do the XP pro upgrade through the school, Office, etc. and if her school has a good tech support center (mine acutally has a service contract thru dell) you might not even need the long warranty. and yes, the educational discounts are about 10% off, some schools even have preconfigured computers (again, see if dell has a contract with UoM) but alot of times you can add on coupons you find.
you need to figure out how much she is wanting to carry it around. i throw my 8600 in a sleeve and into my backpack and I can carry it around for a good part of the day. Granted, it is a good 7-8 lbs all said and done.
But yeah, i'm happy with it. suits my needs (and then some) just fine.

My school actually jacks up the price of software however throught my bookstore's web site I can get discounts on Dell computers. For my school its 5% for 1,2yr warrenty and 8% for a 3,4yr warenty. SO try looking at the schools tech web site for more info

You should get a ibm thinkpad. Enough with dell, thinkpads are sexy

No thanks, you can get essentially the same specs from Dell, or better, in a different chassis for half the price. IBM is too overpriced.
stu

IBM thinkpads are marketed to corporations, so they do jack up the prices a lot.

Yeah I know, but apart from the sturdy chassis there really is nothing special about the IBM's. I suppose the case does look a bit more "professional" which is why a lot of companies go for them, but to me its not worth the cost.
I'm just a poor Uni student, and the only way I could get all the specs I wanted for less than AUD$5000 was Dell .
Plus...... you just gotta love the i8600 w/ Graphite Swirl, mmm sexy .
stu