New title - help me find a laptop

[Barrister]

I was going to get my wife an iPad (she hates our 3 year old Dell laptop which for some bizarre reason refuses to open up Facebook anymore), but since they're rather delayed I guess I should look at something else.

So I'm looking for a smallish laptop, but good quality.  Main uses are surfing the web, playing casual games, playing DVDs.  I'm not going to be too worked up over specifications, but I would want something that's not loaded with crapware and has a solid build quality.  Probably stay away from netbooks though, as laptop prices are affordable enough.

Any suggestions?

[Caliga]

Every five seconds it seems there's another laptop promo at Tigerdirect.com

I got Princesca a very nice Acer laptop from there last summer.  I think it was $400.

[Barrister]

How are Acers - I've never owned one.  Certainly they are cheap.

[ulmont]

How are Acers - I've never owned one.  Certainly they are cheap.

Mine's working fine.  Hard drive a little slow, but it plays EU3 well, HOI3 almost acceptably.

[Grey Fox]

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook?mco=OTY2ODEwOQ

Or you know, go to Alaska & pick up an iPad there.

[Barrister]

Meh - MacBook Pros are OSSUM (and new models announced this week), but the base MacBook has struck me as overpriced.  The Pros are very nice, with premium products and a price tag to match.

This looks tempting...

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=5705551&sku=M455-13001&cm_re=Homepage-_-Spot%2006-_-CatId_17_M455-13001

[Barrister]

Anyone?

[Grey Fox]

It's an alright laptop, I guess. Small screen tho.

[derspiess]

It depends of course on what you want to do with it, but perhaps you should consider an iPad.  It's pretty much designed to be a second computer around the home...

[derspiess]

But seriously, if you can find a decently-priced one, go for a laptop that has a Core i3 processor.  The on-die GPU (meaning it is pretty much a third core on the processor that is dedicated to graphics) is tailor-made IMO for laptops or home theater PCs.  It handles HD video and light gaming like a champ, and consumes very little power in comparison to a dedicated graphics card.

If I were getting Frau Spiess a good laptop that would more or less be a desktop replacement for her, I'd get her something like this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5571656&Sku=T78-15611

But since she wouldn't use but 20% of that laptop's potential, I'm going super-cheap & getting her something like this: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0326326

[Barrister]

Ah, but speiss, I was trying to find something that was an iPad replacement - something light, and around that $500 price point.  The first laptop you pointed to was twice the weight of the one I had picked out.

But I'm going to put this on hold - we just bought a $9000 trailer last night.

[Grey Fox]

Why?

[Barrister]

To go camping in with the baby? 

[Grey Fox]

To go camping in with the baby? 

That's a good reason. It could also serve you on work trip to Ross River.

but I didn't know what kind of trailer you bought.

[Barrister]

I posted a link in the OTT thread, but here it is:

http://yukon.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-RVs-campers-trailers-travel-trailers-campers-Bonair-ultra-light-travel-trailer-W0QQAdIdZ198308994

The plan is we're taking a month, driving south and visiting family.  Since we'll have a month old baby we'll be going really, really slowly, so a trailer seemed like a good idea.